- To The Reader
- 1. Shakspere or Shakespeare?
- 2. Shakespeare a Pseudonym?
- 3. Treasure Texts
- 4. Edward de Vere
- 5. Works
- 6. Ben Jonson’s Forgery
- 7. Research for Shake-speare
- 9. Relationship
- 10. Chronology
3.4.1. Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, 1579
Whosoever feels that Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), one of the most independent, articulate and knowledgeable poets of Elizabethan period, made no mention of William Shakespeare, during his lifetime, is mistaken. Quite on the contrary, he included the figure of the spear shaking Earl of Oxford in his epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590). He honoured “that same gentle Spirit, from whose pen / Large streams of honey and sweet Nectar flow” in The Teares of the Muses (1591). He mentioned the dramatist “Whose Muse full of high thoughts invention, / Doth like himself Heroically sound” in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595) - and he didn’t neglect the opportunity to feature the Earl of Oxford in his first important work, The Shepheardes Calender.
In the “Aegloga Octava” (eclogue of August), the young shepherd Cuddie recites a poem from Colin Clout (=Spenser): “The wasteful woods bear witness of my woe” etc. This poem is an obvious parody on Oxford’s laments in The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576). We recognize Oxford’s dramatic alliterations in passages such as: “Thus like a woeful wight I wove the web of woe” which becomes: “The wasteful woods bear witness of my woe” in Spenser’s hands. The trickling tears flow, the wails and the sobs come back as an empty echo.
The summary of the “Aegloga decima” (eclogue of October) begins:
In Cuddie is set out the perfect pattern of a Poet, which finding no maintenance of his state and studies, complaineth of the contempt of Poetry, and the causes thereof.
Later on, Spenser is referring to Oxford’s first poetic statement in the foreword to Cardanus Comforte in which the poet compares himself to a common labourer who is cheated out of his pay: “For he that beats the bush the bird not gets, / But who sits still and holdeth fast the nets.” Spenser lets Cuddie (=Oxford) say:
CUDDIE. To feed youth’s fancy, and the flocking fry,
Delighten much: what I the bet for-thy?
They han the pleasure, I a slender prize.
I beat the bush, the birds to them do fly:
What good thereof to Cuddie can arise?
Another shepherd, Pierce answers:
Cuddie, the praise is better then the prize,
The glory eke much greater then the gain.
Cuddie, however, will not let it go at that:
Sike praise is smoke that sheddeth in the sky,
Sike words be wind, and wasten soon in vain.
At this point, Pierce launches a surprising counter-attack:
PIERCE. Abandon then the base and viler clown,
Lift up thyself out of the lowly dust:
And sing of bloody Mars, of wars, of jousts,
Turn thee to those that bear the awful crown.
With this Pierce is saying: Stop doing comedy and drop the clowning. Apply yourself to historic truths, to relating the heroic deeds of warriors! Write of Queen Elizabeth and of the Earl of Leicester! When you are exhausted from your efforts then go back to dancing.
Spenser, alias Colin Clout, alias Pierce, alias E. K., 27 years old, wants the dramatist Edward de Vere to write heroic sagas, and to bring the muses onto the stage accompanied by Bellona, goddess of war. – We are reminded of Harvey’s words: “You must even deal in missiles! ... Mars keeps your mouth, Minerva is in your right hand, Bellona reigns in your body, and Martial ardour, your eyes flash, your glance is shaking spears” (Gratulationes Valdinenses, 1578).
E. K. (=Edmund of Kent =Edmund Spenser) remarks on his mentioning Bellona:
Strange Bellona; the goddess of battle, that is Pallas, which may therefore well be called quaint for that (as Lucian saith) when Jupiter her father was in travail of her, he caused his son Vulcan with his axe to hew his head. Out which leaped forth lustily a valiant damsel armed at all points, whom seeing Vulcan so fair & comely, lightly leaping to her, proffered her some courtesy, which the Lady disdaining, shaked her speare at him, and threatened his sauciness.
Concurrently, the eclogue of August gives information concerning the “base and viler clown”. The character, so unflatteringly described is none other than “Feste”, the clown in Twelfth Night – who’s “hey ho, the wind and the rain” is satirized with abundant “hey-ho’s”.
Unfortunately, in addition to being a notable poet, Spenser was also a retrospective puritan, rather devoid of humour, who took great pleasure in bombarding his readers with scarcely comprehensible, archaic verbosity. Under the pseudonym, “E. K.” he added commentaries to his works, nonetheless, reading one of Spencer’s poems felt like a study.
“The twelve ‘aeglogues’ bear the calculated scars of antiquity not only in their archaic dialects and classical pastoral forms, but also in the presence of E. K.’s commentary”, says Michael McCanles. “What Spenser published was a fictional imitation of a humanist edition of classical texts.” (Michael McCanles, ‘The Shepheardes Calender’ as Document and Monument. Studies in English Literature, 22 (1982), p. 5-19.)
T H E
SHEPHEARDES CALENDER
Conteyning twelve AEglogues proportionable
to the twelve monethes.
Entitled
T O T H E N O B L E
A N D V E R T U O U S
Gentleman most worthy of all titles
both of learning and chevalrie M.
Philip Sidney.
AT LONDON.
Printed by Hugh Singleton, dwelling in
Creede Lane neere unto Ludgate at the
signe of the gylden Tunne, and
are there to be solde.
1579.
AEgloga Octava [August].
A R G U M E N T.
IN this Aeglogue is set forth a delectable controversy, made in imitation of that in Theocritus: whereto also Virgil fashioned his third & seventh Aeglogue. They choose for umpire of their strife, Cuddie a neat-herd’s boy, who having ended their cause, reciteth also himself a proper song, whereof Colin he saith was Author.
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Willye. Perigot. Cuddie.[1]
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GLOSS.[2]
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Tell me Perigot,
what shall be the game, Perigot. Ah Willye,
when the heart is ill assayʼd [afflicted], Willye. What the foul evil hath thee so bestad? Perigot. Ah Willye
now I have learned a new dance: Willye. Mischief mought to that new mischance befall, Perigot. Love hath misled both my younglings, and me: Willye. Pardie and wellaway [alas]: ill may they thrive: Perigot. That shall I do, though mickle [much] worse I
fared: Willye. Then lo Perigot
the Pledge which I plight [put up]: Thereby is a Lamb in the Wolveʼs jaws: Perigot. Thereto will I pawn yon spotted Lamb, Willye. Sicker, make like account of his brother.[3] Perigot. That shall yonder herdgroom, and none other, Willye. But for the Sunbeam so sore doth us beat, Were not better, to shun the scorching heat? Perigot. Well agreed Willy:
then sit thee down, swain: Cuddie. ʼGin, when ye list, ye jolly shepheards twain: Perigot. ʼT fell upon
a holy eve, Per. Sitting upon a hill so high,
Cuddye. Sicker, sike a roundel never heard I none. Willye. Herdgroom, I fear me, thou have a squint eye: Cuddie. Faith of my soul, I deem each
have gained [won], Perigot. Perigot is well pleased with the doom. Willye. Never dempt more
right of beauty I ween, Cuddie. But tell me shepheards, should it not yshend
[shend] Perigot. Now say it Cuddie,
as thou art a lad: Willy. Faith of my soul, thou shalt y-crowned be Cuddie. Then listenth each unto my heavy lay,
The
wasteful woods bear witness of my woe, And you that feel no woe, when as the sound ye hear apart [in the
distance], and pity augment. Perigot. O Colin,
Colin, the shepheardʼs joy, Cuddie. Then blowe your pipes, shepheards, till you be at
home:
Perigot his Emblem. Vincenti gloria victi. [The glory of the conquered belongs to the conqueror]
Willyes Emblem. Vinto non vitto. [Conquered, not overcome]
Cuddies Emblem. Felice chi puo. [Let him be happy who can be]
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bestad) disposed, ordered. whilome) once. paregal) equal.
raft) bereft, deprived.
miswent) gone astray
ill may) according to Virgil, [Ecloga III] - Infelix semper, ovis, pecus! [Unhappy sheep! yet more unhappy swain!]
A mazer) So also do Theocritus and Virgil feign pledges of their strife. enchased) engraven. Such pretty descriptions every where useth Theocritus, to bring in his Idyllia. For which special cause indeed he by that name termeth his Aeglogues: for Idyllion in Greek signifieth the shape or picture of any thing, whereof his book is full. And not, as I have heard some fondly guess, that they be called not Idyllia, but Haedilia, of the Goatherds in them. entrailed) wrought between. harvest Queen) The manner of country folk in harvest time.
It fell upon) Perigot maketh his song in praise of his love, to whom Willy answereth every under verse. By Perigot who is meant, I can not uprightly say: but if it be, who is supposed, his love deserveth no less praise, then he giveth her.
greet) weeping and complaint.
chapelet) a kind of Garland like a crown.
levin) lightning.
Cynthia) was said to be the Moon.
gride) pierced.
squint eye) partial judgement.
each have) so sayeth Virgil. Et vitula tu dignus, et hic &c. [you deserves the heifer and so does he.] So by interchange of gifts Cuddie pleaseth both parts.
doom) judgement. wite the witeless) blame the blameless.
dempt) for deemed, judged. The shepheard of Ida) was said to be Paris. Beautyʼs Queen) Venus, to whom Paris adjudged the golden Apple, as the prize of her beauty.
Perigot his Emblem. The meaning hereof is very ambiguous: for Perigot by his poesy claiming the conquest, & Willye not yielding, Cuddie the arbiter of their cause, and Patron of his own, seemeth to challenge it as his due, saying, that he is happy which can so abruply ending, but hee meaneth either him that can win the best, or moderate himself being best, and leave of [be content with] with the best.
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October.
AEgloga decima.[8]
A R G U M E N T.
In Cuddie is set out the perfect pattern of a Poet [9], which finding no maintenance of his state and studies, complaineth of the contempt of Poetry, and the causes thereof [10]: Specially having been in all ages, and even amongst the most barbarous always of singular account & honour, & being indeed so worthy and commendable an art: or rather no art, but a divine gift and heavenly instinct [instillment] not to be gotten by labour and learning, but adorned with both: and poured into the wit by a certain enthusiasmos, and celestial inspiration, as the Author hereof elsewhere at large discourseth in his book called the English Poet [11], which book being lately come to my hands, I mind also by Gods grace upon further advisement to publish.
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Pierce. Cuddie.[12]
Piers. Cuddie,
for shame hold up thy heavy head,
Cuddie. Piers, I have piped erst so long with
pain,
The dapper ditties, that I wont devise
Piers. Cuddie, the praise is better than the
prize,
Soon as thou 'gin'st to set thy notes in frame [order], All [just] as the shepheard that did
fetch his dame
Cuddie. So praisen
babes the Peacock's spotted train, Piers. Abandon then
the base and viler clown,[22]
There may thy Muse display her
flutt'ring wing,
And when the stubborn stroke of stronger stounds [blows]
Cuddie. Indeed the Romish Tityrus, I hear, Whereon he erst had
taught his flocks to feed,
But ah, Maecenas is yclad
in clay, For ever [27], who
in derring-do were dread [in awe],
But after virtue [heroism] gan for age to stoop,
And if that any buds of Poesy
Piers. O peerless
Poesy, where is then thy place? Ne breast of baser
birth doth thee embrace.
Cuddie. Ah Percy
it is all to weak and wan, Her pieced pinions been not so in plight, Piers. Ah fon [fool],
for love does teach him climb so high, For lofty love doth loath a lowly eye.
Cuddie. All otherwise
the state of Poet stands,
Who ever casts to compass [achieve] weighty prize,
Thou kenst not, Percy how the rhyme should rage.
But ah, my courage [emotion] cools ere it be warm, Piers. And when my
Goats shall have their bellies laid:
Cuddie's Emblem. Agitante calescimus illo &c.[36]
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GLOSS. This Aeglogue is made in imitation of Theocritus his XVI. Idilion, wherein he reproved the Tyran Hiero of Syracuse for his niggardise toward Poets, in whom is the power to make men immortal for their good deeds, or shameful for their naughty life. And the like also is in Mantuan, the style hereof as also that in Theocritus, is more lofty then the rest, and applied to the height of Poetical wit.
Cuddie) [see note 12]
whilome) sometime.
Oaten) Avena [oats].
lig so laid) lie so faint and unlusty.
dapper) pretty. fry) is a bold Metaphor, forced from the spawning fish, for the multitude of young fish be called the fry.
to restrain) [see note 19]
sense bereave) [see note 21]
the shepheard that) Orpheus: of whom is said, that by his excellent skill in Music and Poetry he recovered his wife Eurydice from hell.
Argus' eyes) of Argus is before said that Iuno to him committed her husband Iupiter his Paragon Io, because he had an hundred eyes: but afterward Mercury with his Music lulling Argus asleep, slew him and brought Io away, whose eyes it is said, that Iuno for his eternal memory placed in her bird, the Peacock's tail, for those coloured spots indeed resemble eyes.
woundless armour) unwounded in war, do rust through long peace. display) A poetical metaphor: whereof the meaning is, that if the Poet list show his skill in matter of more dignity than is the homely Aeglogue, good occasion is him offered of higher vein and more Heroical argument, in the person of our most gracious sovereign, whom (as before) he calleth Elisa. Or if matter of knighthood and chivalry please him better, that there be many Noble & valiant men that are both worthy of his pain in their deserved praises, and also favourers of his skill and faculty. the worthy) he meaneth (as I guess) the most honorable and renowned the Earl of Leicester, whom by his cognizance (although the same be also proper to other) rather then by his name he bewrayeth [reveals], being not likely that the names of noble princes be known to country clown. slack'd) that is when thou changest thy verse from stately discourse to matter of more pleasance and delight. the Miller's) a kind of dance. ring) company of dancers. the Romish Tityrus) well known to be Virgil, who by Maecenas means was brought into the favour of the Emperor Augustus, and by him moved to write in loftier kind, then he erst had done. whereon) in these three verses are the three several works of Virgil intended. For in teaching his flocks to feed, is meant his Aeglogues. In labouring of lands, is his Bucoliques. In singing of wars and deadly dread, is his divine Aeneis figured.
for ever) [see note 27] in derring do) in manhood and chivalry. but after) he showeth the cause of contempt of Poetry to be idleness and baseness of mind.
pent) shut up in sloth, as in a coop or cage.
Tom Piper) An ironical Sarcasmus, spoken in derision of these rude wits, which make more account of a rhyming ribaud than of skill grounded upon learning and judgment.
ne breast) the meaner sort of men.
her pieced pineons) unperfect skill. Spoken with humble modesty. as soot as Swan) The comparison seemeth to be strange: for the swan hath ever won small commendation for her sweet singing: but it is said of the learned that the swan a little before her death, singeth most pleasantly, as prophecying by a secret instinct her near destiny. As well saith the Poet elsewhere in one of his sonnets The silver swan doth sing before her dying day As shee that feels the deep delight that is in death &c.[37] immortal mirror) Beauty, which is an excellent object of Poetical spirits, as appeareth by the worthy Petrarchʼs saying [Canzoniere 60] Fiorir faceva
il mio debile ingegno [(The laurel) …made my frail wit to flourish in its shade and grow in griefs] a caitiff courage) a base and abject mind. for lofty love) I think this playing with the letter to be rather a fault then a figure, as well in our English tongue, as it hath been always in the Latin, called cacozelon [Latin: stylistically affected]. a vacant) imitateth Mantuanʼs saying vacuum curis divina cerebrum Poscit. [divine poetry needs a mind empty from cares]
lavish cups) Resembleth that common verse Faecundi calices quem non fecere disertum. [Horace, Epistles I.519: Whom has not the inspiring bowl made eloquent?] O if my temples) He seemeth here to be ravished with a Poetical fury. For (if one rightly mark) the numbers rise so full, & the verse groweth so big, that it seemeth he hath forgot the meanness of shepheard’s state and stile. wild Ivy) for it is dedicated to Bacchus & therefore it is said that the Maenades (that is Bacchusʼ frantic priests) used in their sacrifice to carry Thyrsos, which were pointed staves or Iavelins, wrapped about with ivy. in buskin) it was the manner of Poets & players in tragedies to wear buskins, as also in Comedies to use stocks [stockings] & light shoes.[38] So that the buskin in poetry is used for tragical matter, as it said in Virgil: Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno [which alone merit to be praised in Sophoclesʼ lofty style], and the like in Horace: Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothurno [Aeschylus instructed to tread on the cothurnus]. quaint) strange Bellona; the goddess of battle, that is Pallas, which may therefore well be called quaint for that (as Lucian saith) when Iupiter her father was in travail of her, he caused his son Vulcan with his axe to hew his head. Out which leaped forth lustily a valiant damsel armed at all points, whom seeing Vulcan so fair & comely, lightly leaping to her, proffered her some courtesy, which the Lady disdaining, shaked her speare at him, and threatʼned his sauciness.[39] Therefore such strangenesse is well applied to her. equipage) order. tides) seasons. charm) temper and order. For charms were wont to be made by verses, as Ovid saith.
Cuddie's Emblem. Hereby is meant, as also in the whole course of this Aeglogue, that Poetry is a divine instinct and unnatural rage passing the reach of common reason. Whom Piers answereth epiphonematicos[40] as admiring the excellency of the skill whereof in Cuddie he had already had a taste.
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NOTES:
[1] “Willye. Perigot. Cuddie.“: Edmund Spenser allocates to each poetic shepherd who appears in the Shepheardes Calender his own distinctive voice. He gives certain recognisable characteristics, taken from persons in his own circle of friends and acquaintances, to some of the figures, although not all of them. With can safety assume to have identified: Thomalin = Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln (Thom a Lincoln); Algrind = Archbishop Edmund Grindal; Morrell = John Aylmer, Bishop of London; Diggon Davie = Bishop Richard Davies; Roffy = Bishop Young of Rochester; Lobbin = Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. In addition to these ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries the following characters also appear: Colin Clout alias Perigot = Edmund Spenser; Hobbinol = Gabriel Harvey; and Willye = Philip Sidney. "Willye" (a young, passionate, plush, inspired shepherd) only a bears a distant resemblance to Sidney. However after the death of Sir Philip Sydney, Spenser remembers him in The Teares of the Muses (1591), giving him the name "Willy", forcing us to reconsider who was meant with "Willye". (The shepherd’s name "Willy" for Philip - or Phillie - Sidney is later confirmed by a Eclogue made long since upon the death of Sir Philip Sidney in Davison's poetical Rhapsody (1602).
Although “Cuddie” in the second eclogue (February) merely appears as a young, love stricken Arcadian, more or less bereft of a personality, his character traits in the eighth and tenth eclogues (August / October) are far more distinctive. One could say that in these two poems “Cuddie” takes over the role of the Earl of Oxford.
The identity of "Cuddie" was surrounded in mystery until 1995 when Roger Stritmatter wrote his essay Spenser's ‘Perfect Pattern of a Poet’ and the 17th Earl of Oxford.
[2] GLOSS: Most of the comments signed with "E. K." (= Edmund of Kent) came from Edmund Spenser himself. The most important contribution to this question comes from Louise Schleiner (1990), who sums up with:
“In brief, I propose that Spenser wrote most of the apparatus, but considerable portions of it in a Harveyan vein, in a spirit of affectionate fun, banteringly, ‘as Harvey would have me think and write’ - although sometimes drifting into other editorial voices, and sometimes taking positions on matters that he and Harvey had discussed. To him Spenser dedicated the apparatus, while dedicating the book as a whole to Sidney.”
See Louise Schleiner, Spenser’s E. K. as Edward Kent, English Literary Renaissance 20 (1990) pp. 374-407.
[3] “Sicker, make like account of his brother“: Assume that the same will occur with his brother.
[4] “ʼT fell upon a holy eve ... hey ho, holiday”: Willye’s “hey ho, holiday” bears a certain resemblance to Feste’s closing song from Twelfth Night:
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
[5] “Bellibone”: Suggests the Platonic model of virtue joined to beauty (Fr. belle, beautiful, bonne, good).
[6] “The wasteful woods bear witness of my woe,/ Wherein my plaints did oftentimes resound“:
With this sestina, an intricately formed verse pattern, Spenser (alias Colin Clout) parodies Oxford's amorous lamentations in The Paradise of dainty devises (1576). E. O.s solemn alliterations are imitated, the tear drops flow, the cries and lamentations return as an empty echo, the shrill birds of the night are implored upon to bring comfort, sorrow and pain tumble down in paradoxical lamentation. Spenser uses three key words from Oxford's exaggerated poetic style (woe / resound / cries) as recurring end rhymes - and makes an additional joke by reciting the most admired yet somewhat overdramatic words back to Cuddie. (In Scotland, ‘cuddie’ is a term used for a small donkey.) For Cuddie, as is made perfectly clear in the October eclogue, is the Earl of Oxford’s shepherd’s name.
William Webbe writes in A discourse of English poetrie (1586):
“Look upon the rueful song of Colin sung by Cuddie in the Shepheardes Calender
The wasteful woods bear witness of my woe,
Wherein my plaints did oftentimes resound:
where you shall see a singular rare devise of a ditty, framed upon these six words Woe, sound, cries, part, sleep, augment, which are most prettily turned and wound up mutually together, expressing wonderfully the dolefulness of the song. A devise not much unlike unto the same, is used by some, who taking the last words of a certain number of verses, as it were by the rebound of an Echo, shall make them fall out in some pretty sense.”
With his non-coincidental reference to Oxford’s echo poem William Webbe confirms that Cuddie is, in fact, Oxford.
The following parallels between Oxford’s lamentations and Spenser’s parody can be observed.
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Oxford, POEMS
76 Thus like a woeful wight I wove the web of woe
40 The woeful wight which made this doleful sound. In pleasant garden (placed all alone) … The lusty Ver [spring] which whilom might exchange
72 Drown me, you trickling tears, You wailful wights of woe 94 The dreary day when I must take my leave, parting from whence depart I never may 82 And fury shall consume my careful course … No quiet sleep shall once possess mine eye
66 Help man, help beasts, help birds and worms, that on the earth do toil Help echo that in air doth flee, shrill voices to resound 36 When steadfast friendship (bound by holy oath) Did part perforce my presence from thy sight, In dreams I might behold how thou wert loath With troubled thought to part from thy delight. 78 When griping
griefs the heart would wound 45 And as fair Philomene [nightingale] again |
Spenser, The wasteful woods
The wasteful woods bear witness of my woe, And you that feel no woe, when as the sound ye hear apart, and pity augment.
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[7] “Hence with the Nightingale will I take part“: Philomela, raped by the „misdeed“ of her brother-in-law Tereus, became a nightingale whose song symbolized the unhappy Lover’s complaint. - See: Oxford, “Amid my bale I bath in bliss” (No 45):
And as fair Philomene again
Can watch and sing when other sleep:
And taketh pleasure in her pain,
To wray the woe that makes her weep.
So sing I now for to bewray
The loathsome life I lead alway.
******
[8] „AEgloga decima“: Thomas H. Cain (1989) comments: “In this eclogue Spenser follows Mantuan’s fifth Eclogue where Candidus, a needy poet, asks Silvanus, a niggardly connoisseur of poetry, for financial help and gets instead a lecture on the poet’s social role.” (The Yale Edition of the Shorter Poems of Edmund Spenser, New Haven and London.)
[9] “In Cuddie is set out the perfect pattern of a Poet”: In view of the fact that Edmund Spenser was notorious for harsh criticism, it would be erroneous to underestimate such high praise.
[10] “complaineth of the contempt of Poetry, and the causes thereof”: Spenser (alias Colin) refers to the last verse of Oxford’s commendatory poem in 1572 (see 5.2.1 Oxford, No 1: “The Earle of Oxenforde to the Reader”).
So he that takes the pain to pen the book,
Reaps not the gifts of goodly golden muse,
But those gain that, who on the work shall look
And from the sour the sweet by skill doth choose.
For he that beats the bush the bird not gets,
But who sits still and holdeth fast the nets.
However, Spenser’s complete lack of humour is a blunt contrast to Oxford’s humorous handling of the subject.
[11] “the English Poet”: ‘The only mention of this lost work which (if it ever actually existed) would have been the first Renaissance treatise on poetics in English.’ (The Yale edition of the Shorter Poems of Edmund Spenser, 1989.)
[12] “Cuddie”: (note from E. K.)
I doubt whether by Cuddie be specified the author self, or some other. For in the eight Aeglogue the same person was brought in, singing a Cantion of Colin's making, as he saith. So that some doubt, that the persons be different.
Spenser (= E. K) skilfully weaves in a certain doubt as to the identity of Cuddie. Needless to say, Cuddie is Spenser's invention. And only Spenser has given his invention a voice. Nevertheless Spenser's Cuddie is based closely on the model of the poet Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford. Cuddie talks like Oxford (see note 6), he quotes lines from a poem which is known to have been penned by Oxford (see notes 10 and 18), he displays distinguished characteristics - so he is “the perfect pattern of a Poet”, he sometimes seems “to be ravished with a Poetical fury”, he composes comedies, he projects tragedies, and his Muse promises to “stretch herself at large from East to West”. (See notes 23 and 33.)
- So as to dispel all doubts in this "who's who"; in Three Proper and Familiar Letters (1580) Gabriel Harvey wishes his friend Spenser a rich profit from the Shepheardes Calender - whereby he quips in his self-righteous art: Master Cuddie "alias you know who"... going on to say that Master Hobbinol, (i.e. himself) may expect no reward from the art of poetry.
“For, I pray now, what saith Master Cuddy, alias you know who, in the tenth eclogue of the foresaid famous new Calendar?
Piers, I have piped erst so long with pain
That all mine oaten reeds been rent and worn
etc.
I beat the bush, the birds to them do fly.
What good thereof to Cuddy can arise?
But Master Colin Clout is not everybody, and albeit his old companions [!], Master Cuddy and Master Hobbinoll [= Harvey], be as little beholding to their Mistress Poetry as ever you wist, yet he peradventure, by the means of her special favour and some personal privilege, may happily live by Dying Pelicans and purchase great lands and lordships [!] with the money which his Calendar and Dreams have and will afford him.”
[13] “And weary this long lingring Phoebusʼ race”: And make weary the course of the sun - i.e. ‘let us seize the day’.
[14] “bidding base“: The game of prisoner's base - or perhaps lowly singing matches.
[15] “Now they in thee, and thou in sleep art dead”: ‘Your creative dormancy has deprived your audience’ (The Yale edition of the Shorter Poems of Edmund Spenser, 1989.)
[16] “the Grasshopper … when Winter doth her strain [constrain]”: A reference to the fable of the ant and the grasshopper.
[17] “what I the bett for-thy?“: What gain have I therefore?
[18] “I beat the bush, the birds to them do fly: / What good thereof to Cuddie can arise?“:
Cuddie, the neatherd, uses the words of Oxford:
For he that beats the bush the bird not gets,
But who sits still and holdeth fast the nets.
[19] “O what an honour is it to restrain”: (note from E. K.)
This place seemeth to conspire with Plato, who in his first book de Legibus saith, that the first invention of Poetry was of very virtuous intent. For at what time an infinite number of youth usually came to their great solemn feasts called Panegyrica, which they used every five year to hold, some learned man being more able then the rest, for special gifts of wit and Music, would take upon him to sing fine verses to the people, in praise either of virtue or of victory or of immortality or such like. At whose wonderful gift all men being astonied and as it were ravished, with delight, thinking (as it was indeed) that he was inspired from above, called him vatem [visionary]: which kind of men afterward framing their verses to lighter music (as of music be many kinds, some sadder, some lighter, some martial, some heroical: and so diversely eke affect the minds of men) found out lighter matter of Poesy also, some playing with love, some scorning at men's fashions, some powered out in pleasures, and so were called Poets or makers.
[20] “Or prick them forth with pleasance of thy vein”: Or spur them forth with the delight your talent can give.
[21] “thou dost their soul of sense [sensuality] bereave”: (note from E. K.)
What the secret working of Music is in the minds of men as well appeareth hereby, that some of the ancient Philosophers, and those the most wise, as Plato and Pythagoras held for opinion, that the mind was made of a certain harmony and musical numbers, for the great compassion & likeness of affection in tone and in the other as also by that memorable history of Alexander: to whom when as Timotheus the great Musician played the Phrygian melody, it is said, that he was distraught with such unwonted fury, that straight way rising from the table in great rage, he caused himself to be armed, as ready to go to war (for that music is very warlike:) And immediately whenas the Musician changed his stroke into the Lydian and Ionic harmony, he was so far from warring, that he sat as still as if he had been in mats (matters?) of counsel. Such might is in music, wherefore Plato and Aristotle forbid the Arcadian Melody from children and youth, for that being altogether on the fifth and vii tone, it is of great force to mollify and quench the kindly courage which useth to burn in young breasts. So that it is not incredible which the Poet here saith, that Music can bereave the soul of sense.
[22] “Abandon then the base and viler clown”: Surrender the simple jester of little worth. - An appeal to Cuddie to abandon comedy and to concentrate on historical matters.
Sir Philip Sidney objects that “plays be neither right tragedies nor right comedies, mingling kings and clowns.”
[23] “There may thy Muse display [stretch out] her flutt'ring wing, / And stretch herself at large from East to West“: Edmund Spenser recommends a course of action which Shake-speare actually realized in later years.
[24] “Advance the worthy whom she loveth best, / That first the white bear to the stake did bring“: Oxford is to convert to a warrior or a warrior singer and if possible, to glorify the poetry of his rival, the Earl of Leicester - and that with the underlying plan to join the anti-French party. With that, Spenser was blowing in the same horn as did Gabriel Harvey in the Gratulationes of 1578. (See 3.1.1, Harvey, Gratulationes Valdinenes.)
[25] “Has somewhat slack'd the tenor of thy string“: The metaphor is from the strings of the lyre, which, strongly plucked, would become slacker in tension and produce notes of a lower pitch.
[26] “the Worthies“: The Nine Worthies are Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, Hector, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon.
[27] “for ever”: (note from E. K.)
He showeth the cause, why Poets were wont be had in such honour of noble men; that is, that by them their worthiness & valour should through their famous Posies be commended to all posterities, wherefore it is said, that Achilles had never been so famous, as he is, but for Homer's immortal verses, which is the only advantage which he had of Hector. And also that Alexander the great, coming to his tomb in Sigeus, with natural tears blessed him, that ever was his hap to be honoured with so excellent a Poet's work: as so renowned and ennobled only by his means, which being declared in a most eloquent Oration of Tully's [Pro Archia Poeta 10.24], is of Petrarch no less worthily set forth in a sonnet [Canzoniere 187].
Giunto Alexandro a la famosa tomba
Del sero Achille sospirando disse
O fortunato che si chiara tromba.
Trovasti &c.
[Sighing before the famous tomb of fierce Achilles, Alexander said: 'O fortunate one, who found so clear a voice to write of you so nobly!']
And that such account hath been always made of Poets, as well showeth this that the worthy Scipio in all his wars against Carthage and Numantia had evermore in his company, and that in a most familiar sort the good old Poet Ennius: as also that Alexander destroying Thebes, when he was informed that the famous Lyric Poet Pindarus was born in that city, not only commanded straightly that no man should upon pain of death do any violence to that house by fire or otherwise: but also specially spared most, and some highly rewarded that were of his kin. So favoured he the only name of a Poet which praise otherwise was in the same man no less famous, that when he came to ransacking of king Dariusʼ coffers, whom he lately had overthrown, he found in a little coffer of silver two books of Homerʼs works, as laid up there for special jewels and richesse, which he taking thence, put one of them daily in his bosom, and thʼother every night laid under his pillow. Such honour have Poets always found in the sight of princes and noble men, which this author here very well showeth, as elsewhere more notably.
[28] “The vaunting Poets found nought worth a pease / To put in press among the learned troop“: “The ambitious poets could find no worthwhile subject that would allow tem to compete with the learned poets of the antiquity.” (The Yale Edition of the Shorter Poems of Edmund Spenser, New Haven and London.)
[29] “Or it men's follies mote be forced to feign“: Either it men’s follies might be forced to imitate. - The poet's art is a "feigning".
[30] “(And yet is Princes' palace the most fit)”:A reference to Oxford's noble state.
[31] “Her pieced pinions been not so in plight, / For Colin fits such famous flight to scan”: The swan’s mended wings are not so in condition; it is fitting for Colin, to climb to such famous flight (that will earn the poet fame).
[32] “For Bacchusʼ fruit is friend to Phoebusʼ wise“: For wine stimulates the ability to compose poems (Bacchus was god of wine and Phoebus Apollo led the Muses).
[33] “O if my temples were distain'd with wine / And girt in garlands of wild Ivy twine “: E. K. comments:
He seemeth here to be ravished with a Poetical fury. For (if one rightly mark) the numbers rise so full, & the verse groweth so big, that it seemeth he hath forgot the meanness of shepheard’s state and stile.
The term “poetical fury” went well with Cuddie’s emblem: Agitante calescimus illo. - See note 36.
[34] “And teach her tread aloft in buskin fine, / With quaint Bellona in her equipage“: Cuddie announces that he will advance to the field of tragedy.
[35] “Where no such troublous tides have us assay'd“: Where (outside pastoral experience) no times of war have affected us.
[36] “Agitante calescimus illo &c“: Ovid, Fasti 6.5: est deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo - There is a god in us, who, when he stirs, sets us all aglow. - See E.K.ʼs gloss: “Hereby is meant, as also in the whole course of this Aeglogue, that Poetry is a divine instinct and unnatural rage passing the reach of common reason.”
[37] “The silver swan … that is in death”: This sonnet is lost.
[38] “stocks and light shoes”: In the edition of 1586 the word “stocks” is printed as “socks”. “Soccus” is the term which is meant here, a half shoe, worn for comedy as opposed to the higher boots worn for tragedy.
[39] “Vulcan … proffered her some courtesy, which the Lady disdaining, shaked her speare at him, and threatʼned his sauciness”: This means that; just as Gabriel Harvey suggested in Gratulationes, Spenser implores the poet Edward de Vere to adopt the spear shaking Pallas Athena (= Bellona = Minerva) as his constant companion. In other words, the pseudonym SHAKE-SPEARE was tailor made for him. - Gabriel Harvey chose his words carefully: “Minerva is in your right hand, Bellona reigns in your body” and “your glance shoots arrows”. (See 3.1.1, Harvey, Gratulationes Valdinenses, notes 15 and 16.)
[40] “epiphonematicos”: By way of epiphonema (aclamatio). An exclamation to end a discourse.
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