[270] The late Major C. G. Halpine, in a very interesting essay,
makes it extremely probable that Rosalinde is the anagram of Rose
Daniel, sister of the poet and married to John Florio He leaves
little doubt, also, that the name of Spenser's wife (hitherto
unknown) was Elizabeth Nagle. (See "Atlantic Monthly," Vol II 674
November, 1858.) Mr. Halpine informed me that he found the substance
of his essay among the papers of his father, the late Rev. N. J.
Halpine, of Dublin. The latter published in the series of the
Shakespeare Society a sprightly little tract entitled "Oberon,"
which, if not quite convincing, is well worth reading for its
ingenuity and research.
[271] In his prose tract on Ireland, Spenser, perhaps with some
memory of Ovid in his mind, derives the Irish mainly from the
Scythians.
[272] Compare Shakespeare's LXVI. Sonnet.
[273] This poem, published in 1591, was, Spenser tells us in his
dedication, "long sithens composed in the raw conceit of my youth."
But he had evidently retouched it. The verses quoted show a firmer
hand than is generally seen in it, and we are safe in assuming that
they were added after his visit to England. Dr. Johnson
epigrammatized Spenser's indictment into
"There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,
Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail,"
but I think it loses in pathos more than it gains in point.
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