A Vewe of the Present State of Ireland was written circa 1596 and first printed in James Ware’s The historie of Ireland in 1633. The twenty-two manuscripts that survive are not in Spenser’s hand. They can be dated between 1596 and the mid seventeenth century. A Vewe was registered with the Stationer’s Company for publication in 1598, and a note at the end of the Rawlinson MS B. 478 links it to the entry in the Stationer’s Register. The Oxford Spenser will use this MS as its copy-text and provide facsimiles and transcriptions of at least four other MSS (plus scans of and variants from as many of the remaining seventeen MSS as possible). Transcriptions are under preparation; facsimiles of the Ellesmere, Osborn, and Rawlinson manuscripts are provided here. In addition, we provide links to the Ware print edition and to an online transcription of the Gonville and Caius College Library MS 188/221, which has been lightly edited for ease of reading (expansion of brevigraphs, contractions, and abbreviations; lowering of superscripts; bracketed insertion of implied letters).

Spenser went to Ireland in 1580 as a secretary to Arthur, Lord Grey de Wilton, the newly appointed Lord Deputy. He served under Grey during his brutal campaign to quell the second Desmond rebellion, notably during the battle of Glenmalure in County Wicklow and the siege of Smerwick in County Kerry. Spenser remained in Ireland after Grey was recalled in 1582, occupying various posts in the colonial bureaucracy, although he seems to have made trips to England before finally fleeing to England in 1598 where he died a year later. A Vewe of the Present State of Ireland circulated in manuscript and remained unpublished during his lifetime.

A Vewe is cast as a dialogue between two English speakers, Irenius and Eudoxus. Irenius, who is experienced in Irish affairs, explains why all attempts at polity-building there have failed in the past. He categorizes the “evil” policies and practices currently used in Ireland by the Protestant “New English” settlers, the Anglo-Norman “Old English” community, and the Irish into three groups: laws, customs, and religion. Irenius analyzes each of these in detail, explaining the malicious uses of even Irish clothing and hair styles, and outlines a military solution to subdue Ireland, insisting that a military surge is necessary for its reformation.