ABSTRACT
John Aubrey (1626-97) was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and even from his time as an undergraduate developed his historical interests. The Brief Lives were never published in his own time, when his reputation was strictly tied to his achievement as an antiquarian. Outside the Life, other mentions of Spenser occur in his accounts of Sidney (repeating first the story about the Despair Canto), of the Countess of Pembroke (to the effect that he was not a stranger at Wilton), and of Michael Drayton.
