At the risk of being a little controversial, would members of
the group please consider the following?
'Edmund Spenser' used 'counterfeyt names' according to 'E. K.'
writing in the Gloss for September, in 'The Shepheardes Calender'.
The author 'took' the name 'Edmund Spenser' from 'an ancient
house of fame', i.e., he wasn't given it. (Prothalamion, verse 8)
Sir Thomas Vincent married Jane Lyfield and went to live at Stoke
D'Abernon. (It was Henry, Thomas's brother who collected 'Spenser's'
pension, the month after his supposed death) Stoke D'Abernon is on
the River Mole in SURREY. The Mole Valley is still a beauty spot in
spite of the M25 now cutting through it. In Book IV of 'The Faerie Queen',
Canto XI, verse 32, the author mentions the River Mole going underground
before joining the River Thames. It used to until it was diverted. Early maps
show that it went under Box Hill.
Molesey, where the Mole meets the Thames, is said to have been
the seat of the Saxon MULLA. (The 'ancient City which Kilnemullah
ycleped as of old'?)
Thomas was a son of David Vincent and Elizabeth SPENSER. Jane
was a grand-daughter of Lord EDMUND Bray. It's quite possible that
our author took his name from the ancestry of Sir Thomas & Lady Jane
Vincent. After Elizabeth died, David Vincent married a lady called Jane
ROFFY (Perhaps her father was the 'shepherd' in 'September'?)
Sir Thomas died in 1613 and there is a verse on his monument by an
unknown poet. At the end of the verse appear the words VINCENT QUI
PATITUR -- Vincent who put up with me? I suggest that the man who took
his name from the Vincents had been in hiding with them in the Mole Valley
and he didn't die when history says that he did. When in trouble, faking death
has been a convenient way to get out of it.
'Colin Clout' went on a voyage which was described in the poem published
in 1595. Internal evidence indicates that he went with Sir Walter Ralegh
and they departed from North Devon. (The first land to the west was Lundy
Isle.) I have long believed that Ralegh's ship went from Hartland Quay
The description of the sea indicates that this was no sheltered port --
So to the sea we came; the sea? that is
A world of waters heaped up on high,
Rolling like mountains in wide wilderness,
Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse cry.
and the statement that they were 'hartless', after setting out, is a clue to
this. It is said that the fleet departed from Plymouth but Ralegh could have
rendezvoused with the rest of the fleet at some point. Why not try a new
quay which you have invested in?
They went to a strange land with strange flora and fauna. This was not
a description of England; this was an exotic foreign land.
Forget the dating of the letter to Ralegh; this is the story of Ralegh's
voyage to South America in 1595. They set out on February 6th, 1595,
and headed for Guiana, via Trinidad, to look for 'El Dorado'. Ralegh
returned in August of that year and 'Colin' told his friends at Stoke Manor
all about it when he got back there. He then had six months to write the
report up as a poem and still get the date 1595 on the title-page.
Now what 'counterfeyt name' was the author using on his trip with Ralegh?
Best wishes for the coming season,
Peter Zenner
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