The Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume I

Images from The Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume I edited by Professer W. L. Renwick, printed at the Shakespeare Head Press in St Aldates Oxford and published for the press by Basil Blackwell in 1930.

in particular, I have scanned the headings from The Shepherd’s Calender (or, as Spenser put it, The Shepheardes Calender).

The decorations were designed and engraved on wood by Hilda Quick, and those in The Shepheardes Calender were based on the woodcuts in the original editions printed in quarto by Hugh Singleton in 1579. The initial letters and the letterings for the title-page and headings were engraved by Hilda Quick from designs by Joscelyne Gaskin.

I am not happy with the way the colours are coming out, and may redo them: the blue is too dark and the yellow too orange.

I do not know the copyright status of these images; when I scanned them I had received some incorrect information. I found a reference to a book illustrated by Hilda Quick and published in 1948, so it looks as if her work is still under copyright, although it may also have been published after her death. In addition, Joscelyne Gaskin died in or after 1992, although I do not know whether she held any part of the copyright. I have marked the images for non-commercial use only.

January

January from The Shepheardes Calendar. The shepherd’s boy, Colin Cloute, is shown with a staff (properly called a crook). We also see a distant town with the spires of a cathedral or of churches, and the Zodiac sign for Aquarias. [more...]

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January: page image

The page containing the heading for January; I have also scanned the woodcut for January separately. [more...]

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A Shepherd Boy (page image)

The start of the first Æglogue (page 11), showing the decorative initial and the page layout.

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February

February from The Shepheardes Calendar. An old shepherd, Thenot, speaks to a shepherd boy called Cuddie. We see the zodiac symbols for Pisces (the fish) in the sky. [more...]

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March

March from The Shepheardes Calendar. Two shepherd’s boys begin to “make purpos of love and other plesaunce, which to springtime is most agreeable.” We see the two boys standing talking, and also Cupid. In the sky is the zodiac symbol for Aries, the ram. There also appears to be a naked [...] [more...]

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April

April from The Shepheardes Calendar, or, as Spenser wrote it, Aprill. This Æglogue was written to honour Queen Elizabeth I. There are two shepherds, Hobbinoll and Thenott; we met Hobbinoll earlier, when he loved Colin. Queen Elizabeth is shown along with various [...] [more...]

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May

May from The Shepheardes Calendar, showing two shepherds, Piers and Palinodie, represented as as a Protestant and a Catholic minister. In the sky we see the zodiac sign for Gemini, together with the twins. [more...]

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