110 So ended she; and all the rest around And gentle Eccho from the neighbour ground Their accents did resound. So forth those joyous birdes did passe along, Adowne the lee, that to them murmurde low, As he would speake, but that he lackt a tong, Yeat did by signes his glad affection show, Making his streame run slow. And all the foule which in his flood did dwell Gan flock about these twaine, that did excell 120 The rest so far as Cynthia doth shend And their best service lend, [The first of these sonnets was probably no more than a friendly address, not meant for publication. The others were contributed, by way of compliment, to various books of the time. I. Appended by Harvey to 'Foure Letters, and certaine Sonnets, especially touching Robert Greene, and other parties by him abused, etc.' 1592. II. The first of four sonnets prefixed to 'Nennio, or A Treatise of Nobility, etc. Written in Italian by that famous Doctor and worthy Knight, Sir John Baptista Nenna of I To the right worshipfull, my singular good frend, The sharpe dislikes of each condition: Of faulty men, which daunger to thee threat; But freely doest of what thee list en treat, Like a great lord of peerelesse liberty; Lifting the good up to high Honours seat, And the evill damning evermore to dy. Great both by name, and great in power and might, And meriting a meere triumphant seate. The scourge of Turkes, and plague of infidels, Thy acts, O Scanderbeg, this volume tels. ED. SPENSER. IV THE antique Babel, empresse of the East, Upreard her buildinges to the threatned skie: And second Babell, tyrant of the West, Her ayry towers upraised much more high. But, with the weight of their own surquedry, They both are fallen, that all the earth did feare, And buried now in their own ashes ly; Yet shewing by their heapes how great they were. But in their place doth now a third appeare, Fayre Venice, flower of the last worlds delight; And next to them in beauty draweth neare, But farre exceedes in policie of right. Yet not so fayre her buildinges to behold As Lewkenors stile, that hath her beautie told. EDM. SPENCER. APPENDIX VERSES FROM THE [IT is only within the last decade that the history of Van der Noot's Theatre has been known in full. Since the accounts of it in the various standard biographies of Spenser, therefore, are more or less misleading, it may be given here in some detail. The facts are set forth at length in a Flemish monograph, published at Antwerp in 1899, Leven en Werken van Jonker Jan Van der Noot, door Aug. Vermeylen.' The author of this excellent study is not, however, to be held responsible for all the conclusions that are set down here, -a In 1569 there was published in London a small book with a big title, which ran: A Theatre, wherein be represented as wel the miseries and calamities that follow the voluptuous worldlings as also the greate joyes and plesures which the faithfull do enjoy. An argument both profitable and delectable to all that sincerely love the Word of God. Devised by S. John vander Noodt.' The dedication bore the date of May 25. Its author was a Flemish refugee, wealthy patrician of Antwerp, who, becoming disastrously prominent among the Calvinists of his native city, had in 1567 fled from the Spanish authorities into England. There, in 1568, he had composed a bitter pamphlet against Rome, which he had put forth, first in Flemish, and then, toward the close of that year, in what was to all the more cultivated of his compatriots a second mother tongue, French. Some seven months later, desirous probably of securing the widest possible audience, he arranged for the translation of his book from French into English, a tongue of which he had no literary control. The title given above is that of this third edition. The kernel of the book was poetry: first, a translation by Clément Marot of one of Petrarch's canzoni (Standomi un giorno solo alla finestra) under the title of 'Des Visions de Pétrarque'; second, the Songe of Joachim Du Bellay, with the omission of sonnets vi, viii, xiii, and xiv; third, four sonnets of his own composition (for he was a poet of distinguished abilities) the matter of which was drawn from the Apocalypse. For the first edition of his book he had translated the French of Marot and Du Bellay into Flemish; for the second, he had, of course, let the French stand. Of his own sonnets he had made two versions, one Flemish and one French. Then there was a long prose commentary upon these various visions,' likewise of his own composition in the two tongues. I THEATRE OF 1569 as In the 1569 volume this commentary is given 'translated out of French into Englishe by Theodore Roest.' fers to the visions of Petrarch we read, I [by In that part of it which reimplication, Roest] have out of the Brabants speache turned them into the Englishe tongue; in that part which refers to the visions of Du Bellay, I have translated them out of Dutch into English: concerning the translation of the Apocalypse sonnets, we are left to make our own inferences. Comparison of texts, however, shows clearly that the translator of all this poetry, rendered it, as the prose was rendered, direct from the French: what is said about 'the Brabants speache' and 'Dutch' is pure mystification. Furthermore, if these translations from Du Bellay and Petrarch be compared with The Visions of Bellay' (p. 125) and The Visions of Petrarch, formerly translated' (p. 128), which were published under Spenser's name in 1591, it becomes clear that the latter are not independent renderings of the same French originals, but a mere literary recast of the English verses of 1569. The irregular stanzas of the Petrarch series are reduced to formal sonnets, and so are the blank verse poems of the Bellay series. Such changes as have been made are purely with a view to this transformation. Since it is improbable that even in youth Spenser should thus carefully have made over the work of another man, a mere translator, and that, having done so, his recast should have survived to be published years later in his name, the inference seems to be clear that the verses in the Theatre of 1569 are his. By way of counter-argument, it has been pointed out that, whereas the translation of 1569 is sound and accurate, the acknowledged work of Spenser in this field (The Ruins of Rome' and the four sonnets that were omitted in the Theatre, but rendered in the later 'Visions of Bellay') is very loose, and reveals at times exceedingly imperfect acquaintance with French, acquaintance so imperfect that he cannot be thought capable of the excellent versions in the Theatre. To argue thus, however, is to forget, among other things, the conditions under which, in 1569, he may be presumed to have done his work. For the prose of the Theatre, Van der Noot had found a capable translator in Roest; but, he being apparently no versifier, it was necessary to find some one else for the poetry. If this assistant knew French well, so much the better; if he did not, he could be helped by his chief; in any case, his work would be supervised, to secure accuracy. What was chiefly necessary was that he should be able to turn good English verse. For this job' whoever had charge of the book employed Spenser, then no more than a bright schoolboy, about to go EPIGRAMS I BEING one day at my window all alone, II AFTER at sea a tall ship dyd appere, The sailes of golde, of silke the tackle were. Milde was the winde, calme seemed the sea to be: The skie eche where did shew full bright and faire. With riche treasures this gay ship fraighted was. But sodaine storme did so turmoyle the aire, III THEN heavenly branches did I see arise, While on this laurell fixed was mine eye, IV WITHIN this wood, out of the rocke did rise up to the university. He was in no way a principal in the main undertaking; when the volume came out, therefore, it nowhere gave his name. He had done his work and received his pay there was no need to acknowledge his services.] Unto the gentle sounding of the waters fall: V I SAW a phoenix in the wood alone, And to the spring that late devoured was. see Doth passe away: the phoenix there, alas! And so forthwith in great despite he dide. VI AT last, so faire a ladie did I spie, That in thinking on hir I burne and quake. were, As snowe and golde together had bene wrought. Above the waste a darke cloude shrouded hir, A stinging serpent by the heele hir caught; VII My song, thus now in thy conclusions, SONETS I IT was the time when rest, the gift of gods, And calling me then by my propre name, |