"Two distinctive strengths make this book especially original. First, McCabe's knowledge of Irish language and literature provides a richer context, compensating for the 'rigidly anglophone' limitations of recent scholarship. Second, McCabe challenges prevailing assumptions about art's relationship to ideology.... McCabe's informed account of Irish poetry makes Spenser's struggle against its attractions more urgent and acute.... McCabe concludes this fascinating book by showing how another Spenser shared the fate of those he sought to dispossess."--Renaissance Quarterly

"An important addition to the widespread recent reconsideration of the significance of Spenser's Irish experience to his nationalist poetry.... This book offers a major reorientation of the conversation on the meanings of Spenser's Irish experience; the yield in fresh contexts and vigorous interpretations is great."--Studies in English Literature 1500-1900