Expecting th' end of this so doubtfull case,

Did hang in long suspence what would ensew, To whether side should fall the soveraigne place: At length she, looking up with chearefull view, The silence brake, and gave her doome in speeches few:

58 "I well consider all that ye have sayd;
And find that all things stedfastnes doe hate
And changed be; yet, being rightly wayd,
They are not changed from their first estate;
But by their change their being doe dilate;
And, turning to themselves at length againe,
Doe worke their owne perfection so by fate:
Then over them Change doth not rule and raigne:
But they raigne over Change, and doe their states
maintaine.

59"Cease therefore, Daughter, further to aspire, And thee content thus to be rul'd by me:

For thy decay1 thou seekst by thy desire:

But time shall come that all shall changed bee, And from thenceforth none no more change shall see!"

So was the Titaness put downe and whist,2 And Iove confirm'd in his imperiall see. Then was that whole assembly quite dismist, And Natur's selfe did vanish, whither no man wist.

1 Decay, destruction.

2 Whist, silenced.

THE VIII. CANTO, UNPERFITE.

1 WHEN I bethinke me on that speech whyleare Of Mutability, and well it way;

Me seemes, that though she all unworthy were Of the heav'ns rule, yet, very sooth to say, In all things else she beares the greatest sway: Which makes me loath this state of life so tickle, And love of things so vaine to cast away; Whose flowring pride, so fading and so fickle, Short Time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle!

2 Then gin I thinke on that which Nature sayd,
Of that same time when no more change shall be,
But stedfast rest of all things, firmely stayd
Upon the pillours of eternity,

That is contrayr to Mutabilitie :

For all that moveth doth in change delight:

But thenceforth all shall rest eternally

With him that is the God of Sabbaoth hight:

O that great Sabbaoth God graunt me that Sabaoths

sight!

66

II. 9.-Spenser confounds Sabaoth (hosts) with Sabbath (rest). He obviously means the latter only: all things are to rest eternally with him that is the God of Rest." (v. 7, 8). C.

MISCELLANIES.

VOL. IV.

17

THE

SHEPHEARDES CALENDER:

CONTEYNING

TWELVE EGLOGUES,

PROPORTIONABLE TO THE TWELVE MONETHES.

ENTITLED TO THE NOBLE AND VERTUOUS GENTLEMAN, MOST WORTHY OF ALL TITLES BOTH OF LEARNING AND CHEVALRIE,

M. PHILIP SIDNEY.

AT LONDON:

Printed by HUGH SINGLETON, dwelling in Creede Lane, neere unto Ludgate, at the signe of the Gylden Tunne,

and are there to be solde.

1579.