Yet must I labor still,
    All the day through,—­
  Striving with earnest will
  Patient my place to fill,
    My work to do.

  Long though my task may be,
    Cometh the end. 
  God ’tis that helpeth me,
  His is the work, and He
    New strength will lend.

  He will direct my feet,
    Strengthen my hand,
  Give me my portion meet;—­
  Firm in his promise sweet
    Trusting I’ll stand.

  Up, then, to work again! 
    God’s word is given
  That none shall sow in vain,
  But find his ripened grain
    Garnered in heaven.

  Longer the shadows fall,—­
    Night cometh on;
  Low voices softly call,
  “Come, here is rest for all! 
    Labor is done!”

COLIN CLOUT AND THE FAERY QUEEN.

  EDMUND SPENSER IN A DOMESTIC POINT OF VIEW. 
  HIS MISTRESS AND HIS WIFE.

PART I.—­HIS MISTRESS.

The “Faery Queen” of Edmund Spenser is before us,—­a vast and glittering mausoleum, in which the purpose of the constructor has long been entombed, we fear without hope of a happy resurrection.  Nevertheless, into this splendid ruin, hieroglyphed with the most brilliant images the modern mind has yet conceived, we are about to dig,—­not with the impious desire of dragging forth the intellectual tenant, now in the fourth century of its everlasting repose, but, haply, to discover in the outer chambers and passages of the pyramid some relics of the individual architect, his family and mode of life.  In fact, we are anxious to make the acquaintance of Mistress Spenser and introduce her to the American public.  A slight sketch of the poet’s life, up to the period of his marriage, may afford us some clue to the quarter from which he selected his bride; we shall therefore give what is known of him in the fewest possible words.

Edmund Spenser, by family, was English, and by birth a cockney.  In his “Prothalamion” he thus pleads guilty to the chime of Bow-bells in his infant ear:—­

  “At length they all to merrie London came,
  To merrie London, my most kindly nurse,
  That to me gave this life’s first native source;
  Though from another place I take my name
  And house of ancient fame.”

At what time of his life he became connected with Ireland is very uncertain; it was probably early.  At or about the time of Sir Henry Sidney’s vice-royalty, or in the interval between that and the lieutenancy of Lord Grey De Wilton, there was a “Mr. Spenser” actively and confidentially employed by the Irish government; and that this may have been the poet is, from collateral circumstances, far from improbable.  Spenser was the friend and protege of Sir Philip Sidney, (son of the before-named Sir Henry,) and of his uncle, the Earl of Leicester.  Lord Grey De Wilton was