VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR.
A Vision upon this conceipt of the Faery Thy lovely Rosolinde seemes now forlorne,
ME thought I saw the grave where Laura lay,
Within that Temple where the vestall flame
Was wont to burne; and passing by that way
To see that buried dust of living fame,
Whose tumbe faire love, and fairer vertue kept,
All suddeinly I saw the Faery Queene:
At whose approch the soule of Petrarke wept,
And from thenceforth those graces were not seene;
For they this Queene attended, in whose steed
Oblivion laid him downe on Lauras herse.
Hereat the hardest stones were seene to bleed,
And grones of buried ghostes the hevens did perse:
Where Homers spright did tremble all for griefe,
And curst th' accesse of that celestiall theife.
And all thy gentle flockes forgotten quight:
Thy chaunged hart now holdes thy pypes in scorne,
Those prety pypes that did thy mates delight;
Those trusty mates, that loved thee so well;
Whom thou gav'st mirth, as they gave thee the bell.
Yet, as thou earst with thy sweete roundelayes
Didst stirre to glee our laddes in homely bowers;
So moughtst thou now in these refyned layes
Delight the daintie eares of higher powers:
And so mought they, in their de skanning skill,
Alow and grace our Collyns flowing quyll.
And faire befall that Faery Queene of thine,
In whose faire eyes love linckt with vertue sittes;
Enfusing, by those bewties fyers devyne,
Such high conceites into thy humble wittes,
As raised hath poore pastors oaten reedes
The prayse of meaner wits this worke like profit From rustick tunes, to chaunt heroique deedes.
brings,
As doth the Cuckoes song delight when Philumena So mought thy Redcrosse knight with happy hand
If thou hast formed right true vertues face herein,
Vertue her selfe can best discerne to whom they
[divine If thou hast beauty praysd, let her sole lookes Judge if ought therein be amis, and mend it by
Victorious be in that faire Ilands right,
Which thou dost vayle in Type of Faery land,
Elizas blessed field, that Albion hight: [foes,
That shieldes her friendes, and warres her mightie
Yet still with people, peace, and plentie flowes.
But (jolly shepheard) though with pleasing style
Let not conceipt thy setled sence beguile,
Thou feast the humour of the Courtly trayne,
Ne daunted be through envy or disdaine.
Subject thy dome to her Empyring spright, [light.
From whence thy Muse, and all the world, takes
Fayre Thamis streame, that from Ludds stately
towne
Runst paying tribute to the Ocean seas,
Let all thy Nymphes and Syrens of renowne
Be silent, whyle this Bryttane Orpheus playes.
Nere thy sweet bankes there lives that sacred
Whose hand strowes Palme and never-dying bayes:
Let all at once, with thy soft murmuring sowne,
Present her with this worthy Poets prayes;
For he hath taught hye drifts in shepeherdes weedes,
And deepe conceites now singes in Faeries deedes.
Grave Muses, march in triumph and with pray ses; What though his taske exceed a humaine witt,
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 fairest that the world hath seene!
When stout Achilles heard of Helens rape,
And what revenge the States of Greece devisd,
Thinking by sleight the fatall warres to scape,
In womans weedes him selfe he then disguisde;
But this devise Ulysses soone did spy,
And brought him forth the chaunce of warre to try.
When Spencer saw the fame was spredd so large, Through Faery land, of their renowned Queene, Loth that his Muse should take so great a charge, As in such haughty matter to be seene,
To seeme a shepeheard then he made his choice;
But Sydney heard him sing, and knew his voice.
And as Ulysses brought faire Thetis sonne
From his retyred life to menage armes,
So Spencer 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 his immortall prayse,
Hath wonne the Laurell quite from all his feres.
He is excus'd, sith Sidney thought it fitt.
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 judgement to be naught,
Or els doth shew 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 secret doubt whereto the prayse did tend;
For when men know the goodnes of the wyne,
'Tis needlesse for the hoast to have a sygne.
Thus then, to shew my judgement 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 shew the goodness of the ware;
But such hath beene the custome heretofore,
And customes very hardly broken are;
And when your tast shall tell you this is trew,
Then looke you give your hoast his utmost dew.
IGNOTO.
ADDRESSED, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FAERIE QUEENE, TO VARIOUS NOBLEMEN, &C.
To the Right honourable Sir Christopher To the Right Honourable the Earle of OxenHatton, Lord high Chauncelor of England, ford, Lord high Chamberlayne of England, &c.
Whylom the pillours of th' earth did sustaine,
And taught ambitious Rome to tyrannise
And in the neck of all the world to rayne,
Oft from those grave affaires were wont ab-
staine,
With the sweet Lady Muses for to play:
So Ennius the elder Africane,
So Maro oft did Cæsars cares allay. [sway
So you, great Lord, that with your counsell
The burdeine 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 sake may find more grace.
To the most honourable and excellent Lord the
Receive, most Noble Lord, in gentle gree,
The unripe fruit of an unready wit;
Which by thy countenaunce doth crave to
bee
Defended from foule Envies poisnous bit.
Which so to doe may thee right well befit,
Sith th' antique glory of thine auncestry
Under a shady vele is therein writ,
And eke thine owne long living memory,
Succeeding them in true nobility:
And also for the love which thou doest beare
To th' Heliconian ymps, and they to thee;
They unto thee, and thou to them, most
Deare as thou art unto thy selfe, so love
That loves and honours thee, as doth behove.
The sacred Muses have made alwaies clame
To be the Nourses of nobility,
Earle of Essex. Great Maister of the To the right honourable the Earle of North-
Horse to her Highnesse, and knight of
the Noble order of the Garter, &c.
Magnificke Lord, whose vertues excellent,
Doe merit a most famous Poets witt
To be thy living praises instrument,
Yet doe not sdeigne to let thy name be writt
In this base Poeme, for thee far unfitt:
Nought is thy worth disparaged thereby;
But when my Muse, whose fethers, nothing
flitt,
Doe yet but flagg, and lowly learne to fly,
With bolder wing shall dare alofte to sty
To the last praises of this Faery Queene;
Then shall it make more famous memory
Of thine Heroicke parts, such as they beene:
Till then, vouchsafe thy noble countenaunce
To these first labours needed furtheraunce.
And Registres of everlasting fame,
To all that armes professe and chevalry.
Then, by like right the noble Progeny,
Which them succeed in fame and worth, are
tyde
T'embrace the service of sweete Poetry,
By whose endevours they are glorifide;
And eke from all, of whom it is envide,
To patronize the authour of their praise,
Which gives them life, that els would soone
have dide,
And crownes their ashes with immortall baies.
To thee, therefore, right noble Lord, I send
This present of my paines, it to defend.
Grave Muses, march in triumph and with pray ses;
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 fairest that the world hath seene!
When stout Achilles heard of Helens rape,
And what revenge the States of Greece devisd,
Thinking by sleight the fatall warres to scape,
In womans weedes him selfe he then disguisde;
But this devise Ulysses soone did spy,
And brought him forth the chaunce of warre to try.'
When Spencer saw the fame was spredd so large, Through Faery land, of their renowned Queene, Loth that his Muse should take so great a charge, As in such haughty matter to be seene,
To seeme a shepeheard then he made his choice;
But Sydney heard him sing, and knew his voice.
And as Ulysses brought faire Thetis sonne
From his retyred life to menage armes,
So Spencer 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 his immortall prayse,
Hath wonne the Laurell quite from all his feres.
ADDRESSED, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FAERIE QUEENE, TO VARIOUS NOBLEMEN, &C.
To the Right honourable Sir Christopher To the Right Honourable the Earle of OxenHatton, Lord high Chauncelor of England, ford, Lord high Chamberlayne of England, &c.
THOSE prudent heads, that with theire counsels
Whylom the pillours of th' earth did sustaine, And taught ambitious Rome to tyrannise And in the neck of all the world to rayne, Oft from those grave affaires were wont abstaine,
With the sweet Lady Muses for to play:
So Ennius the elder Africane,
So Maro oft did Cæsars cares allay. [sway
So you, great Lord, that with your counsell
The burdeine 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 sake may find more grace.
Receive, most Noble Lord, in gentle gree,
The unripe fruit of an unready wit;
Which by thy countenaunce doth crave to
bee
Defended from foule Envies poisnous bit.
Which so to doe may thee right well befit,
Sith th' antique glory of thine auncestry
Under a shady vele is therein writ,
And eke thine owne long living memory,
Succeeding them in true nobility:
And also for the love which thou doest beare To th' Heliconian ymps, and they to thee; They unto thee, and thou to them, most
Deare as thou art unto thy selfe, so love
That loves and honours thee, as doth behove.
To the most honourable and excellent Lord the
Earle of Essex. Great Maister of the To the right honourable the Earle of North-
Horse to her Highnesse, and knight of the Noble order of the Garter, &c. Magnificke Lord, whose vertues excellent, Doe merit a most famous Poets witt To be thy living praises instrument, Yet doe not sdeigne to let thy name be writt In this base Poeme, for thee far unfitt: Nought is thy worth disparaged thereby; But when my Muse, whose fethers, nothing flitt,
Doe yet but flagg, and lowly learne to fly, With bolder wing shall dare alofte to sty To the last praises of this Faery Queene; Then shall it make more famous memory Of thine Heroicke parts, such as they beene: Till then, vouchsafe thy noble countenaunce To these first labours needed furtheraunce.
The sacred Muses have made alwaies clame
To be the Nourses of nobility,
And Registres of everlasting fame,
To all that armes professe and chevalry.
Then, by like right the noble Progeny,
Which them succeed in fame and worth, are
tyde
T'enibrace the service of sweete Poetry, By whose endevours they are glorifide; And eke from all, of whom it is envide, To patronize the authour of their praise, Which gives them life, that els would soone have dide,
And crownes their ashes with immortall baies. To thee, therefore, right noble Lord, I send This present of my paines, it to defend.
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