All the scenery in it which is not imaginary is Irish and not English scenery.
Its reception in England and at the Court was enthusiastic.

Men and women read it eagerly and longed for the next section as our grandfathers longed for the next section of _Pickwick_.

They really liked it, really loved the intricacy and luxuriousness of it, the heavy exotic language, the thickly painted descriptions, the languorous melody of the verse.

Mainly, perhaps, that was so because they were all either in wish or in deed poets themselves.

Spenser has always been "the poets' poet." Milton loved him; so did Dryden, who said that Milton confessed to him that Spenser was "his original," a statement which has been pronounced incredible, but is, in truth, perfectly comprehensible, and most likely true.