'You have thought of Sir Walter as soldier and knight,
Edmund Spenser, you've heard, was well able to write;
But Raleigh the planter, and Spenser verse-maker,
Each, oddly enough, was by trade 'Undertaker.''
It was in 1589 that the Shepherd of the Ocean, as Spenser calls him,
sailed to England to superintend the publishing of the Faerie
Queene: so from what I know of authors' habits, it is probable that
Spenser did read him the poem under the Yew Tree in Myrtle Grove
garden. It seems long ago, does it not, when the Faerie Queene was
a manuscript, tobacco just discovered, the potato a novelty, and the
first Irish cherry-tree just a wee thing newly transplanted from the
Canary Islands? Were our own cherry-trees already in America when
Columbus discovered us, or did the Pilgrim Fathers bring over
'slips' or 'grafts,' knowing that they would be needed for George
Washington later on, so that he might furnish an untruthful world
with a sublime sentiment? We re-read Salemina's letter under the
Yew Tree:-
Coolkilla House, Cork.
MY DEAREST GIRLS,--It seems years instead of days since we parted,
and I miss the two madcaps more than I can say. In your absence my
life is always so quiet, discreet, dignified,--and, yes, I confess
it, so monotonous! I go to none but the best hotels, meet none but
the best people, and my timidity and conservatism for ever keep me
in conventional paths.
Pages:
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82