The Visions Of Bellay* [* Eleven of these Visions of Bellay (all except the 6th, 8th, 13th, and 14th) differ only by a few changes necessary for rhyme from blank-verse translations found in Van der Noodt’s Theatre of Worldlings, printed in 1569; and the six first of the Visions of Petrarch (here said to have […]

I. One day, whiles that my daylie cares did sleepe,My spirit, shaking off her earthly prison,Began to enter into meditation deepeOf things exceeding reach of common reason;Such as this age, in which all good is geason*,And all that humble is and meane** debaced,Hath brought forth in her last declining season,Griefe of good mindes, to see […]

DEDICATED TO THE MOST FAIRE AND VERTUOUS LADIE, THE LADIE CAREY. LONDON: IMPRINTED FOR WILLIAM PONSONBIE, DWELLING IN PAULES CHURCHYARD AT THE SIGNE OF THE BISHOPS HEAD. 1590* [* This date seems to be an error for 1591; or, as Mr. Craik suggests, it may have been used designedly with reference to real events, not […]

Ruines of Rome: By Bellay* [* Joachim du Bellay, a French poet of considerable reputation in his day, died in 1560. These sonnets are translated from Le Premier Livre des Antiquez de Rome. Further on we have the Visions of Bellay, translated from the Songes of the same author. The best that can be said […]

BY ED. SP. DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, THE LADIE COMPTON AND MOUNTEGLE. LONDON: IMPRINTED FOR WILLIAM PONSONBIE, DWELLING IN PAULESCHURCHYARD AT THE SIGNE OF THE BISHOPS HEAD. 1591. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THE LADIE COMPTON AND MOUNTEGLE.[*] Most faire and vertuous Ladie: having often sought opportunitie by some good meanes to make knowen to […]

LONG SINCE DEDICATED TO THE MOST NOBLE AND EXCELLENT LORD, THE EARLE OF LEICESTER, LATE DECEASED. Wrong’d, yet not daring to expresse my paine,To you, great Lord, the causer of my care,In clowdie teares my case I thus complaineUnto your selfe, that onely privie are.But if that any Oedipus unwareShall chaunce, through power of some […]

IN HONOUR OF THE DOUBLE MARRIAGE OF THE TWO HONORABLEAND VERTUOUS LADIES, THE LADIE ELIZABETH,AND THE LADIE KATHERINE SOMERSET, DAUGHTERSTO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE EARLEOF WORCESTER, AND ESPOUSED TO THETWO WORTHIE GENTLEMEN, M. HENRYGILFORD AND M. WILLIAM PETER,ESQUYERS. (1596) PROTHALAMION: OR, A SPOUSALL VERSE. Calme was the day, and through the trembling ayreSweete-breathing Zephyrus did […]

Ye learned Sisters, which have oftentimesBeene to me ayding, others to adorneWhom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes,That even the greatest did not greatly scorneTo heare theyr names sung in your simple layes, 5But ioyed in theyr praise,And when ye list your own mishaps to mourne,Which death, or love, or fortunes wreck did rayse,Your […]

Lyke as the culver* on the bared boughSits mourning for the absence of her mate,And in her songs sends many a wishful vowFor his returns, that seemes to linger late,So I alone, how left disconsolate,Mourne to my selfe the absence of my Love;And wandring here and there all desolate,Seek with my playnts to match that […]

AN ELEGIEUPON THE DEATH OF THE NOBLE AND VERTUOUSDOUGLAS HOWARD, DAUGHTER AND HEIRE OF HENRY LORD HOWARD, VISCOUNTBYNDON, AND WIFE OF ARTHUR GORGES, ESQUIER. DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT HONORABLETHE LADIE HELENA,MARQUESSE OF NORTHAMPTON. (1591.) TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND VERTUOUS LADY, HELENA, MARQUESSE OF NORTH HAMPTON.[*] I have the rather presumed humbly to offer unto […]

[Footnote: The first six of these sonnets are translated (not directly, but through the French of Clement Marot) from Petrarch’s third Canzone in Morte di Laura. The seventh is by the translator. The circumstance that the version is made from Marot renders it probable that these sonnets are really by Spenser. C.] I. Being one […]

Unto his mother straight he weeping came,And of his griefe complayned;Who could not chuse but laugh at his fond game,Though sad to see him pained.“Think now,” quoth she, “my son, how great the smartOf those whom thou dost wound:Full many thou hast pricked to the hart,That pitty never found.Therefore, henceforth some pitty take,When thou doest […]

She tooke him streight full pitiously lamenting,She wrapt him softly, all the while repentingThat he the fly did mock.She drest his wound, and it embaulmed wellWith salve of soveraigne might;And then she bath’d him in a dainty well,The well of deare delight.Who would not oft be stung as this,To be so bath’d in Venus blis?

Rapt with the rage of mine own ravisht thought,Through contemplation of those goodly sightsAnd glorious images in heaven wrought,Whose wondrous beauty, breathing sweet delights,Do kindle love in high conceipted sprights,I faine* to tell the things that I behold,But feele my wits to faile and tongue to fold.[* Faine, long.] Vouchsafe then, O Thou most Almightie […]

An Hymne Of Heavenly Love* [* See the sixth canto of the third book of the Faerie Queene, especially the second and the thirty-second stanzas; which, with his Hymnes of Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty, are evident proofs of Spenser’s attachment to the Platonic school. WARTON.] Love, lift me up upon thy golden wingsFrom this […]

Ah! whither, Love! wilt thou now carry mee?What wontlesse fury dost thou now inspireInto my feeble breast, too full of thee?Whylest seeking to aslake thy raging fyre,Thou in me kindlest much more great desyre,And up aloft above my strength doth rayseThe wondrous matter of my fire to praise. That as I earst in praise of […]

Love, that long since hast to thy mighty powrePerforce subdude my poor captived hart,And raging now therein with restlesse stowre*,Doest tyrannize in everie weaker part,Faine would I seeke to ease my bitter smart 5By any service I might do to thee,Or ought that else might to thee pleasing bee.[* Stowre, commotion.] And now t’asswage the […]

I*. To the right worshipfull, my singular good frend,M. Gabriell Harvey, Doctor of the Lawes. Harvey, the happy above happiest menI read**; that, sitting like a looker-onOf this worldes stage, doest note with critique penThe sharpe dislikes of each condition:And, as one carelesse of suspition,Ne fawnest for the favour of the great,Ne fearest foolish reprehensionOf […]

The wanton boy was shortly wel recuredOf that his malady;But he soone after fresh again enured*His former cruelty.And since that time he wounded hath my selfeWith his sharpe dart of love,And now forgets the cruell carelesse elfeHis mothers heast** to prove.So now I languish, till he pleaseMy pining anguish to appease.[* Enured, practised.][** Heast, command.]

In youth, before I waxed old,The blynd boy, Venus baby,For want of cunning, made me boldIn bitter hyve to grope for honny:But when he saw me stung and cry,He tooke his wings and away did fly.