The life

Facts about Spenser's life, especially the early years, are sparse. He was born probably in 1552, and he tells us in Prothalamion (1596) II. 127–9 that his place of birth was London. His parents seem to have been in relatively humble circumstances, although he claimed descent from ‘An house of auncient fame’ (Prothalamion I. 130), the Spencers of Althorp. He dedicated a number of poems to daughters of that family and seems to have received patronage from them (see, e.g., the dedication to Muiopotmos (1590), and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595) II.536–71).

Spenser was fortunate to attend Merchant Taylors' School which had been recently opened and was run by one of the great English educationalists of the sixteenth century, Richard Mulcaster. As was normal, Mulcaster would have grounded his boys in classical languages and texts, but unusually for his time Mulcaster encouraged the vernacular as fit for the composition of verse and fine prose. As part of his mastery of language and versification, Spenser would undoubtedly have had to compose poems at school in Latin and perhaps Greek, and from the classical languages into English. He would have gained familiarity with the main classical genres and have learned to imitate them. Copiousness, the ability to enrich a topic with variety of vocabulary, was seen as a virtue, and Spenser may well have learned from Mulcaster his interest in adding to the abundance of the English language through the introduction of old and regional words.