Spenser
By Carl Hare
Spenser portrays the last four turbulent months in the life of poet Edmund Spenser, faithful servant of Queen Elizabeth I of England, for whom he wrote The Fairie Queene. Spenser and his family find themselves caught in the 1598 Munster Revolt in Ireland, where he has become ... Read more
Overview
Spenser portrays the last four turbulent months in the life of poet Edmund Spenser, faithful servant of Queen Elizabeth I of England, for whom he wrote The Fairie Queene. Spenser and his family find themselves caught in the 1598 Munster Revolt in Ireland, where he has become an administrator and landlord in support of British rule. Fleeing England after the invasion of his Irish home, Spenser is forced to examine the sweep of his life as the treatise he has written about the Irish rebellion turns out to have far-reaching consequences. Written in Spenserian stanza to evoke the Elizabethan period and the poet's own style, Spenser is Book Two of the epic trilogy On the River of Time, which examines three figures--one mythical, one historical, and one fictional--from different time periods spanning almost three thousand years: Odysseus in Greece; Spenser, the poet, in Ireland; and Archer, a renegade actor/director in Canada. Through their journeys we explore the nature of human perceptions and drives, our use of the Mask in our lives, encounters with the Other, acceptance or denial of the consequences of our actions, and the continuity over the millennia of these universal human attributes.
Carl Hare
Carl Hare in his long career has been a professor, actor, director, playwright, and poet. His poetic works include his play The Eagle and the Tiger, a commissioned poem for Malcolm Forsyth’s A Ballad of Canada (2010), his collection of short poems A Weathering of Years (2015), and his epic trilogy On the River of Time: Book One, Odysseus (2017); Book Two, Spenser (2018); and Book Three, Archer (2022).