Other circumstances in the life of Rose Daniel correspond so strikingly with those attributed to Rosalinde, as strongly to corroborate the foregone conclusion.

Rosalinde, after having given encouragement to her enamored shepherd, faithlessly and finally deserted him in favor of a rival.  This is evident throughout the “Shepherd’s Calendar.”  The First Eclogue reveals his passion:—­

  “I love thilk lass, (alas! why do I love?)
  And am forlorne, (alas! why am I lorn?)
  She deigns not my good will, but doth reprove,
  And of my rural music holdeth scorn.”

Her scorn, however, may have meant no more than the natural coyness of a maiden whom the learned Upton somewhat drolly designates as “a skittish female.” [3] Indeed, Spenser must have thought so himself, and with reason, for she continues to receive his presents, “the kids, the cracknels, and the early fruit,” sent through his friend Hobbinoll (Gabriel Harvey).

We hear of no alteration of his circumstances until we reach the Sixth Eclogue, in which the progress and utter disappointment of his suit are distinctly and bitterly complained of.  “This eclogue,” says the editorial “E.K.,” “is wholly vowed to the complaining of Colin’s ill-success in love.  For being (as is aforesaid) enamoured of a country lass, Rosalinde, and having (as it seemeth) found place in her heart, he lamenteth to his dear friend Hobbinoll that he is now forsaken unfaithfully, and in his stead Menalcas, another shepherd, received disloyally:  and this is the whole argument of the eclogue.”  In fact, she broke her plighted vow to Colin Clout, transferred her heart to Menalcas, and let her hand accompany it.

Now, from this and the preceding circumstances, the inference appears inevitable that, at or about the time of the composition of this Sixth Eclogue, the Rosalinde therein celebrated was married, or engaged to be married, to the person denounced as Menalcas.

Whether the ante-nuptial course of Rose Daniel corresponded with the faithlessness ascribed to Rosalinda we confess we have no documentary evidence to show:  but this much is certain, that Rose was married to an intimate friend of her brother’s; and, from the characteristics recorded of him by Spenser, we shall presently prove that that friend, the husband of Rosalinde, is no other than the treacherous rival denounced as Menalcas in the “Shepherd’s Calendar.”  Who, then, is Menalcas?

Amongst the distinguished friends of Samuel Daniel was a man of much celebrity in his day,—­the redoubted, or, as he chose to call himself, the “Resolute” John Florio (Shakspeare’s Holofernes).  This gentleman, an Italian by descent, was born in London in the same year with Spenser, and was a class-fellow with Daniel at Oxford.  He was the author of many works, well received by the public,—­as his “First Fruits,” “Second Fruits,” “Garden of Recreation,” and so forth; also, of an excellent Italian and English dictionary,