had failed also. For two years Ireland had been left to the local
administration, totally unable to heal its wounds, or cope with its
disorders. And now, the kingdom threatened to become a vantage-ground to
the foreign enemy. In November, 1579, the Government turned their eyes
on Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton, a man of high character, and a soldier
of distinction. He, or they, seem to have hesitated; or rather, the
hesitation was on both sides. He was not satisfied with many things in
the policy of the Queen in England: his discontent had led him, strong
Protestant as he was, to coquet with Norfolk and the partisans of Mary
Queen of Scots, when England was threatened with a French marriage ten
years before. His name stands among the forty nobles on whom Mary's
friends counted.[54:1] And on the other hand, Elizabeth did not like him
or trust him. For some time she refused to employ him. At length, in the
summer of 1580, he was appointed to fill that great place which had
wrecked the reputation and broken the hearts of a succession of able and
high-spirited servants of the English Crown, the place of Lord-Deputy in
Ireland. He was a man who was interested in the literary enterprise of
the time. In the midst of his public employment in Holland, he had been
the friend and patron of George Gascoigne, who left a high reputation,
for those days, as poet, wit, satirist, and critic. Lord Grey now took
Spenser, the "new poet," the friend of Philip Sidney, to Ireland as his
Secretary.

Spenser was not the only scholar and poet who about this time found
public employment in Ireland. Names which appear in literary records,
such as Warton's _History of English Poetry_, poets like Barnaby Googe
and Ludovic Bryskett, reappear as despatch-writers or agents in the
Irish State Papers. But one man came over to Ireland about the same time
as Spenser, whose fortunes were a contrast to his. Geoffrey Fenton was
one of the numerous translators of the time. He had dedicated Tragical
Tales from the French and Italian to Lady Mary Sidney, Guevara's
Epistles from the Spanish to Lady Oxford, and a translation of
Guicciardini to the Queen. About this time, he was recommended by his
brother to Walsingham for foreign service; he was soon after in Ireland:
and in the summer of 1580, he was made Secretary to the Government. He
shortly became one of the most important persons in the Irish
administration. He corresponded confidentially and continually with
B