fine melodiousness, which is one of Spenser's
signal characteristics, may be perceived in his
_Eclogues_, as also a native gracefulness of style,
which is another distinguishing mark of him.
Perceivable, too, are his great, perilous fluency of
language and his immense fecundity of mind. The work
at once secured him a front place in the poetical ranks
of the day. Sidney mentions it in his _Apologie for
Poetrie_;{5} Abraham Fraunce draws illustrations from
it in his _Lawyers Logicke_, which appeared in 1588;
Meres praises it; 'Maister Edmund Spenser,' says
Drayton, 'has done enough for the immortality, had he
only given us his _Shepheardes Calendar_, a
masterpiece, if any.' It is easy to discern in
_Lycidas_ signs of Milton's study of it.

During Spenser's sojourn in the society of the
Sidneys and the Dudleys, letters passed between him and
Harvey, some of which are extant. From these, and from
the editorial notes of Kirke, we hear of other works
written by Spenser, ready to be given to the light.
The works thus heard of are _Dreames_, _Legends_,
_Court of Cupide_, _The English Poet_, _The Dying
Pelican_, _Stemmata Dudleiana_, _Slomber_, _Nine
English Comedies_, _The Epithalamion Thamesis_, and
also _The Faerie Queene_ commenced. Of these works
perhaps the _Legends_, _Court of Cupide_, and
_Epithalamion Thamesis_ were subsequently with
modifications incorporated in the _Faerie Queene_; the
_Stemmata Dudleiana_, _Nine English Comedies_, _Dying
Pelican_, are altogether lost. The _Faerie Queene_ had
been begun. So far as written, it had been submitted
to the criticism of Harvey. On April 10, 1580, Spenser
writes to Harvey, wishing him to return it with his
'long expected judgment' upon it. Harvey had already
pronounced sentence in a letter dated April 7, and this
is the sentence: 'In good faith I had once again nigh
forgotten your _Faerie Queene_; howbeit, by good
chaunce I have nowe sent hir home at the laste, neither
in a better nor worse case than I founde hir. And must
you of necessitie have my judgement of hir indeede? To
be plaine, I am voyde of al judgement, if your nine
Com{oe}dies, whereunto, in imitation of Herodotus, you
give the names of the Nine Muses, and (in one man's
fansie not unworthily), come not neerer Ariostoes
Com{oe}dies, eyther for the finenesse of plausible
elocution, or the rareness of poetical invention, than
that Elvish queene doth to his Orlando Furioso, which
notwithst