nd
scandals, had no charms for him. Once more settled in
his home, he wrote an account of his recent absence
from it, which he entitled _Colin Clouts Come Home
Again_. This poem was not published till 1595; but,
whatever additions were subsequently made to it, there
can be no doubt it was originally written immediately
after his return to Ireland. Sitting in the quiet to
which he was but now restored, he reviewed the splendid
scenes he had lately witnessed; he recounted the famous
wits he had met, and the fair ladies he had seen in the
great London world; and dedicated this exquisite diary
to the friend who had introduced him into that
brilliant circle. It would seem that Raleigh had
accused him of indolence. That ever-restless schemer
could not appreciate the poet's dreaminess. 'That you
may see,' writes Spenser, 'that I am not alwaies ydle
as yee think, though not greatly well occupied, nor
altogither undutifull, though not precisely officious,
I make you present of this simple pastorall, unworthie
of your higher conceipt for the meanesse of the stile,
but agreeing with the truth in circumstance and matter.
The which I humbly beseech you to accept in part of
paiment of the infinite debt in which I acknowledge
myselfe bounden unto you for your singular favours and
sundrie good turnes shewed to me at my late being in
England, &c.'

The conclusion of this poem commemorates, as we
have seen, Spenser's enduring affection for that
Rosalind who so many years before had turned away her
ears from his suit. It must have been some twelve
months after those lines were penned, that the writer
conceived an ardent attachment for one Elizabeth. The
active research of Dr. Grosart has discovered that this
lady belonged to the Boyle family--a family already of
importance and destined to be famous. The family seat
was at Kilcoran, near Youghal, and so we understand
Spenser's singing of 'The sea that neighbours to her
near.' Thus she lived in the same county with her
poet. The whole course of the wooing and the winning
is portrayed in the _Amoretti or Sonnets_ and the
_Epithalamium_. It may be gathered from these
biographically and otherwise interesting pieces, that
it was at the close of the year 1592 that the poet was
made a captive of that beauty he so fondly describes.
The first three sonnets would seem to have been written
in that year. The fourth celebrates the beginning of
the year 1593--the beginning a