And is there care in heaven, and is there love

Author: Edmund Spenser

Spenser, Edmund (born 1552; died 1599), has a right to his place in this work extrinsically and intrinsically. Extrinsically his odes, entitled by himself Fowre Hymnes, give us a connecting link with Chaucer; and intrinsically they are of "the brave translunary things" that ought long since to have introduced much in them to the Church's Hymnology. Spenser in the outset acknowledged Chaucer for his "dere maister;" and throughout there are echoes and re-echoes of him. Specifically in relation to the Foure Hymn, the Compleynt of Pite must have been carried by the youthful Spenser to Hurstwood and the Pendle district, or was found in one or other of the contemporary oultured Spenser households there. The Compleyn is of "Love," as is Spenser's… Go to person page >