ABSTRACT
Neither Spenser’s experience of, nor his attitude towards, the court is easy to establish. There are too many gaps in his biography, and recent scholarship has revealed the dangers of an overly literal interpretation of allusions to persons and events in his work (Oram 1983:45, Meyer 1969, ch 6). Very little, in fact, can be stated with certainty. Spenser hovered on the fringes of the court in 1579-80 when he was attached to the Earl of Leicester’s household and in 1590-1 when he returned briefly from Ireland in the company, it is assumed, of Sir Walter Raleigh. Whether he ever entered its inner precincts remains a matter for speculation. The only evidence for the earlier period is provided by one comment in the not entirely reliable Two Letters (Var Prose p 7). For the later, the literary allusions are to some extent substantiated by the grant of a pension in 1591.
