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XXXVIII INTRODUCTION
of Cork, being described in the royal letters as ' a gentleman dwelling
in the county of Cork, who is so well known unto you for all
his good and commendable parts, being a man endowed with good
knowledge in learning, and not unskilful or without experience in the
wars . Spenser had now four children, and his home was becoming
increasingly dear to him In his Veue of the Present State of Ireland he had
dwelt upon the natural beauty of the country, in the fragment of a seventh
book of the Faerie Queeney all that is left us of his composition at this
time, his delight in it finds intimate and characteristic expression For
he lays his scene at Ario Hill, and the mountames and rivers and faire
forests' that surround Kiicolman are celebrated in a charming myth as
the ancient haunt of Diana and her nymphs But while he feels its beauty,
he is conscious, more than ever before, of the ' heavy hapless curse ' that
now lies upon the country, and his imagination gains sublimity as it
broods over the instability of things on earth The theme had been
recurrent, as a faint undertone, throughout his poetry, in tune to that
reflective melancholy which often served to heighten by contrast his keen
sense of the joy and the splendour of life, now it became the dominant
note of his work Throughout his life he had escaped from it to the
contemplation of an ideal and golden past, now with sure foreboding
of the gathering storm that was to overwhelm him he looked forward to
the stedfast rest of all things, firmely stayd
Upon the pillours of eternity
Munster appeared quiet enough, but the Council at Dublin seems fully
to have anticipated a combination of Munster with the insurgent North,
such as would lead to ' an universal Irish war, intended to shake off all
English government'; and what was seen by the Dublin Council is not
likely to have escaped the acute observation of Spenser In his Veue
he had noted how ' all have theyr eares upright, wayting when the watchwoord
shall come that they should all rise generally into rebellion, and cast
away the English subjection To which there nowe litle wanteth ' And
he had commented thus upon the present lull ' when they are brought
downe to extreme wretchedness, then they creepe a litle perhaps, and sue
for grace, till they have gotten some breath and recovered their strength
agayne ' In October 1598 these worst fears were realized Tyrone, who,
two months before, had routed the English army near Armagh, sent
an expedition into Munster The whole province rose in insurrection,
and in the general destruction Kiicolman was sacked and burnt to the
ground Spenser escaped with his family to Cork, and there was entrusted
by Sir John Norreys, the President of the province, with despatches to be
delivered to the home government He left Cork upon the 9th of December,
and before the 24th he was in London With the despatch of Sir John
Norreys he presented to the queen a statement drawn up by himself,
written mostly before his departure, containing certayne poynts to be