English ASSIGNMENT TOPIC: - SPENCER

 

SUBMITTED TO: Miss Aditi ghosh

                            Submitted by: Hafiza Yasmin 

                                

                Table of contents

• Introduction

• Intellectual background of Spencer

• Poetic practices of the time

• Spencer’s life

• Spencer’s works

• Conclusion

• Source

 

              Introduction:

Edmund Spencer belonged to the later half of the sixteenth century. This period was the periodic of Elizabeth I’s reign. At the time, England was emerging as a strong nation. This process had begun with the uniting and integrating role of Henry VIII at the turn of the sixteenth century. Initial years of Elizabeth’s rule raised hopes of prosperity. However, soon as the years moved in the direction of a steadied economic path, England faced a crisis within its nationalist structure. This had to do with the ideological and cultural issues that hung upon the Queen’s supposed unacceptability. There was a lobby of Queen’s detractors in England actively engaged in creating troubles for her. The crisis occurred because of Henry VIII’s policies that divided the English society along religious lines. Spencer’s role in this period of crisis was, then, of presenting the idea of England as an integrated nation under the leadership of Elizabeth-a difficult task to accomplish. On Spencer’s side , the task was supposed to be fulfilled through visualisation of the queen as a solidifying factor. The queen will appear as a figure that inspired England as a well-knit political entity moving towards a unified structure.

The Faerie Queene , the great epic that Spencer wrote typifies the queen’s image as a subject of great regard and idealisation. To Spencer, the queen met the requirements of the times, strengthening ideas and opinions that would stand in good stead when difficulties raised head. In the great poem, Elizabeth is an example of mythification. In fact she is not just a figure that has superhuman traits, but a whole perspective of glory and celebration. She is projected as beauty par excellent and a woman of many talents. England as a country is meant to worship her. See the ramification of the idea of a ‘faerie’ gifted with the appeal to enchant the country. There is a kind of magical aspect to her personality. Rightly the imagined figure turns the poet into a creator of immense proportions. Spencer would thus be transformed into a genius who paves the path of unending success and long-standing inspiration. Perhaps for this reason Spencer is referred to as the great nationalist poet of England, first of its kind.

INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND OF SPENCER:

Sixteenth century English poetry carries influence of both native and value of human-centered existence that came to fore in the wake of Renaissance . These form the specific intellectual background of Spencer as the poet carried the influences of early poets and thinkers before him. However, a paradigm shift takes place with the writing of Spencer in English literature as the idea of nationalism is evoked in his works. As a result of this, poetry ceases to be an entertaining art form and acquires socio- political dimensions meant to direct and guide the nation and its people on the path of social conduct.

Poetic practices at the time:

The poetic practice at the time began with imitating the classics. The new technique in literature was thus ‘imitation’ . Writers picked up classical texts that best suited their sensibility and reproduced them in their own way. The perspective of the specific context outside the preview of the translator to faithfully reproduce a text became paramount. Writers freely borrowed subject and style from the classics and brought the spirit of their own age into it. From instance, when Spencer was planning to write THE FAERIE QUEENE his most notable work, he told sir Raleigh in a letter that he had chosen to write in his epic poem the history of King Arthur who had been “made famous”, says Spencer, “ by many men’s former works and is also furthest from the

 daunter of envy and suspicion of present time”.

Spencer was well versed with the classical poets and, in fact, wished to follow or imitate their model of writing. Taking these “excellent poets”, he says that as an example he has ventured to present a portrait of King Arthur as a “ brave knight perfected in the twelve private morall virtues, as Aristotle hath devised” (1-2). Spencer is constantly guided in subject and form by these classics namely, use of rhetoric in literature.

Three types of poetry emerged in England specially and in the Europe at large. The first was the high oratory of the heroic poem that meant to be formal in style and abundant in rhetoric. Spencer’s THE FAERIE QUEENE falls in this category of heroic poem.

The second type of poetry was more lighthearted and playful that did not have a serious subject. Love poetry fitted well with this style of writing . Spencer’s AMORETTI is an example of this style of poetry.

The third category of poetry was low poetry which had its origins in the pastoral world of rustics. Here, the lives of shepherds and ordinary country folk were presented. Like Spencer’s SHEPHERD’S CALENDAR .

Spencer’s other famous works were: EPITHALAMION which is a marriage song and it concerns the bodies movement towards marriage.

PROTHALAMION the poem thus mediates on the relationship between marriage, nature, and politics; it celebrates the beauty of the brides, the perfection of their marriages.

Spencer’s life:

Edmund Spenser was born in 1554, or a little earlier in London. Little is known about him except that he was related to the noble family of Spencer but his immediate family was poor. Unlike Philip Sidney who was heir to earldoms of Leicester and Warwick, Spenser earned the title of a gentleman purely on his educational merit. He attended the Merchant Taylor’s school as a poor student and in 1569 joined Pembroke College, Cambridge University for his Bachelor of Arts. At Cambridge, too, he was given admission as a “sizar” or poor scholar student who had to perform menial duties. He received the degree in 1573 and proceeded to do Master of Arts completing it in 1576. Spenser carried no pretensions of being a gentleman even as he nurtured the ambition of becoming the poet laureate. On its side, Tudor England was marked by social mobility where men of ordinary birth and background dreamt of moving up the social ladder based on their education and literary skills. Spenser, too, hoped to acquire a respectable position in the court of England. During his years in Cambridge, Spenser gained vast knowledge of the classical Greek and Latin literature required for his poetic mission along with the English tradition of writing. He was familiar with the French and the Italian literatures as well.

While at Cambridge, Spenser became friends with Gabriel Harvey, a learned scholar on whose opinion and viewpoint he depended greatly. His letters to Harvey also reveal to us Spenser’s ambitions and future plans as he speaks freely to his friend on the subject. In 1578, Spenser served as secretary to the Bishop of Rochester, Thomas Young, who had been Master of Pembroke at the time Spenser studied there. Later, in 1579, he entered the service of the Earl of Leicester and made acquaintance with Philip Sidney who was the Earl’s nephew. Spenser dedicated The Shepheardes Calendar (1579) to Sidney. In 1580, Spenser joined Arthur Grey de Wilton, the newly appointed governor to Ireland, in the capacity of secretary to the governor and left for Ireland. Grey was called back to England in 1582, but Spenser stayed on in Ireland for most of his life, serving in various official capacities. In 1584, he became deputy to the clerk of the Council of Munster in Ireland. This enabled Spenser to improve his circumstances considerably and in 1588 he acquired the possession of an estate, the estate of Kilcolman, which was earlier in the hands of the rebellious Irish Earl of Desmond. Spenser, along with Sir Walter Raleigh, went to Queen Elizabeth’s court in 1589 following which he wrote the first three books of The Faerie Queene. In return for his valorization of the Queen, Spenser received a reward of an annuity of 50 pounds for life from the Queen’s court. Spenser was not on good terms with the Queens’s chief minister Lord Burghley, owing to latter’s allegiance with the rival faction. He thus could not get any more favour from the Queen’s court. Spenser’s hostility towards the peer in his Mother Hubberds Tale is viewed as a clear reference of his antagonism towards Lord Burghley. One can win quite a few insights into

Spenser celebrates his love for Elizabeth Boyle in Amoretti and his marriage to her in Epithalamion; the two were published together in 1595. This was his second marriage. Spenser had been married earlier to one Machabyas Chylde in 1579. He came to England again in 1596 and during this period published the last three books of The Faerie Queene. In 1598, his fortunes reversed as Irish rebels attacked and took in possession his castle of Kilcolman. This happened at a time when Spenser had of late been designated Sheriff of Cork. He came back to England and died in 1599. A contemporary historian Camden tells us that Spenser was buried in Westminster Abbey near Chaucer’s grave and his funereal was attended by many poets who threw poems in his tomb. This certainly was a tribute to the poet stature in English literature of the time. This combination of the various streams of knowledge enabled Spenser to forge new compositions of verse that carried his unique style.

 

Spencer’s works:

Spenser began his writing career in 1569 with twenty-two verse translations of “Epigrams” and “Sonnets” published in A Theatre wherein be represented as wel the miseries & calamities that follow the voluptuous Worldlings, As also the greate ioyes and pleasures which the faihtfull do enjoy. Following this, he wrote The Shepheardes Calender anonymously which was published in 1579. The publication of Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender is considered a moment to reckon with that marked the beginning of Elizabethan poetic Renaissance. The book was a collection of twelve eclogues (short pastoral poems) organized along the twelve months of a year. Each poem bore the name of the month. It was a striking poetic experiment on Spenser’s part.The calendar motif unified diverse subject matters and metre. It included, for example, the lament of a dejected lover hopelessly pursuing the beloved, the dialogue between age and youth, song contest for a rustic prize, celebration of great figures, an elegy, the struggle of a poet whose work remains unrewarded, juxtaposition of pastoral simplicity and corruption accompanied by greed. These eclogues operate as moral truths in the poem put forward to provide a perspective on the era to which Spenser belonged.

In 1590 Spenser came out with the first three books of The Faerie Queene that brought him instant fame and recognition. His “Letter to Raleigh” makes us aware about his plans to write The Faerie Queene as a long epic poem that was to be a collection of twelve books. It was to correspond with the twelve moral virtues as expounded by Aristotle. The poem centers on the figure of Arthur before he became king. Spenser intended to write a sequel to the epic poem as well that would project the political virtues befitting a King. These ambitions were not realized and Spenser could only write six books of The Faerie Queene. The first three books were published together with the dedication to the queen and his famous explanatory “Letter to Raleigh”. In 1596 Books I to VI were published in London with an embellished dedication to Elizabeth I. The Faerie Queene is an example of historical allegory.

In 1591, Spenser published many short poems and several translations. These include “The Ruins of Time”; “The Teares of the Muses”, “Virgil’s Gnat”, “Prosopopoia or Mother Hubberds Tale”, “Ruines of Rome”, “Muiopotmos or the Fate of the Butterflie”, “Visions of the Worlds Vanitie”. These short works were collected in the volume Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small poems of the World’s Vanity. In 1591 Spenser also wrote “Daphnaida, an Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Virtuous Doughlas Howard”. In 1595, Spenser published Colin Clouts Come Home Again. This volume also contained Astrophel, a Pastorall Elegie upon the Death of the most Noble and valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney by Spenser and other writers. In 1595 Amoretti and Epithalamion were published together. The former was written as a sonnet sequence of love poems and the latter was meant to celebrate his marriage with his beloved Elizabeth Boyle. In the following year, Spenser published the six books of Faerie Queene, as has been mentioned, and in 1596 he published Fowre Hyms. His Prothalamion was also published in the same year. Two Cantos of Mutabilitie (published in an edition of The Faerie Queene) and A View of the Present State of Ireland were published posthumously in 1609 and 1633 respectively. Spenser wrote on a variety of subjects and engaged with different poetic forms in each of his works. It is not for nothing that Charles Lamb called him “the poet’s poet”. He was what a generation of poets in the later centuries wished to emulate.

CONCLUSION :-

Edmund Spencer was highly influential both during his lifetime and in the centuries that followed his death. He is known for creating his own sonnet form as well as his own

nine-line stanza .

Spencer’s most famous poem is THE FAERIE QUEENE , but he also made other important contributions. The Spencerian stanza and Spencerian sonnet have both had a big impact on English literature.

 

Source:

• https://englishhistory.net/poets/edmund-spenser/

• W. Maley, A Spenser chronology (1994)

• G. Harvey, Letter book, 1573–1580, ed. G. L. J. Scott (1884)

• A. C. Hamilton, ed., The Spenser encyclopedia (1990)

• A. C. Judson, The life of Edmund Spenser (Baltimore, 1945)

• F. R. Johnson, A critical bibliography of the works of Edmund Spenser printed before 1700(Baltimore, 1933)

• The works of Edmund Spenser, ed. E. Greenlaw and others, 11 vols. (1932–57)

• The complete works in verse and prose of Edmund Spenser, ed. A. B. Grosart, 9 vols. (1882–4)

• L. Bryskett, A discourse of civill life (1606) ; ed. T. E. Wright(Northridge, California, 1970)