Life of Edmund Spenser

Introduction

Edmund Spenser was an important figure of the English Renaissance who succeeded in inventing his own verse form, style, and vocabulary. Edmund Spenser was born around 1552 to a family of modest means and earned his education through academic prowess. In 1561, Spenser entered the Merchant Taylors' School as a "poor scholar." There he came under the tutelage of Richard Mulcaster, a noted humanist scholar and writer, who emphasized equally the classical tradition and studies in the vernacular. Spenser continued his education in 1569 by entering Pembroke College, Cambridge University, as a sizar, a student who earns his tuition by acting as a servant to wealthy students. He earned his B.A. in 1573 and his M.A. in 1576.

Spenser is often called the poet's poet, because his poems have had such an impact on English literature. He is second only to Shakespeare in his influence on other English authors. His most famous poem is The Faerie Queene(1590-96), an unfinished religious and political allegory in epic form. Many critics consider Epithalamion (1595), commemorating Spenser's second marriage, his best poem (William, pp. 1).

Discussion

Born in London, the son of John Spenser, a clothmaker, Edmund Spenser was brought up in humble circumstances. As a child, he attended the newly founded school of the Merchant Taylors, whose headmaster, Richard Mulcaster, encouraged him to write. Spenser went on to Cambridge University as a sizar, a scholarship student who was required to work for his tuition. He received his bachelor's degree from Cambridge in 1573 and his master's in 1576. Through a college friend, Gabriel Harvey, Spenserobtained a position in the household of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, where he began service in 1577, and where he met the poets Sir Philip Sidney, Edward Dyer, and Fulke Greville. Together with a few others these young men made up an informal intellectual society (Hamilton, pp. 6).

Spenser was appointed secretary to Arthur, Lord Grey, in 1580, the year Grey became lord deputy of Ireland and was sent to suppress one of many Irish rebellions against English rule. In 1582 Grey was called back to England, but Spenser remained in Ireland, except for two trips to London, for the next 19 years. He became friends with Sir Walter Raleigh, whose Irish estate was not far from his, and who helped him bring the first three books of his romantic epic The Faerie Queene to the attention of Queen Elizabeth I. In 1589 he became clerk to the council of Munster, one of the four provinces of Ireland, and took up residence in Kilcolman Castle, County Cork (Richard, pp. 161).

Spenser was born in London. Little is known of his parents, but it is believed that his father was a tailor or cloth maker. Spenserattended the Merchant Taylors' School in London and Pembroke College, Cambridge University. He received a master's degree from Cambridge in 1576. While he was at the university, several of his translations from the medieval Italian poet Petrarch and the contemporary French poet Joachim du Bellay were ...