When Spenser saw the fame was spredd fo 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 Shepheard, then he made his choice;
But Sidney heard him sing, and knew his voice.

And as Ulyfles brought faire Thetis fonne
From his retyred life to menage 'armes :
So Spenser 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 immortal prayse,
Hath wonne the laurell quite from all his feeres.
What though his taske exceed a humaine witt;
He is excusod, fith Sidney thought it fitt.

W. L.

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 fuch a workmanship is dew,

Doth either prove the iudgement to he 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 secret doubt whereto the prayse did tend :

For when men know the goodnes of the wyne, 'Tis needless for the Hoast to have a sygne.

Thus then, to thew my iudgement 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.

VERSES

ADDRESSED, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FAERIE QUEENE,

TO SEVERAL NOBLEMEN &c.'

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

THOSE prudent heads, that with their counsels

wife Whylom the pillours of thearth 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.
So you, great Lord, that with your counsell fway

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

“ Major Scipiades,” et seq. T. WARTON. Ver. 9. So you, great Lord, that &c.] The diligence and integrity, with which Sir Christopher Hatton executed his office of High-Chancellor, manifest themselves in many paffages of Queen Elizabeth's history. It is remarkable that, fince the exclusion of the ecclesiasticks from bearing this office, he was the first person preferred to it who was not a professed lawyer. He was made Chancellor in the year 1587 and died ju 1591. See Camden's Annals Eliz. T. WARTON.

The burdein 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 fake may find more grace.

E. S.

To the Right Honourable the Lord Burleigh, Lord

high Threasurer of England. TO you, Right Noble Lord, whose carefull

brest To menage of most grave affaires is bent; And on wh

shoulders most doth rest

Ver. 11.

- may eke delay The rugged brow of carefull Policy :) May Smooth or Soften. The word delay is used by Spenfer in the same sense, in his Prothalam. ver. 3, where modern editions improperly read allay. See the note on the passage. But Milton is the best commentator on the words now before us; for he describes the nightingale, in his Il Penseroso,

* In her sweetest faddest plight

“ SMOOTHING the rugged brow of night." TODD., Ver. 14. -- for their titles Sake] Their title being the Faerie Queene, who represented Queen Elizabeth. Camden relates, that Sir Christopher was a singular favourite of the Queen, long before his promotion to the Chancellornip. However, as that historian adds, he was not raised to it purely by her choice, but by the artifice of certain Courtiers who, envious of his growing interest, thought to diminish his favour with the Queen, by conferring a post upon him which necelsarily drew him from a constant 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 Spenser. TODD,

The burdein of this kingdome's governement, (As the wide compasse of the firmament

On Atlas mightie shoulders is upstayd,) : Unfitly I these ydle rimes present,

The labor of lost time, and wit unstayd : Yet if their deeper fence be inly wayd, And the dim vele, with which from commune

vew . Their fairer parts are hid, afide be layd,

Perhaps not vaine they may appeare to You. Such as they be, vouchsafe them to receave, And wipe their faults out of your censure grave.

E. S.

To the Right Honourable the Earle of Oxenford,

Lord high Chamberlayne of England 8c 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 fo 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,
Şucceeding them in true Nobility :