To my knowledge no recent critic has queried Spenser's authorship of The
Shepheardes Calender, I think because from the beginning his identity was
an open secret at least from 1580 when, in the Two Letters Harvey refers to
Spenser's Rosalindula . . . mea bellissima Collina Clouta, and in his Latin
poem Spenser, known as Immerito, names himself ‘Edmundus'. The poem was
first openly acknowledged to be his in the 1611 Folio. Since the matter of
authorship was not even raised - I hope I remember this correctly - in the
Yale and Penguin editions of the Shorter Poems, nor in the Spenser
Encyclopedia, any sound historical evidence that Spenser was not the author
of the SC would be of major interest. In fact, it would be necessary to
begin Spenser criticism all over again.
A.C. Hamilton
At 01:53 PM 2000-10-10 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear Prof Hamilton et al,
>
>As a newbie to these Spenserian postings, may I ask a question
>without being laughed off the net?
>
>I suspect that 'The Shepherd's Calendar' was not written by
>Spenser and that the "new poet", alias Colin Clout, was
>a young person who Spenser helped to get published.
>
>Now I know that it was later claimed that Spenser was Colin
>and Harvey was Hobbinol -- but I have specific reasons for
>believing that the truth was concealed. Their relationship could
>hardly be described as one of pederasty!
>
>Would you please let me know of anything that has been published
>on this subject, so I may do further research?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Peter Zenner
>
>
A.C.Hamilton
[log in to unmask]
Cappon Professor Emeritus
Queen's University, Canada
Phone & Fax: 613- 544-6759
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|