Edmund Spenser
Sat,—Janus may be interested to learn that the fourth centenary of the birth of Edmund Spenser has been honoured also by his old school, and that the school is by no means forgetful at other times of one of its most distinguished sons. We have a house, a leaving exhibition- and a society all named after him, and we read his poems, not for the purpose of examinations, but for pleasure. The Spenser Society dined this year on July 17th, which by tradition is believed here to be the eve of his birthday. For various reasons the day itself was found not to be possible, and it may be that Pembroke College chose July 19th also because that was a more convenient day. At any- rate the celebrations both at Pembroke and at Merchant Taylors', though arranged independently, occurred in the same week.
In suggesting that a date is only a peg on which to hang a lunch, Janus does much less than justice to the entertainment which the Master and Fellows of Pembroke provided 'for their guests. Before lunch the Regius Professor of English Literature at Edinburgh University, Professor W.-L. Renwick, gave a lecture on Spenser; after-/ wards madrigals were sung from the musicians' gallery in Pembroke Hall—parts of "The Faerie Queene" and "The Shepheard'A Calendar" set to music by Elizabethan composers. Each part of this entertain- ment was in its own way a delight: mind, body and spirit were all refreshed: the birthday was most worthily commemorated.—I am, &c., HUGH ELDER.
Merchant Taylors School, Sandy Lodge, Northwood, Middx.
[Janus writes: " Very true. But if there had been no date there would have been no lunch. If there had been no lunch there would have been no madrigals, and no admirable address—at the luncheon-table--by the Master of Pembroke. The peg served its purpose to perfection. As to doing justice to the entertainment, my neighbours at the lunch can bear convincing witness to that."]
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