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advantage ; the ftanza and the old words, hardly un~~derftood by modern readers, give an air of vene-rable authority, which commands, though it hasnow failed to interelT:; and all the attempted imi-tations of him fo entirely referable the original, thatthey lofe both his variety and fimplicity. Like otherjuvenile Poets, Spencer had his Rofalind, who, afterflattering his paffion for a time, at length preferreda happier rival, who is fatirized by the name ofMenalcas, in his fixth Eclogue. RofalincPs realname is not known. Though we may fympathifein the difappointment of the Poet , we mull: not for-get that we are indebted to the lady for thofe Poems,in which he bewails his misfortune with fo muchelegance and pafloral fimplicity.

The difappointments and mifery of this greatPoet, cannot be read without a pang of regret; andthe fcholar and man of tafle will execrate the nameof Burleigh, whofe ill-judged parfimony preventedQueen Elizabeth giving him ioo/. as if he thoughtthe lowed: clerk in his office a more deferving per-fon. It was very hard, obferves one of his biogra-phers, that a genius who did honour to his coun-try, fhould get lefs by writing than a journeymanmechanic, employed in printing his works. TheFairy Queen was chiefly written during his refldenceat the Caftle of Kilcolman, in the county of Cork ,which had been the property of the famous Earl ofDcfmond. He died in want of bread, 1599, and

was