Or for to shunne the horrible mischiefe,
With which he saw my cruell foes me pained,
And his pure streames with guiltles bloud oft stained;
From my unhappie neighborhood farre fled,
And his sweete waters away with him led.
"There also, where the winged ships were seene
In liquid waves to cut their fomie waie,
And thousand fishers numbred to have been,
In that wide lake looking for plenteous praie
Of fish, which they with baits usde to betraie,
Is now no lake, nor anie fishers store,
Nor ever ship shall saile there anie more.
"They all are gone, and all with them is gone!
Ne ought to me remaines, but to lament
My long decay, which no man els doth mone,
And mourne my fall with dolefull dreriment.
Yet it is comfort in great languishment,
To be bemoned with compassion kinde,
And mitigates the anguish of the minde.
"But me no man bewaileth, but in game,
Ne sheddeth teares from lamentable eie:
Nor anie lives that mentioneth my name
To be remembred of posteritie,
Save One, that maugre 1 Fortunes iniurie,
And Times decay, and Envies cruell tort,
Hath writ my record in true-seeming sort.
"Cambden! the nourice 1 of antiquitie,
And lanterne unto late succeding age,
To see the light of simple veritie
Buried in ruines, through the great outrage
Of her owne people led with warlike rage:
Cambden! though Time all moniments obscure,
Yet thy iust labours ever shall endure.
"But whie (unhappie wight!) doo I thus crie, And grieve that my remembrance quite is raced 2 Out of the knowledge of posteritie,
And all my antique moniments defaced?
Sith I doo dailie see things highest placed,
So soone as Fates their vitall thred have shorne,
Forgotten quite as they were never borne.
"It is not long, since these two eyes beheld
A mightie Prince, of most renowmed race,
Whom England high in count of honour held,
And greatest ones did sue to gaine his grace;
Of greatest ones he greatest in his place,
Sate in the bosome of his Soveraine,
And Right and Loyall did his word maintaine.
" I saw him die, I saw him die, as one
Of the meane people, and brought foorth on beare;
I saw him die, and no man left to mone
His dolefull fate, that late him loved deare:
Scarse anie left to close his eylids neare;
Scarse anie left upon his lips to laie
The sacred sod, or Requiem to saie.
"O trustlesse state of miserable men,
That builde your blis on hope of earthly thing,
And vainly thinke your selves halfe happie then,
When painted faces with smooth flattering
Doo fawne on you, and your wide praises sing;
And, when the courting masker louteth1 lowe,
Him true in heart and trustie to you trow!
"All is but fained, and with oaker2 dide,
That everie shower will wash and wipe away;
All things doo change that under heaven abide,
And after death all friendship doth decaie.
Therefore, what ever man bearst worldlie sway,
Living, on God and on thy selfe relie ;
For, when thou diest, all shall with thee die.
"He now is dead, and all is with him dead,
Save what in heavens storehouse he uplaid:
His hope is faild, and come to passe his dread,
And evill men (now dead) his deedes upbraid:
Spite bites the dead, that living never baid.
He now is gone, the whiles the Foxe is crept
Into the hole, the which the Badger swept.
"He now is dead, and all his glorie gone,
And all his greatnes vapoured to nought,
That as a glasse upon the water shone,
Which vanisht quite, so soone as it was sought:
His name is worne alreadie out of thought,
Ne anie Poet seekes him to revive;
Yet manie Poets honourd him alive.
"Ne doth his Colin, carelesse Colin Cloute,
Care now his idle bagpipe up to raise,
Ne tell his sorrow to the listning rout
Of shepheard groomes, which wont his songs to praise:
Praise who so list, yet I will him dispraise,
Untill he quite him of this guiltie blame:
Wake, shepheards boy, at length awake for shame.
"And who so els did goodnes by him gaine,
And who so els his bounteous minde did trie,11
Whether he shepheard be, or shepheards swaine,
(For manie did, which doo it now denie,)
Awake, and to his Song a part applie:
And I, the whilest you mourne for his decease,
Will with my mourning plaints your plaint increase.
"He dyde, and after him his brother dyde, His brother Prince, his brother noble Peere, That whilest he lived was of none envyde,
Ver. 225. Colin Cloute.] Spenser himself, who had been befriended by the Earl of Leicester.
Ver. 239. - His brother.] "Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, died without issue, Feb. 20, 1589." — OLDYS.
And dead is now, as living, counted deare,
Deare unto all that true affection beare:
But unto thee most deare, O dearest Dame,
His noble Spouse, and Paragon of Fame.
"He, whilest he lived, happie was through thee,
And, being dead, is happie now much more ;
Living, that lincked chaunst with thee to bee,
And dead, because him dead thou dost adore
As living, and thy lost deare Love deplore.
So whilst that thou, faire flower of chastitie,
Dost live, by thee thy Lord shall never die.
"Thy Lord shall never die, the whiles this verse
Shall live, and surely it shall live for ever:
For ever it shall live, and shall rehearse
His worthie praise, and vertues dying never,
Though death his soule doo from his bodie sever:
And thou thy selfe herein shalt also live ;
Such grace the heavens doo to my verses give.
"Ne shall his Sister, ne thy Father, die;
Thy Father, that good Earle of rare renowne,
And noble Patrone of weake povertie!
Whose great good deeds in countrey, and in towne,
Have purchast him in heaven an happie crowne:
Where he now liveth in eternall blis,
And left his sonne t' ensue those steps of his.
Ver. 245.- His noble Spouse.] "Anne, the eldest daughter of Francis Lord Russell, Earl of Bedford, was his last wife." - OLDYS. Ver. 260. - His Sister.] "Lady Mary Sidney." - OLDYS. Ver. 261. - That good Earle, &c.] "This Earl of Bedford died in
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