grace
given,' on the 12th of February, 1594, Lord Roche was
decreed the possession. Perhaps the absence from his
lady love referred to in the concluding sonnets was
occasioned by this litigation. Perhaps also the 'false
forged lyes'--the malicious reports circulated about
him--referred to in Sonnet 85, may have been connected
with these appeals against him. It is clear that all
his dreams of Faerie did not make him neglectful of his
earthly estate. Like Shakspere, like Scott, Spenser
did not cease to be a man of the world--we use the
phrase in no unkindly sense--because he was a poet. He
was no mere visionary, helpless in the ordinary affairs
of life. In the present case it would appear that he
was even too keen in looking after his own interests.
Professor Craik charitably suggests that his poverty
'rather than rapacity may be supposed to have urged
whatever of hardness there was in his proceedings.' It
is credible enough that these proceedings made him
highly unpopular with the native inhabitants of the
district, and that they were not forgotten when the day
of reckoning came. 'His name,' says Mr. Hardiman, on
the authority of _Trotter's Walks in Ireland_,{3} 'is
still remembered in the vicinity of Kilcolman; but the
people entertain no sentiments of respect or affection
for his memory.'

In the same year with the _Amoretti_ was published
_Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, several additions
having been made to the original version.

Probably at the close of this year 1595 Spenser a
second time crossed to England, accompanied, it may be
supposed, by his wife, carrying with him in manuscript
the second three books of his _Faerie Queene_, which,
as we have seen, were completed before his marriage,
and also a prose work, _A View of the Present State of
Ireland_. Mr. Collier quotes the following entry from
the Stationers' Register:--

20 die Januarii [1595].--Mr. Ponsonby. Entred
&c. The Second Part of the Faerie Queene, cont.
the 4, 5, and 6 bookes, vj_d_.

This second instalment--which was to be the last--of
his great poem was duly published in that year. The
_View of the Present State of Ireland_ was not
registered till April 1598, and then only
conditionally. It was not actually printed till 1633.
During his stay in England he wrote the _Hymns to
Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty_, and the
_Prothalamion_, which were to be his last works.

More than four years ha