e found contriving,
in the case of both his mistresses at once, to reveal his passion
and conceal the name of his enslaver from the public gaze?

The prolific hint of "E.K." set the commentators at work,--but
hitherto without success. The author of the life prefixed to
Church's edition conjectures Rose Linde,--forsooth, because it
appears from Fuller's "Worthies," that in the reign of Henry the
Sixth--only eight reigns too early for the birth of our rural
beauty--there was one John Linde, a resident in the County of Kent!
Not satisfied with this conjecture, Malone suggests that she may
have been an Eliza Horden--the _z_ changed, according to Camden's
rules, into _s_, and the aspirate sunk. Malone's foundation for this
theory is, that one Thomas Horden was a contemporary of John Linde,
aforesaid, and resided in the same county! Both these conjectures
are absurd and unsupported by any collateral evidence. To have given
them the remotest air of probability, the critics should have proved
some acquaintance or connection between the parties respectively,
--some courtship, or contiguity of residence, which might have
brought the young people within the ordinary sphere of attraction.
Wrong as they were in their conclusions, the search of these
commentators was in the right direction. The anagram, "well-ordered,"
will undoubtedly bewray the secret. Let us try if we may not follow
it with better success.

_Rosalinde_ reads, anagrammatically, into Rose Daniel; for,
according to Camden, "a letter may be doubled, or rejected, or
contrariwise, if the sense fall aptly"; we thus get rid of the
redundant _e_, and have a perfect anagram. Now Spenser had an
intimate and beloved friend and brother-poet, named Samuel Daniel,
author of many tragedies and comedies, an eight-canto poem called
"The Civil Wars of England," "A Vision of Twelve Goddesses," a prose
history of England, and "Musa," a defence of rhyme. Spenser alludes
to his poetic genius with high praise in his "Colin Clout." This
Daniel had a sister named Rose, who was married in due time to a
friend of her brother's,--not, indeed, to Spenser, but to a scholar,
whose eccentricities have left such durable tracks behind them, that
we can trace his mark through many passages of Spenser's love
complaints, otherwise unintelligible. The supposition that Rose
Daniel was Rosalinde satisfies every requisite, and presents a
solution of the mystery; the anagram is perfect; the poet's
acqu