Edmund Spenser

Spenser, Edmund 

Born circa 1552, in London; died there Jan. 13 or 16,1599. English poet.

Spenser studied at Cambridge University, where he received a master’s degree. His Shepherds’ Calendar (1579) is a pastoral consisting of 12 eclogues, each associated with a different month. Spenser drew on traditional allegory for purposes of satire in Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1591; published 1595) and in the fable Mother Hubberd’s Tale (1591). He also wrote lyric hymns (1596) and the cycle of lyric sonnets Amoretti (1591–95).

Spenser’s greatest work is the unfinished allegorical narrative poem The Faerie Queene (1590–96), which is permeated by humanist aspirations. The work made use of the Arthurian legends and developed the traditions of the classical epic and of the narrative poems of the Italian Renaissance.

Spenser’s allegories deal with court life and politics. The characters in his magic world have the traits of living people; in its own way, his peotry is realistic. He contributed the Spenserian stanza to English versification.

WORKS

Works, vols. 1–8. Baltimore, Md., 1932–47.
In Russian translation:
In Khrestomatiia po zapadnoevropeiskoi literature: Epokha Vozrozhdeniia, 3rd ed. Compiled by B. I. Purishev. Moscow, 1947.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 1, fasc. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1943.
Renwick, W. L. Edmund Spenser. London [1964].
Spenser: The Critical Heritage. Edited by R. M. Cummings. London [1971].
Atkinson, D. F. Edmund Spenser: A Bibliographical Supplement. New York, 1967.

M. A. NERSESOVA