The Shorter Poems

by Edmund Spenser

  As the headnotes to the individual works point out, dates of composition are notoriously hard to determine. Complaints contains material dating from as early as 1569 to as late as 1590 and the problem is greatly complicated by the likelihood that works such as Mother Hubberds Tale (the concluding section of which may date from 1579–80) have undergone considerable revision prior to publication. What is clear, however, is Spenser’s enduring concern with the course of public affairs, with the importance of patronage, and the association between the state of literature and the state of the nation. His complaints range from the minutely specific to the universal, from personal lampoon to spiritual anguish, but with little sense of disjunction or dislocation. Rather, personal emotions are articulated through skilful translations, ancient and modern anxieties coalesce and particular places serve, through their very specificity, as backdrops for limitless speculation. Nowhere is Spenser’s imaginative enthusiasm for decay more evident than in his protests against it. Situated among the ruins of time, fallen heroes and dead butterflies, the various speakers find a vicarious consolation in the powerful energies of convention, an aesthetic pleasure in the artistry of complaint. Cf. P. Cheney (1993); Maclean (1978); Manley (1982); Nelson (1963); Peter (1956); H. Smith (1961); Stein (1934).

  The Printer to the Gentle Reader

  1 late… foorth: about a year previously. William Ponsonby published FQ, 1–3 early in 1590 and Complaints in the first quarter of 1591.

  4 accomplishment: completion, fulfilment.

  8 departure: probably referring to 1580 when he first went to Ireland, but possibly intended to create the impression that he had returned there in 1591 before the publication of Comp. Cf. the headnote.

  10 parcels: pieces, items.

  15–20 Ecclesiastes… Psalmes: not extant. The influence of Ecclesiastes is felt throughout Spenser’s poetry in relation to the vanity of worldly aspiration, and the Song of Songs (Canticles) informs much of his mystical imagery. A senights [seven nights] slumber may be related to My Slumber alluded to, together with The dying Pellican, in Letters (cf. Prose, 6, 17). The seuen Psalmes was probably a translation of the seven penitential psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143), popular with English writers from Wyatt to Mary Sidney. For the ‘lost poems’ cf. SpE, 737–8.

  24 new Poet: recalling E. K.’s dedicatory epistle to Harvey in SC.

  The Ruines of Time

  Central to the ethos of visionary complaint which informs The Ruines of Time is the complex relationship between its various speakers [cf. Rasmussen (1981)]. Verlame’s ‘doubtfull speach’ (485) gives voice to an intensely enigmatic, and occasionally nightmarish, mentality preoccupied with the issue of mutability. She laments the destruction of Verulamium (1–175) and the deaths of Leicester and Sidney (176–343) as instances of the vanity of human wishes, yet hers is a ‘sinfull’ fallen world (44) and she is beset by ‘greislie shades, such as doo haunt in hell’ (125). Particularly insidious is her solipsistic obsession with the past: as an admirer of William Camden – and specifically of her own image in William Camden – she condemns herself to the temporal and spatial confinement from which she affects to desire release. Her future is a constant rehearsal of her past; her fame is inextricable from her fall.

  In seeking to answer the crucial question of ‘how can mortall immortalitie giue?’ (413) Verlame places her faith in the endurance of poetry (344–469), as though speaking for the poet himself, or his alter ego Colin Clout (253–9), and reaffirming the commonplaces of contemporary humanism. Yet despite Spenser’s undoubted interest in promoting the posthumous fame of his erstwhile patrons, the effect is to afford the reader a critical perspective on Verlame. Hers is not the city of God. Her days are merely ‘earthlie daies’ (312) and within the overall structure of the poem her perspective is shown to be limited and self-contradictory. The biblical resonance of her language ironically undermines her humanist idealism by mediating her highest sentiments through the admonitory diction of Ecclesiastes. In this respect her voice both echoes and parodies the lyricism of Psalm 137 by contriving to lament both the power and the fall of ‘Babylon’. Not surprisingly, her utterance leaves the narrator in a state of ‘anguish’ and ‘horror’ (482–3), but affords little consolation. The six ‘pageants’ which appear spontaneously to his grieving mind, and are presumably to be regarded as symptoms of depression, illustrate the destruction of various wonders of the ancient world or their equivalents (491–574), and thereby seem to corroborate Verlame’s world view, until an appropriately disembodied, Apocalyptic ‘voyce’ (580) points the way towards ‘hope of heauen’ (585) by conjuring up another series of pageants specifically intended as moral exempla (582). While they too insist upon the transience of worldly things in their emblematic representation of the death of Sir Philip Sidney, they also afford visions of transcendence through images of stellification or apotheosis (589–672). The poet is recognized to be as mortal as other men, but death opens the pathway to ‘a second life’ (669) and Pegasus flies to heaven (657–8). The value of human endeavour is hereby located not in its earthly endurance but in its spiritual worth. It is the ‘spirite’ that proves to be ‘immortall’ (673) and proper aspiration is directed towards God (685). As recorded by his friend Fulke Greville, Sidney’s last words invited bystanders to observe in his death ‘the end of this world with all her vanities’ [cf. Greville (1986), 83].

  As the number seven could be understood both as a symbol of permanence and of mutability [cf. Nelson (1961), 99; Fowler (1964), 58], the structure of the poem would seem to embody the ambivalence of its message in that seventy stanzas of rhyme royal (stanzas of seven lines rhyming ababbcc) are followed by two visionary sequences of seven sections apiece in the same format. While lamentable in themselves, the deaths of Sidney and Leicester had also robbed Spenser of his most influential patrons and the thinly veiled attacks on Lord Burghley, judiciously attributed to Verlame, reflect the frustration of very worldly ambition and lend the work a keenly topical edge (216–17, 447–53). Although the poem may contain sections of early material, particularly in the first of the emblematic sequences, the allusion to the death of Walsingham indicates that the text was revised as late as 6 April 1590 (435–41). As so often in the Spenserian canon, the most sublime of speculations are rooted in the anxieties, and the needs, of the moment. Cf. Cartmell (1985); DeNeef (1979); Herendeen (1981); Kerrigan (1991); MacLure (1973); Manley (1982); Nelson (1961), (1963); Orwen (1941); Satterthwaite (1960).

  Dedication To the right Noble…

  Marie… Pembrooke: Mary Sidney (1561–1621), sister to Sir Philip Sidney, married Henry Herbert, second Earl of Pembroke in 1577. Renowned as a patron of letters, she completed her brother’s translation of the Psalms, oversaw the posthumous publication of his literary works and translated Mornay’s Discourse of Life and Death, Garnier’s Antonius and Petrarch’s Triumph of Death. She is celebrated as Urania at CCH, 486–91.

  3 brother deceased: Sir Philip Sidney died at Zutphen in 1586.

  7 spired: put forth, produced.

  8 disdeigned… world: deemed the world unworthy.

  13 late cumming: probably in 1589.

  The Ruines of Time

  1 on: one.

  2 siluer streaming: cf. Proth, 11. For the significance of the setting in relation to Psalm 137 cf. Cartmell (1985).

  2–3 Thamesis… yore: the popular belief that the Thames once flowed by Verulamium was denied by Holinshed and Camden (Chronicles, 1. 323; Britain, 411). Cf. note to lines 148–54 below.

  3 Verlame: the Roman city of Verulamium, close to St Albans.

  5 little moniment: ‘of the old compasse of the walles of Verolamium there is now small knowledge to be had by the ruines’ (Holinshed, Chronicles, 1. 322). Cf. Camden, Britain, 408.

  9 Woman… wailing: ‘How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people… She weepeth sore in the night’ (Lamentations 1: 1–2). Cf. the city of Rome at VB, 127–40; TW, sonnet 8.

  12 railing: gushing. Cf. La
mentations 1: 16.

  13 broken rod: symbolic of lost authority.

  17 doubt: am uncertain, unsure.

  fatall Impes: the Fates. Cf. SC, November, [148].

  19 Genius: the ‘genius loci’ or spirit of the place. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, 5. 95; 7. 136. For Genius in general cf. Comes, Mythologiae, 4. 3.

  20–21 perplexed… vexed: with biblical connotations. Cf. VP, 26 and note.

  36–42 Verulamium was ‘a citie infranchised and indued with Roman priuileges’ rather than a mere colony, cf. Holinshed, Chronicles, 1. 322.

  36 garland wore: as a sign of pre-eminence.

  41 that I was: what I was.

  45 first… date: from birth to death, beginning to end.

  47 ingate: entrance. For the ‘gates’ of birth and death cf. FQ. 3. 6. 31–2.

  48–9 woomb… toomb: a common conceit, cf. Genesis 3: 19.

  56 vapour… decaie: cf. James 4: 14.

  59–63 The traditional ‘ubi sunt’ (‘where are they now?’) topos.

  63 raine: reign, dominion (the Roman imperium).

  64–70 Cf. Daniel 7: 3–7. The Geneva Bible identifies the lion with Assyria, the bear with Persia and the leopard with Alexander the Great. Cf. TW, sonnet 12. 4–5 and note. Cf. Rasmussen (1981), 161.

  65 footing: footprints, trace.

  70 whelps: the officers who partitioned Alexander’s empire, collectively known as the Diadochi (‘Successors’).

  71 seuen… beast: conflating the beast of Daniel 7: 7 with the seven-headed beast of Revelation 13: 1–2 commonly interpreted as Rome. Cf. TW, sonnet 13; VB, 103–6 and notes.

  74 in… necke: i.e. as though harnessing them.

  80 equall: in the sense of well disposed, equalling Rome’s success.

  85–98 ‘If I were disposed… to reckon up what great store of Romane peeces of coine, how many cast images of gold and silver, how many vessels, what a sort of modules or Chapters of pillars… have beene digged up, my words would not carry credit: The thing is so incredible’ (Camden, Britain, 411). Cf. Holinshed, Chronicles, 1. 322–3.

  96 imageries: carved figures, statuary. Cf. VG, 103.

  98 rust: corrosion.

  102 Troynouant: for London as the new Troy founded by the Trojan Brutus cf. FQ, 3. 9. 33–51.

  103 my… bee: Verulamium was ‘not onlie nothing inferior to London it selfe, but rather preferred before it’ (Holinshed, Chronicles, 1. 321).

  104 Pendragon: Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur. Camden records his ‘seven yeeres siege’ (Britain, 412).

  106 Bunduca: Boudica, queen of the Iceni whose revolt against Rome was crushed in AD 61. Her career is celebrated at FQ, 2. 10. 54–6.

  112 foyld… assailed: history has been altered for rhetorical effect. Tacitus, Holinshed and Camden all record the fall of Verulamium to the Britons (Annals, 14. 33; Britain, 409; Chronicles, 1. 499).

  114 Saxons: as recorded in Camden, Britain, 410.

  116 prizde… Generall: taken as a prize at the cost of the general’s life.

  123 turnd to smoake: cf. Isaiah 51:6.

  130 Shriche-owle: screech owls, regarded as harbingers of death. Cf. Isaiah 34: 15; FQ, 1. 9. 33. Cf. SC, June, 24; Epith, 345 and notes.

  131 Nightingale: cf. SC, August, 183; November, [141] and notes.

  133 Mewes: gulls.

  Plouers: wading birds such as lapwings.

  135 channell: i.e. course.

  140 moorish: marshy.

  148–54 Holinshed records how workmen digging in the ruins ‘happened oftentimes upon Lempet shels, peeces of rustie anchors, and keeles of great vessels, whereupon some by and by gathered that either the Thames or some arme of the sea did beat upon that towne’ (Chronicles, 1. 323).

  151 lake: in the uncommon sense of river or stream of water (OED).

  157 no… mone: no one else does mourn.

  158 dolefull dreriment: gloomy sadness or melancholy.

  168 true-seeming sort: in truthful and fitting fashion.

  169 Cambden: William Camden (1551–1623), headmaster of Westminster School, Clarenceux King-of-Arms, and celebrated antiquary. Britannia, the chorographical study to which Verlame alludes, appeared in 1586 and the Annales, a history of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, in 1615.

  176 wight: person, but often applied, as here, to spectres or ghosts.

  184 mightie Prince: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, died in 1588.

  renowmed race: Letters refers to an unpublished poem entitled Stemmata Dudleiana, a celebration of Leicester’s family (cf. Prose, 18), some of which may be incorporated here.

  188 Sate… bosome: enjoyed the confidence of, or was on terms of intimacy with.

  189 Right… loyall: a translation of Leicester’s motto, ‘Droict et Loyal’.

  190 I… die: rhetorical exaggeration. Leicester died at Cornbury Lodge in Oxfordshire, not in St Albans.

  191 meane… beare: Leicester’s funeral was both costly and magnificent.

  196 Requiem: originally a Roman Catholic mass for the repose of the soul, but here presumably referring to the Anglican funeral rites.

  199 halfe happie: an ironic belittlement.

  202 courting masker: i.e. fawning actor.

  louteth: bows.

  204 oaker: ochre, mineral of clay and ferric oxide used as a pigment.

  212 Cf. Matthew 6: 19–20 on laying up treasures in heaven.

  213 come… dread: what he dreaded has come to pass.

  214 now dead: now that he (Leicester) is dead.

  vpbraid: decry, criticize.

  215 baid: bayed, barked.

  216–17 Foxe… Badger: ‘The foxe doth fight with the Brocke [badger] for dens, and defileth the Brockes den with his urine and with his dirte’ (Stephen Bateman, Batman upon Bartholome (1582), 385). Leicester’s death benefited his arch-rival William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520–98), figured here as the fox. The insult is considerable.

  219 vapoured: evaporated, dissipated into vapour.

  223 reuiue: restore to life (by celebrating his memory).

  226 vp to raise: i.e. to play.

  230 quite: acquit, clear. Verlame accuses Spenser of the dereliction of duty to which he admits in the dedication.

  233 bounteous… trie: experienced his liberal disposition.

  236 applie: contribute.

  239 his brother: Ambrose Dudley, first Earl of Warwick, died in 1590.

  244 dearest Dame: Anne Russell, daughter of Francis Russell, second Earl of Bedford. She is one of the two dedicatees of FH. Cf. CCH, 492–503 and note.

  260 his sister: Mary Dudley, sister of the Earl of Leicester, wife of Sir Henry

  Sidney and mother of Sir Philip Sidney, died in 1586.

  thy father: Francis Russell, second Earl of Bedford, died in 1585.

  266 his sonne: actually his grandson, Edward Russell, third Earl of Bedford, as the following line makes clear.

  268 Vnder… countenaunce: sheltered under your protection.

  272 Impe: offspring, child.

  273 count… Countie: i.e. value wisdom more than your lands.

  274 husbands sister: Mary Dudley (as at line 260).

  279 sacred brood: Sir Philip Sidney.

  281 gentle spirite: Sidney.

  breathed… aboue: cf. TM, 361.

  282 bosome… blis: applied to Christ at HHL, 134 and here implying a comparison with Christ elaborated at lines 297–301.

  284 natiue propertis: natural (pure) conditions.

  289 influence: flowing in, like the influence of the stars.

  291 too soone: Sidney died from battle wounds at the age of thirty-two.

  natiue place: heaven, completing the Neoplatonic notion of descent into matter and return to the world of spirit implicit at lines 281–2.

  296 goale: jail.

  298 bodie… sacrifise: cf. Romans 12: 1.

  301 life exchanging: giving his life in exchange.

  305 cumbrous: troublesome, oppressive.

  317 thine… sister: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembr
oke.

  318–22 sings… anoy: DLC published with Ast in 1595 purports to be by Mary Sidney.

  324 valiance: courage, heroism.

  325–9 Celebrating Sidney’s Arcadia first published in 1590.

  330–36 Socrates was reputed to regard the company of poets as among the principal delights of the afterlife. Cf. Plato, Apology, 41a.

  332 Elisian fields: cf. SC, November, [179] and note.

  333 Orpheus: the archetypal vatic poet, cf. SC, October, [28] and note.

  Linus: credited with teaching Orpheus. Cf. Virgil, Eclogues, 6. 67–73.

  349 rustie: in the sense of corroding or spoiling.

  354 mortall hous: the body. Cf. FQ, 2. 9. 17–58.

  356 breath… nostrels: cf. Isaiah 2: 22.

  358–71 A classical topos, cf. Theocritus, Idylls, 16; Horace, Odes, 4. 8, 9.

  361 sponge: pieces of moist sponge were used to erase writing.

  368–9 daughters… Ioue: cf. SC, June, 66 and note; Boccaccio, Genealogia, 11. 2.

  369 father of eternitie: as the dispenser of fame and immortality. Cf. Boccaccio, Genealogia, 11. 1.

  373 Proserpina: consort of Hades, and queen of the underworld.

  374–6 power… day: as in the case of Orpheus and Eurydice at lines 391-2, but perhaps also recalling Christ’s (more successful) harrowing of hell.

  379–82 brood… spirite: in Seneca’s Hercules Oetaeus the hero, in agony from the poisoned shirt of Nessus, burns himself to death on Mount Oeta but reappears to his mother Alcmena as an immortal (1758–1996). Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 9. 229–72.