The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1879-05-18
SOME NEW BOOKS.
Two Pleasant Biographies.

hands twas designed 10 combine u biography
with n critical estimate, to Offer tho general
reader. in succinct and unprctGnious' way
sufficient personal details to portray the life Of
n given author together with an outline and
appraiscmcnt OF his work. O, course such a
modest enterprise was not expected 10 satisfy.
on one side or the other. the student thoroughly
conversant with the subject OF memoir. Much
was to be left unsaid and the compilcr's skill
would be shown chiefly in wnnowng from the
mass Of unimportant incident tho truly salient
and characteristic facts. Perhaps the object Of
the series was most happily attained In Prof
Huxley's sketch OF Hume. and in Symonds's
account OF Shelley. But the two lntcst numbers
OF the collection are executed with almost equal
competence and industry. We rofcr to the lifo
OF Spense. rccountcd by tho DEAN or ST.
PAuL's and to the memoir Of Burns boy Prn-
cipal SHARP who now holds the chair once
occupied by Mathew Arnold ms Professor OF
Poetry I'm the University OF oxford.
There is n certain correspondence in the be-
ginning and end OF their careers but otherwise
few English poets have differed more widely
tia Spenser and Burns in the circumstances
OF their lives. Both wcro born in poverty. and
the one died In extrome Indulgence tho other OF
absolute starvation. Both. moreover. were cut
of in the flush and vigor OF their powers. ono
Mt tho age Of 81. the other ut AZ. Each knew the
sweetness Of fame In his own lifetime but TO
neither did reputation bring stable and
sufficient fortune Something was dono for
both by friends. but Burns got only petty
Office in the Excise. while Sponsors public ser
vices were paid with some wild land In Ireland
from which he was aftcrward TO be driven forth
an outcast. II we except these few points Of
likeness. we shall find nothing but sharp and
decisive contrast in the situation OF these men.
one OF whom may DO said to have created Scot
tish song. while the other resurrectcd English
poetry from n trance OF some two centuries.
Spenscr was born in 1852 in the same year
with Raleigh. a year or two before Hooker and
sydney and about decade earlier than Bacon
and Shakespeare. Ofthe English writer's whom
these boys heard of in their youth. only Chau-
Ger finds readers in our day. while the names Of
Surrey and Wyatt. OF Wycife Sir Thomas More
Roger Ascham. Tyndale. and Latimer are only
familiar to those who study the beginnings OF
English literature. About the circumstances of
Edmund Spenser more is known than about tho
lives OF Shakespeare or OF Marlowe; vet ut best
our knowledge is partial and uncertain. We
learn from himself that he was n Londoner by
birth and carly training. Who his father was.
and what was his employment has not been as
certained. though he seems to have been a dis.
tant and impoverished kinsman OF the Spenoers
and Churchills OF modern days. The boy Ed
mund was pupil OF the grammar school then
recently established by the Merchant Taiors'
Company. which bears we need not say much
the same relation 10 st. Johns College Oxford
as Eton bears TO Kings College. Cambridge
He was one OF the so-called poor scholars"
maintained. apparently. by some bountiful
London citizen; and when no went. by and by
not to Oxford. butte Cambridge. he was admit
ted at Pembroke Hall as sizar. or serving
clerk, semi position analogous TO that
subsequently held by Samuel Johnson in Penn
broke College. Oxon. Little Is known OF Spen-
Ber's Cambridge career but II is probable from
the persons with whom he was connected. that
his religious prepossessions were there settled
in favor Of tho conforming Puritanism in the
church. as opposed to the extreme and thor
ough-going Calvnism OF some Cambridge
teachers. He took his masters degree at the
age OF "a. but he gained no feowship and
there is nothing TO show how he employed him
self. the classical learning exhibited in his
poems being coplous enough. but curiously in
accurate. Among his college friends was one
Edward Kirke. like himself sizar at Penn
broke. identified with the L. X. who was the ed
itor OF Sponsors earliest work the Shepherds
Calendar" and also Gabriel Harvey famous
classical pedant and adept in the Italian culture
OF the day. who is supposed 10 have suggested
5hakespeare's Hoofernes." 1t WIS he who
persuaded Spenser and Philip Sydney to devise
and practise elaborate rules for English hex
ameters and sapphics. or. as they called it, art-
fetal yersiylng. To this notable critic Spen-
ser's first venture Is commented. and u the
protection OF his mighty rhetoric
Between his graduation ut Cambridge
and Sponsors appearance in London there
is short but obscure interval. part