(WHEREIN EACH THING RENEWS, SAVE ONLY THE LOVER.)

[mate.

The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings, [sweet.
With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale.
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her 'make hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs:
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he slings;
The fisher 'flete with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she slings;
The swift swallow pursueth the fliës smale;
The busy bee her honey now she *mings;
Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs!

[float.

[mingles.

[CHAPTER VIII.]

(853)

EDMUND SPENSER.

Born 1552-Died 1599.

UNA AND THE RED CROSS KNIGHT.

1. A gentle knight was pricking on the plain,
'Yclad in mighty arms and silver shield,
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain,
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
Yet arms till that time did he never wield:
His angry steed did chide his foaming bit,
As much disdaining to the curb to yield:

[riding.

[clothed.

12

Full jolly knight he seemed, and fair did sit,
As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit.

2. And on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead-as living ever-him adored :
Upon his shield the like was also scored,
For sovereign hope, which in his help he had :
Right faithful true he was in deed and word;
But of his cheer did seem too solemn sad:
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was 'ydrad.

3. Upon a great adventure he was bound,

That greatest Gloriana1 to him gave—
That greatest glorious queen of Faery lond—
To win him worship, and her grace to have,
Which of all earthly things he most did crave;
And ever as he rode, his heart did yearn
To prove his puïssance in battle brave
Upon his foe, and his new force to learn;
Upon his foe, a dragon horrible and stern.

4. A lovely lady2 rode him fair beside,

Upon a lowly ass more white than snow;
Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide
Under a veil that wimpled was full low,
And over all a black stole she did throw,
As one that inly mourned: so was she sad,
And heavy sate upon her palfrey3 slow;
Seemed in heart some hidden care she had,
And by her in a line a milk-white lamb she led.

[drawn.

5. So pure and innocent, as that same lamb,
She was in life and every virtuous lore;
And by descent from royal lineage came
Of ancient kings and queens, that had of yore
Their sceptres stretcht from east to western shore,

1 Greatest Gloriana, the queen of fairy

land; also Queen Elizabeth.

2 A lovely lady, Una, or Truth.

lair, mien.

[dreaded.

[strength.

[plaited.

3 Palfrey, a small horse; here, the ass on which she rode.

And all the world in their subjection held;
Till that infernal fiend with foul uproar

Forwasted all their land and them expelled:

Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far compelled.1

6. Behind her far away a dwarf did lag,

That lazy seemed in being ever last,

Or wearied with bearing of her bag

Of needments at his back. Thus as they past [necessaries.
The day with clouds was sudden overcast,

And angry Jove an hideous storm of rain

Did pour into his leman's2 lap so fast,

That every wight to 'shroud it did constrain,

[take shelter.

And this fair couple eke to shroud themselves were fain.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

Born 1554 Died 1586.

FROM "THE ARCADIA."

My sheep are thoughts, which I both guide and serve;
Their pasture is fair hills of fruitless love,

On barren sweets they feed, and feeding starve.
I wail their lot, but will not other prove;

My sheep-hook is wan hope, which all upholds;
My weeds desire, cut out in endless folds;

What wool my sheep shall bear, whilst thus they live,
In you it is, you must the judgment give.

DESCRIPTION OF ARCADIA.

There were hills which garnished3 their proud heights with stately trees; humble valleys, whose base estate seemed comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers; meadows, enamelled1 with all sorts of eyepleasing flowers; thickets, which being lined with most pleasant shade, were witnessed so too by the cheerful disposition of many well-tuned birds; each pasture stored with sheep, feeding with sober security; while the pretty lambs, with bleating oratory,5 craved the

1 Compelled, called to her aid.

2 Leman, lover; here, Tellus, or the Earth.

3 Garnished, adorned.

4 Enamelled, made beautiful; decked. 5 Oratory, the language of their cries.

dam's comfort; here a shepherd's boy piping, as though he should never be old; there a young shepherdess knitting, and withal singing; and it seemed that her voice comforted her hands to work, and her hands kept time to her voice-music.

[CHAP. IX.]

THOMAS SACKVILLE, Earl of Dorset.

Your

Born 1536-Died 1608.

THOMAS NORTON.

Born about 1532-Died 1584.

FROM "GORBODUC."

grace should now, in these grave years of yours,
Have found ere this the price of mortal joys:
How short they be, how fading here in earth;
How full of change, how little our estate,

Of nothing sure save only of the death,

To whom both man and all the world doth owe
Their end at last.

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.

Born 1564-Died 1593.

THE SHEPHERD'S SONG TO HIS LOVE.

1. Come live with me, and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, and hills, and fields,
Woods and steepy mountains yields.