About
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599) was a major English Renaissance poet. Educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Cambridge, he published The Shepheardes Calender in 1579, considered the first major work of the English literary Renaissance. He served as secretary in Ireland and acquired Kilcolman Castle there. His masterpiece, The Faerie Queene (1590-1596), is an allegorical epic that invented the Spenserian stanza. He also wrote the sonnet sequence Amoretti and the marriage ode Epithalamion (1595). Driven from Ireland by Tyrone's Rebellion, he died in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
* 1552-01-01 — † 1599-01-13
Major works
- The Shepheardes Calender (1579)pastoral poetry
- The Faerie Queene (1590-1596)allegorical epic
- Amoretti (1595)sonnet sequence
- Epithalamion (1595)marriage ode
- A View of the Present State of Ireland (1633)prose tract
Key milestones
- 1579Publication of The Shepheardes Calender, the first major work of the English literary Renaissance.
- 1590Publication of the first three books of The Faerie Queene, introducing the Spenserian stanza.
- 1598Forced to flee Ireland when Kilcolman Castle was burned during Tyrone's Rebellion.
Themes
AllegoryChivalryCourtly loveEnglish nationalismProtestant morality
Sources: britannica.com · oxforddnb.com · english.cam.ac.uk