: as for the Epithalamion Thamesis, and his Dreams, both mentioned
by himself in one of his letters, Mr. Hughes thinks they are still
preserved, tho' under different names. It appears from what is said of
the Dreams by his friend Mr. Harvey, that they were in imitation of
Petrarch's Visions.

To produce authorities in favour of Spenser, as a poet. I should
reckon an affront to his memory; that is a tribute which I shall only
pay to inferior wits, whose highest honour it is to be mentioned with
respect, by genius's of a superior class. The works of Spenser will
never perish, tho' he has introduced unnecessarily many obsolete terms
into them; there is a flow of poetry, an elegance of sentiment, a fund
of imagination, and an enchanting enthusiasm which will ever secure
him the applauses of posterity while any lovers of poetry remain.

We find little account of the family which Spenser left behind him,
only that in a few particulars of his life prefixed to the last folio
edition of his works, it is said that his great grandson Hugolin
Spenser, after the restoration of king Charles II. was restored by the
court of claims to so much of the lands as could be found to have been
his ancestors; there is another remarkable passage of which (says
Hughes) I can give the reader much better assurance: that a person
came over from Ireland, in King William's time, to sollicit the same
affair, and brought with him letters of recommendation, as a defendant
of Spenser. His name procured him a favourable reception, and
he applied himself particularly to Mr. Congreve, by whom he was
generously recommended to the favour of the earl of Hallifax, who was
then at the head of the treasury; and by that means he obtained his
suit. This man was somewhat advanced in years, and might be the same
mentioned before, who had possibly recovered only some part of his
estate at first, or had been disturbed in the possession of it. He
could give no account of the works of his ancestor, which are wanting,
and which are therefore in all probability irrecoverably lost.

The following stanzas are said to be those with which Sir Philip
Sidney was first struck.

From him returning, sad and comfortless,
As on the way together we did fare,
We met that villain (God from him me bless)
That cursed wight, from whom I 'scaped whylear,
A man of hell that calls himself despair;
Who first us greets, and after fair areeds
Of tidings strange, and of adventu