FAYRE Thamis streame, that from Ludds stately

towne Runst paying tribute to the ocean seas, Let all thy Nymphes and Syrens of renowne Be filent, whyle this Bryttane Orpheus playes : Nere thy sweet banks there lives that sacred Crowne, Whose hand strowes palme and never-dying bayes. Let all at once, with thy soft murmuring fowne, Present her with this worthy Poets prayes: For he hath taught hye drifts in Shepherdes weedes, And deepe conceites now singes in Faeries deedes.

R. S.

GRAVE Muses, march in triumph and with prayses;
Our Goddesse here hath given you leave to land;
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 faireft that the world hath feene!

H. B.

WHEN ftout Achilles heard of Helens rape,
And what revenge the States of Greece devis'd';
Thinking by fleight the fatall warres to scape,
In womans weedes himselfe he then disguis'd:
But this devise Ulyffes foone did spy,
And brought him forth, the chaunce of warre to try.

When Spenser saw the fame was spredd so large,
Through Faery land, of their renowned Queene;
Loth that his Muse hould take so great a charge,
As in such haughty matter to be seene;
To seeme a Shepheard, then he made his choice;
But Sidney heard him fing, and knew his voice.

And as Ulyffes brought faire Thetis fonne
From his retyred life to menage armes :
So Spenser 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 hís immortal prayse,
Hath wonne the laurell quite from all his feerés.
What though his taske exceed a humaine witt;
He is excusod," sith Sidney thought it fitt.

W. L.

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 iudgement to he naught,
Or els doth thew a mind with envy fraught..
i

iul
To labour to commind 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 needless for the Hoast to have a sygne.

Thus then, to fhew my iudgement 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 Mew the goodness of the ware;
But such hath beene the custome heretofore;
And customies very hardly broken 'are;)

And when your tast shall tell you this is trew,
Then looke you give your Hoast his utmoft dew.

IGNOTO.

VERSES

ADDRESSED, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FAERIE QUEENE,

TO SEVERAL NOBLEMEN &c.

To the Right Honourable Sir Christopher Hatton,

Lord high Chauncelor of England &c.

THOSE prudent heads, that with their counsels

wife Whylom the pillours of th' earth did fustaine, And taught ambitious Rome to tyrannise

And in the neck of all the world to rayne ; Oft from those grave affaires were wont abftaine,

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

So Maro oft did Cæfars cares allay.
So you, great Lord, that with your counfell fway

Ver. 7. So Ennius &c.] The meaning is, “ So Enniusallayed the cares of Scipio Africanus, and fo Virgil &c.” Claudian relates the same circumstance of Eunius; and possibly afforded it to Spenser. See Præf. in Lib. 3. Laud. Stilic.

Major Scipiades," et seq. T. WARTON. Ver. 9. So you, great Lord, that &c.] The diligence and. integrity, with which Sir Chriftopher Hatton executed his office of High-Chancellor, manifest themselves in many pasfages of Queen Elizabeth's history. It is remarkable that, fince the exclusion of the ecclesiasticks from bearing this office, he was the first person preferred to it who was not a professed lawyer. He was made Chancellor in the year 1587 and died in 1591. See Camden's Annals Eliz. T. WARTON.

The burdein 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 fake

may
find more grace.

E. S.

To the Right Honourable the Lord Burleigh, Lord

high Threasurer of England.

TO you, Right Noble Lord, whose carefull

brest To menage

of most

grave

affaires is bent; And on whose mightie shoulders most doth rest

Ver. 11.

may eke delay The rugged brow of carefull Policy :] May Smooth or Soften. The word delay is used by Spenfer in the fame fenfe, in his Prothalam. ver. 3, where modern editions improperly read allay. See the note on the passage. But Milton is the best commentator on the words now before us; for he describes the nightingale, in his Il Penseroso,

66 In her sweetest saddest plight

" SMOOTHING the rugged brow of night." TODD. Ver. 14. - for their titles Sake] Their title being the Faerie Queene, who represented Queen Elizabeth. Camden relates, that Sir Christopher was a singular favourite of the Queen, long before his promotion to the Chancellorship. However, as that historian adds, he was not raised to it purely by her choice, but by the artifice of certain Courtiers who, envious of his growing interest, thought to diminis his favour with the Queen, by conferring a poft upon him which necefsarily drew him from a constant attendance on the Court, and to which his ignorance of the law rendered him unequal.

T. WARTON Ver. 1. To you, &c.] See the Life of Spenser. TODD.