Did Spenser have a choice about Kilcolman? I wonder. Spenser's Virgilian
impetus had, from very early on, a georgic as well as a pastoral strain.
His choice of masks was to wear a painful yet "heroic" one. By the time he
composed parts of Book I he had certainly chosen the Virgilian lifestyle,
if not the particular land. The FQ is mentioned by Spenser's interlocutor
in Lodowick Bryskett's *Discourse of Civil Life*, ca. 1582 (pub 1606),
dedicated to Lord Grey, and which --as Willy Maley in *Salvaging Spenser*
has made clear-- is a colonial text, written about the time Bryskett and
Spenser were jostling for ex-Old English lands in County Kildare. Then,
Bryskett moved west into administrative duties in Munster, and Spenser
followed him, becoming his deputy clerk. Friends in need are friends
indeed.
"Throughout Spenser's years of service as deputy clerk [of the Munster
council,1584-8(?)], the colonization of Munster was the big task facing the
officials of that province, so that Spenser's mind was turned perforce to
the thought of land." [Judson, *Life* p. 116]
On the one hand, his position gave him sway in the courts there. He could
have helped plan the Munster plantation in this capacity, work through its
legal wrangles for himself and others, etc.; he knew the place much better
than many of the English gentlemen who came over, and he could use his
position and connections to manipulate local politics to give himself a
plum. On the other hand, anybody who would want Old English Lords Roche
and Barry as his two resentful neighbors was nuts (though I assume many Co.
Cork planters were in this position, including, not least, Raleigh...), not
to mention the notorious glen of Aherlow ("Arlo") nearby. Kilcolman lay in
the rich Fermoy plain, but a large part of it was forest land, good for
timber, but only with some investment and effort. Also, Spenser wasn't
initially granted Kilcolman (rather, Andrew Reade was, in 1587, and having
failed to occupy it --the Roche threat?--, it soon turned it over to Sp;
Sp. may have been getting fenced goods, as it were, although he held on to
most of it for long enough. cf. Judson and also Maley, *A Spenser
Chronology*), and Kilcolman was one of the smaller grants (but by no means
the smallest; cf. MacCarthy-Morrogh, *The Munster Plantation*, tables in
conclusion). It suited his station in life, or rather outdid it, since its
worth today would be in the millions of pounds. 8 initial Munster
plantation grants were of approx. 2,500-4,000 acres, and one of these
grants went to the Earl of Ormond, hardly somebody of equal rank to Sp.
How rich Kilcolman was in comparison to the other 7 I don't know. In
short, a good archaeological study needs to be done in this regard; alas,
too little has been done as regards excavating renaissance plantations in
Ireland, or renaissance anything; perhaps we'll know in 150 years; even at
Kilcolman, Klingelhoeffer in his five-year trial has only scratched the
gleaming tip of the iceberg.
The question is, did Spenser know he could get a piece of the Desmond spoil
when moving out to Munster? Or was Bryskett's employ his only opportunity,
and Kilcolman landed haphazardly in his lap, thanks to the timid Mr. Reade?
Fate and/or Fortune? --Tom Herron
>A clownish opinion: why should (s)he have *lost her way* in shepherd's
>weeds? "My muse" is a standard metonym for "my verse"; and if it whilom was
>masked/dressed in shepherd's weeds, it was just doing the Vergilian
>early-career-path moves for an ambitious poet by writing Shepheard's
>Calendars, no? I think I'm agreeing with Sara Hillis. One possible
>corroboration I discussed years ago in a conference paper is that the
>topography of Kilcolman is startlingly similar to that of Vergil's estate --
>I've often wondered if Spnser had a choice of 3000-acre properties and
>*chose* to move bodily into an Irish Vergil-world?
>
>Roger Kuin
>York University, Toronto
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: W.L. Godshalk <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: November 18, 2000 6:24 PM
>Subject: What does Spenser mean by "maske"?
>
>
>>What does Spenser mean when he says that his muse "did maske,/ . . . in
>>lowly Shepheards weeds"? Does he mean that she masqueraded as a shepherd?
>>That she was involved in a mask/masque?
>>
>>"Mask" could, in the 16th century, mean to "lose one's way." (I refrain
>>from citing my source for this information, lest I be accused of being
>>scholarly.) And that factoid leads me to think of Calidore's pastoral
>>truancy. Could Spenser be hinting that his muse formerly lost her way in
>>pastoral poetry?
>>
>>Yours, Bill Godshalk
>>**********************************************
>>* W. L. Godshalk
>*
>>* Professor, Department of English *
>>* University of Cincinnati *
>>* Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 * Stellar Disorder
>>* [log in to unmask] *
>>*
>> *
>>**********************************************
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