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Spenser: The Uncertain Years 1584–1589
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
In this paper I shall trace Spenser's career in Ireland during the uncertain years, 1584–89, We know that the poet during this period was clerk of the Council of Munster, that he acted as secretary to the president of the province, and that he almost certainly, like his successor Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork, “attended the Lord President in all his employments.”
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1938
References
1 See H. R. Plomer and T. P. Cross, The Life and Correspondence of Lodowick Bryskett' pp. 44–46, and my articles “Spenser's Hand,” LTLS (Jan. 7, 1932), p. 12, and “Spenser and the Clerkship in Munster,” PMLA, xlvii (1932). 109–121.
2 Pauline Henley, Spenser in Ireland, p. 48.
3 State Papers, Ireland, 144. 70.
4 SP 147.16.
5 Proceedings of the British Academy (1907–08), p. 102.
6 Plomer and Cross, op. cit., pp. 44–46.
7 SP 115.41 and 42.
8 SP 135.66. The recto of the first folio of this letter appears facing this page.
9 SP 140.37.
10 Article on Norris in D.N.B.
11 SP 111.25.
12 SP 111.51.
13 Sir John Perrot's whereabouts in Ireland are recounted in SP 139.9.
14 D.N.B. and SP 111.95; 112.11.
15 Richard Rawlinson, History of Sir John Parrot (London, 1728), pp. 155–175.
16 SP 139.9; 112.61 and 78; 115.13.
17 SP 115.13, 14, 15, and 16.
18 According to Rawlinson, op. cit., p. 175, this soldier, a Mr. Lambert, was captured by a son of Shane O'Neill.
19 SP 115.41.
20 SP 115.42.
21 D.N.B.
22 A View of the Present State of Ireland, ed. W. L. Renwick, p. 35.
23 D.N.B. and Richard Bagwell, Ireland Under the Tudors, iii, 145. On June 23, 1585, Walsingham wrote to Bodley: “Mr. John Norris is presently to take 3000 foot and 200 horse into the Low Countries.” See Cal. SP, Foreign, 1584–85, p. 557.
24 SP 122.59.
25 SP 119.1; 121.47; 122.71; 135.2 ii; and 136.21, particularly inquisitions numbered 21, 27, and 77.
26 SP 122.84.
27 For further discussion see my article, “Spenser and the Clerkship in Munster,” PMLA, xxvii, 116–117. Cf. Renwick's edition of the Veue, pp. 36–37. Sir Thomas Norris represented Limerick in this session of parliament.
28 SP 126.4.
29 SP 126.52, 55, 71, 78, 88; 127.2, 10, 28; 128.44, 44 i, 64; 129.26; 130.13, 44, 61, 62; 132.25. For a general account of the duties of the Lord President and Council of Munster, see Cal. SP, Ireland, 1606–08, Preface, xxiii ff.
30 SP 126.52; 127.10.
31 SP 126.55, 56, and 71.
32 SP 128.44.
33 SP 128.83; 129.76; 130.13, 20, 21, 61, 62; 132.25.
34 SP 135.55.
35 SP 155.58.
36 SP 135.66.
37 SP 136.24, 25, 29, and 29 i.
38 SP 136.33 and 41.
39 SP 136.21.
40 See note 65 below.
41 SP 136.24 and 56.
42 SP 139.25 and 138.29.
43 SP 139.25.
44 Faerie Queene, v.viii.42.
45 SP 139.25.
46 SP 140.19 ii and 21 iii.
47 SP 140.37.
48 SP 141.19 and 21.
49 SP 144.70. By virtue of his admission in this document that he owes four nobles rent on Ballinegarragh and six shillings, eight pence, on Ballinfoynigh, we may assume that he held these ploughlands some months before he took possession of Kilcolman.
50 SP 147.16. Though the document appears to be in Spenser's secretary hand, it is puzzling because the three attestations of Spenser to items of this complaint are obviously not his. Spenser, however, testified to the truth of all the items of the complaint by affixing at the end his customary Italian signature.
51 Quoted from a letter of Loftus to Burghley, Dec. 4–14, 1586. See J. A. Froude, History of England (Longmans, 1910), xii, lxviii, 95n.
52 Letter quoted in Life of McCarthy More, pp. 51–52.—Like Raleigh, Sir William had received an immense seignory of 24,000 acres. He lived at Castle Island in Kerry and apparently tried to do justice to his Irish neighbors. His differences with Denny were aggravated by their claims to the same lands.
53 SP 145.78.—For other letters bearing upon their quarrel see especially 135.58; 139.18; 144.1 and 56.
54 During his journey through Connaught and Ulster in the winter of 1588–89, Norris left St. Leger in charge of Munster. See SP 140.14.
55 From S. Hayman, The Handbook for Youghal (Youghal, 1852), p. 53, we learn that Thomas Norris got a lease of the College of Youghal and took up his residence there in 1588. As Spenser presumably attended Norris while he resided there and as Raleigh acted as Mayor of Youghal in 1588, we may assume that the two poets frequently met at Raleigh's house of the College of Youghal called the Wardens and that here the friendship, so quaintly described in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, ripened. Here also Raleigh is said to have entertained Spenser before they embarked for England. The Earl of Cork testified in 1634 that Raleigh's house had been turned into a private residence and occupied by Sir Thomas Norris, Sir George Carew, and Mr. Jones before he gained possession of it. See Dorothea Townshend, Life of the Great Earl of Cork, p. 274.
56 SP 111.92.—During his fifteen years' service in Ireland Stanley was highly valued by all the English deputies. Disappointed that he had received no grant from the confiscated Desmond estates, he returned to England in 1585. His resentment and his strong Jesuit sympathies probably explain his subsequent surrender of Deventer and his entrance into the Spanish service. The State Papers for Ireland for these years abound in rumors of a threatened invasion of Ireland by Sir William Stanley. According to the article in D.N.B., Sir John Norris was a bitter enemy of Stanley. From the many letters about him it is evident that Sir Thomas Norris did not make light of his military capacity.
57 Richard Rawlinson, Life of Sir John Perrot, p. 151.
58 SP 128.83 and 107.
59 The exemplary behavior of Florence, in many interviews as well as in jail, seems to have won the heart of the forthright soldier, Sir Thomas Norris. When the deputy sent Florence to England with Chichester, Spenser's successor on the Council, Norris especially commended him to Walsingham. See SP 135.55 and 58; 142.36 and 37; and 145.86.
60 SP 140.31; 142.20 and 24.
61 A letter of Florence, written December 12, 1589, in Hist. MSS Com. Reports, iii, 451–453.
62 Renwick's edition, pp. 176–177.
63 SP 136.21.
64 SP 137.20.
65 SP 141.26.—Ray Heffner avers that Spenser occupied the lands of Kilcolman between September 3, 1588, and March 24, 1589. See his article, Spenser's Acquisition of Kilcolman, MLN, xlvi, 496–497.
66 SP 147.14, 15, 15 i, and 16.
67 SP 147.16.
68 Other English undertakers, particularly Sir William Herbert, deplore the tyrannizing of Lord Roche and Lord Barry over their tenants and freeholders. See SP 135.58. From all the evidence in the disputes with Roche it appears that the relations between Spenser and his Irish tenants were friendly.
69 Renwick's edition, p. 30.
70 Ibid., p. 32.
71 5P 122.71.
72 SP 130.61.—Since Spenser believed it was impossible to determine just titles to land by means of Irish juries, he advises in the Veue (pp. 192–93) a commission to inquire into all titles and to settle “by the verdicte of (a) sound and substanciall iurye how euerie man holdeth his landes.”
73 P. 40.
74 Pp. 103–105.
75 Pp. 116–118, 125–126, and 143–145.
76 P. 243.
77 P. 165. Read also the “Commentary,” pp. 294–296.
78 Pp. 19–20.
79 See the discussion in the Variorum edition, iv, 264–265.
80 P. 25.
81 Pp. 70–81.