The memory of Rosalind, in spite of her unkindness, seems to have been fondly cherished by the poet, and yielded to no rival vision--though there may have been fleeting fits of passion--till some fourteen years after he and she had parted--till the year 1592, when, as we shall see, Spenser, then living in the south of Ireland, met that Elizabeth who is mentioned in the sonnet quoted above, and who some year and a half after that meeting became his wife. On the strength of an entry found in the register of St. Clement Danes Church in the Strand--'26 Aug. [1587] Florenc Spenser, the daughter of Edmond'--it has been conjectured that the poet was married before 1587. This conjecture seems entirely unacceptable. There is nothing to justify the theory that the Edmund Spenser of the register was the poet. It is simply incredible that Spenser, one who, as has been said, poured out all his soul in his poems, should have wooed and won some fair lady to his wife, without ever a poetical allusion to his courtship and his triumph. It is not at all likely, as far as one can judge from their titles, that any one of his lost works was devoted to the celebration of any such successful passion. Lastly, besides this important negative evidence, there is distinct positive testimony that long after 1587 the image of Rosalind had not been displaced in his fancy by any other loveliness. In _Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, written, as will be seen, in 1591, though not published until 1595, after the poet has 'full deeply divined of love and beauty,' one Melissa in admiration avers that all true lovers are greatly bound to him--most especially women. The faithful Hobbinol says that women have but ill requited their poet:-- 'He is repayd with scorne and foule despite, That yrkes each gentle heart which it doth heare.' 'Indeed,' says Lucid, 'I have often heard Faire Rosalind of divers fowly blamed For being to that swaine too cruell hard. Lucid however would defend her on the ground that love may not be compelled:-- 'Beware therefore, ye groomes, I read betimes How rashly blame of Rosalind ye raise.' This caution Colin eagerly and ardently reinforces, and with additions. His heart was still all tender towards her, and he would not have one harsh word thrown at her:--