collected works, edited by R. Morris. It is by John W.
Hales.

Footnotes are grouped together at the end of the file.

(1) SOME IMPORTANT DATES IN THE LIFE OF EDMUND SPENSER

?1552 Born at East Smithfield, London.

1558 (Queen Elizabeth accedes to the throne.)

1561 [Aged about 9] Spenser enters the newly-founded Merchant
Taylors' School, headmaster Richard Mulcaster.

1569 [17] Anonymously contributes verse translations of _Visions of
Petrarch_ and _Visions of Bellay_ to Van der Noodt's _Theatre of
Worldlings_; enters Pembroke Hall (College), Cambridge.

1570 [18] Made a Fellow of Pembroke Hall.

1573 [21] Bachelor of Arts.

1574 [22] Plague in Cambridge. Spenser temporarily departs.

1576 [24] Master of Arts; leaves Cambridge for the north of England.

?1577 [25] Visits Ireland. Returns to London.

1578 [26] Appointed secretary to John Young, Bishop of Rochester,
former Master of Pembroke Hall.

1579 [27] Enters the service of the Earl of Leicester. Composition
of _The Faerie Queene_ already under way. 5 December: _The
Shepheardes Calender_ entered in Stationers' Register.

1580 [28] ?Marries Machabyas Chylde. Publication of _The
Shepheardes Calender_ and of correspondence with Gabriel Harvey.
Appointed secretary to Lord Grey, Lord Deputy of Ireland. In
?August, to Dublin with Lord Grey. In November, apparently
witnesses the siege and massacre at Smerwick, in Munster.

1581 (Publication of Tasso's _Gerusalemme Liberata_.)

1582 [30] Lord Grey recalled to London; end of Spenser's employment
as his secretary. Spenser leases a house in Dublin, and a
country residence: New Abbey at Kilcullen, 25 miles from Dublin.
Birth of his son Sylvanus.

1583 [31] Appointed a Commissioner of Musters in County Kildare for
a period of two years.

?1584 [32] Becomes deputy to the Clerk of the Council of Munster,
Lodowick Bryskett. ?Birth of daughter Katherine; ?death of
Machabyas Chylde.

1586 [34] Granted 3,028 acres at Kilcolman, 8 miles NNE of the town
of Mallow in County Cork; does not take up residence until 1588
or 1589. (Death of Sir Philip Sidney.)

1587 (Mary, Queen of Scots executed.)

1588 [36] Resigns his clerkship in the Court of Chancery. (Spanish
Armada