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FAYRE Thamis ftreame, that from Ludds ftately

towne

Runft paying tribute to the ocean feas,

Let all thy Nymphes and Syrens of renowne
Be filent, whyle this Bryttane Orpheus playes:
Nere thy fweet banks there lives that facred Crowne,
Whose hand strowes palme and never-dying bayes.
Let all at once, with thy foft murmuring fowne,
Present her with this worthy Poets prayes:
For he hath taught hye drifts in Shepherdes weedes,
And deepe conceites now finges in Faeries deedes.

R. S.

GRAVE Muses, march in triumph and with prayses;
Our Goddeffe here hath given you leave to land;,
And biddes this rare difpenfer of your graces
Bow downe his brow unto her facred hand.
Deferte findes dew in that moft princely doome,
In whofe fweete breft are all the Mufes bredde:
So did that great Auguftus erft 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 fcape,
In womans weedes himselfe he then disguis'd:
But this devife Ulyffes foone did spy,

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And brought him forth, the chaunce of warre to try.

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When Spenfer faw the fame was fpredd fo large,
Through Faery land, of their renowned Queene;
Loth that his Mufe fhould take fo great a charge,
As in fuch haughty matter to be feene;
To feeme 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 Spenfer was, by Sidney's fpeaches, wonne
To blaze Her fame, not fearing future harmes:
For well he knew, his Mufe would foone 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 Spenfer now, to his immortal prayfe,
Hath wonne the laurell quite from all his feeres.
What though his taske exceed a humaine witt;
He is excus'd, fith Sidney thought it fitt.

TO looke upon a worke of rare devise
The which a workman fetteth out to view,
And not to yield it the deferved prife
That unto fuch a workmanship is dew,

W. L.

Doth either prove the iudgement to be naught, Or els doth fhew a mind with envy fraught.

To labour to commend a peece of worke,
Which no man goes about to discommend,

Would raise a jealous doubt, that there did lurke Some fecret doubt whereto the prayfe did tend: For when men know the goodnes of the wyne, "Tis needlefs for the Hoaft to have a fygne.

Thus then, to fhew my iudgement to be fuch
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 fuch
As that no pen can fet it forth too much.

And thus I hang a garland at the dore;
(Not for to fhew the goodness of the ware;
But fuch hath beene the custome heretofore,
And cuftomes very hardly broken are ;)

And when your tast shall tell you this is trew,
Then looke you give your Hoaft his utmost dew.
IGNOTO.

VERSES

ADDRESSED, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FAERIE QUEENE,

TO SEVERAL NOBLEMEN &c.

To the Right Honourable Sir Chriftopher Hatton, Lord high Chauncelor of England &c.

I

THOSE prudent heads, that with their counfels wife

Whylom the pillours of th' earth did fuftaine, And taught ambitious Rome to tyrannife, And in the neck of all the world to rayne; Oft from thofe grave affaires were wont abftaine, With the fweet Lady Mufes for to play :* So Ennius the elder Africane ;

So Maro oft did Cæfars cares allay.

So you, great Lord, that with your counsell sway

Ver. 7. So Ennius &c.] The meaning is, "So Ennius allayed the cares of Scipio Africanus, and fo Virgil &c." Claudian relates the fame circumstance of Ennius; and poffibly afforded it to Spenfer. See Præf. in Lib. 3. Laud, Stilic.

"Major Scipiades," et feq. 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, manifeft themselves in many paffages of Queen Elizabeth's history. It is remarkable that, fince the exclufion of the ecclefiafticks from bearing this office, he was the first perfon preferred to it who was not a profeffed lawyer. He was made Chancellor in the year 1587 and died in 1591. See Camden's Annals Eliz. T. WARTON.

eke delay

The burdein of this kingdom mightily, With like delightes fometimes may The rugged brow of carefull Policy;'> And to thefe ydle rymes lend litle space, Which for their titles fake may find more grace.

E. S.

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To the Right Honourable the Lord Burleigh, Lord high Threafurer of England

TO you, Right Noble Lord, whofe carefull breft

To menage of most grave affaires is bent; And on whofe mightie fhoulders moft doth reft

may eke delay

Ver. 11. The rugged brow of carefull Policy:] May Smooth or foften. The word delay is ufed by Spenfer in the fame fenfe, in his Prothalam. ver. 3, where modern editions improperly read allay. See the note on the paffage. But Milton is the best commentator on the words now before us; for he defcribes the nightingale, in his Il Penferofo,

"In her sweetest faddeft plight

"SMOOTHING the rugged brow of night." TODD. Ver. 14. for their titles fake] Their title being the Faerie Queene, who, reprefented Queen Elizabeth. Camden relates, that Sir Chriftopher was a fingular favourite of the Queen, long before his promotion to the Chancellorthip. However, as that hiftorian adds, he was not raised to it purely by her choice, but by the artifice of certain Courtiers who, envious of his growing intereft, thought to diminish his favour with the Queen, by conferring a post upon him which neceffarily drew him from a conftant 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 Spenfer. TODD.

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