The Poetical Works of - OUDL Home

SPENSER IN IRELAND WITH LORD GREY (1580) xxiii
responsibility, and awaken both him and the queen to the impending
national danger
This scathing attack upon what was thought to be Burghley's policy,
and upon the obvious wishes of the queen, revealed in Spenser a fearless
independence hardly calculated to advance his fortunes A Puritan who
had denounced the French match in a pamphlet had lost the right hand
with which he wrote it, and Sidney, who had the courage to send to the
queen a dignified remonstrance, was banished the court Spenser took
his cue from Sidney He had, of course, no intention of publishing his
poem, and to what extent it was circulated in manuscript it is impossible
to say , but if its drift reached the ears of Burghley or any of his cubs, it is
quite enough to account for the irreconcilable disfavour with which
Spenser had always to reckon from the Lord Treasurer To Leicester,
who, whatever his private feelings, had no open quarrel with Burghley,
such a satire from one of his proteges could only be an embarrassment
Whether this poem was or was not the service which Spenser thought
that his master had so ill requited, it is at least typical of over-zeal, and
an anxiety to direct rather than to follow, which is rarely appreciated
by a great lord in his subordinate The criticism which the more prudent
Harvey passed later upon Mother Hubberds Tale was just enough
Its author ' in the heat of choler had wilfully overshot his miscontented
self' And Spenser had to pay the penalty of his indiscretion When
he wrote to Harvey in April 1580, it was to express no eager hopes for
his budding fortunes he now reverts to the safer subject of ' English
versifying ', and in speaking of his own literary projects shows the keen
disappointment that he has suffered
O Tite, siquid ego,
Ecquid erit pretu ?
Harvey in his reply good-naturedly twits him with his extravagant
expectations, and reminds him of the gloomy view of poetry taken by
Cuddie in the Shepheardes Calender In August preferment came,
though it was not the preferment for which he had hoped He was
appointed private secretary by Grey, the new Lord Deputy, and with him
set sail for Ireland, which was thenceforth to be his home But he had
no reason to be dissatisfied , for it was a good opening, and it brought
him into close contact with that man who, next to Sidney, had the deepest
and most permanent influence upon his imagination
Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton, was already distinguished as soldier and
patron of letters He was a zealous Puritan who saw in Roman Catholicism
the root cause of the disaffection of Ireland He accepted the appointment
with some hesitation, for he knew that he did not enjoy the favour of the
queen, and the task before him, beset as it was with danger and difficulty,
was impossible without the confidence and support of the home government
But once in Ireland he set himself with unflinching sternness to execute