1553-1599
[Sidenote: Grosart’s _Life of Spenser_. *]
“But of Edmund Spenser we have inestimable portraits. In the first
rank must be placed the miniature now in the inherited possession
of Lord Fitzhardinge. It was a gift to the Lady Elizabeth Carey
(Althorp Spenser), heiress of the Hunsdons, to whom it was left by
Queen Elizabeth. It thus came with an indisputable lineage through the
marriage of a Berkeley to Lady Elizabeth Carey. It is an exquisitely
beautiful face. The brow is ample, the lips thin but mobile, the eyes
a grayish-blue, the hair and beard a golden red (as of ‘red monie’
of the ballads) or goldenly chestnut, the nose with semi-transparent
nostril and keen, the chin firm-poised, the expression refined and
delicate. Altogether just such ‘presentment,’ of the Poet of Beauty
_par excellence_ as one would have imagined. To be placed next is the
older face of the Dowager Countess of Chesterfield. It is identically
the same face. But there is more roundness of chin, more fulness
or ripening of the lips (especially the under), more restfulness.
There is not the ‘fragile’ look of the Fitzhardinge miniature. Hair
and eyes agree with the miniature. The only other with a pedigree
or sufficiently authenticated,--not mere ‘copies,’ such as those at
Pembroke College,--is the very remarkable one that came down as a
Devonshire heirloom to the Rev. S. Baring Gould, M.A., with a companion
of Sir Walter Raleigh.
“Both have been in the family beyond record. This shows the poet in the
full strength of manhood. It is a kind of three-quarter profile, and as
one studies it, it seems to vindicate itself as ‘our sage and serious
Spenser.’ Again, hair and eyes agree with the others. The Spaniard’s
haughty face, for long engraved and re-engraved, ought never to have
been engraved as Spenser. There is not a jot or tittle of evidence in
its favour. It is an absolutely un-English, and palpably Spanish face,
and an impossible portrait of our Poet.”
[Sidenote: Payne Collier’s _Life of Spenser_. *]
“Several portraits of Spenser are in existence; but it is difficult to
settle the degree of authenticity belonging to them. The late Mr. Rodd,
of Newport Street, had a miniature of the poet in his possession in
1845, and perhaps afterwards, which corresponded pretty exactly with
the ordinary representations, but what became of it is not known to us.
The features were sharp and delicately formed, the nose long, and the
mouth refined; but the lower part of the face projected, and the high
forehead receded, while the eyes and eyebrows did not very harmoniously
range.”
[Sidenote: Aubrey’s _Lives of Eminent Men_. *]
“Mr. Beeston sayes he was a little man, wore short haire, little band,
and little cuffs.”