March 22 1581

March 22 1581

March 22

Spenser appointed Registrar/Clerk of the Faculties in the Court of Chancery, an office he holds for seven years. (Maley, 18) Spenser’s acquisition of this position “meant putting down into the soil of Ireland a first small root.” (Judson, 96) Hadfield believes that Spenser disliked his superior in this position, Adam Loftus, and satirized him in Mother Hubberds Tale. Hadfield also comments that "this experience [as registrar] contributed to Spenser's comments of Brehon Law in A View": "theare are more attainted Landes conceled from her maiestie then shee now hathe possessions in all Irelande." Hadfield goes on to say that "the Chancery court's guiding principle, equity, its importance in defining sovereignty as well as its potential abuse, is a key concept in Spenser's later work, especially the second part of [FQ], suggesting that his experience in the Dublin courts had a profound effect on his conception of the law and his literary imagination." (174-77) (Burlinson and Zurcher, 225)