Aubrey notes that he was of 'Cambr.'; and gives in trick the coat:—'sable, 9 plates between two flaunches argent,' and adds, 'the crest is a wyld man.'
Edmund Spenser (1553-1598/9).
[986]Mr. Edmund Spencer was of Pembrooke-hall in Cambridge; he misst the fellowship there which bishop Andrewes gott. He was an acquaintance and frequenter of Sir Erasmus Dreyden. His mistris, Rosalind, was a kinswoman of Sir Erasmus' lady's. The chamber there at Sir Erasmus' is still called Mr. Spencer's chamber. Lately, at the College takeing-downe the wainscot of his chamber, they found an abundance of cards, with stanzas of the 'Faerie Queen' written on them.—from John Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureate.
Mr. Beeston sayes he was a little man, wore short haire, little band and little cuffs.
[987]Edmund Spenser:—Mr. Samuel Woodford (the poet, who paraphras'd the Psalmes) lives in Hampshire neer Alton, and he told me that Mr. Spenser lived sometime in these parts, in this delicate sweet ayre; where he enjoyed his muse, and writt good part of his verses. I have said before that Sir Philip Sydney and Sir Walter Ralegh were his acquaintance. He had lived some time in Ireland, and wrote[988] a description of it, which is printed with Morison's History, or Description, of Ireland.
Sir John Denham told me, that archbishop Usher, Lord Primate of Armagh, was acquainted with him, by this token: when Sir William Davenant's Gondibert came forth, Sir John askt the Lord Primate if he had seen it. Said the Primate, 'Out upon him, with his vaunting preface, he speakes against my old friend, Edmund Spenser.'
In the south crosse-aisle of Westminster abbey, next the dore, is this inscription:
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