SPENSER, EDMUND

born 1552/53, London, Eng. died Jan. 13, 1599, London English poet whose long allegorical poem, The Faerie Queene, is one of the greatest in the English language. It was written in what came to be called the Spenserian stanza (q.v.). Additional reading Alexander C. Judson, The Life of Edmund Spenser (1945, reissued 1966), is an authoritative biography. Harry Berger (compiler), Spenser (1968), is an anthology of critical essays. Monographic treatments of aspects of Spenser's poetry include W.L. Renwick, Edmund Spenser: An Essay on Renaissance Poetry (1925, reissued 1964); Virgil K. Whitaker, The Religious Basis of Spenser's Thought (1950, reissued 1966); Robert Ellrodt, Neoplatonism in the Poetry of Spenser (1960, reprinted 1978); William Nelson, The Poetry of Edmund Spenser (1963, reprinted 1978); Paul J. Alpers, The Poetry of The Faerie Queene (1967, reissued 1982); Jane Aptekar, Icons of Justice: Iconography & Thematic Imagery in Book V of The Faerie Queene (1969); Judith H. Anderson, The Growth of a Personal Voice (1976), a comparative analysis of Piers Plowman and The Faerie Queene; John D. Bernard, Ceremonies of Innocence: Pastoralism in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser (1989); and John N. King, Spenser's Poetry and the Reformation Tradition (1990). Major Works: Poems The Shepheardes Calender (1579); The Faerie Queene, Books IIII (1590); Complaints (1591); Daphnada (1591); Amoretti and Epithalamion (1595); The Faerie Queene, Books IVI, 2 vol. (1596); Fowre Hymnes (1596); Prothalamion (1596); The Faerie Queene, Books IVI with the fragment of Book VII known as Mutabilitie Cantos (1609). Prose Three Proper, and Wittie, Familiar Letters, by Gabriel Harvey and Spenser (1580); A View of the Present State of Ireland (1633).