"Ne let Elisa, royall shepheardesse,
The praises of my parted love envy,
For she hath praises in all plenteousnesse
Powr'd upon her, like showers of Castaly,
By her owne shepheard, Colin, her own shepheard,
That her with heavenly hymnes doth deifie,
Of rusticke Muse full hardly to be betterd.

"She is the rose, the glory of the day,

And mine the primrose in the lowly shade:
Mine, ah! not mine; amisse I mine did say:
Not mine, but his, which mine awhile her made;
Mine to be his, with him to live for ay.

O that so faire a flowre so soon should fade,
And through untimely tempest fall away!

236

250

"What hart so stonie hard but that would weepe,
And poure forth fountaines of incessant teares?
What Timon but would let compassion creepe
Into his breast, and pierce his frosen eares?
In stead of teares, whose brackish bitter well
I wasted have, my heart bloud dropping weares,
To think to ground how that faire blossome fell.
"Yet fell she not as one enforst to dye,
Ne dyde with dread and grudging discontent,
But as one toyld with travell downe doth lye,
So lay she downe, as if to sleepe she went,
And closde her eyes with carelesse quietnesse;
The whiles soft Death away her spirit hent,
And soule assoyld from sinfull fleshlinesse.

"Yet ere that life her lodging did forsake,
She, all resolv'd, and readie to remove,
Calling to me (ay me !) this wise bespake;
Alcyon! ah, my first and latest love!
Ah! why does my Alcyon weepe and mourne,
And grieve my ghost, that ill mote him behove,
'As if to me had chaunst some evill tourne!

255

260

265

215

"No age hath bred (since faire Astræa left
The sinfull world) more vertue in a wight;
And, when she parted hence, with her she reft 220
Great hope, and robd her race of bounty quight.
Well may the shepheard lasses now lament;
For doubble losse by her hath on them light,
To loose both her and bounties ornament.

Ver. 214. like angel new divinde,] Divined is an odd expression. We meet with it again in The Ruines of Time, ver. 611. where it signifies, I suppose, to be deified by being made a constellation, to be divin'd, àæobrovσlæs. JORTIN.

311

"How happie was I when I saw her leade
The shepheards daughters dauncing in a rownd!
How trimly would she trace and softly tread
The tender grasse, with rosye garland crownd!
And, when she list, advaunce her heavenly voyce,
Both Nymphes and Muses nigh she made astownd,
And flocks and shepheards caused to reioyce.

"But now, ye shepheard Lasses! who shall lead
Your wandring troupes, or sing your virelayes?
Or who shall dight your bowres, sith she is dead
That was the lady of your holy-dayes?
Let now your blisse be turned into bale,
And into plaints convert your ioyous playes,
And with the same fill every hill and dale.

"Let bagpipe never more be heard to shrill,
That may allure the senses to delight,
Ne ever shepheard sound his oaten quill
Unto the many that provoke them might
To idle pleasance; but let ghastlinesse
And drearie horror dim the chearfull light,
To make the image of true heavinesse :

315

320

325

345

"My litle Flock, whom earst I lov'd so well,
And wont to feed with finest grasse that grew,
Feede ye hencefoorth on bitter astrofell,
And stinking smallage, and unsaverie rew;
And, when your mawes are with those weeds cor-
Be ye the pray of wolves; ne will I rew [rupted,
That with your carkasses wild beasts be glutted. 350

"Ne worse to you, my sillie Sheepe! I pray,
Ne sorer vengeance wish on you to fall
Than to my selfe, for whose confusde decay
To carelesse Heavens I doo daylie call;
But Heavens refuse to heare a wretches cry;
And cruell Death doth scorn to come at call,
Or graunt his boone that most desires to dye.

"The good and righteous he away doth take,
To plague th' unrighteous which alive remaine;
But the ungodly ones he doth forsake,
By living long to multiplie their paine;
Else surely death should be no punishment,
As the Great Iudge at first did it ordaine,
But rather riddance from long languishment.

"Therefore, my Daphne they have tane away;
For worthie of a better place was she:
But me unworthie willed here to stay,
That with her lacke I might tormented be.
Sith then they so have ordred, I will pay
Penance to her, according their decree,
And to her ghost doe service day by day.

355

360

365

370

"For I will walke this wandring pilgrimage,
Throughout the world from one to other end,
And in affliction waste my better age:
My bread shall be the anguish of my mynd,
My drink the teares which fro mine eyes do
raine,

My bed the ground that hardest I may fynd;
So will I wilfully increase my paine.

"And she, my love that was, my saint that is, When she beholds from her celestiall throne (In which shee ioyeth in eternall blis) My bitter penance, will my case bemone, And pittie me that living thus doo die; For heavenly spirits have compassion On mortall men, and rue their miserie.

375

380

385

"So when I have with sorrow satisfyde
Th' importune Fates, which vengeance on me seeke,
And th' Heavens with long languor pacifyde,
She, for pure pitie of my sufferance meeke,
Will send for me; for which I daily long;
And will till then my painfull penance eeke.
Weepe, Shepheard! weepe, to make my under-

song.

V.

"Hencefoorth I hate what ever Nature made,
And in her workmanship no pleasure finde,
For they be all but vaine, and quickly fade;
So soone as on them blowes the northern winde,
They tarrie not, but flit and fall away,

390

395

"Why doo I longer live in lifes despight,
And doo not dye then in despight of death;
Why doo I longer see this loathsome light
And doo in darknesse not abridge my breath,
Sith all my sorrow should have end thereby,
And cares finde quiet! Is it so uneath
To leave this life, or dolorous to dye ?

"To live I finde it deadly dolorous,
For life drawes care, and care continuall woe;
Therefore to dye must needes be ioyeous,
And wishfull thing this sad life to forgoe:
But I must stay; I may it not amend,
My Daphne hence departing bad me so ;
She bad me stay, till she for me did send.

"Yet, whilest I in this wretched vale doo stay, My wearie feete shall ever wandring be,

440

"Ne sleepe (the harbenger of wearie wights)
Shall ever lodge upon mine eye-lids more;
Ne shall with rest refresh my fainting sprights,
Nor failing force to former strength restore:
But I will wake and sorrow all the night
With Philumene, my fortune to deplore;
With Philumene, the partner of my plight.

"And ever as I see the starre to fall,
And under ground to goe to give them light
Which dwell in darknesse, I to mind will call
How my fair starre (that shind on me so bright)
Fell sodainly and faded under ground;
Since whose departure, day is turnd to night,
And night without a Venus starre is found.

470

475

481

20

Had all the shepheards nation by thy lacke!
And I, poore swaine, of many, greatest crosse !
That, sith thy Muse first since thy turning backe
Was heard to sound as she was wont on hye,
Hast made us all so blessed and so blythe.
Whilest thou wast hence, all dead in dole did lie:
The woods were heard to waile full many a sythe,
And all their birds with silence to complaine:
The fields with faded flowers did seem to mourne, 25
And all their flocks from feeding to refraine:
The running waters wept for thy returne,
And all their fish with languour did lament:
But now both woods and fields and floods revive,
Sith thou art come, their cause of meriment,
That us, late dead, hast made againe alive:
But were it not too painefull to repeat
The passed fortunes, which to thee befell
In thy late voyage, we thee would entreat,
Now at thy leisure them to us to tell."

To whom the shepheard gently answered thus ;
Hobbin, thou temptest me to that I covet:
For of good passed newly to discus,
By dubble usurie doth twise renew it.
And since I saw that Angels blessed eie,

Her worlds bright sun, her heavens fairest light,
My mind, full of my thoughts satietie,

Doth feed on sweet contentment of that sight:
Since that same day in nought I take delight,
Ne feeling have in any earthly pleasure,
But in remembrance of that glorious bright,
My lifes sole blisse, my hearts eternall threasure.
Wake then, my pipe; my sleepie Muse, awake;
Till I have told her praises lasting long :
Hobbin desires, thou maist it not forsake ;—
Harke then, ye iolly shepheards, to my song."
With that they all gan throng about him neare,
With hungrie eares to heare his harmonie :
The whiles their flocks, devoyd of dangers feare,
Did round about them feed at libertie.

30

35

40

45

50

55

61

65

"One day (quoth he) I sat, (as was my trade)
Under the foote of Mole, that mountaine hore,
Keeping my sheepe amongst the cooly shade
Of the greene alders by the Mullaes shore:
There a straunge shepheard chaunst to find me out,
Whether allured with my pipes delight,
Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about,
Or thither led by chaunce, I know not right:
Whom when I asked from what place he came,
And how he hight, himselfe he did ycleepe
The Shepheard of the Ocean by name,
And said he came far from the main-sea deepe.
He, sitting me beside in that same shade,
Provoked me to plaie some pleasant fit ;
And, when he heard the musicke which I made, 70
He found himselfe full greatly pleasd at it:
Yet, æmuling my pipe, he tooke in hond
My pipe, before that æmuled of many,
And plaid theron; (for well that skill he cond ;)
Himselfe as skilfull in that art as any.

He pip'd, I sung; and, when he sung, I piped;
By chaunge of turnes, each making other mery;
Neither envying other, nor envied,
So piped we, untill we both were weary."
There interrupting him, a bonie swaine,
That Cuddy hight, him thus atweene bespake:
"And, should it not thy readie course restraine,

Ver 69.

Ver. 72.

75

80

fit] Strain or air. TODD. @muling] See also æmuled in the next line. This verb is probably of Spenser's coinage. TODD.

I would request thee, Colin, for my sake,
To tell what thou didst sing, when he did plaie ;
For well I weene it worth recounting was,
Whether it were some hymne, or morall laie,
Or carol made to praise thy loved lasse."

"Nor of my love, nor of my lasse, (quoth he)
I then did sing, as then occasion fell:
For love had me forlorne, forlorne of me,
That made me in that desart choose to dwell.
But of my river Bregogs love I song,
Which to the shiny Mulla he did beare,
And yet doth beare, and ever will, so long
As water doth within his bancks appeare."
"Of fellowship (said then that bony Boy)
Record to us that lovely lay againe :

The staie whereof shall nought these eares annoy, Who all that Colin makes do covet faine."

"Heare then (quoth he) the tenor of my tale, In sort as I it to that shepheard told :

No leasing new, nor grandams fable stale,

But auncient truth confirm'd with credence old. "Old father Mole, (Mole hight that mountain

gray

That walls the northside of Armulla dale ;)

He had a daughter fresh as floure of May,
Which gave that name unto that pleasant vale;
Mulla, the daughter of old Mole, so hight

The Nimph, which of that water course has charge,
That, springing out of Mole, doth run downe right 110
To Buttevant, where, spreading forth at large,
It giveth name unto that auncient Cittie,
Which Kilnemullah cleped is of old;

115

129

Whose ragged ruines breed great ruth and pittie
To travailers, which it from far behold.
Full faine she lov'd, and was belov'd full faine
Of her owne brother river, Bregog hight,
So hight because of this deceitfull traine,
Which he with Mulla wrought to win delight.
But her old sire more carefull of her good,
And meaning her much better to preferre,
Did thinke to match her with the neighbour flood,
Which Allo hight, Broad-water called farre:
And wrought so well with his continuall paine,
That he that river for his daughter wonne :
The dowre agreed, the day assigned plaine,
The place appointed where it should be donne.
Nath'lesse the Nymph her former liking held;
For love will not be drawne, but must be ledde;
And Bregog did so well her fancie weld,
That her good will he got her first to wedde.
But for her father, sitting still on hie,
Did warily still watch which way she went,
And eke from far observ'd, with iealous eie,
Which way his course the wanton Bregog bent;
Him to deceive, for all his watchfull ward,
The wily lover did devise this slight:
First into many parts his streame he shar'd,
That, whilest the one was watcht, the other might
Passe unespide to meete her by the way;
And then, besides, those little streames so broken
He under ground so closely did convay,
That of their passage doth appeare no token,
Till they into the Mullaes water slide.

So secretly did he his love enioy :

130

140

145

Ver. 86. Queene. TODD. Ver. 118. So hight because of this deceitfull traine,] The etymology of Bregog, according to Llhuyd, as Mr. Walker has observed to me, means false or lying. TODD.

or morall laie,] Meaning his Faerie