doubt that in the days of Tasso these things were thoroughly believed in, and the poet only availed himself of such aids in consequence of that belief. The poet gives the Saracenic hosts their victories through the help of evil spirits; and when the victory lies with the Crusaders, he ever attributes their success to the aid of Heaven-thus again meeting the spirit of the age in which he lived, for the religion of the times was greatly in unison with whatever was related to chivalry and martial prowess. Voltaire, in his essay on 'Epic Poetry' says: 'It was certainly a master-stroke in Tasso to render Aladin odious. The reader would otherwise have been necessarily interested for the Mohammedans against the Christians, whom he would have been tempted to consider as a band of vagabond thieves, who had agreed to ramble from the heart of Europe, in order to devastate a country they had no right to, and to massacre in cold blood a venerable prince and his whole people, against whom they had no pretence of complaint. Tasso has, with great judgment, represented them very differently. In his "Jerusalem," they appear to be an army of heroes, marching under a chief of exalted virtue, to rescue from the tyranny of infidels a country which had been conse

crated by the birth and death of a God. The subject of his poem, considered in this view, is the most sublime that can be imagined; he has treated it with all the dignity of which it is worthy, and has even rendered it not less interesting than it is elevated.' Lamartine, also, in speaking of the motives which led the poet to write the epic, says: Urged by piety no less than by the muse, Tasso dreamed of a crusade of poetic genius, aspiring to equal, by the glory and the sanctity of his songs, the Crusades of the lance he was about to celebrate. . . . Religion, chivalry, poetry, the glory of heaven and earth, the hope of eternal fame, ail combined to urge him to the undertaking.'

Spenser's Fairy Queen.

HE author of the Fairy Queen, Edmund Spenser,

THE

was born in East Smithfield, near the Tower of London, toward the end of 1552, and is believed to have been remotely connected with the ancient titled family of the same name. There is little or no trace of him from his birth till the time he entered as a sizar of Pembroke College, Cambridge, on the 20th May 1569-his entrance in this position showing that his relatives were at least not wealthy. Whether owing to his own remissness in regard to study, or the exacting strictness of his superiors, Spenser left Cambridge with something like a grudge immediately after taking the degree of Master of Arts in June 1576, having passed honourably through the intermediate academic grades. In Cambridge he had as an intimate friend Gabriel Harvey, the future astronomer, and their friendship lasted throughout life. Going north to Lancashire, Spenser remained in that county till 1578, when on

Harvey's inducement he went to London, taking with him The Shepherd's Calendar,' which was nearly ready for press, and was published in small 4to towards the close of 1579, with a dedication to 'Master Philip Sidney,' one of the most accomplished men of the age, between whom and the young poet a close friendship seems to have existed. The Shepherd's Calendar' is a pastoral poem, containing traces of much original genius, though deformed by many uncouth phrases, and in it Spenser is believed to have depicted a real passion of his own for a lady whom he designates as Rosalind, but who eventually preferred a rival, and in this poem the poet makes his shepherds discourse as much on polemics as on love.

Sidney introduced Spenser to his uncle the Earl of Leicester, and there is no doubt but that the poet made the most of his intimacy with these powerful courtiers to advance his material interests, and it appears that he was occasionally employed in inferior state business; his first public service evidently being in the year 1579, when he was sent abroad by the Earl of Leicester, but on what particular mission he was employed is uncertain.

After acting for some time as private secretary to the

Earl of Leicester, Spenser accompanied in the same capacity Lord Grey of Wilton to Ireland, who had been appointed Lord Deputy. Here the poet was soon after made Clerk of Degrees in the Irish Court of Chancery, an office which he held till 1588, when he was appointed Clerk to the Council of the Province of Munster. Previous to this, however, his services had procured him a grant from the crown of a lease of the manor and castle of Enniscorthy at a comparatively nominal rent, on condition of keeping the buildings in repair. The duties of his Chancery office kept the poet in Dublin when his patron, Lord Grey, was recalled in 1582, and in 1586 Spenser's services were still further rewarded by a grant of upwards of three thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Kilcolman in Cork countyan estate consisting mainly of lands forfeited by the Earl of Desmond, and it is believed that this grant was procured for Spenser through his friend Sir Philip Sidney. One condition appears to have been that he should reside there, but this in itself could have been no hardship to the poet, for the castle was romantically situated on the shores of a lake feeding the Awbeg, a small river which Spenser fancifully called the Mulla, and all around were high mountain ranges. Here