Queen Elizabeth, having been presented by Edmund Spenser with some of his verses, instructed the lord treasurer, Lord Burghley, to pay the poet one hundred pounds. Burghley protested that the suggested sum was far too generous. "Then give him what is reasonable," the queen replied.

When Burghley neglected to make the payment, Spenser, having waited patiently for many months, at last resolved to petition the queen: "I was promised on a time," he wrote, "to have reason for my rhyme; From that time unto this season, I received not rhyme nor reason."

[Elizabeth reprimanded Burghley and Spenser soon received his due.]