The Lewkenor Circle · Biography
Edmund Spenser: A Poet Commends Lewkenor
“Yet not so fayre her buildinges to behold / As Lewkenors stile that hath her beautie told.”
Life and historical setting
Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599), author of The Shepheardes Calender and The Faerie Queene, was among the leading poets of Elizabethan England.
His writing brought pastoral, romance, history and moral allegory into a sustained examination of virtue and public life. His literary relationships extended through patrons, fellow poets, translators and the writers whose books he commended.
Lewes Lewkenor’s account of Venice carries one of those commendations: a sonnet that concludes by praising the quality of Lewkenor’s English prose.
The sonnet to Lewkenor
The poem appears among the prefatory verses to The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, published in 1599.
The antique Babel, Empresse of the East,
Vpreard her buildinges to the threatned skie:
And Second Babell tyrant of the West,
Her ayry Towers vpraised much more high.
But with the weight of their own surquedry,
They both are fallen, that all the earth did feare,
And buried now in their own ashes ly,
Yet shewing by their heapes how great they were.
But in their place doth now a third appeare,
Fayre Venice, flower of the last worlds delight,
And next to them in beauty draweth neare,
But farre exceedes in policie of right.
Yet not so fayre her buildinges to behold
As Lewkenors stile that hath her beautie told.Edw. Spencer.
Commendatory sonnet attributed to Edmund Spenser, prefixed to Lewkenor’s The Commonwealth and Government of Venice (1599). Original spelling retained, with the long “s” rendered as “s”. The printed signature reads “Edw. Spencer”. EEBO–TCP transcription; Spenser’s commendatory sonnets, Renascence Editions.
“Lewkenors stile”
The sonnet begins with the great cities of the past. Their buildings rose towards the sky, but their pride—“surquedry”—brought them down. Their ruins testify to their former greatness.
Venice appears as a third city, approaching its predecessors in beauty and surpassing them in political order.
The closing couplet then turns from the city to its English interpreter. Venice’s buildings are beautiful, but Lewkenor’s style is more beautiful still.
The praise concerns the writing itself. Spenser makes Lewkenor’s prose the culmination of a poem about architecture, political achievement and the survival of reputation.
Spenser’s sonnet appears among its prefatory verses.
Title-page image and source.
The literary company of the Venice translation
Spenser’s sonnet stands alongside verses by other writers who presented Lewkenor’s translation to its readers.
Maurice Kyffin describes the translator through the conjunction of military experience and learning:
Lewkenor, whom armes and letters have made knowen,
In this worke hath the fruits of either shewen.
Maurice Kyffin, commendatory poem in The Commonwealth and Government of Venice (1599); spelling as in the EEBO–TCP transcription, with the long “s” rendered as “s”.
Spenser’s particular contribution is to praise the stylist. Together, the poems introduce a writer whose military service, languages and literary work were recognised by his contemporaries.
The volume was dedicated to Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick. Its dedication and commendatory verses place Lewkenor’s translation within a named network of patronage and literary endorsement.
Spenser and the Shakespeare investigations
Spenser’s commendation connects Lewkenor directly with a major poet whose work forms part of Shakespeare’s literary world.
The As You Like It investigation follows Spenser’s pastoral influence alongside Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde, the name Rosalind and the comedy’s treatment of exile.
The Venetian investigations begin from the book Spenser praised. Lewkenor’s translation explains the republic’s government, magistrates and military arrangements, bringing its institutions before English readers.
The Love’s Labour’s Lost investigation considers the wider literary culture of learning, verbal display and courtly patronage in which these writers worked.
Explore the Shakespeare evidence
As You Like It — Spenser, pastoral and exile →
Love’s Labour’s Lost — learning, language and literary company →
Othello — Lewkenor’s Venice and the foreign general →
The Merchant of Venice — the republic and its English readers →
Documentary source trail
Lewes Lewkenor, The Commonwealth and Government of Venice (1599), prefatory sonnet signed “Edw. Spencer”, attributed to Edmund Spenser; commendatory poem by Maurice Kyffin; dedication to Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick. EEBO–TCP transcription.
Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender and The Faerie Queene; commendatory sonnets collected in Renascence Editions.
Thomas Lodge, Rosalynde (1590); Juliet Dusinberre, introduction to the Arden Shakespeare edition of As You Like It.
The Master of the Ceremonies, master manuscript, 18 October 2026: Spenser’s commendation, Lewkenor’s literary reception and the pastoral and Venetian investigations.
Portrait: James Thomson, Edmund Spenser, circa 1820, National Library of Wales. Image records are linked in the captions.