The Envoy Tradition and Spenser's Career Gambit

This envoy (a poem sending off a longer work) closes *The Shepheardes Calender* (1579), Spenser's debut publication at age 27. The convention—addressing your book as it goes into the world—goes back to Chaucer's *Troilus and Criseyde* ("Go, litel bok"), but Spenser had specific career reasons for the extreme humility here.

CONTEXT Spenser was an unknown Cambridge graduate trying to break into the Leicester-Sidney circle, the Protestant literary faction at Elizabeth's court. Publishing ambitious poetry without patronage protection was risky—Enuie wasn't metaphorical. Courtiers could destroy careers. The shadow of his wing (Leicester's protection) was literally what Spenser needed to survive criticism.

The repeated text and printer's colophon appearing twice is likely a printing error or variant state from Hugh Singleton's shop. What's interesting is that Spenser *included* the colophon as part of the poem's text—the book's physical existence in Creede Lane becomes part of its literary identity. The Immeritô signature caps both versions, insisting on anonymity even as the poem circulates.

The "Come tell me, what was sayd of mee" request is the tell: Spenser desperately wanted feedback from the Leicester circle. The promise "I will send more after thee" proved accurate—within a decade he'd published *The Faerie Queene*. But in 1579, he genuinely didn't know if this gambit would work.

The Bastard Book Strategy

The base begot with blame instruction is more than modesty—it's legal strategy. If the book claims illegitimate birth and unknown parentage, Spenser has deniability. The "shepheards swaine" author is a fictional pastoral character, not Edmund Spenser of London.

CONTEXT 1579 was a dangerous publishing moment. The Puritan John Stubbs had his right hand cut off that year for a pamphlet criticizing the Queen's potential French marriage. *The Shepheardes Calender* contains political allegory (the "April" eclogue praises Elizabeth, but other eclogues criticize court corruption). The orphan-book conceit gave Spenser cover.

Notice the book is told to claim shame ("For thy thereof thou takest shame")—own the illegitimacy, don't defend it. This preemptive surrender to criticism is Renaissance publication tactics. If the book admits it's bastard work from a humble shepherd, critics can't attack what's already been conceded.

The hardyhedde (boldness/audacity) that needs pardoning is the act of a nobody dedicating experimental English poetry to Leicester. Spenser had written the first major English pastoral since Chaucer, reviving a classical genre with deliberate archaisms ("vnkent," "thy") to make English sound ancient and dignified. That took nerve when Italian was still considered the only language fit for serious poetry.

Edmund Spenser

The Shepheardes Calender

Goe little booke: thy selfe present

Book as orphan

The **envoy** (send-off poem) personifies the book as a foundling child with unknown parentage—standard medieval/Renaissance modesty topos, but Spenser pushes it further than usual.

As child whose parent is vnkent:

To him that is the president

Of noblesse and of cheualree,

Leicester addressed

**President of noblesse and of cheualree** = Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favorite. Spenser was seeking patronage from Leicester's circle.

And if that Enuie barke at thee,

As sure it will, for succoure flee

Vnder the shadow of his wing,

And asked, who thee forth did bring,

Pastoral persona

**Shepheards swaine** is Spenser's fictional author-persona throughout *The Shepheardes Calender*. He's hiding behind the pastoral mask while addressing powerful courtiers.

A shepheards swaine saye did thee sing,

All as his straying flocke he fedde:

And when his honor has thee redde,

Craue pardon for my hardyhedde.

But if that any aske thy name,

Say thou wert base begot with blame:

Illegitimate birth claim

**Base begot with blame** = illegitimate, shameful birth. The book should claim bastard status if questioned—extreme self-deprecation that protects Spenser from criticism.

For thy thereof thou takest shame.

And when thou art past ieopardee,

Come tell me, what was sayd of mee:

And J will send more after thee.

Signature as pseudonym

**Immeritô** = Latin "the unworthy one." Spenser's pseudonym for the entire *Calender*. He didn't publicly claim authorship until years later.

Jmmeritô.