[1] A strange personage has been fixed on as the commentator. Spenser
lodged with a Mrs. Kerke, where his parcels were directed. E. K. has
been conjectured to be Mr. Kerke, her husband!
It is a proof of the deficient skill of the modern editors of
Spenser, Hughes and Aikin, that they have omitted the curious and
valuable Commentary of E. K. It has been judiciously restored to the
last and best edition, by Mr. Todd. The woodcuts might also have been
preserved.
[2] These complimentary sonnets, evidently composed "for the nonce,"
are not the happiest specimens in our language of these minor poems,
no more than they are of the real genius of Spenser. I have seen a
German reprint, consisting _only_ of Spenser's Sonnets, by the
learned Von Hammer. Foreign critics often startle one by their
fancies on English poetry.
[3] We have several printed specimens of her Majesty's poetry, which
does not want for elevation of thought; but to compose poetry with
the energy of her prose, deprived her Majesty of all the grace and
melody of verse. I have been informed, on the best authority, that
Elizabeth exercised her poetical pen more voluminously than we have
hitherto known, for that there exists a manuscript volume of her
Majesty's poems in that rich repository of State-papers--the Hatfield
Collection.
[4] Three thousand acres of dilapidated estates of the Earl of
Desmond. The receivers of these grants were called "The Undertakers,"
as they were bound to bring the lands into cultivation, which, after
the ravages of fire and sword, consisted of tenantless farms and a
wasted soil. Sir Walter Rawleigh had a grant of twelve thousand
acres, which he probably found profitless, for he made them over at a
low rate to the Boyle family.
[5] I have been favoured with the sight of several manuscript letters
of Burleigh, in the possession of a gentleman in the neighbourhood of
Taunton, which relate to this critical period. They remarkably
display the eager and remorseless decision of Burleigh. Messengers
were sent off three or four times in a day, countermanding the former
command, as the mind of Elizabeth vacillated, disconcerting the plans
of the minister. The order "to cut off her head" is given with the
most revolting minuteness.
[6] This petition in rhyme is well known--
"I was promised on a time,
To have reason for my rhime;
From that time unto this season,
I received nor rhime nor reason."
Mr. Todd deems the anecdote apocryphal, because he can only retrace
it to Fuller, who published it seventy years after the incident
recorded, assigning no authority. Honest Fuller has, however, given a
tolerable authority for such a sort of thing, namely, that it was "a
story commonly _told_ and _believed_." There could be no motive for
any one to invent the circumstance and the pleasantry, gratuitously
to ascribe it to the poet. Mr. Todd is pleased to call "the numbers
magical," and decides on this "ridiculous memorial"--a criticism
fatal to all the playfulness of genius. Were the "Rhimes" not good
enough for the nonce, and "the Reason" amusingly convenient to be
remembered?
The anecdote is only deficient in its date, and possibly may relate
to some former donation before the pension was fixed. Edward Phillips
gives the large sum of five hundred pounds--another version of the
same story; and he wrote about the same time. What remains
inexplicable is, that this pension to Spenser seems to have been
wholly unknown to his contemporaries--to Camden and to others--who
wrote subsequently. The grant of this pension was only discovered a
few years ago in the Chapel of the Rolls. The pension was only for
fifty pounds; but the value of money makes the royal gift more decent
than at first it would seem.