fference in religion--there is
curious reference made in a remarkable passage of the "Amoretti,"
which seems not only to indicate the name of her family, but to
screen the poet himself from the penalties denounced against
Protestants who intermarried with Roman Catholics. In the
Sixty-first Sonnet, the lady is said to be:

"divinely wrought,
And of the _brood of Angels_ heavenly born;
And with the _crew of blessed Saints_ upbrought,
Each of which did her with their gifts adorn."

Here we have distinctly her _birth_ and _education_, each assigned
to a different source. She is of the "brood" or family of
anagrammatic "Angels,"--otherwise, Nagles; but has been "upbrought,"
or instructed, by persons whom Spenser denominates "Saints," or
Orthodox Protestants; for Spenser was by party and profession a
Puritan; and the Puritans were "Saints,"--to such as chose to accept
their own account of the matter.

But there may be a yet deeper meaning, an anagrammatic
appropriateness, in this phrase, "crew of blessed Saints." The
Nagles of Moneanymmy had intermarried frequently with the St. Legers
of Doneraile; and thus such a close intimacy was established between
the families as to warrant the supposition that a child of the one
house might have been reared amongst the members of the other.
Elizabeth Spenser (born Nagle) may not unlikely have been educated
by the Puritan St. Legers. The name St. Leger, as Camden remarks, is
a compound name, derived from the German _Leodigar_ or _Leger_,
signifying "the Gatherer of the People." Verstigan also gives it the
same translation, as originating from _Leod_, _Lud_, or _Luyd_, which,
he says, means "folk or people." [23] Therefore St. Leger seems to
signify a folk, a gathering, a legion or "crew" of saints, a holy
crowd or crew,--which may have been the quibble extorted by
Spenser's "alchemy of wit" from the "upbringing" of Elizabeth Nagle,
his wife. He calls her with marked emphasis his "sweet _Saint_," his
"sovereign _Saint_"; and in the "Epithalamion" the temple-gates are
called on to:

"Receive this _Saint_ with honors due."

In praying to the gods for a large posterity, he places his request
on the ground,

"That from the earth (which may they long possess
With lasting happiness!)
Up to your haughty palaces may mount
Of blessed _Saints_ for to increase the count."

There is yet another solution, beside the anagrammatic one, for the
name