Spenser

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Macmillan, 1923 - Poets, English - 188 pages

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Page 104 - If music and sweet poetry agree, As they must needs, the sister and the brother, Then must the love be great "twixt thee and me, Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other. Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch Upon the lute doth ravish human sense ; Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such As, passing all conceit, needs no defence. Thou lov'st to hear the sweet melodious sound That Phoebus...
Page 124 - I chose the historye of King Arthure, as most fittte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many mens former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy, and suspition of present time.
Page 118 - I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a nymph; sometime sitting in the shade like a Goddess; sometime singing like an angel; sometime playing like Orpheus. Behold the sorrow of this world! Once amiss, hath bereaved me of all.
Page 112 - Full little knowest thou that hast not tride, What hell it is, in suing long to bide : To loose good dayes, that might be better spent...
Page 6 - CALM was the day, and through the trembling air Sweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play A gentle spirit, that lightly did delay Hot Titan's beams, which then did glister fair; When I (whom sullen care, Through discontent of my long fruitless...
Page 124 - The generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline : Which for that I conceived shoulde be most plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historicall fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for variety of matter then for profite of the ensample...
Page 39 - Furioso, which, notwithstanding, you will needs seem to emulate and hope to overgo, as you flatly professed yourself in one of your last letters.
Page 124 - I labour to pourtraict in Arthure, before he was king, the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private morall vertues, as Aristotle hath devised, the which is the purpose of these first twelve bookes...
Page 148 - That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may. Lo ! see soone after how more bold and free Her bared bosome she doth broad display; Lo ! see soone after how she fades and falls away. So passeth, in the passing of a day, Of mortal! life the leafe, the bud, the flowre...
Page 112 - To have thy asking, yet waite manie yeeres ; To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares ; To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires ; To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne, To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne.

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