Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Although Spenser makes quite a big fuss about Queen Elizabeth in his poem—both naming it after an image of her and dedicating to her—we have absolutely no evidence that she ever actually read it. What a bummer for Spenser. (Source: Hamilton, ed. Introduction.)
Although there's some debate over this point, most scholars believe that The Faerie Queene is unfinished, making it one of the longest works of English poetry to be considered "unfinished." Can you imagine how massive this poem would have been with six more books?! (Source: Hamilton, ed. Introduction.)
Spenser spent most of his life as a representative for the English government in Ireland—not a popular position with the Irish. But Spenser didn't care much for the Irish either and write a pretty shocking treatise called A View of the State of Ireland which essentially defends genocide if necessary for restoring order. Yikes. (Source: Spenser, Edmund. A View of the State of Ireland. New York: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.)