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Then first gan heauen out of darknesse dread For toappeare, and brought forth chearfullday: Next gan the earth to shew her naked head, Out of deep waters which her drownd alway. And shortly after, euerie liuing wight 859 Crept forth like wormes out of her slimie nature, Soone as on them the Suns life giuing light, Had powred kindly heat and formall feature, Thenceforth they gan each one his like to loue, And like himselfe desire for to beget,

The Lyon chose his mate, the Turtle Doue

Her deare, the Dolphin his owne Dolphinet :
But man that had the sparke of reasons might,
More then the rest to rule his passion,
Chose for his loue the fairest in his sight,

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Like as himselfe was fairest by creation. 870 How one that fairest Helene did reuile : 920

feminine.

For beautie is the bayt which with delight
Doth man allure, for to enlarge his kynd,
Beautie the burning lamp of heauens light,
Darting her beames into each feeble mynd:
Against whose powre, nor God nor mancan fynd,
Defence, ne ward the daunger of the wound,
But being hurt, seeke to be medicynd
Of her that first did stir that mortall stownd.
Then do they cry and call to loue apace,

And well I wote, that oft I heard it spoken, Through iudgement of the Gods to been

ywroken

Lost both his eyes and so remaynd long while,
Till he recanted had his wicked rimes,
And made amends to her with treble praise:
Beware therefore, ye groomes, I read betimes,
How rashly blame of Rosalind ye raise.

With praiers lowd importuning the skie, 880 Whence he them heares, and when he list shew grace,

Doesgraunt them grace that otherwise would die.
So loue is Lord of all the world by right,
And rules the creatures by his powrfull saw :
All being made the vassalls of his might,
Through secret sence which therto doth them
draw.

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Thus ought all louers of their lord to deeme :
And with chaste heart to honor him alway:
But who so else doth otherwise esteeme,
Are outlawes, and his lore do disobay.
For their desire is base, and doth not merit,
The name of loue, but of disloyall lust :
Ne mongst true louers they shall place inherit,
But as Exuls out of his court be thrust.

So hauing said, Melissa spake at will,
Colin, thou now full deeply hast divynd:
Of loue and beautie, and with wondrous skill,
Hast Cupid selfe depainted in his kynd.
To thee are all true louers greatly bound, 899
That doest their cause so mightily defend:
But most, all wemen are thy debtors found,
That doest their bountiestill so much commend.
That ill (said Hobbinol) they him requite,
For hauing loued euer one most deare :
He is repayd with scorne and foule despite,
That yrkes each gentle heart which it doth

heare.

SPENSER

Ah shepheards (then said Colin) ye ne weet How great a guilt vpon your heads ye draw : To make so bold a doome with words vnmest, Of thing celestiall which ye neuer saw. For she is not like as the other crew Of shepheards daughters which emongst you

bee,

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But of diuine regard and heauenly hew,
Excelling all that euer ye did see.
Not then to her that scorned thing so base,
But to my selfe the blame that lookt so hie :
So hie her thoughts as she her selfe haue place,
And loath each lowly thing with loftie eie.
Yet so much grace let her vouchsafe to grant
To simple swaine, sith her I may not loue :
Yet that I may her honour paravant,
And praise her worth, though far my wit aboue,
Such grace shall be some guerdon for the griefe,
And long affliction which I haue endured :
Such grace sometimes shall giue me some

reliefe,

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And ease of paine which cannot be recured.
And ye my fellow shepheards which do see
And heare the languours of my too long dying,
Vnto the world for euer witnesse bee,
That hers I die, nought to the world denying,
This simple trophe of her great conquest. 951

So hauing ended, he from ground did rise,
And after him vprose eke all the rest:
All loth to part, but that the glooming skies
Warnd them to draw their bleating flocks to

T

rest.

ASTROPHEL.

A Paftorall Elegie vpon

the death of the most Noble and valorous
Knight, Sir Philip Sidney.

Dedicated

To the most beautifull and vertuous Ladie, the Counteffe of Effex.

Astrophel.

Shepheards that wont on pipes of oaten reed,

times to plaine your loues concealed smart:
And with your piteous layes haue learnd to breed
Compassion in a countrey lasses hart.
Hearken ye gentle shepheards to my song,
And place my dolefull plaint your plaints emong.
To you alone I sing this mournfull verse,
The mournfulst verse that euer man heard tell:
To you whose softened hearts it may empierse,
With dolours dart for death of Astrophel.
To you I sing and to none other wight,
For well I wot my rymes bene rudely dight.

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For he could pipe and daunce, and caroll sweet,
Emongst the shepheards in their shearing feast:
As Somers larke that with her song doth greet
The dawning day forth comming from the East.
And laves
layes of loue he also could compose.
Thrise happie she, whom he to praise did chose.
Full many Maydens often did him woo,
Them to vouchsafe emongst his rimes to name,
Or make for them as he was wont to doo,
For her that did his heart with loue inflame.
For which they promised to dight, for him, 41
Gay chapelets of flowers and gyrlonds trim.
And manya Nymph both of the wood and brooke,
Soone as his oaten pipe began to shrill:

Thinke he, that such are for such ones most fit, Both christall wells and shadie groues forsooke,

Yet as they been, if any nycer wit

Shall hap to heare, or couet them to read :

Made not to please the liuing but the dead.

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To heare the charmes of his enchanting skill.
And brought him presents, flowers if it were
prime,

Or mellow fruit if it were haruest time.
But he for none of them did care a whit,
Yet wood Gods for them often sighed sore: 50
Ne for their gifts vnworthie of his wit,
Yet not vnworthie of the countries store.

About the grassie bancks of Hæmony,
Did keepe his sheep, his litle stock and store.
Full carefully he kept them day and night,
In fairest fields, and Astrophel he hight.
Young Astrophel the pride of shepheards praise,
Young Astrophel the rusticke lasses loue :

For one alone he cared, for one he sight,
His lifes desire, and his deare loues delight.

Far passing all the pastors of his daies,

Stella the faire, the fairest star in skie,
As faire as Venus or the fairest faire :

In all that seemly shepheard might behoue. 10 A fairer star saw neuer liuing eie,

In one thing onely fayling of the best,

Shothersharppointed beames through purestaire.

That he was not so happie as the rest.

Her he did loue, her he alone did honor,

For from the time that first the Nymph his

His thoughts, his rimes, his songs were all vpon

her.

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mother

Him forth did bring, and taught her lambs to
feed,

A sclender swaine excelling far each other,
In comely shape, like her that did him breed,
He grew vp fast in goodnesse and in grace,
And doubly faire wox both in mynd and face.
Which daily more and more he did augment,
With gentle vsage and demeanure myld : 20
That all mens hearts with secret rauishment
He stole away, and weetingly beguyld.

Ne spight it selfe that all good things doth spill,
Found ought in him, that she could say was ill.
His sports were faire, his ioyance innocent,
Sweet without sowre, and honny without gall:
And he himselfe seemd made for meriment,
Merily masking both in bowre and hall.
There was no pleasure nor delightfull play,
When Astrophel so euer was away.

To her he vowd the seruice of his daies,
On her he spent the riches of his wit :
For her he made hymnes of immortall praise,
Of onely her he sung, he thought, he writ.
Her, and but her, of loue he worthie deemed,
For all the rest but litle he esteemed.

Ne her with ydle words alone he wowed,
And verses vaine (yet verses are not vaine)
But with braue deeds to her sole seruice vowed,
And bold atchieuements her did entertaine. 70
For both in deeds and words he nourtred was,
Both wise and hardie (too hardie alas).
In wrestling nimble, and in renning swift,
In shooting steddie, and in swimming strong:
Well made to strike, to throw, to leape to lift,
And all the sports that shepheards are emong.
In euery one he vanquisht euery one,

30 He vanquisht all, and vanquisht was of none

Besides, in hunting, such felicitie,
Or rather infelicitie he found:

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That euery field and forest far away,
He sought, where saluage beasts do most
abound.

No beast so saluage but he could it kill,
No chace so hard, but he therein had skill.

Such skill matcht with such courage as he had,
Did prick him foorth with proud desire of

praise:

To seek abroad, of daunger nought y'drad,
His mistresse name, and his owne fame to raise.
What needeth perill to be sought abroad,
Since round about vs, it doth make aboad?

It fortuned, as he that perilous game
In forreine soyle pursued far away:
Into a forest wide and waste he came
Where store he heard to be of saluage pray.
So wide a forest and so waste as this,
Nor famous Ardeyn, nor fowle Arlo is.

There his welwouen toyles and subtil traines
He laid, the brutish nation to enwrap:

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Ah where were ye this while his shepheard peares,
To whom aliue was nought so deare as hee :
And ye faire Mayds the matches of his yeares,
Which in his grace did boast you most to bee ?
Ah where were ye, when he of you had need,
To stop his wound that wondrously did bleed ?
Ah wretched boy the shape of dreryhead,
And sad ensample of mans suddein end :
Full litle faileth but thou shalt be dead,
Vnpitied, vnplaynd, of foe or frend.
Whilest none is nigh, thine eylids vp to close,
And kisse thy lips like faded leaues of rose.
A sort of shepheards sewing of the chace,
As they the forest raunged on a day:
By fate or fortune came vnto the place,
91 Where as the lucklesse boy yet bleeding lay.
Yet bleeding lay, and yet would still haue bled,
Had not good hap those shepheards thether led.
They stopt his wound (too late to stop it was)
And in their armes then softly did him reare :
Tho (as he wild) vnto his loued lasse,
His dearest loue him dolefully did beare.
The dolefulst beare that euer man did see,
Was Astrophel, but dearest vnto mee.
She when she saw her loue in such a plight,
With crudled blood and filthie gore deformed:
That wont to be with flowers and gyrlonds dight,
And her deare fauours dearly well adorned,
Her face, the fairest face, that eye mote see,
She likewise did deforme like him to bee.

So well he wrought with practise and with paines,

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That he of them great troups did soone entrap.
Full happie man (misweening much) was hee,
So rich a spoile within his power to see.

Eftsoones all heedlesse of his dearest hale,
Full greedily into the heard he thrust:
To slaughter them, and worke their finall bale,
Least that his toyle should of their troups be
brust.

Wide wounds emongst them many one he made,

Now with his sharp borespear, now with his
blade.

His care was all how he them all might kill,
That none might scape (so partiall vnto none)
Ill mynd so much to mynd anothers ill,
As to become vnmyndfull of his owne.

But pardon that vnto the cruell skies,

III

150

Her yellow locks that shone so bright and long,
As Sunny beames in fairest somers day
She fiersly tore, and with outragious wrong
From her red cheeks the roses rent away. 160

And her faire brest the threasury of ioy,
She spoyld thereof, and filled with annoy.
His palled face impictured with death,
She bathed oft with teares and dried oft:
And with sweet kisses suckt the wasting breath,
Out of his lips like lillies pale and soft.
And oft she cald to him, who answerd nought,

That from himselfe to them withdrew his eies. But onely by his lookes did tell his thought.

So as he rag'd emongst that beastly rout,

A cruell beast of most accursed brood

Vpon him turnd (despeyre makes cowards stout)
And with fell tooth accustomed to blood, 118
Launched his thigh with so mischieuous might,
That it both bone and muscles ryued quight.

So deadly was the dint and deep the wound,
And so huge streames of blood thereout did flow,
That he endured not the direfull stound,

But on the cold deare earth himselfe did throw.
The whiles the captiue heard his nets did rend,
And hauing none to let, to wood did wend.

The rest of her impatient regret,

And piteous mone the which she for him made,
No toong can tell, nor any forth can set, 171
But he whose heart like sorrow did inuade.
At last when paine his vitall powres had spent,
His wasted life her weary lodge forwent.
Which when she saw, she staied not a whit,
But after him did make vntimely haste:
Forth with her ghost out of her corps did flit,
And followed her make like Turtle chaste.
To proue that death their hearts cannot diuide,
Which liuing were in loue so firmly tide. 180

The Gods which all things see, this same beheld,
And pittying this paire of louers trew,
Transformed them there lying on the field,
Into one flowre that is both red and blew.
It first growes red, and then to blew doth fade,
Like Astrophel, which thereinto was made.
And in the midst thereof a star appeares,
As fairly formd as any star in skyes:
Resembling Stella in her freshest yeares,
Forth darting beames of beautie from her eyes,
And all the day it standeth full of deow, 191
Which is the teares, that from her eyes did flow.
That hearbe of some, Starlight is cald by name,
Of others Penthia, though not so well
But thou where euer thou doest finde the same,
From this day forth do call it Astrophel.
And when so euer thou it vp doest take,
Do pluck it softly for that shepheards sake.
Hereof when tydings far abroad did passe,
The shepheards all which loued him full deare,
And sure full deare of all he loued was,
Did thether flock to see what they did heare.
And when that pitteous spectacle they vewed.
The same with bitter teares they all bedewed.
And euery one did make exceeding mone,
With inward anguish and great griefe opprest :
And euery one did weep and waile, and mone,

201

And meanes deviz'd to shew his sorrow best.

That from that houre since first on grassie

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To men? ah they alas like wretched bee,
And subiect to the heauens ordinance:
Bound to abide what euer they decree,
Their best redresse, is their best sufferance.
How then can they, like wretched, comfort

mee,

The which no lesse, need comforted to bee ?

20

Then to my selfe will I my sorrow mourne,
Sith none aliue like sorrowfull remaines:
And to my selfe my plaints shall back retourne,
To pay their vsury with doubled paines.

The woods, the hills, the riuers shall resound
The mournfull accent of my sorrowes ground.

Woods, hills and riuers, now are desolate, Sith he is gone the which them all did grace : And all the fields do waile their widow state, Sith death their fairest flowre did late deface. The fairest flowre in field that euer grew, Was Astrophel; that was, we all may rew, What cruell hand of cursed foe vnknowne, 31 Hath cropt the stalke which bore so faire a

flowre?

Vntimely cropt, before it well were growne,
And cleane defaced in vntimely howre.

Great losse to all that euer him did see, Great losse to all, but greatest losse to mee. Breake now your gyrlonds, O ye shepheards lasses,

Sith the faire flowre, which them adornd, is gon: The flowre, which them adornd, is gone to ashes,

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Neuer againe let lasse put gyrlond on.
In stead of gyrlond, weare sad Cypres nowe,
And bitter Elder, broken from the bowe.
Ne euer sing the loue-layes which he made,
Who euer made such layes of loue as hee?
Ne euer read the riddles, which he sayd
Vnto your selues, to make you mery glee.
Your mery glee is now laid all abed,
Your mery maker now alasse is dead.
Death the deuourer of all worlds delight,
Hath robbed you and reft fro me my ioy: 50
Both you and me, and all the world he quight
Hath robd of ioyance, and left sad annoy.
Ioy of the world, and shepheards pride was
hee,

Shepheards hope neuer like againe to see.
Oh death that hast vs of such riches reft,
Tell vs at least, what hast thou with it done?
What is become of him whose flowre here left
Is but the shadow of his likenesse gone.

Scarse like the shadow of that which he was, Nought like, but that he like a shade did pas.

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