, in the county of Cork, descended on him. 'His
grandfather,' he writes, 'was that Spenser who, by his
writings touching the reduction of the Irish to
civility, brought on him the odium of that nation; and
for those works and his other good services Queen
Elizabeth conferred on him that estate which the said
William Spenser now claims.'{5} This latter statement
is evidently inaccurate. Spenser, as we have seen, had
already held his estate for some years when he brought
his _View_ to England.

Spenser dates the dedication of his _Hymns_ from
Greenwich, September 1, 1596. Of these four hymns, two
had been in circulation for some years, though now for
the first time printed; the other two now first
appeared. 'Having in the greener times of my youth,'
he writes, 'composed these former two hymnes in the
praise of love and beautie, and finding that the same
too much pleased those of like age and disposition,
which being too vehemently caried with that kind of
affection, do rather sucke out poyson to their strong
passion than hony to their honest delight, I was moved
by one of you two most excellent ladies [the ladies
Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, Mary, Countess of
Warwick] to call in the same; but unable so to doe, by
reason that many copies thereof were formerly scattered
abroad, I resolved at least to amend, and by way of
retraction to reforme them, making (instead of those
two hymnes of earthly or naturall love and beautie) two
others of heavenly and celestiall.' This passage is
interesting for the illustration it provides of
Spenser's popularity. It is also highly interesting,
if the poems themselves be read in the light of it, as
showing the sensitive purity of the poet's nature. It
is difficult to conceive how those 'former hymns'
should in any moral respect need amending. The
moralising and corrective purpose with which the two
latter were written perhaps diminished their poetical
beauty; but the themes they celebrate are such as
Spenser could not but ever descant upon with delight;
they were such as were entirely congenial to his
spirit. He here set forth special teachings of his
great master Plato, and abandoned himself to the high
spiritual contemplations he loved. But perhaps the
finest of these four hymns is the second--that in
honour of Beauty. Beauty was indeed the one worship of
Spenser's life--not mere material beauty--not 'the
goodly hew of white and red with which the cheekes a