mentioned, as in others, these poets are
'as little children:'

As a faggot sparkles on the hearth,
Not less if unattended and alone,
Than when both young and old sit gathered round,
And take delight in its activity;
_Even so this happy creature of herself
Is all-sufficient; Solitude to her
Is blithe society, who fills the air
With gladness and involuntary songs._

{2} See _Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, vv. 180-184,
quoted below.
{3} This is the 'Lodovick' mentioned in Sonnet 33,
quoted below. It was from him a little later, in
1588, that Spenser obtained by 'purchase' the
succession to the office of the Clerk of the
Government Council of Munster. _See_ Dr. Grosart's
vol. i. p. 151.
{4} Dr. Birch refers in his note to _The Ancient and
Present State of the County and City of Cork_, by
Charles Smith, vol. i. book i. c. i. p. 58-63.
Edit. Dublin 1750, 8vo. And Fiennes Moryson's
_Itinerary_, part ii. p. 4.
{5} Todd proposes to regard this date as a printer's
error for 1595, quite unnecessarily.
{6} Mr. Edward Edwards, 1868, I. c. vi.; see also
_Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, vv. 312-319.
{7} 'My lord of Essex hath chased Mr. Raleigh from the
court and confined him in Ireland.'--Letter, dated
August 17, 1589, from Captain Francis Allen to
Antony Bacon, Esq.--Quoted by Todd from Dr. Birch's
_Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth_.--See Mr. Edwards's
_Life of Raleigh_, I. c. viii.
{8} See Raleigh's lines entitled 'A Vision upon this
Conceipt of the _Faery Queene_,' prefixed to the
_Faerie Queene_.

CHAPTER III.

1590.

Thus after an absence of about nine years, Spenser
returned for a time to England; he returned 'bringing
his sheaves with him.' Whatever shadow of
misunderstanding had previously come between his
introducer--or perhaps re-introducer--and her Majesty
seems to have been speedily dissipated. Raleigh
presented him to the Queen, who, it would appear,
quickly recognised his merits. 'That goddess'

To mine oaten pipe enclin'd her eare
That she thenceforth therein gan take delight,
And it desir'd at timely houres to heare
Al were my notes but rude and roughly dight.

In the Registers of the Stationers' Company for
1589 occurs to following entry, quoted here from Mr.
Arber's invaluable edition of them: