ABSTRACT
Despite the superlatives, what Lamb did not do with Spenser is at least as remarkable as what he did do. In 1797 he encouraged Coleridge to write an ‘Epic’ in the spirit not only of Milton but of Spenser, and in 1815 he urged Wordsworth to write ‘more criticism, about Spenser etc’ (Lamb and Lamb ed 1975-8, 1:87, 3:149), but so far as we know Lamb himself attempted neither. He does mention Spenser by name in the early verses ‘To the Poet Cowper’: ‘with lighter finger playing,/Our elder Bard, Spenser, a gentle Name,/The Lady muses’ dearest darling child,/Elicited the deftest tunes yet heard/ In Hall or Bower, taking the delicate Ear/ Of Sidney, and his peerless maiden Queen’ (to Coleridge, 5 Jul 1796; ed 1975-8, 1:41). And Spenser influenced the subject and style of several other early poems, most evidently ‘A Vision of Repentance.’ Lamb dared to hope Coleridge might discern in the poem’s imagery and diction ‘a delicacy of pencilling [ie, brushwork] not quite unspencer like’ (to Coleridge, 15 Apr 1797; 1:106-9). But the Spenserian influence faded with the enthusiasms of Lamb’s early poetic period.
