Whatever the gossip and whatever the implications for the success of Spenser’s poem, the offensive omission was rectified. Since two sonnets were printed on each page, the leaf on which the sonnets to Hatton and Essex and (on the reverse side) to Oxford and Northumberland were printed had to be changed in order for Burleigh’s sonnet to appear in its proper place, next to Hatton’s. Two pages (containing the first eight sonnets as printed) were deleted and replaced by an insert that required additional sonnets to fill out the blank pages, for which Spenser provided the sonnets to Burleigh, Cumberland, Hunsdon, Buckhurst, Walsing-ham, Norris, and the Countess of Pembroke.

This error of Spenser’s political judgement is the chief means we have to distinguish the early printings of Books I-III. If a 1590 copy contains only the ten sonnets, it is the earlier printing (the first issue). If it contains the revised order of seventeen sonnets as printed in this edition, it is the second issue. Some copies of 1590 contain both the revised and unrevised pages, a variation that shows the puzzled binder trying to cope with Spenser’s afterthought. For a bibliographical description of the changes see Francis R, Johnson, A Critical Bibliography of the Works of Edmund Spenser Printed before 1700 (Baltimore, 1933). PP- I5-I6.

The dedicatees include the foremost men of England as well as Spenser’s friends. Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-91) as Lord High Chancellor was the highest in rank of Elizabeth’s ministers, but William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (1520-98), was the most powerful. There is some evidence that Burleigh did not approve of Spenser’s poem (see Proem to Book IV and note) and that he was responsible for Spenser’s failure to be adequately rewarded financially for the poem. Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604), was the patron and centre of a literary group and was married, until her death in 1588, to Burleigh’s daughter Anne. The enmity between Leicester and Burleigh was continued in a challenge that Oxford sent to Sir Philip Sidney, Leicester’s nephew, through Sir Walter Ralegh, the Queen’s new favourite in the 1580s. Ralegh’s refusal to engage in the quarrel earned him the undying enmity of Oxford. Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564-1632), ‘was a man of intellectual and literary taste and a friend of Ralegh’s. George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558-1605). was a ‘sea dog’ like Drake and Ralegh. Robert Devereux, and Earl of Essex (1567-1601), was a dashing young man of twenty-three at the time of the dedication, the brother of Sir Philip Sidney’s Stella (Penelope Devereux), and the latest favourite of the Queen. Eleven yean later he would be executed for rebellious treason against the Queen. Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond and Ossory (1532-1614), was Lord Treasurer of Ireland from 1559 and Lord General of Minister; Spenser and Lord Grey de Wilton pro bably stayed with him at his castle in Kilkenny. Charles Howard, Lord High Admiral (1534-1624), was the hero of the defeat of the Armada in 1588. Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon (1524-96), a favourite and first cousin to the Queen, the son of Anne Boleyn’s sister, was a soldier and patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Shakespeare’s acting company. Arthur Grey, 14th Lord Grey de Wilton (1536-93), was the Lord Deputy in Ireland from August 1580 to September 1582. Spenser was his secretary. Thomas Sackville, Baron Buckhurst (1536-1608), was one of the most accomplished poets of the mid sixteenth century. He wrote the ‘Induction’ to the Mirror for Magistrates (1559) and the lasttwo acts of Gorboduc (1560), the first tragedy in English. Sir Francis Walsingham (1530?-9o), as principal secretary to the Queen, was second in power only to Burleigh. His daughter Frances was married to Sir Philip Sidney in 1583. Captain Sir John Norris (1547?-97), in addition to being Lord President of Munster, was a famous soldier and hero in France and the Low Countries. He sailed with Drake against Spain. Sir Walter Ralegh (i5S2?-i6i8) was a close friend of Spenser, who addresses the prefatory letter to The Faerie Queene to him.