es contained in this
volume:'

1. The Ruines of Time.
2. The Teares of the Muses.
3. Virgils Gnat.
4. Prosopopoia or Mother Hubbards Tale.
5. The Ruines of Rome, by Bellay.
6. Muiopotmos or The Tale of the Butterflie.
7. Visions of the Worlds Vanitie.
8. Bellayes Visions.
9. Petrarches Visions.

In a short notice addressed to the Gentle Reader which
follows--the notice just referred to--the publisher of
the volume mentions other works by Spenser, and
promises to publish them too 'when he can attain to'
them. These works are _Ecclesiastes_, _The Seven
Psalms_, and _Canticum Canticorum_--these three no
doubt translations of parts of the Old Testament--_A
Sennight Slumber_, _The State of Lovers_, the _Dying
Pelican_--doubtless the work mentioned, as has been
seen, in one of Spenser's letters to Harvey--_The
Howers of the Lord_, and _The Sacrifice of a Sinner_.
Many of these works had probably been passing from hand
to hand in manuscript for many years. That old method
of circulation survived the invention of the printing
press for many generations. The perils of it may be
illustrated from the fate of the works just mentioned.
It would seem that the publisher never did attain to
them; and they have all perished. With regard to the
works which were printed and preserved, the _Ruines of
Time_, as the Dedication shows, was written during
Spenser's memorable visit of 1589-91 to England. It is
in fact an elegy dedicated to the Countess of Pembroke,
on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, 'that most brave
Knight, your most noble brother deceased.' 'Sithens my
late cumming into England,' the poet writes in the
Epistle Dedicatorie, 'some friends of mine (which might
much prevaile with me and indeede commaund me) knowing
with howe straight bandes of duetie I was tied to him;
as also bound unto that noble house (of which the
chiefe hope then rested in him) have sought to revive
them by upbraiding me; for that I have not shewed anie
thankefull remembrance towards him or any of them; but
suffer their names to sleepe in silence and
forgetfulnesse. Whome chieflie to satisfie, or els to
avoide that fowle blot of unthankefulnesse, I have
conceived this small Poeme, intituled by a generall
name of the _Worlds Ruines_: yet speciallie intended to
the renowming of that noble race from which both you
and he sprong, and to the eternizing of some of the
chiefe of them late deceased.'