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Who is Colin Clout in The Shepheardes Calender?
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Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser, oil painting by an unknown artist; in the collection of Pembroke College, Cambridge, England.
In The Shepheardes Calender, the character Colin Clout is a persona for the poet Edmund Spenser himself.12
Within the context of the pastoral work, Colin Clout is depicted as a shepherd boy who excels in the art of poetry but suffers from his unrequited and hopeless love for a woman named Rosalind. He appears in the first and last of the 12 eclogues, where he presents "complaints" that frame the remaining rustic dialogues.12