ABSTRACT
Spenser’s historical survey embodies careful study and organization of materials (see Harper 1910). Following Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae as his basic source, he consulted at least eleven other works for particular details, often using several for a single stanza. They include Gildas’ De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (6th century; pub 1525, 1567, 1568), Caxton’s Chronicles of England (1480, etc), Fabyan’s New Chronicles of England and France (1516, etc), Stow’s Summarie of Eng-lyshe Chronicles (1565, etc) and Chronicles of England (1580), the 1574 and 1578 additions to the Mirror for Magistrates, Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577, rev ed 1587), and Camden’s Britannia (1586, etc; tr 1601).
