The Shepheardes Calender established Spenser's poetic genius among his contemporaries. It tells the story of Colin Clout, a lovelorn shepherd who laments ill treatment from his beloved Rosalind. Presented as a narrative in twelve eclogues-each month written in a different meter-the simple tale is a poetic tour de force. One of only seven extant copies of the first edition, the Folger copy is unique, the only one with the final quire in an early uncorrected state.
Purchased as the partial gift of James O. Edwards, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Trustees Fellowship and Acquisitions Fund, and Friends of Eric Weinmann.
