Literary by-paths in old England . herequest made by you all, whom every one alone,I should for many respects be willing to gratify ;yet as the case standeth, I doubt not but withthe consent of the most part of you, 1 shall be ex-cused at this time of this task which would be laidupon me ; for sure I am, that it is not unknownunto you, that I have already undertaken a worktending to the same effect, which is in heroicalverse under the title of a Faery Queen torepresent all the moral virtues, assigning to everyvirtue a Knight to be the patron and defender ofthe same, in whose actions and feats
Literary by-paths in old England . herequest made by you all, whom every one alone,I should for many respects be willing to gratify ;yet as the case standeth, I doubt not but withthe consent of the most part of you, 1 shall be ex-cused at this time of this task which would be laidupon me ; for sure I am, that it is not unknownunto you, that I have already undertaken a worktending to the same effect, which is in heroicalverse under the title of a Faery Queen torepresent all the moral virtues, assigning to everyvirtue a Knight to be the patron and defender ofthe same, in whose actions and feats of arms andchivalry the operations of that virtue, whereofhe is the protector, are to be expressed, and thevices and unruly appetites that oppose themselvesagainst the same, to be beaten down and over-come. Which work, as I have already wellentered into, if God shall please to spare me lifethat I may finish it according to my mind, yourwish will be in some sort accomplished, thoughperhaps not so effectually as you could desire. 28. &MMPS Mvrtle Grove, Y IN OLD ENGLAND Nor is this the only testimony which goes toprove that the Faerie Queene was largelywritten in Ireland. In the sonnets to variousnoble persons which Spenser published withthe poem, he avers more than once that it wasproduced on savadge soyle, far from PamassoMount. Tradition, then, has everything to sup-port it when it associates the solitary ruins of Kil-colman Castle with the creation of the FaerieQueene. And there is another tradition whichhas something in its favour. One of the princi-pal sharers in the planting of Munster was SirWalter Raleigh, and a large bay window in hishouse at Youghai is still pointed out as the spotwhere Spenser wrote many stanzas of his greatpoem. Certainly Raleigh and Spenser renewedtheir friendship in Ireland, and there is nothingimprobable in the legend which makes the poet aguest at Youghai. This theory makes it plausi-ble to regard Raleighs presence at Kilcolman inthe nature of a
Size: 1403px × 1781px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorshelleyh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1906
