e as a spotles sacrifise,
And chose, that guiltie hands of enemies
Should powre forth th' offring of his guiltles blood,
So life exchanging for his countries good.

O noble spirite, live there ever blessed,
The world's late wonder, and the heaven's new ioy.
Live ever there, and leave me here distressed
With mortall cares and cumbrous worlds anoy;
But where thou dost that happiness enioy,
Bid me, O bid me quicklie come to thee,
That happie there I maie thee alwaies see.

Yet whilest the Fates affoord me vitell breath,
I will it spend in speaking of thy praise,
And sing to thee untill that timelie death
By Heaven's doome doe ende my earthlie daies:
Thereto doo thou my humble spirite raise,
And into me that sacred breath inspire
Which thou there breathest perfect and entire.

It is not quite certain in what part of Ireland
the poet was living when the news that Sidney was not
reached him. Was he still residing at Dublin, or had
he transferred his home to that southern region which
is so intimately associated with his name? The sonnet
to Harvey mentioned above shows that he was at Dublin
in July of the year of his friend's death. It has been
said already that he did not resign his Chancery
clerkship until 1588. We know that he was settled in
Cork county, at Kilcolman castle, in 1589, because
Raleigh visited him there that year. He may then have
left Dublin in 1588 or 1589. According to Dr. Birch's
Life of Spenser, prefixed to the edition of the _Faerie
Queene_ in 1751,{4} and the _Biographia Britannica_,
the grant of land made him in Cork is dated June 27,
1586. But the grant, which is extant, is dated October
26, 1591. Yet certainly, as Dr. Grosart points out, in
the 'Articles' for the 'Undertakers,' which received
the royal assent on June 27, 1586, Spenser is set down
for 3,028 acres; and that he was at Kilcolman before
1591 seems certain. As he resigned his clerkship in
the Court of Chancery in 1588, and was then appointed,
as we have seen, clerk of the Council of Munster, he
probably went to live somewhere in the province of
Munster that same year. He may have lived at Kilcolman
before it and the surrounding grounds were secured to
him; he may have entered upon possession on the
strength of a promise of them, before the formal grant
was issued. He has mentioned the scenery which
environed his castle twice in his great poem; but it is
worth