I wrote --
>Is it known for a fact that Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle in 1594?
and it appears that nobody can answer that. Somebody (Grosart?)
guessed that Spenser married an Elizabeth. Another guess suggested
that she was a Boyle and other guesses said she was a daughter of
'James Boyle' or 'Stephen Boyle'. What is the truth?
>It seems that the date, June 11th, was taken from the mention of St
>Barnabas day in 'Epithalamion' and the year from the fact that it was
>entered in the Stationers' Register on November 19th, 1594, and said
>to be "written not long since".
June 11th was Midsummer Day. 'Epithalamion' was written "not
long since" and so the poem appears to refer to something that
happened at Midsummer, 1594. I then asked --
>What if the poem is not a reference to his wedding but a fantasy?
>What if the three learned sisters are ladies-in-waiting (maybe Sir
>John Spencer's three daughters?) and Spenser is fantasizing
>about marrying Queen Elizabeth? Cynthia? Virgin? Her forehead
>ivory white?
Perhaps I should have said 'dream' rather than 'fantasy'. According
to the notes given in 'The Shakespeare Encyclopedia', 'A Midsummer
Night's Dream' was most likely written in 1594/5 because of the
reference to the abnormally rainy year of 1594. (II, i, 81-117)
Then in Act V, i, we get lines 52-54 --
The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceased in beggary.
That is some satire, keen and critical.
Apparently, some critics have suggested that could have been a
reference to Robert Greene's death in 1592 -- but what if it is a
reference to Marlowe's 'death' in 1593? It was more recent and
he was (allegedly) thrown into an unmarked grave.
It seems that 'Epithalamion' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
both pertain to the same Midsummer Night in 1594. The poem
referred to three Elizabeths but it appears that they are three in
one -- Queen Elizabeth nurtured him like a mother, she was his
Queen and he was in love with her (or said that he was in order
to regain her favour)
Titania is the Fairy Queen and Elizabeth was the Faerie Queene.
Titania falls in love with Bottom who is the 'Weaver' (of the tale?)
but it's all a dream... which brings us back to 'Epithalamion'. And
who was the lovely changeling boy who she had adopted?
Peter Zenner
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