Spenser.
[Footnote A: Edmund Spenser was born in London about 1552, and died there in 1599.

He was the greatest of the non-dramatic poets of the age of Elizabeth; and the "Faerie Queene" is the longest and most famous of his works.

The first three books were published in 1590, the second three in 1596; of the remaining six which he had planned some fragments were issued after his death.

The poem is a combination of allegory and romance; and in this prefatory letter to Raleigh the poet himself explains the plan of the work and its main allegorical signification.].