ONE day, whiles that my daily cares did sleep,
My spirit, shaking off her earthly prison,
Began to enter into meditation deep
Of things exceeding reach of common reason;
Such as this age, in which all good is geason,1
And all that humble is, and mean debased,
Hath brought forth in her last declining season,
Grief of good minds, to see goodness disgraced!
On which when as my thought was throughly 2 placed, Tho-
Unto my eyes strange shows presented were,
Picturing that, which I in mind embraced,
That yet those sights empassion3 me full near.
Such as they were (fair Lady †) take in worth,1
That when time serves may bring things better
forth.
In summer's day, when Phoebus fairly shone,
I saw a Bull as white as driven snow,
With gilden horns embowed5 like the moon,
In a fresh flow'ring meadow lying low:
*The object of this poem is to shew the ruin brought on great and powerful, by small and insignificant things.
Fairlady:' perhaps Lady Carey, to whom 'Muiopotmos' is inscribed.
Up to his ears the verdant grass did grow,
And the gay flowers did offer to be eaten;
But he with fatness so did overflow,
That he all wallowed in the weeds down beaten,
Ne car'd with them his dainty lips to sweeten:
1 A gadfly. Till that a brize,1 a scorned little creature,
Through his fair hide his angry sting did threaten,
And vex'd so sore, that all his goodly feature
And all his plenteous pasture nought him pleased:
So the small the great is oft diseased.2
Beside the fruitful shore of muddy Nile,
Upon a sunny bank outstretched lay,
In monstrous length, a mighty Crocodile,
That, cramm'd with guiltless blood and greedy prey
Of wretched people travelling that way,
Thought all things less than his disdainful pride.
I saw a little bird, call'd Tedula,*
The least of thousands which on earth abide,
That forc'd this hideous beast to open wide
The grisly gates of his devouring hell,
And let him feed, as Nature did provide,
Upon his jaws, that with black venom swell.
Why then should greatest things the least disdain,
Sith that so small so mighty can constrain?
The kingly bird, that bears Jove's thunder-clap,
One day did scorn the simple scarabee,3
Proud of his highest service, and good hap,
That made all other fowls his thralls to be:
The silly fly, that no redress did see,
Spied where the eagle built his tow'ring nest,
*Tedula:' Herodotus speaks of a bird which, as he says, enters the mouth of the crocodile, and eats the leeches which are found clinging to its jaws.
And, kindling fire within the hollow tree,
Burnt up his young ones, and himself distrest;
Ne suffer'd him in any place to rest,
But drove in Jove's own lap his eggs to lay;
Where gathering also filth him to infest,
Forc'd with the filth his eggs to fling away:
For which when as the fowl was wroth, said Jove,
'Lo! how the least the greatest may reprove.'
Toward the sea turning my troubled eye,
I saw the fish (if fish I may it clepe)1
That makes the sea before his face to fly,
And with his flaggy fins doth seem to sweep
The foamy waves out of the dreadful deep,
The huge leviathan, dame Nature's wonder,
Making his sport, that many makes to weep:
A sword-fish small him from the rest did sunder,
That, in his throat him pricking softly under,
His wide abyss him forced forth to spew,
That all the sea did roar like heaven's thunder,
And all the waves were stain'd with filthy hue.
Hereby I learned have not to despise
Whatever thing seems small in common eyes.
An hideous dragon, dreadful to behold,
Whose back was arm'd against the dint of spear
With shields of brass that shone like burnish'd gold,
And fork-head sting that death in it did bear,
Strove with a spider his unequal peer;
And bade defiance to his enemy.
The subtle vermin, creeping closely near,
Did in his drink shed poison privily;
Which, through his entrails spreading diversly,
Made him to swell, that nigh his bowels brust,
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