Cant. VII.

Therein the changes infinite beholde,
Which to her creatures euery minute chaunce;
Now,boyling hot:streight, friezing deadly cold:
Now, faire sun-shine, that makes all skip and
daunce:

Streight, bitterstorms and balefullcountenance, That makes them all to shiuer and to shake: Rayne, hayle, and snowe do pay them sad penance, [quake) And dreadfull thunder-claps (that make them With flames and flashing lights that thousand changes make.

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Last is the fire: which, though it liue for euer,
Ne can be quenched quite; yet, euery day,
Wee see his parts, so soone as they do seuer,
So, makes himself his owne consuming pray.
To lose their heat, and shortly to decay;
Ne any liuing creatures doth he breed:
But all, that are of others bredd, doth slay;
And, with their death, his cruell life dooth feed;
Nought leauing but their barren ashes, without
seede.

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Thus, all these fower (the which the ground-work bee

Of all the world, and of all liuing wights)
To thousand sorts of Change we subiect see.
Yet are they chang❜d (by other wondrousslights)
Into themselues, and lose their natiue mights;
The Fire to Aire, and th'Ayre to Water sheere,
And Water into Earth: yet Water fights
With Fire, and Aire with Earth approaching

neere:

Yet all are in one body, and as one appeare.

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So, in them all raignes Mutabilitie ;

How-euer these, that Gods themselues do call, Of them doe claime the rule and souerainty : As, Vesta, of the fire æthereall; Vulcan, of this, with vs so vsuall; Ops, of the earth; and Iuno of the Ayre; Neptune, of Seas; and Nymphes, of Riuers all. And all the rest, which they vsurp, be all my For, all those Riuers to me subiect are:

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share. Which to approuen true, as I haue told, Vouchsafe, O goddesse, to thy presence call The rest which doe the world in being hold: As, times and seasons of the yeare that fall: Of all the which, demand in generall, Or iudge thy selfe, by verdit of thine eye, Whether to me they are not subiect all. Nature did yeeld thereto; and by-and-by, Bade Order call them all, before her Maiesty.

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Next came fresh Aprill full of lustyhed,
And wanton as a Kid whose horne new buds :
Vpon a Bull he rode, the same which led
Europa floting through th'Argolick fluds:
His hornes were gilden all with golden studs
And garnished with garlonds goodly dight
Of all the fairest flowres and freshest buds
Which th'earth brings forth, and wet he seem'd
in sight

With waues, through which he waded for his
loues delight.
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Then came faire May, the fayrest maydon ground, Deckt all with dainties of her seasons pryde, And throwing flowres out of her lap around: Vpon two brethrens shoulders she did ride, The twinnes of Leda; which on eyther side Supported her like to their soueraine Queene. Lord! how all creatures laught, when her they spide,

And Cupid selfe about her fluttred all in greene. And leapt and daunc't as they had rauisht beene!

48 Then thus gan Ioue; Right true it is, that these And all things else that vnder heauen dwell Arechaung'd of Time, who doth them alldisseise Of being: But, who is it (to me tell) That Time himselfe doth moue and still compell To keepe his course? Is not that namely wee Which poure that vertue from our heauenly cell, That moues them all, and makes them changed be?

So them we gods doe rule, and in them also thee.

49

To whom, thus Mutability: The things Which we see not how they are mov'd and swayd,

Ye may attribute to your selues as Kings, And say they by your secret powre are made: But what we see not, who shall vs perswade ? But were they so, as ye them faine to be, Mov'd by your might, and ordred by your ayde; Yet what if I can proue, that euen yee Your selues are likewise chang'd, and subiect vnto mee? 50

And first, concerning her that is the first, Euen you faire Cynthia, whom so much ye make Ioues dearest darling, she was bred and nurst On Cynthus hill, whence she her name did take: Then is she mortall borne, how-so ye crake; Besides, her face and countenance euery day We changed see, and sundry forms partake, Now hornd, now round, now bright, now brown and gray:

So that as changefull as the Moone men vse to

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Then since within this wide great Vniuerse
Nothing doth firme and permanent appeare,
But all things tost and turned by transuerse:
What then should let, but I aloft should reare
My Trophee, and from all, the triumph beare?
Now iudge then (Othou greatest goddesse trew!)
According as thy selfe doest see and heare,
And vnto me addoom that is my dew;
That is the rule of all, all being rul'd by you.
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So hauing ended, silence long ensewed,
Ne Nature to or fro spake for a space,
But with firme eyes affixt, the ground still
viewed.

Meane while, all creatures, looking in her face, Expecting th'end of this so doubtfull case, Did hang in long suspence what would ensew, Towhether sideshould fall the soueraigne place: At length, she looking vp with chearefull view, The silence brake, and gaue her doome in speeches few.