Lord Grey accompanied by his Secretary, Edmund Spenser, arrived." If the latter had been there under Sidney in 1577, he must have been well acquainted with the country. March 22 (following) Spenser was appointed Clerk of Decrees and Recognizances of Chancery. In respect of his position as secretary to Lord Grey his patent was given "free of the seal." Lord Grey relinquished his office in August, 1582, but Spenser retained his position until the 22d June, 1588, when he was succeeded by Arland Usher.1 "It is evident," says Hales, "that he did not return with Grey but abode still in Ireland." Spenser merely changed his office of Clerk of Decrees for the more important position of Clerk of the Council of Ulster. The duties of these offices were exacting, and the salaries small. The incumbent could not safely have left them at any time without imperiling his interests. It was a maxim then well understood by all incumbents of public offices that it was "not safe to leave the stool empty." This office of Clerk to the Council, which demanded his closest attention, he seems to have held until the autumn of 1591, when on October 26, he was granted "the Manor and Castle of Kylcolman with other lands containing 3028 acres in the Barony of Fermoy, Country Cork, also chief rents forfeited by the late Lord Thetmore and the late traitor, Sir John Desmond." 2 Any one who has studied the history of the confiscation. of Irish estates by Elizabeth knows the difficulty which the grantees encountered, rendering de facto possession, and constant watchfulness, necessary to protect their grants; hence it was a condition of Spenser's grant that he should remain upon his estate, and he could not, if he would, have left Ireland safely; besides, the records reveal a startling condition of affairs. Colin, the gentle shepherd, when he did "assyne" his 1 Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., etc., A Commentary on the Serv ices, etc., of William Lord Grey, p. xviii. London, 1847. 2 Memoirs, etc., p. xxxii. office "unto one Nicholas Courtneys," covenanted that he should be "free in said office for his cawses"; in other words, could prosecute suits at law without cost to himself; "by reason of which immunity," we are told, and the records disclose, he multiplied oppressive suits against many persons to get possession of their estates. Moreover, he showed the harshest spirit against the distracted natives, advocating measures "little short of wholesale depopulation." 1 Trotter, describing the treatment of his countrymen by the English, thus alludes to him: When Spenser, the poetic, the gentle Spenser, was guilty of these oppressive and unjust proceedings, the reader may easily guess at the conduct of his more ignorant and brutal fellowplanters by whom the country was converted into a desert. For these and other aggressions on the unfortunate natives, the poet soon afterwards felt the full weight of their vengeance.2 It is difficult to imagine Spenser amid the engrossing duties of his various offices, oppressed with the details of vexatious lawsuits, and struggling to maintain his estate, setting out for London to publish his poems and dawdle in Elizabeth's Court. In any case, the Spenser who went with Grey to Ireland in 1580 resided there till shortly before his death, and could not have been on a familiar footing at Court as some of the effusions credited to him might imply, nor had his bitter complaint as a suitor at Court any relevancy to him, though it perfectly coincides with Bacon's experiences and utterances. The wonderful power of pictorial expression in the poems ascribed to Spenser alone finds its counterpart in the "Shakespeare" Works, and it is especially remarkable that as Marlowe is said to have exerted a dominating influence on the earlier works of this author, so it is said that Spenser exerted as marked an influence upon Marlowe. If this is the case, why 1 James Hardiman, M.R.I.A., Irish Minstrelsy, vol. 1, pp. 319-21. London, 1831. 2 Walks in Ireland. not go back to the fountain-head and say that Spenser influenced Shakspere? The important bearing of this criticism upon Bacon's authorship of the "Shakespeare" Works we propose to show by a few of a much greater number of quotations that might be made from not only Marlowe, but from Greene and Peele, the three other persona whom Bacon, it is said, employed to reach the public ear. Several small works under no name wonne worthy praise. Next in Spenser's name also they ventured into an unknowne world. When I, at length, having written in diverse styles, found three, who for sufficient reward in gold added to an immediate renoune as good pens willingly put forth all works which I had compos'd, I was bolder.1 It is instructive to note how the orthodox Shaksperian critic associates his author with Greene, Peele, and Marlowe. Here is a familiar instance from Dowden: In the Second and Third parts of "Henry VI," he [Shakspere] worked upon the basis of old plays written probably by Marlowe and Greene, possibly also Peele, and in the revision he may have had Marlowe as a collaborator. If the Stratford actor's biographers had analyzed the works accredited to these men, and had frankly shown their readers the true status of the case, instead of cloying them with pleasant fiction, Shaksperian criticism would occupy a more creditable position than it does at present. 1 Biliteral Cypher, p. 81. XIII A LITERARY SYNCRISIS WE propose to show by quotations from works now ascribed to Spenser, Greene, and Marlowe, not only a similarity of style, but the same thoughts and expressions, forcing one to the conclusion that either the men who have been hailed by careless critics as the foremost in England's Renaissance were criminal plagiarists, or the excerpts which we quote from the works accredited them were conceived by a single brain, and written by a single hand, which confirms what Bacon says in cipher, that he sometimes used what he wrote a second time to serve another purpose. Take "Locrine," "Selimus," and "Tamburlaine," and compare them with work attributed to Spenser. In the "Faerie Queene," published in 1590, the story of Locrine is told, but later it was dramatized, as appears by the Stationers' Register, and published in quarto in 1595 as a "Shakespeare" play, and included in the "Shakespeare" Folio of 1664. "Tamburlaine" was published in 1590, and "Selimus" in 1594. This, however, is not proof of the dates of their composition. "Selimus," like many other anonymous works, wandered fatherless until 1866, when Dr. Grosart assumed the liberty of appropriating it, as others had been doing in like instances, and included it in his edition of Greene. The passages we quote are intended to illustrate our contention, that early poems drifting about previous to 1611, when they were gathered into the "Spenser" Folio of that date, were laid under contribution by their author to serve him in dramatic composition. The reader, knowing by repute the nominal authors of the works from which we quote, but unfamiliar with the works themselves, will be surprised by these comparisons which we make. The "Spenser" excerpts are from the "Spenser" Folio of 1611, from Grosart's "Greene," and from "Locrine," in the "Shakespeare" Folio of 1664. Spenser: High on a hill a goodly Cedar grewe Of wondrous length and streight proportion That farre abroad her daintie odours threwe; Mongst all the daughters of proud Lebanon. Greene: Even as the lustie cedar worne with yeares, That farre abroad her daintie odore throwes, Mongst all the daughters of proud Lebanon. Locrine, I, I. Spenser: A mighty Lyon, lord of all the wood Having his hunger thoroughly satisfide Greene: A Mightie Lion ruler of the woods, Of wondrous strength and great proportion, Spenser: A hideous Dragon, dreadfull to behold, Whose backe was arm'd against the dint of speare. And bad defiance to his enemie. The subtill vermin, creeping closely neare, Which through his entrailes spredding diversly, Greene: High on a banke by Nilus boystrous streames, His back was armde against the dint of speare, Privily shead his poison through his bones Which made him swel that there his bowels burst. Locrine, III. This is from the "Ruins of Time," which it may be well to notice was written at St. Albans: Nigh where the goodly Verlame (Verulam) stood of Yore. Spenser: But what can long abide above this ground In state of blis or stedfast happiness. |