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VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR.

A Vision upon this conceipt of the Faery Thy lovely Rosolinde seemes now forlorne,

Queene.

ME thought I saw the grave where Laura lay,
Within that Temple where the vestall flame
Was wont to burne; and passing by that way
To see that buried dust of living fame,
Whose tumbe faire love, and fairer vertue kept,
All suddeinly I saw the Faery Queenc:
At whose approch the soule of Petrarke wept,
And from thenceforth those graces were not seene;
For they this Queene attended, in whose steed
Oblivion laid him downe on Lauras herse.
Hereat the hardest stones were seene to bleed,
And grones of buried ghostes the hevens did perse:
Where Homers spright did tremble all for griefe,
And curst th' accessc of that celestiall theife.

Another of the same.

The prayse of meaner wits this worke like profit
brings,
[sings.

written bin. [divine If thou hast beauty praysd, let her sole lookes Judge if ought therein be amis, and mend it by

And all thy gentle flockes forgotten quight: Thy chaunged hart now holdes thy pypes in

scorne, Those prety pypes that did thy mates delight; Those trusty mates, that loved thee so well; Whom thou gav'st mirth, as they gave thee the bell.

Yet, as thon earst with thy sweete roundelayes

Didst stirre to glee our laddes in homely bowers;
So moughtst thou now in these refyned layes
Delight the daintie eares of higher powers:
And so mought they, in their deepe skanning skill,
Alow and grace our Collyns flowing quyll.

And faire befall that Faery Queene of thine,

In whose faire eyes love linckt with vertue sittes:
Enfusing, by those bewties fyers devyne,

Such high conceites into thy humble wittes,
As raised hath poore pastors oaten reedes
From rustick tunes, to chaunt heroique deedes.

As doth the Cuckoes song delight when Philumena So mought thy Redcrosse knight with happy hand
If thou hast formed right true vertues face herein, Victorious be in that faire Ilands right,
Vertue her selfe can best discerne to whom they Which thou dost vayle in Type of Faery land,
Elizas blessed field, that Albion hight: [foes,
That shieldes her friendes, and warres her mightie
Yet still with people, peace, and plentic flowes.
But (jolly shepheard) though with pleasing style
Thou feast the humour of the Courtly trayne,
Let not conceipt thy setled sence beguile,

her eine.

If Chastitie want ought, or Temperaunce her dew,
Behold her Princely mind aright, and write thy
Queene anew.

sore

Meane while she shall perceive, how far her vertues [of yore: Above the reach of all that live, or such as wrote And thereby will excuse and favour thy good will; Whose vertue can not be exprest, but by an Angels quill.

Of me no lines are lov'd, nor letters are of price, Of all which speak our English tongue, but those of thy device.

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Subject thy dome to her Empyring spright, [light.
Ne daunted be through envy or disdaine.
From whence thy Muse, and all the world, takes
HOBYNOLL.

Fayre Thamis streame, that from Ludds stately
towne

Runst paying tribute to the Ocean seas,
Let all thy Nymphes and Syrens of renowne
Be silent, whyle this Bryttane Orpheus playes.
Nere thy sweet bankes there lives that sacred

crowne,

Whose hand strowes Palme and never-dying bayes:
Let all at once, with thy soft murmuring sowne,
Present her with this worthy Poets prayes;
For he hath taught hye drifts in shepeherdes weedes,
And deepe conceites now singes in Faeries deedes.
R. S.

W. L.

Grave Muses, march in triumph and with prayses; What though his taske exceed a humaine witt,
Our Goddesse here hath given you leave to land; He is excus'd, sith Sidney thought it fitt.
And biddes this rare dispenser of your graces
Bow downe his brow unto her sacred hand.
Deserte findes dew in that most princely doome,
In whose sweete brest are all the Muses bredde:
So did that great Augustus erst in Roome
With leaves of fame adorne his Poets hedde.
Faire be the guerdon of your Faery Queene,
Even of the fairest that the world hath seene!

H. B.

When stout Achilles heard of Helens rape,
And what revenge the States of Greece devisd,
Thinking by sleight the fatall warres to scape,
In womans weedes him selfe he then disguisde;
But this devise Ulysses soone did spy,

And brought him forth the chaunce of warre to try.

When Spencer saw the fame was spredd so large,
Through Faery land, of their renowned Queene,
Loth that his Muse should take so great a charge,
As in such haughty matter to be seene,

To seeme a shepeheard then he made his choice;
But Sydney heard him sing, and knew his voice.

And as Ulysses brought faire Thetis sonne
From his retyred life to menage armes,
So Spencer was by Sidney's speaches wonne
To blaze her fame, not fearing future harmes ;
For well he knew, his Muse would soone be tyred
In her high praise, that all the world admired.

Yet as Achilles, in those warlike frayes,
Did win the palme from all the Grecian Peeres,
So Spenser now, to his immortall prayse,
Hath wonne the Laurell quite from all his feres.

To looke upon a worke of rare devise
The which a workman setteth out to view,
And not to yield it the deserved prise
That unto such a workmanship is dew,

Doth either prove the judgement to be naught,
Or els doth shew a mind with envy fraught.

To labour to commend a peece of worke,
Which no man goes about to discommend,
Would raise a jealous doubt, that there did lurke
Some secret doubt whereto the prayse did tend;

For when men know the goodnes of the wyne,
'Tis needlesse for the hoast to have a sygne.

Thus then, to shew my judgement to be such
As can discerne of colours blacke and white,
As alls to free my minde from envies tuch,
That never gives to any man his right,

I here pronounce this workmanship is such
As that no pen can set it forth too much.

And thus I hang a garland at the dore;
Not for to shew the goodness of the ware;
But such hath beene the custome heretofore,
And customes very hardly broken are;

And when your tast shall tell you this is trew,
Then looke you give your hoast his utmost dew.
IGNOTO.

VERSES

ADDRESSED, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FAERIE QUEENE, TO VARIOUS NOBLEMEN, &C.

To the Right honourable Sir Christopher To the Right Honourable the Earle of Oxen Hatton, Lord high Chauncelor of England, ford, Lord high Chamberlayne of Eng&'c. THOSE prudent heads, that with theire counsels wise

Whylom the pillours of th' earth did sustaine, And taught ambitious Rome to tyrannise And in the neck of all the world to rayne, Oft from those grave affaires were wont abstaine,

With the sweet Lady Muses for to play:
So Ennius the elder Africane,

So Maro oft did Cæsars cares allay. [sway
So you, great Lord, that with your counsell
The burdeine of this kingdom mightily,
With like delightes sometimes may eke delay
The rugged brow of carefull Policy,
And to these ydle rymes lend litle space,
Which for their titles sake may find more grace.

land, &c.

Receive, most Noble Lord, in gentle gree,
The unripe fruit of an unready wit;
Which by thy countenaunce doth crave to
bee

Defended from foule Envies poisnous bit,
Which so to doe may thee right well befit,
Sith th' antique glory of thine auncestry
Under a shady vele is therein writ,
And eke thine owne long living memory,
Succeeding them in true nobility:

And also for the love which thou doest beare
To th' Heliconian ymps, and they to thee;
They unto thee, and thou to them, most

deare:

Deare as thou art unto thy selfe, so love That loves and honours thee, as doth behove.

To the most honourable and excellent Lord the
Earle of Essex. Great Maister of the To the right honourable the Earle of North-
Horse to her Highnesse, and knight of
the Noble order of the Garter, &c.

Magnificke Lord, whose vertues excellent, Doe merit a most famous Poets witt

To be thy living praises instrument,

Yet doe not sdeigne to let thy name be writt In this base Poeme, for thee far unfitt:

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 furtheraunce.

umberland.

The sacred Muses have made alwaies clame
To be the Nourses of nobility,

And Registres of everlasting fame,
To all that armes professe and chevalry.
Then, by like right the noble Progeny,
Which them succeed in fame and worth, are
tyde

T'embrace the service of sweete Poetry, By whose endevours they are glorifide; And eke from all, of whom it is envide, To patronize the authour of their praise, Which gives them life, that els would soone have 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 Ormond and Ossory.

Receive, most noble Lord, a simple taste

And roughly wrought in an unlearned Loome: The which vouchsafe, dear Lord, your favorable doome.

Of the wilde fruit which salvage soyl hath To the right noble and valorous knight,

[waste,

bred;
Which, being through long wars left almost
With brutish barbarisme is overspredd :
And, in so faire a land as may be redd,
Not one Parnassus nor one Helicone,
Left for sweete Muses to be harboured,
But where thy selfe hast thy brave man-
sione:

There, in deede, dwel faire Graces many one,
And gentle Nymphes, delights of learned
And in thy person, without paragone, [wits;
All goodly bountie and true honour sits.
Such, therefore, as that wasted soyl doth yield,
Receive, dear Lord, in worth, the fruit of bar-
ren field.

Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Wardein of the Stanneryes, and lieftenaunt of Cornewaile. To thee, that art the sommers Nightingale, Thy soveraine Goddesses most deare delight, Why doe I send this rusticke Madrigale, That may thy tunefull eare unseason quite? Thou onely fit this Argument to write,

In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her bowre,

And dainty love learnd sweetly to endite. My rimes I know unsavory and sowre, To tast the streames that, like a golden showre, Flow from thy fruitfull head, of thy love's praise;

Fitter, perhaps, to thonder Martiall stowre, To the right honourable the Lord Ch. Howard, When so thee list thy lofty Muse to raise : Lord high Admiral of England, knight of Yet, till that thou thy Poeme wilt make knowne, the noble order of the Garter, and one of Let thy faire Cinthias praises be thus rudely her Majesties privie Counsel, &c.

And ye, brave Lord, whose goodly personage
And noble deeds, each other garnishing,
[ake 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 have a worthy place,
Sith those huge castles of Castilian King,
That vainly threatned kingdomes to displace,
Like flying doves ye did before you chace;
And that proud people, woxen insolent
Through many victories, didst first deface:
Thy praises everlasting monument
Is in this verse engraven semblably,
That it may live to all posterity.

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;

[rife

showne.

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berland.

E. S.

Through whose large bountie, poured on me To the right honourable the Earle of CumIn the first season of my feeble age, I now doe live, bound yours by vassalage; Sith nothing ever may redeeme, nor reave Out of your endlesse debt, so sure a gage, Vouchsafe in worth this small guift to re

ceave,

Which in your noble hands for pledge I leave Of all the rest that I am tyde t' account: Rude rymes, the which a rustick Muse did

weave

In savadge soyle, far from Parnasso Mount,

Redoubted Lord, in whose corageous mind The flowre of chevalry, now bloosming faire, Doth promise fruite worthy the noble kind Which of their praises have left you the haire;

To you this humble present I prepare,

For love of vertue and of Martiall praise; To which though nobly ye inclined are, As goodlie well ye shew'd in late assaies,

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To the right honourable the Lord of Huns-
don, high Chamberlaine to her Majesty.
Renowmed Lord, that, for your worthinesse
And noble deeds, have your deserved place
High in the favour of that Emperesse,
The worlds sole glory and her sexes grace:
Here eke of right have 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.
Live, Lord, for ever in this lasting verse,
That all posteritie thy honor may reherse.

E. S. To the right honourable the Lord of Buckhurst, one of her Majesties privie Counsell. In 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 Soverains praises to compile, And her imperiall Majestie to frame In loftie numbers and heroicke stile. But, sith thou maist not so, give leave a while To baser wit his power therein to spend, Whose grosse defaults thy daintie pen may And unadvised oversights amend. [file, But evermore vouchsafe it to maintaine Against vile Zoilus backbitings vaine.

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grace:

To the right honourable Sir Fr. Walsingham, For his, and for your owne especial sake, knight, principall Secretary to her Ma- Vouchsafe from him this token in good worth jesty, and one of her honourable privy|

Counsell.

That Mantuane Poetes incompared spirit,
Whose girland now is set in highest place,
Had not Mecanas, for his worthy merit,
It first advaunst to great Augustus grace,
Might long perhaps have lien in silence bace,
Ne bene so much admir'd of later age. [trace,
This lowly Muse, that learns like steps to
Flies for like aide unto your Patronage,

to take.

E. S.

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