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When Spenfer faw the fame was fpredd fo large,
Through Faery land, of their renowned Queene;
Loth that his Muse should take fo great a charge,
As in fuch haughty matter to be seene;
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 praife, 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 tafke exceed a humaine witt;
He is excus'd, fith Sidney thought it fitt.

W. L.

TO looke upon a worke of rare devise
The which a workman fetteth 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 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 such
As can difcerne 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 set 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 heretofóre,
And cuftomes very hardly broken are;)

And when your taft fhall 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.

THOSE prudent heads, that with their counsels

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 abstaine, 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 circumftance of Ennius; and poffibly afforded it to Spenfer. See Præf. in Lib. 3. Laud. Stilic.

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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 hiftory. 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.

The burdein of this kingdom mightily, With like delightes fometimes may eke delay 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.

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

TO you, Right Noble Lord, whose carefull

To

breft

menage of moft grave affaires is bent; And on whofe mightie fhoulders most 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 Chancellorship. However, as that hiftorian adds, he was not raifed 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 poft 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.

The burdein of this kingdome's governement, (As the wide compaffe of the firmament On Atlas mightie fhoulders is upstayd,) Unfitly I thefe ydle rimes prefent, The labor of loft time, and wit unftayd: 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, vouchfafe them to receave, And wipe their faults out of your cenfure grave.

E. S.

To the Right Honourable the Earle of Oxenford,
Lord high Chamberlayne of England &c.

RECEIVE, moft Noble Lord, in gentle gree,
The unripe fruit of an unready wit;
Which, by thy countenaunce, doth crave to
bee

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Defended from foule Envies poifnous bit.
Which fo to doe may thee right well befit,
Sith th' antique glory of thine auncestry
Under a fhady vele is therein writ,
And eke thine owne long living memory,
Succeeding them in true Nobility:

Ver. 1.

gree,] Favour. See

the F. Q. i. v. 16, and the note there. TODD,

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