These lines are certainly meant to reflect on Burleigh for neglecting him, and the Lord Treasurer afterwards conceived a hatred towards him for the satire he apprehended was levelled at him in Mother Hubbard’s Tale.  In this poem, the author has in the most lively manner, painted out the misfortune of depending on court favours.  The lines which follow are among others very remarkable.

  Full little knowest thou, that hast not try’d,
  What Hell it is in suing long to bide,
  To dole good days, that nights be better spent,
  To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
  To speed to day, to be put back to-morrow,
  To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow
  To have thy prince’s grace, yet want her peers,
  To have thy asking, yet wait many years. 
  To fret thy soul with crosses, and with care. 
  To eat thy heart, thro’ comfortless despair;
  To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run
  To spend, to give, to want, to be undone.

As this was very much the author’s case, it probably was the particular passage in that poem which gave offence; for as Hughes very elegantly observes, even the sighs of a miserable man, are sometimes resented as an affront, by him who is the occasion of them.  There is a little story, which seems founded on the grievance just now mentioned, and is related by some as a matter of fact [3] commonly reported at that time.  It is said, that upon his presenting some poems to the Queen, she ordered him a gratuity of one hundred pounds, but the Lord Treasurer Burleigh objecting to it, said with some scorn of the poet, of whose merit he was totally ignorant, “What, all this for a song?” The queen replied, “Then give him what is reason.”  Spenser for some time waited, but had the mortification to find himself disappointed of her Majesty’s bounty.  Upon this he took a proper opportunity to present a paper to Queen Elizabeth in the manner of a petition, in which he reminded her of the order she had given, in the following lines.

  I was promised on a time
  To have reason for my rhime,
  From that time, unto this season
  I received nor rhime, nor reason.

This paper produced the intended effect, and the Queen, after sharply reproving the treasurer, immediately directed the payment of the hundred pounds the had first ordered.  In the year 1579 he was sent abroad by the Earl of Leicester, as appears by a copy of Latin verses dated from Leicester-house, and addressed to his friend Mr. Harvey; but Mr. Hughes has not been able to determine in what service we was employed.  When the Lord Grey of Wilton was chosen Deputy of Ireland, Spenser was recommended to him as secretary.  This drew him over to another kingdom, and settled him in a scene of life very different from what he had formerly known; but, that he understood, and discharged his employment with skill and capacity, appears sufficiently by his discourse on the state of Ireland, in which