Late in 1596, or early in 1597, Spenser returned to Ireland. In 1598 Tyrone’s rebellion broke out. In October the rebels attacked and burned Kilcolman Castle. Spenser fled to Cork, whence in December he made his way to London; and there, on Jan. 16, 1599, he died. Ten years after his death a folio edition of _F. Q._ was published by Mathew Lownes, which added to the six books already published two Cantos of _Mutabilitie_, ‘which, both for Forme and Matter, appeare to be parcell of some following Booke of the _Faerie Queene_, vnder the Legend of _Constancie_.’ These two cantos, with two stanzas of a third, are all that remain of the third part of _F. Q._ Whether Spenser wrote more is unknown. But the fact that the two cantos are numbered vi and vii makes it fairly certain that he had at least sketched the whole Seventh Book. I cannot accept the view that these two cantos are an independent poem, in the sense that they were not designed to form part of _F. Q._ The lines (VII. vi. 37)-- ‘And, were it not ill fitting for this file, To sing of hilles and woods, mongst warres and Knights’-- show clearly that they were so designed. That they may have been written independently, in the sense in which the _Wedding of Thames and Medway_ was written independently, I am not concerned to deny. The view that these cantos are spurious is unworthy of serious discussion. If they are spurious, there must have been living in 1609 an unknown poet who could write the Spenserian style and stanza as well as Spenser at his best. For there is nothing of its kind in _F. Q._ superior to the pageant[10] of the months and seasons; and no one who really knows Spenser can doubt that the two stanzas which alone remain of the ‘vnperfite’ eighth canto came from his heart. IV. The chief critical problem that confronts an editor of _F. Q._ concerns the text of Books I-III. Should the text of these books be based on 1590 or on 1596? I have chosen the latter. And I have done so, in the main, for a quite general reason. 1596 was produced under Spenser’s eye and by his authority. That authority must be held to cover both volumes, not the second only. Behind this we cannot go. The case is quite different with the later quartos of the _Shepheards Calender_, which were produced in Spenser’s absence.