Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser''s innovative poetic works have a central place in the canon of English literature. Yet he is remembered as a morally flawed, self-interested sycophant; complicit in England''s ruthless colonisation of Ireland; in Karl Marx''s words, ''Elizabeth''s arse-kissing poet''-- a man on the make who aspired to be at court and who was prepared to exploit the Irish to get what he wanted.

In hi...