chaucer was buried in the year 1400, and it was close upon two hundred years before another great poet, edmund spenser, "followed here the footing of his feet." during much of this interval england had been in a state of unrest and excitement. first the wars of the roses, then the reformation, with the bitter persecutions that followed it, had stirred men to the very core. their eyes had been dazzled by the sudden and vehement changes which had followed each other. english blood had flown freely, english life had been offered up on english soil, not only in the great battles of the civil war, but on scaffolds and in fiery names. it had not been an age for poets or writers. of the few who have left their mark on our literature during that time, john wycliffe had not even been allowed to rest in peace after death, for his body was taken from its grave and burnt, and his ashes were thrown into the river swift, while both sir thomas more and the earl of surrey had been executed at the command of henry viii. one important piece of work had indeed been commenced and carried on during those days of storm which affected both earlier and later writers, and which was distinctly connected with the abbey. for in the year 1477, william caxton had settled with his printing press in the almonry at westminster, and had issued his famous advertisement, in which he had made known the fact "that if it should plese ony man, spiritual or temporal, to bye ony pyes of two and three commemoracions of salisbro's use, enpryntid after the forme of this present lettre, which been wel and truly correct, lete hym come to westmonester into the almonerye at the red pale, and he shal have them good chepe." he had learned his art in cologne and bruges, having lived for nearly thirty years in the latter place, where he traded as a merchant, and during those years he had translated a number of books into english. why he settled on westminster when at last he returned to england as a middle-aged man, we know not, unless it was that he fancied he should find quiet and security under the walls of the abbey, or that the abbots and monks, as the patrons of learning, would prove themselves good friends to him. but here he came, and here from his study, "where lay many and diverse paunflettis and bookys," this wonderful man, who was master-printer, translator, corrector, and editor, worked and directed his apprentices. over a hundred different books were issued from this press, among them being "the canterbury tales," the "fayre and ornate termes" of which gave caxton "such greate playsir," that he desired to make them widely known. many people, some friends, some strangers, found their way, full of curiosity and interest, to the quaint house, which was marked by a large white shield with a red bar, there to watch master caxton and his workmen at their strange new craft, and many shook their heads, declaring that "so many books could never find purchasers." but the wise printer heeded them not. he worked with a will from morn till eve, and marked his hours by the abbey bells. it was not only chaucer's writings that he gave to the public, but many other works which without him would long have remained unknown or forgotten, and more than any one else he helped to fix the language which chaucer had used, by himself using the same in all his translations. his busy life came to an end in 1491, and he was buried in the church of st. margaret's, westminster. but at the sign of the red pale his favourite apprentice, wynken de worde, carried on the master's work with the same extraordinary industry, producing no fewer than five hundred separate books up to the time of his death in 1535. this date brings us to within about twenty years of the time when edmund spenser, walter raleigh, and philip sidney, the singing birds and knightly spirits of the elizabethan court, were born. like chaucer, spenser was a londoner and he describes his birthplace as

"the merry london, my most kyndly nurse,

that to me gave this life's first active source."

he proudly declared that "he took his name from an ancient house," but we know little of his immediate family. his boyhood was spent at smithfield, then within easy reach of woods and fields, and he has given us a glimpse of it in these words, which show that he was a boy very much like all other boys:—

"whilome in youth, when flowed my joy full spring

like swallow swift, i wandered here and there

for heat of headlesse lust me did so sting,

that i oft doubted daunger, had no fear:

i went the wastefull woodes and forrest wide

withouten dread of wolves to bene espied.

"i wont to raunge amid the mazie thicket,

and gather nuttes to make my christmas game,

and joyed oft to chase the trembling pricket,

or hunt the hartlesse hare till she were tame.

what wrecked i of wintrie age's waste?

tho' deemed i my spring would ever last.

"how often have i scaled the craggie oke,

all to dislodge the raven of her nest?

how have i wearied with many a stroke

the stately walnut tree, the while the rest

under the tree fell all for nuttes at strife?

for like to me was libertye and life."

he was educated at the merchant taylors' school, and afterwards at cambridge, where an old biographer declares "he mispent not his time, as the fruites of his labours doe manifest, for that he became an excellent scholar, especially most happy in english poetry." but no other memories remain to us of his university life except the names of his two great and lifelong friends, and all we know of him during the first few years after he left cambridge is that he lived in the north, and that he fell violently in love with a certain rosaline, "a gentlewoman both of nature and manners, worthy to be commended to immortalitie for her rare and singular virtues," but who apparently did not in any way return his ardent affections. he lamented her indifference so deeply that he left his home and made his way to london, "all weeping and disconsolate," and though he was by nature light-hearted and pleasure-loving, he treasured the memory of her many charms for fourteen years, until he met and married the elizabeth whom he described as "my love, my life's last ornament." but if it was despair which drove spenser to london, he had no cause ever to regret the move, for it led to his making the acquaintance of sir philip sidney, who introduced him to his uncle, the all-powerful earl of leicester. both received him cordially, and in a short time he was mixing in all the intellectual society of the day. england was at peace; elizabeth's firm rule made for prosperity; the new learning had taken root; the spirit of adventure, of imagination, of chivalry had free scope; the spirit of growth, of progress, of enterprise pervaded the air. all was ready for the coming of a poet who could sing as chaucer had done, and make sweet music with the national language. in the winter of 1579 spenser published, not under his own name, his "shepherdes calendar," a series of shepherd tales, one for each of the twelve months of the year, and these he dedicated to "maister philip sidney, that noble and vertuous gentleman, most worthy of all titles, both of learning and chevalrie." at once the "new poet" leapt into fame, though nothing could have been in greater contrast than chaucer's tales and spenser's calendar. the first faithfully pictured life as it was without romance or exaggeration; the second, according to the fashion of the day, was in the form of a masquerade: the heroes and heroines were all shepherds or shepherdesses; everything took place in the country, every one was a rustic, and the highest praise that could be given to chaucer was to call him the "god of shepherds." so the calendar had none of that simplicity and truthfulness which gave to chaucer's work its great charm. shepherds and shepherdesses, when put in all kinds of unnatural positions, could not fail to be unreal and artificial, especially when they were made to talk in the language of scholars. but spenser's strength lay in the melody of his verse, in his sense of beauty and his power over language, and it has been truly said that though he is not the greatest of poets, his poetry is the most poetical of all poetry.

fuller, who wrote on the "worthies of england," tells us that spenser was presented to queen elizabeth, who was so overcome by the beauties of his poem, that she ordered lord burleigh to give him a hundred pounds, to which the cautious treasurer objected, saying it was too much. "then give him what is reason," said the queen. but it was evident that burleigh had not a great liking for the new poet, probably because he was such a friend of leicester's, and spenser saw nothing of the money till he brought it to the queen's remembrance in a little rhyme. he soon found that he could not live by his poetry, but he had no desire to exist on the favours of leicester or sidney, and preferred to earn his own daily bread in some honourable and independent way. an opening came unexpectedly. ireland was causing much anxiety to the crown; one lord deputy after another sent from england had failed to restore to it order or good government, and had come home depressed and disheartened, if not actually disgraced. in 1579 the government pressed lord grey de wilton—the "good lord grey"—high-minded, religious, and fearless, to undertake the thankless task, and he, from a sense of duty, accepted the office of lord deputy. he invited spenser to come with him, as his secretary, and the offer was at once accepted, though it must have cost the poet something to tear himself away from the centre of life and learning, from the society he so enjoyed, to bury himself in a country regarded as only half civilised, and which at that very time was in open rebellion. he left behind him merrie england, with all that was pleasant to him, when he went to ireland, which was then in a most turbulent and rebellious condition, and for the time being his writing had to be laid aside for sterner stuff. but all honour to him that he chose work rather than dependence.

lord grey de wilton did not succeed any better than his predecessors had done. naturally kind-hearted, he nevertheless deemed it his duty to carry out a policy of great severity, and himself almost a puritan in his religious views, he saw no hope for the distressful country until protestantism reigned there. spenser adopted the same opinions as his master, and pitiless force was the only weapon used in the warfare. of course it availed nothing, and lord grey was recalled, more or less under a cloud, for he had many enemies at home among those who found him too uncompromisingly straightforward and honourable, as well as among those who condemned his fanatical severity and his ruthlessly heavy hand. spenser, who stayed behind in ireland, always remained loyal to him, and sturdily defended that "most just and honourable personage, whose least virtues, of many most excellent, which abounded in his heroical spirit, they were never able to aspire to, who with evil tongues did most untruly and maliciously backbite and slander him."

for the next few years the poet held various clerkships and other posts, and at last he became the possessor of kilcolman castle, where he lived for some time, devoting his spare hours to the great work he so long had in contemplation, "the faerie queene." in 1590 he got permission to return for awhile to england that he might publish that part of his book which he had finished, a permission he owed to raleigh, who had read much of the work when staying as his guest in ireland, and who with generous sympathy longed to give to the poet the fame which was so justly his. thanks to him, too, the queen listened to some portions of the poem, and was greatly delighted with the many references made to herself. for spenser had learnt how to flatter gracefully in his verse, and had realised that to find favour in the queen's eyes he would do well

"to lyken her to a crowne of lillies

upon a virgin bryde's adorned head,

with roses dight and goolds and daffadillies;

or like the circlet of a turtle true

in which alle colours of the rainbow bee.

or like faire phebes' garland shining new,

in which alle pure perfection one may see.

but vain it is to think by paragone

of earthly things, to judge of things divine."

he had dedicated his book to her, "the most high, mightie, and magnificent empress, renowned for pietie, virtue, and alle gracious government;" and at the end of the dedication expressed the humble hope that "thus his labours might live with the eternity of her fame." elizabeth smiled graciously on one who added such glory to her court, and gave spenser a pension of ￡50. "the faerie queene" was greeted with a chorus of enthusiastic praise, and the publisher, who in an introduction had begged gentle readers to "graciouslie entertain the new poet," had no reason to complain of the warm welcome given to him.

of course, the work was an allegory, a double allegory, so to speak; for besides having a general meaning to his story, he had a special one which referred to living people, such as the queen, sir philip sidney, lord grey, and so on. the whole poem, therefore, is rather complicated, and in great contrast to the well-arranged plots which chaucer had woven into his stories. the general idea was that in a certain happy country there reigned a great queen gloriana, around whose presence had gathered a body of brave and fearless knights. the queen decided to hold a feast for twelve days, and on each day an adventure was to be undertaken by one of these knights for the purpose of righting some wrong, releasing some captive, or succouring some oppressed person. spenser purposed to tell of these several adventures in twelve books, but only six were finished. now if in "the faerie queene" we attempt to unravel the very knotted allegory, we shall soon get into difficulties, for spenser's greatest gifts did not lie in his power of making a clear story, but in his perfectly chosen language, his lofty thoughts, and the never-failing music of his verse. so the wisest plan, i think, is to read the romances for their own beauty without trying to find a hidden meaning in every line, and even so, we shall everywhere discover rich gems.

it is strange that in spite of all the fame which "the faerie queene" gave the poet, it brought him neither wealth nor even work, and he "tourned back to his sheepe" in ireland. he married, and poured out his joy in an exquisite song called "epithalamion." besides this, he wrote more books of his great work, many sonnets and hymns, and a treatise on ireland. he was made sheriff of cork, and altogether his worldly affairs prospered; for burleigh was dead, and it was burleigh who had always checked the queen's generosity towards him, "saying a song needed not such liberal payment." suddenly a fresh and violent rebellion broke out in ireland. spenser's castle was attacked and set on fire; his little child was burned to death; and all his valued possessions were destroyed. he came back to london with his wife, homeless, penniless, broken-hearted. over the next few months a veil is drawn; how it came to pass that his many friends and admirers knew nothing of his sufferings, or knowing did not raise a hand to help him, remains a mystery. this is certain, that he died of grief and for lack of bread in a street near westminster. after his death, indeed, his friends came to the fore once more. the earl of essex paid all the expenses of his funeral, which took place in the abbey. poets and writers flocked to his grave-side, throwing on to his coffin their songs of woe. we may take it for granted that shakespeare was among the mourners, and with him were all the brightest spirits of the day. truly the broken-hearted poet was well honoured on that last event of his life. at some period of his career, probably near the end, he had written a poem on "change and mutabilitie." god grant that in those bitter closing days he found the ray of hope he thus did sing of:—

"then gin i think on that which nature sayd,

of that same time when no more change shall be,

but stedfast rest of all things firmly stayd,

upon the pillars of eternitie,

that is contrayr to mutabilitie.

for all that moveth does in change delight:

but thenceforth all shall rest eternally

with him, that is the god of sabbaoth hight:

o that great sabbaoth god, grant me that sabbaoth's sight."

true it is that spenser, the herald of the elizabethan day, gives to the poets' corner the reflected glory of that period, but we can never cease to regret that shakespeare, its crown and its sun, lies so far away from westminster. only the abbey seems a fitting monument to that great mind, our king of english literature.

"thou art a monument without a tomb,

and art alive while still thy books doth live,

and we have wits to read, and praise to give."

so wrote ben jonson. with that thought, and the fact that, a hundred and twenty years after his death, a memorial to shakespeare was put up in the poets' corner by public subscription, we must rest content. ben jonson himself was buried here, having in his imperious way demanded of the king "eighteen inches of ground in the abbey," and so he remained in death "a child of westminster." he had been educated at westminster school, this turbulent, strong-spirited lad, with border blood in him, who could never settle down to the trade of a builder, to which he had been apprenticed, and who was heard of among actors and playwriters. he was the friend of shakespeare; indeed, it is said that the great man not only warmly praised his first play, "every man in his humour," but acted in it himself at the globe theatre. jonson produced a great number of plays and a still greater number of court masques. he was a master of plot, and everything he wrote was full of force and personality. such a fiery character as his could hardly fail to lead him into a series of quarrels; but, in spite of this, he was held by his large circle of friends to be "the prince of good fellows," and the words, "o rare ben jonson," carved on his tomb by order of sir john young, "who, walking here when the grave was covering, gave the fellow eighteenpence to cut it," is an epitaph that came from the hearts of those who loved him and recognised his genius. francis beaumont, another elizabethan playwriter, and the intimate friend of the whole group of dramatists, lies here; as does michael drayton, who wrote more than one hundred thousand lines of verse, and who, despite the fact that he was always quarrelling with his booksellers, whom he described as "a company of base knaves i scorn to kick," was known among his contemporaries as the "all-loved drayton." abraham cowley, held in his day to be a great poet, had a magnificent funeral and a most flattering epitaph, but though one enthusiastic admirer went so far as to declare that the great fire left the abbey untouched because fate would that cowley's tomb should be preserved, his works did not long survive him. close to him was laid john dryden, who as a boy had been well whipped by the great doctor busby. he says himself that he "endeavoured to write good english," and he produced several plays and some excellent political satires. he was not a great poet, but he had the knack of reasoning well in verse, of choosing apt words, and of writing vigorously. and we must remember that he lived in the days of the later stuarts, when poets had well-nigh forgotten the sweet music of the elizabethan age. near to his tomb stands the bust of his bitter enemy, shadwell, of whom he had written:—

"shadwell alone of all my sons is he

who stands confirmed in all stupidity.

the rest to some faint meaning made pretence,

but shadwell never deviates into sense."

even so did the abbey unite these rival poets-laureate.

poets' corner

poets' corner

another satirist, samuel butler, has a monument, but not a tomb, in the abbey. he also died in abject poverty, and of him these lines were written, which apply to more than one of those commemorated in the poets' corner:—

"when butler, needy wretch, was yet alive,

no generous patron would a dinner give.

behold him starved to death and turned to dust,

presented with a monumental bust.

the poet's fate is here in emblem shown:

he asked for bread, and he received a stone."

thomas may, the historian; davenant, the royalist poet-laureate; sir john denham, a royalist versifier, and john phillips, a devoted imitator of milton, are little more than names to us; but then we must remember that, with few exceptions, neither the poets nor the poetry of that period which ended with the death of william iii. have lived on through our literature. with the accession of anne there came a burst of new life, and the next great name we come to in the abbey is that of joseph addison, the most charming of our prose writers. to find his grave, however, we must leave the poets' corner and go to general monk's vault in henry vii.'s chapel. for here, close to his friend charles montagu, lord keeper, he of "piercing wit, gentle irony, and sparkling humour," the regular contributor to our two earliest newspapers, the tattler and the spectator, was buried. his own words, from an article in the spectator when it was about twelve days old, best describe both the man and his aims: "it is with much satisfaction that i hear this great city enquiring day by day after these my papers, and receiving my morning lectures with a becoming seriousness and attention. my publisher tells me that already three thousand of them are distributed every day, so that if i allow twenty readers to every paper, i may reckon about threescore thousand disciples in london and westminster, who, i hope, will take care to distinguish themselves from the thoughtless herd of their ignorant and unattentive brethren. i shall spare no pains to make their instruction agreeable and their diversion useful. for which reason i shall endeavour to enliven morality with wit and to temper wit with morality.... i have resolved to refresh their memories from day to day, till i have recovered them from that desperate state of folly and vice into which the age is fallen. the mind that lies fallow but a single day sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by assiduous culture. it was said of socrates that he brought philosophy down from heaven to inhabit among men, and i shall be ambitious to have it said of me that i brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses." then, having given his general aim, he goes on to especially commend his paper to all well-regulated families; to those gentlemen of leisure who consider the world a theatre, and desire to form a right judgment of those who are the actors on it; and to those "poor souls called the blanks of society, who are altogether unfurnished with ideas, who ask the first men they meet if there is any news stirring, and who know not what to talk about till twelve o'clock in the morning, by which time they are pretty good judges of the weather, and know which way the wind sets;" while finally he appeals to the female world: "i have often thought," he says, "that there has not been sufficient pains taken to find out proper employments and diversions for the fair ones. their amusements seem contrived for them rather as they are women than as they are reasonable creatures. the toilet is their great scene of business, and the right adjusting of their hair the principal employment of their lives. this, i say, is the state of ordinary women, though i know there are multitudes of those that move in an exalted sphere of knowledge and virtue, and that join all the beauties of mind to the ornaments of dress. i hope to increase the number of those by publishing this daily paper, which i shall always endeavour to make an innocent entertainment, and by that means at least divert the minds of my female readers from far greater trifles."

faithfully and yet very pleasantly did addison carry out his scheme. his humour was always kindly, his good sense was unvarying, his thoughts were always generous and true, and his easy unaffected language completed the charm. instead of dropping to the level of his readers, he raised them to the much higher level on which he himself stood, and this without dull lecturing or violent denunciations. religion, duty, love, honour, purity, truth, kindliness, and public-spiritedness were all real things to him, and he sought to make them everywhere realities too, gilding his little moral pills so cleverly, that until they were swallowed no one knew they were pills, and then they left nothing but a sweet taste behind.

"about an age ago," he writes, "it was the fashion in england for every one who would be thought religious to throw as much sanctity as possible into his face. the saint was of a sorrowful countenance, and generally was eaten up with melancholy. i do not presume to tax such characters with hypocrisy, as is done too frequently, that being a vice which, i think, none but he who knows the secrets of men's hearts should pretend to discover in another. but i think they would do well to consider whether such a behaviour does not deter men from religion.... in short, those who represent religion in so unamiable a light are like the spies sent out by moses to make a discovery in the land of promise, when by their reports they discouraged the people from entering upon it. those that show us the joys, the cheerfulness, the good-humour that naturally spring up in this happy state are like the spies bringing along with them clusters of grapes and delicious fruits that so invited their companions into the pleasant country which produced them."

two of his articles have westminster abbey for their subject. on one occasion addison, as the spectator, goes there for a walk, and thus describes his feelings:—"i yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the cloisters and the church ... and i began to consider with myself what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and prebendaries were crumbled one against the other; how beauty, strength, and youth, with old age, weakness, and deformity, lay undistinguished in the same heap of matter.... some of the monuments were covered with such extravagant epitaphs that, if it were possible for the dead person to be acquainted with them, he would blush at the praises which his friends bestowed on him. there were others so excessively modest that they deliver the character of the person departed in greek or hebrew so that they are not understood once in a twelvemonth. i found there were poets which had no monuments, and monuments which had no poets.... sir cloudesley shovel's monument gave me great offence. instead of the brave, rough english admiral, which was the distinguishing character of that plain gallant man, he is represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dressed in a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of state. the dutch, whom we are apt to despise for want of genius, show an infinitely greater taste.... the monuments of their admirals which have been erected at the public expense represent them like themselves, and are adorned with rostral crowns and naval ornaments, with beautiful festoons of seaweed, shells, and coral. when i look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when i read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when i meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when i see the tombs of the parents themselves, i consider the vanity of grieving for those that we must quickly follow. when i see kings lying by those who deposed them, when i consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, i reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. when i read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, i consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together."

the next visit spectator paid to the abbey was in the company of sir roger de coverley, his own creation, that gentleman of ancient descent, whose "singularities proceeded from his good sense, and were contradictions to the manners of the world only as he thought the world was in the wrong," and who was such a great lover of mankind, with such a mirthful cast in his behaviour, so cheerful, gay, and hearty, that "his tenants grew rich, his servants were satisfied, all young women professed love to him, and the young men were glad of his company." the squire was now spending one of his frequent visits to london, and informed the spectator that having read his paper on westminster abbey, he should like to go there with him, never having visited the tombs since he read history.

"as we went up the body of the church, the knight pointed at the trophies on one of the new monuments, and cried out, 'a brave man! i warrant him!' passing afterwards by sir cloudesley shovel, he flung his head that way, and cried, 'sir cloudesley shovel, a very gallant man!' as we stood before busby's tomb the knight uttered himself again after the same manner. 'doctor busby, a great man! he whipped my grandfather; i should have gone to him myself, if i had not been a blockhead. a very great man!' among several other figures he was very well pleased to see the statesman cecil upon his knees.... sir roger, in the next place, laid his hand upon edward iii.'s sword, and leaning upon the pommel of it gave us the whole history of the black prince, concluding that, in sir richard baker's opinion, edward iii. was one of the greatest princes that ever sat upon the english throne. we were then shown edward the confessor's tomb, upon which sir roger acquainted us that he was the first who touched for the evil, and afterwards henry iv.'s, upon which he shook his head, and told us there was fine reading in the casualties of that reign. our conductor then pointed to that monument where there is the figure of one of our english kings without a head, and upon giving us to know that the head, which was of beaten silver, had been stolen away years before, 'some whig, i warrant you!' says sir roger. 'you ought to lock your kings up better. they will carry off the body, too, if you don't take care!' the glorious names of queen elizabeth and henry v. gave the knight great opportunities of shining. for my own part, i could not but be pleased to see the knight show such an honest passion for the glory of his country, and such a respectful gratitude to the memory of its princes."

addison died when under fifty years of age, and the story goes that in his last moments he sent for young lord warwick, his stepson.

"dear sir," said the lad, "any commands you may give me, i shall hold most sacred."

"see in what peace a christian can die," answered the older man tenderly.

years before, in his first letter as spectator, he had written these honest words, "if i can in any way contribute to the improvement of the country in which i live, i shall leave it, when i am summoned out of it, with the secret satisfaction of thinking that i have not lived in vain." and the knowledge that he had been true to this pure ambition brought him a calm content in that hour when all the things of this life vanished into the dim background.

his funeral in the abbey has been thus vividly described by tickell, his friend:—

"can i forget the dismal night that gave

my soul's best part for ever to the grave?

how silent did his old companions tread,

by midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead.

through breathing statues, then unheeded things,

through rows of warriors and through walks of kings!

what awe did the slow solemn march inspire,

the pealing organ and the pausing choir;

the duties by the lawn-robed prelate paid

and the last words that dust to dust conveyed!

while speechless o'er the closing grave we bend—

accept those tears, thou dear departed friend!

oh, gone for ever, take this last adieu,

and sleep in peace next thy loved montagu."