Edmund Spenser, Amoretti

Tamsin Theresa Badcoe (University of Bristol)
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Edmund Spenser’s sonnet sequence

Amoretti

was first printed, together with the poet’s marriage hymn

Epithalamion

, in a single octavo in 1595. It had been entered into the Stationers’ Register on 19th November 1594 and was published by William Ponsonby, who in the dedicatory letter addressed to Sir Robert Needham that was printed with the work, appears to suggest that it was Needham who brought Spenser’s manuscript to London from Ireland. As Ponsonby writes, Needham is to be praised not only for his literary tastes, but for providing the poems with safe passage across the Irish Sea:

For, besides your iudgement and delighte in learned poesie: This gentle Muse for her former perfection long wished for in Englande, nowe at the length crossing the Seas in your happy companye, (though to

3609 words

Citation: Badcoe, Tamsin Theresa. "Amoretti". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 April 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6719, accessed 19 March 2024.]

6719 Amoretti 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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