The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-01-24
EDMUND SPENSER.
Professor Chapman's Second Lecture in
the Current Events Clubs Course.

At the Second Advent church Wednes-
day evening, Professor Henry l.. Chap
man of Bowdoin, delivered the second
lecture in the Current Events Clubs
course, his subject being Edmund Spen-
ser. The audience was large and atten-
tive. Taking up the thread of his dis
course where he dropped it with the
lecture on Chaucer, Professor Chapman
said that the later half of the Fifteenth
Century, in spite of the religious reac-
ton which had followed Wycliffe, and
the degrading influences of the factional
war of the Roses, was period oil great
advancement. The invention of print
ing, the discovery of the New world,
the revival of classical learning, had
stirred the imaginations of men ana
broadened their understandings. OF the
period thus happily ushered in edmund
Spenser was the poetical genius. Spen-
ser was not any more than his friend,
Philip Sidney, an admirer of puritanlsm.
Yet the puritan spirit underlies all his
work. He regards life as warfare,
calling for all our strength and resourc-
es. This is the puritan idea.
At the University of Cam bridge,
whittier he went at the age of IL, Spen-
ser came in contact with all that was
best in the culture of the time. After
leaving Cam bridge he passed two years
in the north OF England, where he
wooed, but did not win the fair Rosalind
"the widowed daughter of the glen. "
Returning to London he met Sir Philip
Sidney, and soon enjoyed the patronage
of Sidney's powerful uncle, the Earl of
Leicester Here, at the age of q, he
produced the Shepherds Calendar. :"
This volume marked a new and import
ant period in England's literature. Moral
ity, religion, politics, poetry and love
were themes of this great work, which
was philosophical as well as poetical.
The work was received with great ap-
plause and gave the author instan
recognition. At the same time he de-
parted to ireland, where he became sec
rotary to the Lord Deputy. There he
passed the greater part of his life. 70
the old Irish castle where he dwelt came
one dag Sir Walter Raleigh, who list
ened to the first three chapters OF the
Faerie Queen. Raleigh persuaded the
poet to go to court and read the work to
Elizabeth. The great queen was delight
ed and bestowed pension OF fifty
pounds upon the poet. On his return
to Ireland he celebrated his visit in an
interesting poem, describing the splen-
doris of the court. Three years later he
led to the altar a young woman, not
Rosalind, but Elizabeth by name, whose
gifts OF body, fortune and mind, the
poet has celebrated in many beautiful
sonnets. The nuptial ode, with which
the poet celebrated his marriage. is one
of the gems of the worlds literature.
at redeems his poor lecture to read but
single verse of it, "said Professor Chap
man, as he began the quotation. "The
sage and serious Spenser," as Milton
calls him, understood that such praise
of his Elizabeth would make the golden
hair bristle on the head of that other
Elizabeth, the jealous woman and mon
arch. So Spenser took care to placate
the Queen, at the same time that he
praised his bride.
Returning to Ireland with the lucrative
APPOINTMENT of Sheriff of Cork, his
Frightening world ly prospects were sud-
denly clouded by an Irish instruction.
His castle was besieged and burned, and
ne barely escaped with his family. The
blow was severe, and he never rallied.
dying in London, January 16, 1899. He
was buried next to Chaucer.
The Faerie Queen is one of the great
est poems in literature, although, like
the Canterbury Tales, it is only a fra
ment. This great poem of the imagina-
tion was ethical n it's design and execu-
ton.