This paper charts the development over the course of the works of Edmund Spenser about ideas about patronage, specifically the patron’s obligations to the poet. This survey shows that Spenser’s earlier works (published before the mid-1590s) value material gain as the primary reward of patronage, while the later works prioritize protection from enemies over material reward. This aligns well with the changes in Spenser’s circumstances. The works appearing in the mid-1590s onward were written at a time when Spenser expressed concerns about Lord Burghley’s hostility towards him and the peril that the Irish posed to his accumulated land and wealth in Ireland. Accordingly, the later works focus on the need for patron to protect the poet from hostile aristocrats and warlike savages. This survey upends widespread critical assumptions that material gain was the only patronal reward valued by early modern English poets. It also establishes protection, usually assumed to be a meaninglessly conventional request from poets, to be a substantial goal sought from patrons.

中文翻译：

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得与失：埃德蒙·斯宾塞作品中的监护人义务

本文描绘了埃德蒙·斯宾塞 (Edmund Spenser) 关于赞助思想的作品的发展历程，特别是赞助人对诗人的义务。这项调查显示，斯宾塞的早期作品（在 1590 年代中期之前出版）将物质收益作为赞助的主要奖励，而后期作品则优先考虑保护敌人而不是物质奖励。这与斯宾塞环境的变化非常吻合。1590 年代中期以后出现的作品是在斯宾塞表达对伯格利勋爵对他的敌意以及爱尔兰人对他在爱尔兰积累的土地和财富构成的危险表示担忧的时候写成的。因此，后来的作品侧重于保护诗人免受敌对贵族和好战的野蛮人侵害的需要。这项调查颠覆了普遍的批判性假设，即物质收益是早期现代英国诗人所珍视的唯一赞助奖励。它还确立了保护，通常被认为是诗人无意义的传统要求，是从赞助人那里寻求的一个重要目标。