Edmund Spenser
Person Male Born 1552 Died 13/1/1599
Poet. Probably born in East or West Smithfield. Best known for the epic poem 'The Faerie Queene'. When Queen Elizabeth failed to arrange payment ("a reason") for a poem he wrote:
I was promis'd on a time,
To have a reason for my rhyme:
But from that time unto this season,
I had neither rhyme or reason.
1580 began work as an administrator in Ireland where he lived until his death, returning to England regularly. He published nothing during his first 10 years there. Died Westminster.
In 1938 his tomb in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner was opened by people searching for items, such as pens, supposedly placed there at the time of his burial, by other poets, such as Shakespeare. Nothing was found.
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