The Poetical Works of - OUDL Home

SPENSER BACK IN IRELAND (1597) xxxvii
this visit he wrote little poetry. From ' Greenwich, this first of September
1596 ' he dated the publication of Fowre Hymnes, the first two the work
of ' the greener times of his youth ' and expressive of his Platonic conception
of Love and Beauty, the other two added at this time to satisfy
the religious scruples of * the most vertuous ladies, the Ladie Margaret
Countesse of Cumberland, and the Ladie Marie Countesse of Warwick '
It is unnecessary to accept literally Spenser's apology for the earlier two
Hymncs The third and fourth books of the Faerie Queene show clearly
enough that their Platonism was still a vital part of his creed , and the
addition that he now made to them only extends their scope so as to
embrace, in a manner perfectly natural to Spenser, the central ideas of
Christianity His deepening experience had taught him that Love and
Beauty spiritually conceived are the consummation alike of the Platonic
and the Christian faith
Now also he wrote the Prothalamion, a spousal verse made in honour
of the two daughters of the Earl of Worcester Metrically this poem is,
perhaps, as beautiful as his own marriage ode, but it has not a like concentration
upop its avowed theme, nor does it voice the same ecstasy of
passion His main energies were probably directed to the composition
of his Veue of the Present State of Ireland, for which he had long been
collecting materials In this masterly tract he defends and justifies the
character and policy of Grey against his detractors, exposes what seem'to
him the inevitable results which will follow from the weak and vacillating
rule of his successor, Sir John Perrot, and outlines to the home government
that method of dealing with the Irish problem which alone could save
the English supremacy Finally, he urges the creation of a Lord Lieutenantship
for Ireland, and in suggesting for the office that man 'on whom
the eye of England is fixed, and our last hopes now rest', he points clearly
to Essex as the only person equal to coping with the situation Written
with a wide knowledge both of the antiquities of the country and its laws
and customs, and a full appreciation of its present condition, this pamphlet
is as able a plea as could well be penned for a policy of resolute and remorseless
suppression In its lack of sympathy with the Irish, and its failure to
understand the real causes of their disaffection, it is typical of the view
held by all Elizabethans and by most English statesmen since It is not
surprising that the tract was not sanctioned by the government, it was
not entered at the Stationers' Hall till 1598, and then with the proviso
uppon condicion that hee gett further aucthontie before yt be prynted .
It did not actually appear till 1633
Spenser was back again at Kilcolman in the next year (1597) He
had resigned his clerkship to the Council of Munster three years
before, in favour of Sir Richard Boyle, 1 and was without office until,
in September 1598, he was recommended by Elizabeth to be Sheriff
1 Grosart suggests with some plausibility that this resignation may have been
a family arrangement made at the time of his marriage (Life, p 203 )