To the right honourable the Earle of
Northumberland.
The sacred Muses have made alwaies clame
To be the Nourses of nobility,
And Registres of euerlasting fame,
To all that armes professe and cheualry.
Then by like right the noble Progeny,
Which them succeed in fame and worth, are
tyde
T'embrace the seruice of sweete Foetry,
By whose endeuours they are glorifide,
And eke from all, of whom it is enuide,
To patronize the authour of their praise,
Which gives them life, that els would soone
haue dide,
And crownes their ashes with immortall baies.
To thee therefore right noble Lord I send
This present of my paines, it to defend.
To the right honourable the Earle of Cumberland.
Edoubted Lord, in whose corageous mind
The flowre of cheualry now blooming faire,
Doth promise fruite worthy the noble kind,
Which of their praises haue left you the haire;
To you this humble present I prepare,
For loue of vertue and of Martiall praise,
To which though nobly ye inclined are,
As goodlie well ye shew'd in late assaies,
Yet braue ensample of long passed daies,
In which trew honor yee may fashiond see,
To like desire of honor may ye raise,
And fill your mind with magnanimitée.
Receiue it Lord therefore as it was ment,
For honor of your name and high descent.
E. S.
To the most honourable and excellent Lo. the Earle
of Essex. Great Maister of the Horse to her Highnesse,
and knight of the Noble order of the Garter. &c.
Me merit a most famous Poets witt,
Agnificke Lord, whose vertues excellent
To be thy liuing praises instrument,
Yet doe not sdeigne, to let thy name be writt
In this base Poeme, for thee far vnfitt.
Nought is thy worth disparaged thereby,
But when my Muse, whose fethers nothing flitt
Doe yet but flagg, and lowly learne to fly
With bolder wing shall dare alofte to sty
To the last praises of this Faery Queene,
Then shall it make more famous memory
Of thine Heroicke parts, such as they beene:
Till then vouchsafe thy noble countenaunce,
To these first labours needed furtherance.
To the right Honourable the Earle of
Ormond and Ossory.
Eceiue most noble Lord a simple taste
Of the wilde fruit, which saluage soyl hath
bred,
Which being through long wars left almost waste,
With brutish barbarisme is ouerspredd :
And in so faire a land, as may be redd,
Not one Parnassus, nor one Helicone
Left for sweete Muses to be harboured,
To the right honourable the Lo.
But where thy selfe hast thy braue mansione;
There in deede dwel faire Graces many one.
And gentle Nymphes, delights of learned wits,
And in thy person without Paragone
All goodly bountie and true honour sits,
Such therefore, as that wasted soyl doth yield,
Receiue dear Lord in worth, the fruit of barren
field.
Ch. Howard, Lo. high Admi
ral of England, knight of the noble order of the Garter,
and one of her Maiesties
Nd ye, braue Lord, whose goodly personage,
And noble deeds each other garnishing,
Make you ensample to the present age,
Of th'old Heroes, whose famous ofspring
The antique Poets wont so much to sing,
In this same Pageaunt haue a worthy place,
Sith those huge castles of Castilian king,
priuie Counsel. &c.
That vainly threatned kingdomes to displace,
Like flying doues ye did before you chace;
And that proud people woxen insolent
Through many victories, didst first deface:
Thy praises euerlasting monument
Is in this verse engrauen semblably,
That it may liue to all posterity.
To the right honourable the Lord of Hunsdon, high
Chamberlaine to her Maiesty.
Enowmed Lord, that for your worthinesse
And noble deeds haue your deserued place,
High in the fauour of that Emperesse,
The worlds sole glory and her sexes grace,
Here eke of right haue you a worthie place,
Both for your nearnes to that Faerie Queene,
And for your owne high merit in like cace,
Of which, apparaunt proofe was to be seene,
When that tumultuous rage and fearfull deene
Of Northerne rebels ye did pacify,
And their disloiall powre defaced clene,
The record of enduring memory.
Liue Lord for euer in this lasting verse,
That all posteritie thy honour may reherse.
E. S.
To the most renowmed and valiant Lord, the
Lord Grey of Wilton, knight of the Noble order
of the Garter, &c.
Most Noble Lord the pillor of my life,
And Patrone of my Muses pupillage,
Through whose large bountie poured on me
rife,
In the first season of my feeble age,
I now doe liue, bound yours by vassalage:
Sith nothing euer may redeeme, nor reaue
Out of your endlesse debt so sure a gage,
Vouchsafe in worth this small guift to receaue,
Which in your noble hands for pledge I leaue,
Of all the rest, that I am tyde t'account:
Rude rymes, the which a rustick Muse did weaue
In sauadge soyle, far from Parnasso mount,
And roughly wrought in an vnlearned Loome:
The which vouchsafe dear Lord your fauorable
doome.
To the right honourable the Lord of Buckhurst, one
of her Maiesties priuie Counsell.
N vain I thinke right honourable Lord,
By this rude rime to memorize thy name;
Whose learned Muse hath writ her owne record,
In golden verse, worthy immortal fame :
Thou much more fit (were leasure to the same)
Thy gracious Souerains praises to compile.
And her imperiall Maiestie to frame,
In loftie numbers and heroicke stile.
But sith thou maist not so, giue leaue a while
To baser wit his power therein to spend,
Whose grosse defaults thy daintie pen may file,
And vnâduised ouersights amend.
But euermore vouchsafe it to maintaine
Against vile Zoilus backbitings vaine.
To the right honourable Sir Fr. Walsingham knight,
principall Secretary to her Maiesty, and of her
honourable priuy Counsell.
'Hat Mantuane Poetes incompared spirit, Those girland now is set in highest place,
Had not Mecenas for his worthy merit,
It first aduaunst to great Augustus grace,
Might long perhaps haue lien in silence bace,
Ne bene so much admir'd of later age.
This lowly Muse, that learns like steps to trace,
Flies for like aide vnto your Patronage;
That are the great Mecenas of this age,
As wel to al that ciuil artes professe
As those that are inspird with Martial rage,
And craues protection of her feeblenesse:
Which if ye yield, perhaps ye may her rayse
In bigger tunes to sound your liuing prayse.
E. S.
To the right noble Lord and most valiaunt Captaine,
Sir Iohn Norris knight, Lord president of Mounster.
W to the gate more then did the Martiall crew;
Ho euer honourable prize
That their braue deeds she might immortalize
In her shril tromp, and sound their praises
dew?
Who then ought more to fauour her, then
Moste noble Lord, the honor of this age,
And Precedent of all that armes ensue?
Tempred with reason and aduizement sage
Whose warlike prowesse and manly courage,
Hath fild sad Belgicke with victorious spoile,
In Fraunce and Ireland left a famous gage,
And lately shakt the Lusitanian soile.
Sith then each where thou hast dispredd thy fame,
Loue him, that hath eternized your name.
To the right noble and valorous knight, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lo. Wardein of the Stanneryes, and lieftenaunt
O thee that art the sommers Nightingale,
Thy soueraine Goddesses most deare delight,
Why doe I send this rusticke Madrigale,
That may thy tunefull eare vnseason quite?
Thou onely fit this Argument to write,
In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her
bowre,'
And dainty loue learnd sweetly to endite.
My rimes I know vnsauory and sowre,
To the right honourable and most vertuous Lady, the
Countesse of Penbroke.
Emembraunce of that most Heroicke spirit,
The heuens pride, the glory of our daies,
Which now triumpheth through immortall merit
Of his braue vertues, crownd with lasting baies,
Of heuenlie blis and euerlasting praies;
Who first my Muse did lift out of the flore,
To sing his sweet delights in lowlie laies;
Bids me most noble Lady to adore
His goodly image liuing euermore,
In the diuine resembläunce of your face;
Which with your vertues ye embellish more,
And natiue beauty deck with heuenlie grace:
For his, and for your owne especial sake,
Vouchsafe from him this token in good worth to
To the most vertuous, and beautifull Lady,
the Lady Carew.
Nondairest Lady leaue out of this place,
E may I, without blot of endlesse blame,
But with remembraunce of your gracious name,
Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace,
And deck the world, adorne these verses base:
Not that these few lines can in them comprise
Those glorious ornaments of heuenly grace,
Wherewith ye triumph ouer feeble eyes,
And in subdued harts do tyranyse:
For thereunto doth need a golden quill,
And siluer leaues, them rightly to deuise,
But to make humble present of good will:
Which whenas timely meanes it purchase may,
In ampler wise it selfe will forth display.
E. S.
To all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the Court,
THe Chian Peincter, when he was requirde
To pourtraict Venus in her perfect hew,
To make his worke more absolute, desird
Of all the fairest Maides to haue the vew.
Much more me needs to draw the semblant trew,
Of beauties Queene, the worlds sole wonderment,
To sharpe my sence with sundry beauties
If all the world to seeke I ouerwent,
A fairer crew yet no where could I see,
Then that braue court doth to mine eie present,
That the worlds pride seemes gathered there
to bee.
Of each a part I stole by cunning thefte:
Forgive it me faire Dames, sith lesse ye hauc
not lefte.
Shepheardes Calender
Conteyning tvvelue Eglogues proportionable
to the twelue monethes.
TO THE NOBLE AND VERTV-
ous Gentleman most worthy of all titles
both of learning and cheualrie M.
Philip Sidney.
Printed by Hugh Singleton, dwelling in
Creede Lane neere vnto Ludgate at the
ligne of the gylden Tunne, and
are there to be folde.
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