e
me to produce my translation mentioned by _M.
Spenser_ that it might be perused among them; or
else that I should (as near as I could) deliuer unto
them the contents of the same, supposing that my
memory would not much faile me in a thing so studied
and advisedly set downe in writing as a translation
must be.'

Bryskett at length assents to Spenser's proposal, and
proceeds to read his translation of Giraldi, which is
in some sort criticised as he reads, Spenser proposing
one or two questions 'arising principally,' as Todd
says, 'from the discussion of the doctrines of Plato
and Aristotle.' This invaluable picture of a scene in
Spenser's Irish life shows manifestly in what high
estimation his learning and genius were already held,
and how, in spite of Harvey's sinister criticisms, he
had resumed his great work. It tells us too that he
found in Ireland a warmly appreciative friend, if
indeed he had not known Bryskett before their going to
Ireland. Bryskett too, perhaps, was acquainted with
Sir Philip Sidney; for two of the elegies written on
that famous knight's death and printed along with
_Astrophel_ in the elegiac collection made by Spenser
were probably of Bryskett's composition, viz., _The
Mourning Muse of Thestylis_, where 'Liffey's tumbling
stream' is mentioned, and the one entitled _A Pastoral
Eclogue_, where Lycon offers to 'second' Colin's lament
for Phillisides.

What is said of the _Faerie Queene_ in the above
quotation may be illustrated from the sonnet already
quoted from, addressed to Lord Grey--one of the sonnets
that in our modern editions are prefixed to the great
poem. It speaks of the great poem as

Rude rymes, the which a rustick Muse did weave
In savadge soyle, far from Parnasso mount.

See also the sonnet addressed to the Right Honourable
the Earl of Ormond and Ossory.

A sonnet addressed to Harvey, is dated 'Dublin
this xviij of July, 1586.' Again, in the course of the
decad now under consideration, Spenser received a grant
of land in Cork--of 3,028 acres, out of the forefeited
estates of the Earl of Desmond.

All these circumstances put together make it
probable, and more than probable, that Spenser remained
in Ireland after Lord Grey's recall. How thorough his
familiarity with the country grew to be, appears from
the work concerning it which he at last produced.

The years 1586-7-8 were eventful both for England
and for