edmund spenser - socialism and the shepherd's calendar

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Essay 1 Spenser 2012 Michael Spaulding

I know some people say I can be funny. But there is always a deeper meaning to

what I say. I am a socialist at heart and have the interests of the poor in mind.

When people see how I manage to work my way out of tough situations, it gives

them hope in their own life.

-Lalu Prasad Yadav

Spenser believed in the everyman. In writing his way into the Elizabethan court, Spenser also

hoped to convey a socialist message promoting equal opportunity under a large government. This

becomes apparent when considering the content of his The Shepheardes Calenderand relevant snippets

from his other works. The Shepheardes Calendarnot only address the situation of one that is

considered low, or common, but elevates it.

In Spenser's introductory text to The Shepheardes Caldendar, To His Booke, the imagery again

and again describes something small being escorted by something big. The immediate something small

is Spenser's little booke (500)1, The Shepheardes Calender, being escorted by Sidney, but what the

poem more tacitly reveals is Spenser's personal introduction into the literary landscape of the Royal

Court. Because Spenser was born to a family of modest means (Cambridge), he understood the

necessary and sensitive process that an unkent one such as he would have to undertake in order to

effectively penetrate the Royal Court and overcome the malicious envy in high places that threatens

an aspiring poet (500). This process then also emphasizes the extra painstaking rituals that one would

have to submit to in order to solicit their merit; thus, by focusing on the difficulties, Spenser is able toeffectively characterize the intractable aristocracy as inefficient and therefore stifling to any plebeian.

1 To reduce complexity and confusion regarding the works cited page, and redundant and cluttered text in the in-textcitations, all works from Edmund Spenser's Poetry 3rd ed., whether the author is MacLean and Prescott, or Spenser, orE.K., or some other entity, will be referenced as a page number only. All other sources will receive full MLA citation.


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In E.K.'sDedicatory Epistle to The Shepheardes Calender, perhaps one of the most critical

notes helping to explain why Spenser chose to write pastorally, other than the more obvious reason that

he was following in the footsteps of his poetic fathers Virgil and Chaucer, is found in the imagery ofexquisite pictures [that] use to blaze and portraict not onley the daintic lineaments of beautye, but also

rounde about it to shadow the rude thickets and craggy clifts, that by the baseness of such parts, more

excellency may accrew to the principall (502). In this argument, EK is expressing a need for

wholeness in any work; that without the base to juxtapose against, greatness cannot be since dualities

only gain significance when both parties are present, otherwise something merely is. Thus, Spenser is

cleverly doing what we see all throughout his poetrypromoting the value of the common as a

necessary component to the approbation and reverence of the court. It is in this context that Spenser

presents the poets vision of his role in society (543) as a patron and politician for the common and

uniting nationalist force.

And so, after an introductory To His Booke and a dedicatory epistle, we finally reach The

Shepheardes Calender. In Januarye, we meet Colin Cloute, a Shepheards boye whom Spenser2

insists we should no better doe him call (506). The cause for Spenser's insistence on baseness will be

revealed by the end of the calendar which I shall address when we reach December's eclogue. For now

though, the first most considerable aspect of Januarye to my argument is in the relationship of Colin to

his flock. Colin has the humility to admit that his ill government is what has caused his flock's

affliction (507). It should be no coincidence that Spenser chose the word government so early in the

Calendar; like any good symbol, introducing it as early as possible in the text helps to ensure the reader

2 When considering the speaker in each of Spenser's poems, the Poet Speaker or Character will only be named as thespeaker if it provides special emphasis or importance, otherwise for clarity, Spenser will always be considered the onecomposing the literature itself.


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in the first footnote for Februarie describes this ecologue as a pastoral commentary on failures of

harmony in the body politic (L. Johnson 1990) (509). Thenot, then, is the government and Cuddie is

the Reformation (516), youth, changeand Spenser himself if what I argue about Januarye hasvalidity.

Finally, Summer has arrived. The flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and lo, who is that?

A fair queen is strolling down to Kent. Honey gathers more flies than vinegar; this is half the idea

behind Aprill's eclogue. Within a frame, Spenser puts Elizabeth on a pedestal and spends an entire

month praising and coddling her and even manages to slide a zinger in. The characters in this month

are Thenot and Hobbinoll, of which Hobbinoll recounts a song which the sayd Colin sometime made

in honor of her Majestie (518). However, before beginning Colin's song of praise, Thenot inquires to

Hobbinoll why his face stremes the trickling teares, to which Hobbinoll replies that he is mourning

for Colin (518). So, although one is led to believe April is only a honeyed tale, it is framed in the

vinegar of sorrow. The frame is completed after Hobbinoll ends Colin's song to which Thenot remarks,

Ah foolish boy, that is with love yblent: / Great pittie is, he be in such taking, for naught caren, that

bene so lewdly bent (523). This agreement of pity and sorrow by Thenot displays a connection

between two generationsHobbinol, a younger shepherd and Thenot, the elder shepherd. Colin's

situation works as a bridge between the two parties, evoking sympathy from both. Thus, Colin's words

and situation are more effective at evoking camaraderie between the two different parties than when

Thenot quoted Chaucer in Februarie. Second, the other slight that Spenser cleverly delivers is when he

will not match her with Latonaes seede (521). The problem with this is that just by mentioning it, it

forces the reader's mind to first manifest the connection before it can be rejected. This is a clever way

of saying something, but denying it at the same time. Possibly, because of the mythology surrounding

this comparison, Spenser is implying that the Queen should not be so proud, but rather strive for beauty


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in humility. Finally, just as the past two months have implied a relation between leaders and followers,

so April makes it more explicit when Hobbinoll calls Elizabeth the Queen of shepheardes all (519).

Colin's song works as the medium for the common shepherds to connect more personally, inadmiration, to the Queen. What we have then is a brilliant shepherd, Colin, who has written a beautiful

poem about a queen, and has been cast aside and ignored. In light of what Colin says in CCCHA 3,

about what is valued in court, which I discussed at the end of my paragraph on January, this idea

mirrors that same conceptan undervalued and unappreciated poet who has praised the one who

ignored him.

Just get a job? Why dont I strap on my job helmet, and squeeze down into a job cannon, and

fire off into jobland, where jobs grow on jobbies!? (Charlie). The October eclogue blends the real

problems of being a poet with the concerns of doing what you love with your life. This is an important

economic message as well as a desperate cry for the government to realize that humanity is just as

important as capital. As the footnote on for lines 67-78 note, the debasement of poetry results from

'political and sociological constraints' upon the poet (528), which basically means that what is popular

isn't smart and what is smart doesn't earn money. Cuddie complains that while his physical belongings

have bene rent and wore and even his poore Muse hath spent her spard store, he has received

nothing for his efforts to write poetry with meaning (525). Unlike the past three dicussed eclogues, as

we move back toward the winter months, and nights grow longer, so the tone becomes more dismal.

Also unlike the last three months featured in this essay, there is no joining force, and no hope. Piers

attempts to inspire Cuddie, but his corage cooles ere it be warm, / For thy, content us in thys humble

shade (529). Basically, it is just too hard, so they would rather give up. Living in a world like this

3 Colin Clouts Come Home Again


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would be very uninspiring and difficult to find motivation in. It is precisely this environment that

Spenser has continually painted for the reader as to make them aware of the dire situation.

November's eclogue is a warning to the Queen. Spenser shows Elizabeth exactly why he is

neededto protect her poetic immortality. The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf / clutch

and sink into the wet bank. The wind / crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.

Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song (Eliot). Just like Eliot's The Waste Land, images of

drowning and death pervade the text. However bleak it may seem though, arguably, The Waste Land,

just like the November eclogue, ends in something resembling hope. These months that Spenser shores

against his ruinsshantih shantih shantih.4 I found it rather hard to discuss November in the confines

of my topic because it is really a complex, beautiful eclogue that has a political message but I think

more importantly, it takes delight in being a poem. The poem also implies a powerful longing of

Spenser's to be closer to Elizabeth.

Finally, December. The Waste Land that we thought Colin had avoided at the end of November

has become a realization. No one is left for him to complain to and Colin returns to a complaynte... to

God Pan (537). This cyclical action of Colin returning to his complaint parallels the cyclical nature of

an actual calendar year and echoes Genesis 3:19, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. At

the beginning of the Calendar, Colin had been abandoned by Rosalinde, and by the end he has been

abandoned by the Queen herself. The cyclical nature and reality of death was something that Spenser

really wanted to drive home toward the end of the the calendar. If this was his chance to emphasize the

importance of a new, fresh poet in the court, he had to make sure it counted. The cyclical nature of it

emphasizes the changes in politics, such as revolutions and reformations; it emphasizes the changing of

4 Echoes line 430 from The Waste Land.


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the literary guard, as one poet steps down and another takes their place; and it emphasizes the passing

of generations and the possibility for poetic immortality. Putting these realities so clearly on the

forefront of this eclogue, Spenser probably could have slid Obama's 2008 campaign slogan in heresomewhere: It's time for a change. With all of these ideas in mind, it is clear to see that Spenser's

content had an ulterior motive. He was striving for a fair work environment and a stronger nation

through unity. Even the form itself of the whole calendar and the writers that Spenser most respected

had specific implications regarding nationalism. The fact that England actually did have shepherds, that

Spenser employed rustic Chaucerian language adeptly blended with his own, and that a poem about

Shepherds was going to be presented in court, to a queen are all signs that Spenser strove for unity.

Which brings us to my final point, the language. Spenser once exclaimed to his friend Harvey,

Why a Gods name may not we, as else the Greekes, have the kingdome of our owne Language. . .

(543). Language was a critical component of national identity. Although England recognized the

importance of maintaining a national language as a unifying characteristic, revealed by their more

than six centuries [of] British policy in Ireland... aimed at the destruction of the Irish Gaelic language

(Cahill), the English court had adopted French through the influence of international politics. This rift

in language only further distanced the upper and lower classes of England and was one of the gaps that

Spenser hoped to close a little by use of his rustic, sometimes archaic, vernacular English. He wanted to

redistribute language among the entire populace. As an editor's note, MacLean and Prescott have

referred to this one of Spenser's concerns as linguistic nationalism (543). Even Dante did something

linguistically parallel to this with hisDivine Comedy which employs Italian vernacular as opposed to

the upper-class Latin that most poets employed. Vernacular, as a term used significantly to describe

Spenser's linguistic style literally means of the people (Matthews). Although I do not have room to

further discuss the linguistic nationalism of Spenser within the scope of this essay due to page


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limitation and realistic expectations on my own character, work load, and sanity at this timethere is

much to explore here.

Spenser's poetry is ripe with the pursuit of equality, a love for education, an emphasis on

humility, and a overwhelming tone of love. Almost every problem we encounter presented by my

interpretation ofThe Shepheardes Calendarcould be fixed if elitism was eliminated or equal

opportunity was more strongly pursued. Someone could read this essay and simply state that none of

this is correct and it was all just a clever way for him to get into the courtthey were all selfish acts. I

don't believe that. Spenser knew that he had to acquire power before he could evoke any kind of change.

That is why I believe his pursuit of fame is so closely linked to his focus on the shepherd. It is now

over 400 years later and we are still struggling with the same social issues. It just goes to show how

hard it is to eliminate prejudices, which makes it all the more important for us to all work harder at

doing so.

Works Cited

Cahill, Sean. The Politics of the Irish Language Under the English and British Governments. Barra Donnabhin Symposium. 2007. Web. 3 Oct. 2012..

Cambridge. The Edmund Spenser Home Page. Department of English at Cambridge. CambridgeUniversity. .

Charlie. The Gang Sells Out.It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Season 3, Episode 7. FX. 10 April2007. Television.


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Eliot, Thomas Stearns. The Waste Land. New York: Horace Liveright, 1922; Bartleby.com, 2011.. 173-176. 18 Oct 2012.

MacLean, Hugh and Anne Lake Prescott.Edmund Spenser's Poetry. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton& Company, 1993. Print.

Matthews, Jeff.Beginnings of Vernacular. University of Maryland University College. .

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