G. W. SENIOR,*
*

TO THE AUTHOR.

DARKE is the day when Phoebus face is shrowded,
And weaker sights may wander soone astray;
But when they see his glorious raies unclowded,
With steddy steps they keepe the perfect way:
So, while this Muse in forraine land doth stay,
Invention weepes, and pennes are cast aside;
The time, like night, deprivd of chearfull day;
And few doe write, but ah! too soone may slide.
Then hie thee home, that art our perfect guide,
And with thy wit illustrate Englands fame,
Daunting therby our neighbors ancient pride,
That do for Poesie challenge chiefest name:
So we that live, and ages that succeed,

With great applause thy learned works shall reed.

AH! Colin, whether on the lowly plaine,
Piping to shepheards thy sweet roundelayes,

* These commendatory Sonnets first appeared in the first folio edition of Spenser's entire works (1611). G. W., as Todd conjectures, may be George Whetstone. C.

Or whether singing, in some loftie vaine,
Heroicke deeds of past or present dayes,
Or whether in thy lovely mistresse praise
Thou list to exercise thy learned quill,

Thy Muse hath got such grace and power to please,
With rare invention, beautified by skill,

As who therin can ever ioy their fill!
O, therefore let that happy Muse proceed

To clime the height of Vertues sacred hill,

Where endlesse honour shal be made thy meed:

Because no malice of succeeding daies

Can rase those records of thy lasting praise.

G. W. I[UNIOR].

AMORETTI.*

I.

HAPPY, ye leaves! when as those lilly hands.
Which hold my life in their dead-doing might
Shall handle you, and hold in loves soft bands,
Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.
And happy lines! on which, with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look,
And reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,
Written with teares in harts close-bleeding book.

*These Sonnets furnish us with a circumstantial and very interesting history of Spenser's second courtship, which, after many repulses, was successfully terminated by the marriage celebrated in the Epithalamion. As these poems were entered in the Stationers' Registers on the 19th of November, 1594, we may infer that they cover a period of time extending from the end of 1592 to the summer of 1594. It is possible, however, that these last dates may be a year too late, and that Spenser was married in 1593. We cannot be sure of the year, but we know, from the 266th verse of the Epithalamion, that the day was the feast of St. Barnabas, June 11 of the Old Style. In the 74th sonnet we are directly told that the lady's name was Elizabeth. In the 61st, she is said to be of the "brood of Angels, heavenly born." From this and many similar expressions, interpreted by the laws of Anagram, and taken in conjunction with various circumstances which do not require to be stated here, it may be inferred that her surname was Nagle. C.

And happy rymes! bath'd in the sacred brooke
Of Helicon, whence she derived is.

When ye behold that Angels blessed looke,
My soules long-lacked food, my heavens blis,
Leaves, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none !

II.

UNQUIET thought! whom at the first I bred
Of th' inward bale of my love-pined hart,
And sithens have with sighes and sorrowes fed,
Till greater then my wombe thou woxen art,
Breake forth at length out of the inner part,
In which thou lurkest lyke to vipers brood,
And seeke some succour both to ease my smart,
And also to sustayne thy selfe with food.
But if in presence of that fayrest Proud
Thou chance to come, fall lowly at her feet;
And with meek humblesse and afflicted mood
Pardon for thee, and grace for me, intreat :
Which if she graunt, then live, and my love cherish:
If not, die soone, and I with thee will perish.

III.

THE Soverayne beauty which I doo admyre,
Witnesse the world how worthy to be prayzed!
The light wherof hath kindled heavenly fyre
In my fraile spirit, by her from basenesse raysed;
That being now with her huge brightnesse dazed,
Base thing I can no more endure to view:
But, looking still on her, I stand amazed
At wondrous sight of so celestiall hew.

So when my toung would speak her praises dew,
It stopped is with thoughts astonishment ;
And when my pen would write her titles true,
It ravisht is with fancies wonderment:

Yet in my hart I then both speak and write
The wonder that my wit cannot endite.

IV.

NEW yeare, forth looking out of Ianus gate,
Doth seeme to promise hope of new delight,
And, bidding th' old adieu, his passed date
Bids all old thoughts to die in dumpish1 spright;
And calling forth out of sad Winters night
Fresh Love, that long hath slept in cheerlesse bower,
Wils him awake, and soone about him dight
His wanton wings and darts of deadly power.
For lusty Spring now in his timely howre
Is ready to come forth, him to receive;
And warns the Earth with divers colord flowre

To decke hir selfe, and her faire mantle weave.

Then you, faire flowre! in whom fresh youth doth

raine,

Prepare your selfe new love to entertaine.

V.

RUDELY thou wrongest my deare harts desire,
In finding fault with her too portly pride :
The thing which I doo most in her admire,
Is of the world unworthy most envide.
For in those lofty lookes is close implide

1 Dumpish, mournful.