LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNI 
 
 a. 
 
 Accession $381 8 
 
 3a>s \l\S 
 
 __Ji 
 
THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAE. 
 
CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY. 
 
 THE 
 
 SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR 
 
 Of T*X 
 
 UNIVEI 
 
 C*tFO*g 
 
 EDMUND SPETSTSEB. 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: 
 
 104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. 
 
ASHMERE 
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 The name and trade mark of Colgate & Co. on 
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INTEODUCTION. 
 
 THIS little book of music to the ear and to the mind 
 was published in the year 1579, as the work of a new 
 poet, introduced to the world by his friend " E. K." 
 an old college companion, Edmund Kirke. The "new 
 poet " was Edmund Spenser, then twenty-six years, now 
 three hundred and thirty -six years old, and ever young. 
 
 Edmund Spenser was of a Lancashire family, settled 
 at Hurstwood, near Burnley, and in other parts of the 
 same district. A Lettice Nowell married a Lawrence 
 Spenser, and we find aid to the education of Spenser the 
 poet in a MS. of " the spending of the money of Robert 
 Nowell." The aid shows that he was being educated 
 at Merchant Taylors' School. A John Spemser was 
 described in 1566 as a free journeyman in the art and 
 mystery of cloth-making, at that time in the service of 
 Nicholas Peele, shearman, of Bow Lane. 
 
 Let us agree with Dr. G-rosart, who has done most 
 towards investigation of the Spenser settlement hi 
 North-East Lancashire, from which the poet sprang 
 with Edmund for a lineal Christian name and 
 believe that this John Spenser from Lancashire, en- 
 gaged in business in London, was the poet's father. 
 Spenser was born in London, at East Smithfieids 
 beyond the City walls, about the year 1553, which was 
 the, year of the death of King Edward VI. In the. 
 account book of Robert Kowell, Edmund Sponsor is 
 entered, in 1568 and 1569, not only as receiving aid as 
 scholar at Merchant Taylors' School, but 
 thence to Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, wli 
 
 83818 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the identification perfect. The school had been first 
 founded when Spenser was seven years old, and throve 
 under its first head-master, Dr. Mulcaster, who trained 
 his boys to act plays for the pleasure of the Queen. 
 Thus Spenser may, as one of Dr. Mulcaster 's boys, 
 have acted in some play before her Majesty. 
 
 Spenser left school in 1569 for Pembroke Hall at 
 Cambridge, and in the same year contributed metrical 
 translations from Petrarch and Du Bellay to a mis- 
 cellany, dated May 25th, 1569, put together by Jean 
 van der Noodt, a Dutch physician, ardent for Church 
 Reform, who was a refugee from the cruelties of Alva. 
 The miscellany was called " A Theatre, wherein be 
 represented as well the Miseries that follow Volup- 
 tuous Worldlings, as also the great Joys and Pleasures 
 which the Faithful do enjoy. An Argument both 
 Profitable and Delectable to all that sincerely love the 
 Word of God." 
 
 That Spenser, a boy of sixteen, just passing from 
 school to college, should count the refugee, Jean van 
 der Noodt, among his friends, and contribute earnest 
 verse translated from French and Italian to his- 
 " Theatre for Worldlings," shows that in the deep re- 
 ligious feeling that runs through his life, the boy was 
 father to the man. 
 
 Spenser entered Pembroke Hall as a sizar. He 
 studied at Cambridge during seven years ; graduated 
 as B. A. in 1573 ; as M.A. in 1576 ; and then went to 
 his family in Lancashire, where he perhaps earned as 
 a tutor. Colin Clout was then among the barren hills 
 of the North, from which his friend Hobbinol (Gabriel 
 Harvey) invited him to come to the South where richer 
 shepherds dwell. Gabriel Harvey was employed, at, 
 times, in the service of the Earl of Leicester, who used 
 trusted agents on the Continent to report upon the 
 movements in aid of Church Reformation and do what 
 secret service they could for its advancement. We 
 know from a little book of Harvey's that he was about 
 
INTRODUCTION. / 
 
 fco be sent by Leicester to the Continent at a time when 
 he was active to obtain the post of Public Orator at 
 Cambridge. He avoided going, by recommending his 
 friend Edmund Spenser for the mission. Spenser came 
 to London in 1578, and went abroad for Leicester. 
 When he returned he was attached to Leicester's 
 service, became the friend of Leicester's nephew, 
 Philip Sidney, and soon afterwards was recommended 
 to the service of Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton, ap- 
 pointed Lord-Deputy to Ireland in troubled times, and 
 went out with Lord Grey in 1580 as his private secre- 
 tary. That was the year after he had published this 
 first book of poems, " The Shepherds' Calendar." 
 
 "The Shepherds' Calendar" is full of significance. 
 Its main interest is religious. The variety of music 
 suggests work of a young poet in his training time ; 
 there is even a sixtine among the measures tried, 
 shaped by artificial permutations of the six words 
 closing the six lines of each stanza (on pages 113 
 115) ; the deep reverence for Chaucer (Tityrus) that 
 is more than once expressed may possibly have caused 
 Spenser to write the fables of " The Oak and the 
 Brere" and "The Wolf and the Kid," as detached 
 exercises in his style while yet a youth at college ; 
 other pieces may in like manner have been written 
 without reference to the work with which they after- 
 wards were interwoven. That Spenser, a poet of 
 twenty-six, had fancy for an actual Rosalind is only 
 natural ; perhaps he had two or three such fancies. 
 Whether he had or not^ov^-singing was negessary to 
 apastojca^/ His marriage was "in" later life, and the 
 erse in which he then enshrined his wife shows that he 
 had for her a deep and pure affection. The great 
 interest of " The Shepherds' Calendar " lies not only in 
 the rich variety of its music; the poet's distinct taking 
 of Chaucer as his master and guide ; the honour paid 
 at the close to Langland's " Yision of Piers Plough- 
 maz\ ; " Spenser's assumption of a name for himself in 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 poetry, as Colin Clout, from a poem of Henry the 
 Eighth's day in which Skelton poured his soul out in 
 rustic rhyme against the pride of Church corruption ; 
 but there is the bold directness of a young poet 
 who must look for favour in high places, and yet 
 dares to take his stand against the Queen herself in 
 honouring Archbishop Grindal who, for fidelity to con- 
 science in promoting independent study of the Scrip- 
 tures, had fallen under the Queen's displeasure. His 
 name is no more disguised than by a transposition of 
 its syllables to Algrind; while Aylmer or Elmor, 
 Bishop of London, unpopular among the Puritans, and 
 one of those who, in administration of the Church, 
 supplanted Grindal, was made to appear, with his 
 syllables also transposed, as Morrell, a " goatherd 
 proud/' who, as a Bishop, loves the high seats on the 
 hills. There is a boldness in some of these Eclogues 
 that the prudent " E. K." takes evident pains to veil ; 
 and Spenser himself knows it to be not wholly without 
 risk to his prospects when he makes Morrell say to 
 Thomalin (page 102), "Harm may^come of melling. 
 Thou meddlest more than shall have thank," only a few 
 lines before a direct reference to the Queen's displea- 
 sure against Grindal. It is good to see how the 
 young Spenser begins life as a poet with Conscience 
 turning Petty-prudence out of doors. 
 
 E. K.'s gloss has many uses. It is not to be taken 
 as an authority on the origin of the names of elves, 
 goblins, and lurdains, or on etymologies generally. But 
 E. K. tells rightly what the old words used by Spenser 
 mean ; as a personal friend of the poet, he tells some 
 things that we are glad to know ; and he takes care to 
 divert attention from the full meaning of passages that 
 might offend the Queen. He did not know how strong 
 the influence of Marot was upon Spenser. Of that 
 influence I append two illustrations from my own life 
 of Clement Marot, published eighteen years ago, and 
 long since out of print. H. M. 
 
TO HIS BOOK. 
 
 Go, little book : thy self present, 
 As child whose parent is unkent, 
 To him that is the president 
 Of noblesse and of chivalrie : 
 And if that Envy bark at thee, 
 As sure it will, for succour flee 
 Under the shadow of his wing : 
 And asked who thee forth did bring, 
 A shepherd's swain, say, did thee sing 
 All as Ids straying flock he fed : 
 And, when his honour has thee read, 
 Crave pardon for my hardyhead. 
 But, if that any ask thy name, 
 Say, thou wert base-begot with blame ; 
 Por-thy thereof thou takest shame. 
 And, when thou art past jeopardie, 
 Come tell me what was said of me, 
 And I will send more after thee. 
 
 IMMERITO. 
 
TO THE MOST EXCELLENT AND LEARNED, 
 
 BOTH ORATOR AND POET, 
 
 MASTER GABRIEL HARVEY. 
 
 HIS VERY SPECIAL AND SINGULAR GOOD FRIEND E. K. COMMENDETH 
 THE GOOD LIKING OF THIS HIS GOOD LABOUR, AND THE PATRONAGE 
 OF THE NEW PC FT. 
 
 Vs UNCOUTH, unkissed, said the old famous poet Chaucer : 
 whom for his excellency and wonderful skill in making, 
 his scholar Lydgate, a worthy scholar of so excellent a 
 master, calleth the loadstar of our language : and whom 
 our Colin Clout, in his ^Eglogue, calleth Tityrus the 
 God of Shepherds, comparing him to the worthiness of 
 the Roman Tityrus, Yirgil. Which proverb, mine own 
 good friend Mr. Harvey, as in that good old poet it 
 served well Pandar's purpose for the bolstering of his 
 brokage, so very well taketh place in this our new poet, 
 who for that he is uncouth (as said Chaucer) is un- 
 kissed, and, unknown to most men, is regarded but of 
 few. Bat I doubt not, so soon as his name shall come 
 into the knowledge of men, and his worthiness be 
 sounded in the trump of fame, but that he shall be not 
 only kissed, but also beloved of all, embraced of the 
 most, and wondered at of the best. No less, I think, 
 
12 DEDICATION. 
 
 deserve tli Ms wittiness in devising, his pithiness in 
 uttering, his complaints of love so lovely, his discourses 
 of pleasure so pleasantly, his pastoral rudeness, his 
 moral wiseness, his due observing of decorum every- 
 where, in personages, in seasons, in matter, in speech ; 
 and generally, in all seemly simplicity of handling his 
 matter and framing his words : the which, of many 
 things which in him be strange, I know will seem the 
 strangest ; the words themselves being so ancient, the 
 knitting of them so short and intricate, and the whole 
 period and compass of speech so delightsome for the 
 roundness, and so grave for the strangeness. And 
 first of the words to speak, I grant they be something 
 hard, and of most men unusod, yet both English and 
 also used of most excellent authors, and most famous 
 poets. In whom, whenas this our poet hath been much 
 travailed and thoroughly read, how could it be (as that 
 worthy Orator said), but that walking in the sun, 
 although for other cause he walked, yet needs he mought 
 be sunburnt; and, having the sound of those ancient 
 poets still ringing in his ears, he mought needs, in 
 singing, hit out some of their tunes. But whether he 
 useth them by such casualty and custom, or of set 
 purpose and choice, as thinking them fittest for such 
 rustical rudeness of shepherds, either for that their 
 rough sound would make his rhymes more ragged and 
 rustical, or else because such old and obsolete words 
 are most used of country folk, sure I think, and think 
 
DEDICATION. 13 
 
 I think not amiss, that they bring great grace, and, as 
 one would say, authority to the verse. For albe, 
 amongst many other faults, it specially be objected of 
 Valla against Livy, and of other against Sallust, that 
 with over much study they affect antiquity, as coveting 
 thereby credence and honour of elder years, yet I am 
 of opinion, and eke the best learned are of the like, 
 that those ancient solemn words are a great ornament 
 both in the one and in the other ; the one labouring to 
 set forth in his work an eternal image of antiquity, 
 and the other carefully discoursing matters of gravity 
 and importance. For, if my memory fail not, Tully, 
 in that book wherein he endeavoureth to set forth the 
 pattern of a perfect orator, saith that ofttimes an 
 ancient word maketh the style seem grave, and as it 
 were reverend, no otherwise then we honour and 
 reverence grey hairs, for a certain religious regard 
 which we have of old age. Tet neither everywhere 
 must old words be stuffed in, nor the common dialect 
 and manner of speaking so corrupted thereby that, as 
 in old buildings, it seem disorderly and ruinous. But 
 all as in most exquisite pictures they use to blaze and 
 portrait not only the dainty lineaments of beauty, bat 
 also round about it to shadow the rude thickets and 
 craggy cliffs, that by the baseness of such parts more 
 excellency may accrue to the principal; for ofttimes 
 we find ourselves, I know not how, singularly delighted 
 with the show of such natural rudeness, and take great 
 
14 DEDICATION. 
 
 pleasure in that disorderly order ; even so do those 
 rough and harsh terms enlumine, and make more clearly 
 to appear, the brightness of brave and glorious words, 
 So oftentimes a discord in music inaketh a comely con- 
 cordance ; so great delight took the worthy poet Alcseus 
 to behold a blemish in the joint of a well-shaped body. 
 But, if any will rashly blame such his purpose in choice 
 of old and unwonted words, him may I more justly 
 blame and condemn, or of witless headiness in judging 
 or of heedless hardiness in condemning: for, not 
 marking the compass of his bent, he will judge of the 
 length of his cast : for in my opinion it is one special 
 praise of many which are due to this poet, that he hath 
 laboured to restore, as to their rightful heritage, such 
 good and natural English words as have been long* 
 time out of use and almost clean disherited. Which 
 is the only cause that our mother-tongue, which truly 
 of itself is both full enough for prose, and stately 
 enough for verse, hath long time been counted most 
 bare and barren of both. Which default whenas some 
 endeavoured to salve and recure, they patched up the 
 holes with pieces and rags of other languages, borrow- 
 ing here of the French, there of the Italian, every, 
 where of the Latin ; not weighing how ill those tongues 
 accord with themselves, but much worse with ours: 
 so now they have made our English tongue a galli- 
 maufray or hodgepodge of all other speeches. Other 
 some, not so well seen in the English tongue as perhaps 
 
DEDICATION. 15 
 
 in other languages, if they happen to hear an old word, 
 albeit very natural and significant, cry out straightway 
 that we speak no English, but gibberish, or rather such 
 as in old time Evauder's mother spake : whose first 
 shame is, that they are not ashamed in their own 
 mother-tongue to be counted strangers and aliens ; 
 the second shame no less than the first, that whatso 
 they understand not, they straightway deem to be 
 senseless, and not at all to be understood, much like 
 to the mole in ^sop's fable, that, being blind herself, 
 would in no wise be persuaded that any beast could see ; 
 the last, more shameful than both, that of their own 
 country and natural speech, which together with their 
 nurses' milk they sucked, they have so base regard and 
 bastard judgment, that they will not only themselves 
 not labour to garnish and beautify it, but also repine 
 that of other it should be embellished. Like to the 
 dog in the manger, that himself can eat no hay, and 
 yet barketh at the hungry bullock that so fain would 
 feed: whose currish kind, though it cannot be kept 
 from barking, yet I con them thank that they refrara 
 from biting. 
 
 Now, for the knitting of sentences, which they call 
 the joints and members thereof, and for all the compass 
 of the speech, it is round without roughness, and 
 learned without hardness; such indeed as may be 
 perceived of the least, understood of the most, but 
 judged only of the learned. For what in most English 
 
16 DEDICATION. 
 
 -writers nset-li to be loose, aud as it were ungirt, in this 
 author is well grounded, finely framed, and strongly 
 trussed up together. In regard whereof, I scorn and 
 spew out the rakehelly rout of our ragged rhymers (for 
 so themselves use to hunt the letter), which without 
 learning boast, without judgment jangle, without 
 reason rage ' and foam, as if some instinct of poetical 
 spirit had newly ravished them above the meanness of 
 common capacity. And being in the inidst of all their 
 bravery, suddenly, either for want of matter, or of 
 rhyme, or having forgotten their former conceit, they 
 seem to be so pained and travailed in their remem- 
 brance, as it were a woman in childbirth, or as that 
 same Pythia when the trance came upon her: "Os 
 rabiduni fera cor da domans, &c." 
 
 Nevertheless, let them a God's name feed on their 
 own folly, so they seek not to darken the beams of 
 others' glory, As for Colin, under whose person the 
 author's self is shadowed, how far he is from such 
 Taunted titles and glorious shows, both himself sneweth 
 where he saith, 
 
 " Of Muses Hobbiu, I con no skill. 15 
 
 And 
 
 "Enough is 'me to paint out my unrest, &c." 
 
 And also appeareth by the baseness of the name, 
 wherein it seemeth that he chose rather to unfold great 
 matter of argument covertly than professing it, not 
 suffice thereto accordingly. Which moved him rather 
 
DEDICATION. 17 
 
 in JEglogues than otherwise to write, doubting perhaps, 
 his ability, which he little needed, or minding to 
 furnish our tongue with this kind wherein it f aulteth ; 
 or following the example of the best and most ancient 
 poets which devised this kind of writing, being both 
 so base for the matter and homely for the manner, at 
 the first to try their abilities, and as young birds that 
 be newly crept out of the nest, by little first to prove 
 their tender wings before they make a greater flight. 
 So flew Theocritus as you may perceive he was already 
 full fledged. So flew Yirgil as not well feeling his 
 wings. So flew Marituan as not being full summed. 
 So Petrarch, so Boccace, so Marot, Samiazaro, and also 
 divers other excellent, both Italian and French poets, 
 whose footing this author everywhere followeth, yet 
 so as few, but they be well-scented, can trace him out. 
 So finally flieth this our new poet, as a bird whose 
 principals be scarce grown out, but yet as one that in 
 time shall be able to keep wing with the best. 
 
 Now, as touching the general drift and purpose of 
 Ms .^Eglogues, I mind not to say much, himself labo 
 ing to conceal it. Only this appeareth, that hi- 
 stayed youth had long wandered in the common laby- 
 rinth of love; in which time to mitigate and allay th<- 
 heat of his passion, or else to warn, as he saith, tit 
 young shepherds, as his equals and companions, of his 
 unfortunate folly, he compiled these twelve JEglogues, 
 which, for that they be proportioned to the state of 
 
18 DEDICATION. 
 
 the twelve months he termeth the "Shepherds* 
 Calendar," applying an old name to a new work. Here- 
 unto have I added a certain gloss, or scholion, for the 
 exposition of old words, and harder phrases; which 
 manner of glossing and commenting, well I wot, will 
 seem strange and rare in our tongue ; yet, for so much 
 as I knew many excellent and proper devices, both in 
 words and matter, would pass in the speedy course of 
 reading, either as unknown, or as not marked, and that 
 in this kind as in other, we might be equal to the 
 learned of other nations, I thought good to take the 
 pains upon me, the rather for that, by means of some 
 familiar acquaintance, I was made privy to his counsel 
 and secret meaning in them, as also in sundry other 
 works of his ; which albeit I know he nothing so much 
 hateth as to promulgate, yet thus much have I adven- 
 tured upon his friendship, himself being for long time 
 far estranged, hoping that this will the rather occasion 
 him to put forth divers other excellent works of his, 
 which sleep in silence : as his " Dreams," his 
 " Legends," his " Court of Cupid," and sundry others, 
 whose commendations to set out were very vain, the 
 things though worthy of many, yet being known to 
 few. These my present pains, if to any they be 
 pleasurable or profitable, be you judge, mine own good 
 Master Harvey, to whom I have, both in respect of 
 your worthiness generally, and otherwise upon some 
 particular and special considerations, vowed this my 
 
DEDICATION. 19 
 
 labour, and the maidenhead of this our common friend's 
 Poetry; himself having already in the beginning dedi- 
 cated it to the noble and worthy gentleman, the right,. 
 worshipful Master Philip Sidney, a special favourer 
 and maintainer of all kind of learning. Whose cause, 
 I pray you, sir, if envy shall stir up any wrongful ac- 
 cusation, defend with your mighty rhetoric and other 
 your rare gifts of learning, as you can, and shield witli 
 your goodwill, as you ought, against the malice and 
 outrage of so many enemies as I know .will be set on 
 fire with the sparks of his kindled glory. And thus 
 recommending the author unto you as unto his most 
 special good friend, and m) self unto you both, as one 
 making singular account of two so very good and so 
 choice friends, I bid you both most heartily farewell, 
 and commit you and your commendable studies to the 
 tuition of the Greatest. 
 
 Tour own assuredly to be commanded, 
 
 E. K. 
 
 Postscript. Now I trust, Master Harvey, that 
 upon sight of your special friend's and fellow poet's 
 doings, or else for envy of so many unworthy Quidams ? 
 which catch at the garland which to you alone is due, 
 you will be persuaded to pluck out of the hateful dark- 
 ness those so many excellent English poems of yours 
 which lie hid, and bring them forth to eternal light. 
 Trust me, you do both them great wrong in depriv- 
 ing them of the desired sun ; and also yourself, in 
 
20 DEDICATION. 
 
 smothering your deserved praises ; and all inen gene- 
 rally, in withholding from them so divine pleasures, 
 which they might conceive of your gallant English 
 verses, as they have already done of your Latin poems, 
 which, in my opinion, both for invention and elocution 
 are very delicate and super-excellent. And thus again 
 I take my leave of my good Master Harvey, from my 
 lodging at London this 10th of April, 1579. 
 
THE GENEKAL AEGUMENT OF THE 
 WHOLE BOOK. 
 
 LITTLE, I hope, needetli me at large to discourse the 
 first original of .^Eglogues, having already touched the 
 same. But, for the word JEglogues, I know is un- 
 known to most, and also mistaken of some of the best 
 learned, as they think, I will say somewhat thereof, 
 being not at all impertinent to my present purpose. 
 
 They were first, of the Greeks, the inventors of them 
 called jfflglogai, as it were, aiy&v or cdyov6fjL(av \6yoi, 
 that is Goatherds' tales. For although in Yirgil and 
 others the speakers be more shepherds than goatherds, 
 yet Theocritus, in whom is more ground of authority 
 than in Yirgil, this specially from that deriving as 
 from the first head and well-spring the whole inven- 
 tion of these .2Eglogues, making goatherds the persons 
 and authors of his tales. This beingi who seeth not 
 the grossness of such as by colour of learning would 
 make us believe that they are more rightly termed 
 Eclogaii as they would say, extraordinary discourses 
 of unnecessary matter; which definition albe in sub- 
 stance and meaning it agree with the nature of the 
 
22 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 thing, yet 110 whit answereth with the av&Xvo-is and in- 
 terpretation of the word. For they be not termed 
 Jclogues,\)n\,JEglogue8, which sentence this author very 
 well observing, upon good judgment, though indeed 
 few goatherds have to do herein, nevertheless doubteth 
 not to call them by the used and best known name. 
 Other curious discourses hereof I reserve to greater 
 occasion. 
 
 \J These twelve JEglogues, everywhere answering to 
 the seasons of the twelve months, may be well divided 
 into three forms or ranks. For either they bo plaintive, 
 as the first, tho sixth, the eleventh, and the twelfth; 
 orrecreaiv those be which contain matter 
 
 of lovo, or commendation of special personages; or 
 moral, which for the most part be mixed with some 
 satirical bitterness, namely, the second, of reverence 
 due to old age ; the fifth, of coloured deceit ; the 
 seventh and ninth, of dissolute shepherds and pastors ; 
 the tenth, of contempt of poetry and pleasant wits. 
 And to this division may everything herein be reason- 
 ably applied, a few only except, whose special purpose 
 and meaning I am not privy to. And thus much 
 generally of these twelve ^Eglogues. 
 * Now will we speak particularly of all ; and first, of 
 the first, which he calleth by the first month's name, 
 January : wherein to some he may seem foully to have 
 faulted, in that he erroneously beginneth with that 
 month, which beginneth not the year. For it is well 
 
THE GENERAL ARGUMENT: 23 
 
 known and stoutly maintained with strong reasons of 
 the learned, that the year beginneth in March ; for 
 then the sun reneweth his finished course, and the 
 seasonable spring ref resheth the earth, and the pleasaunce 
 thereof, being buried in the sadness of the dead winter 
 now worn away, relieveth. 
 
 This opinion maintain the old astrologers and 
 philosophers, namely, the reverend Andalo, and 
 Macrobius in his holydays of Saturn, which account 
 also was generally observed both of Grecians and 
 Romans. But, saving the leave of such learned heads, 
 we maintain a custom of counting the seasons from 
 the month of January, upon a more special cause than 
 the heathen philosophers ever could conceive, that- is, 
 for the incarnation of our mighty Saviour, and eternal 
 Redeemer the Lord Christ, who, as then renewing the 
 state of the decayed world, and returning the compass 
 of expired years to their former date, and first coin- 
 uienccment, left to us his heirs a memorial of his birth 
 in the end of the last year and beginning of the next. 
 Which reckoning, beside that eternal monument of our 
 salvation, leaneth also upon good proof of special 
 judgment. 
 
 For albeit that in elder times, when as yet the 
 count of the year was not perfected, as afterward it 
 was by Julius Caesar, they began to tell the months 
 frt.iu March's beginning ; and according to the same, 
 God, as is said in Scripture, commanded the people of 
 
24 THE GENERAL ARGUMENT*. 
 
 the Jews to count the month Abib, that which we call 
 March, for the first month, in remembrance that in 
 that month he brought them out of the land of Egypt : 
 yet, according to tradition of latter times it hath 
 been otherwise observed, both in government of the 
 Church and rule of mightiest realms. For from Julius 
 Caesar, who first observed the leap-year, which he called 
 Bissextilem Annum, and brought into a more certain 
 course the odd wandering days which of the Greeks 
 were called vireppalvottres, of the Romans intercalares, 
 (for in such matter of learning I am forced to use the 
 terms of the learned), the months have been numbered 
 twelve, which in the first ordinance of Romulus were 
 but ten, counting but three hundred and four days in 
 every year, and beginning with March. But Numa 
 Pompilius, who was the father of all the Roman cere- 
 monies and religion, seeing that reckoning to agree 
 neither with the course of the sun nor of the moon, 
 thereunto added two months, January and February ; 
 wherein it seemeth that wise king minded upon good 
 reason to begin the year at January, of him therefore 
 so called tanquam Janua anni, the gate and entrance 
 of the year ; or of the name of the god Janus, to which 
 god for that the old Pay m ins attributed the birth and 
 beginning of all creatures new coming into the world, it 
 seemeth that he therefore to him assigned the beginning 
 and first entrance of the year. Which account for the 
 most part hath hitherto continued. Net withstanding 
 
THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. 25 
 
 fchat the Egyptians begin their year at September; 
 for that, according to the opinion of the best E/abbins, 
 and very purpose of the Scripture itself, God made the 
 world in that month, that is called of them Tisri. And, 
 therefore, He commanded them to keep the feast of 
 Pavilions in the end of the year, in the fifteenth day of 
 the seventh month, which before that time was the 
 first. 
 
 But our author respecting neither the subtility of 
 the one part, nor the antiquity of the other, thinketh 
 it fittest, according to the simplicity of common under- 
 standing, to begin with January ; weening it perhaps no 
 decorum that shepherds should be seen in matter of so 
 deep insight, or canvass a case of so doubtful judgment. 
 So therefore beginneth he, and so continueth he 
 throughout. 
 
THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 JANUARY. 
 
 PRIMA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 IN this first JSgloguo Colin Clout, a shepherd's boy, com- 
 plainetli him of his unfortunate love, being but newly (as 
 seemeth) enamoured of a country lass called Rosalind : 
 with which strong affection being very sore travailed, he"] 
 compareth his careful case to the sad season of the year, ] 
 to the frosty ground, to the frozen tr"os, and to his own 
 winter-beaten flock. And, lastly, finding himself robbed 
 of all former pleasaunce and delights, he breaketh his pipe 
 in pieces, and casteth himself to the ground. 
 
 COLIN CLOUT. 
 
 A SHEPHERD'S boy, no better do him call, 
 
 When winter's wasteful spite was almost spent, 
 
 All in a sunshine (lay, as did befall, 
 
 Led forth his flock, that had been long- ypent : 
 
 So faint they woxe, and feeble in the fold, 
 
 That now unnethes their feet could them uphold. 
 
 All as the sheep, such was the shepherd's look, 
 For pale and wan lie was (alas the while !), 
 
 May seem he loved, or else some care lie took ; 
 
 Well couth he tune bis pipe and frame his style : i & 
 
 tb 
 
THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Tho to a hill his fainting flock he led, 
 And thus him plained, the while his sheep there 
 fed. 
 
 " Te Gods of love, that pity lovers' pain 
 
 (If any gods the pain of lovers pity), 
 Look from above, where you in joys remain, 
 
 And bow your ears unto my doleful dittie ; 
 
 And, Pan, thou shepherd's god that once didst 
 love, 
 
 Pity the pains that thou thyself didst prove. 
 
 "Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath 
 wasted, 
 
 Art made a mirror to behold my plight : 
 Whilom thy fresh spring flowered, and after hasted 
 
 Thy summer proud, with daffodillies dight ; 
 
 And now is come thy winter's stormy state, 
 
 Thy mantle marred, wherein thou maskedst late. 
 
 " Such rage as winter's reigneth ITI ray heart, 
 
 My life-blood freezing with unkindly cold ; 
 Such stormy stySref do breed my baleful smart, 
 
 As if my year were waste and woxen old ! 
 
 And yet, alas ! but now my spring begun, 
 
 And yet, alas ! it is already done. 
 
 " You naked trees, whose shady leaves are lost, 
 
 Wherein the birds were wont to build their bower, 
 
JANUARY. 29 
 
 And now are clothed with moss and hoary frost, 
 ^^jQ&teaoof blooms, where with yonr buds did flower ; 
 f I see your tears that from your boughs do rain, 
 Whose drops in dreary icicles remain. 
 
 " Also my lustful leaf is dry and sere, 
 
 My timely buds with wailing all are wasted ; 
 The blossom which my branch of youth did bear 
 
 With breathed sighs is blown away and blasted ; 
 
 And from mine eyes the drizzling tears descend, 
 
 As on your boughs the icicles depend. 
 
 " Thou feeble flock, whose fleece is rough and rent, 
 Whose knees are weak through fast and evil fare, 
 
 Mayst witness well, by thy ill government, 
 Thy master's mind is overcome with care : 
 Thou weak, I wan ; thou lean, I quite forlorn : 
 With mourning pine I ; you with pining mourn. 
 
 " A thousand sithes I curse that careful hour 
 Wherein I longed the neighbour town to see, 5 ^ 
 
 And eke ten thousand sithes I bless the stoure 
 Wherein I saw so fair a sight as she : 
 Yet all for naught : such sight hath bred my bane. 
 Ah, God, that love should breed both joy and pain ! 
 
 " It is not Hobbinol wherefore I plain, 
 Albee my love he seek with daily suit ; 
 
THE SHEPHERDS CALENDAR. 
 
 His clownish gifts and eourfsies I disdain, 
 His kids, his cracknels, and his early fruit. 
 All, foolish Hobbinol ! thy gifts bene vain ; 
 Colin them gives to Rosalind again. 
 
 " I love thilk lass, (alas-! why do I love ?) 
 And am forlorn, (alas ! why am I lorn ?) 
 
 She deigns not my good will, but doth reprove, 
 And of my rural music holdeth scorn. 
 Shepherds devise she hateth as the snake, 
 And laughs the songs that Colin Clout doth make. 
 
 " Wherefore, my pipe, albe rude Pan thou please, 
 Yet for thou pleasest not where most I would ; 
 
 And thou, unlucky Muse, that wontst to ease 
 
 My musing mind, yet canst not when thou should ; 
 Both pipe and Muse shall sore the while abye." 
 So broke his oaten pipe, and down did lie. 
 
 By that the welked Phoebus can avai 
 
 His weary wain ; and now the frosty Night 
 
 Her mantle black through heaven gan overhail : 
 Which seen, the pensive boy, half in despite, 
 Arose, and homeward drove his sunned sheep, 
 Whose hanging heads did seem his careful case to 
 weep. 
 
 COLIN'S EMBLEM. 
 Anchora speme. 
 
JANUARY. 31 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Colin Clout, is a name not greatly used, and yet have I seen 
 a Poesie of Master Skelton's under that title. But indeed the 
 word Colin is French, and used of the French poet Marot (if 
 he be worthy of the name of a poet) in a certain JBglogue. 
 Under which name this poet secretly shadoweth himself, as 
 sometimes did Virgil under the name of Tityrus, thinking it 
 much fitter than such Latin names, for the great unlikelyhood 
 of the language. 
 
 Unnethes, scarcely. 
 
 Couthe, cometh of the verb Conne, that is, to know, or to 
 have skill. As well interpreteth the same, the worthy Sir 
 Thomas Smith, in his book of Government : whereof I have a 
 perfect copy in writing, lent me by his kinsman and my very 
 singular good friend, Master Gabriel Harvey : as also of some 
 other his most grave and excellent writings. 
 
 Sythe, time. 
 
 Neighbour town, the next town : expressing the Latin 
 Vicina. 
 
 Stoure, a fit. 
 
 Sere, withered. 
 
 His clownish gifts, imitateth Virgil's verse. 
 
 " Rusticus es Cory don, nee munera curat Alexis." 
 
 Hobbinol, is a feigned country name, whereby, it being so 
 
 common and usual, seemeth to be hidden the person of some 
 
 his very special and most f imiliar friend, whom he entirely and 
 
 extraordinarily beloved, #S peradventure shall be more largely 
 
 declared hereafter. In tbh place seemeth to be some savour 
 
 of disorderly love, which the learned call poederastice ; but it 
 
 is gat tiered beside his meaning. For who that hath read Plato 
 
 his dialogue called Alcibiades, Xenophon, and Maxim us Tyrius, 
 
 of Socrates 1 opinions, may easily perceive that such love is 
 
 much to be allowed and liked of, specially so meant, as Socrates 
 
 ) saith, that in deed he loved Alcibiades extremely, 
 
 ibiades' person, but his soul, which is Alcibiades* 
 
 tnd so is pcederastice much to be preferred before 
 
32 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 gyntrastice, that is the love which enflameth men with lust 
 toward womankind. But yet let no man think, that herein I 
 stand with Lucian, or his devilish disciple Unico Aretino, in 
 defence of execrable and horrible sins of forbidden and unlawful 
 fleshliness. Whose abominable error is fully confuted of 
 Perionius, and others. 
 
 / love, a pretty Epanorthosis in these two verses ; and with 
 all a Paronomasia or playing with the word, \rhere he saith / 
 love thilk lass alas, &c. 
 
 Rosalind is also a feigned name, which, being well ordered 
 will bewray the very name of his love and mistress, whom by 
 that name he coloureth. So as Ovid shadoweth his love under 
 the name of Corynna, which of some is supposed to be Julia 
 the Emperor Augustus his daughter, and wife to Agrippa. So 
 doth Aruntius Stella everywhere call his Lady Asteris and 
 Ian this, albeit is well known that her right name was Violan- 
 tilla : as witnesseth Statins in his Epitfialamium, And so the 
 famous Paragon of Italy, Madonna Coelia, in her letters en- 
 velopeth herself under the name of Zima : and Petrona under 
 the name of Bellochia. And this generally hath been a common 
 custom of counterfeiting the names of secret personages. 
 
 Avail, bring down. 
 
 Overhail, draw over. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 His emblem or Poesy is here under added in Italian, Anchora 
 speme : the meaning whereof is, that notwithstanding hi* 
 ' extreme passion and luckless love, yet, leaning on hope, he IB 
 somewhat recomforted. 
 
FEBRUARY. 
 
 JEGLOGA SEC UN DA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 This ^Eglogue is rather moral and general, than bent to an) 
 secret or particular purpose. It specially containeth a dis- 
 course of old age, in the person of Thenot, an old shep- 
 herd, who for his crookedness and unlustiness is scorned 
 of Cuddie, an unhappy herdman's boy. The matter very 
 well accordeth with the season of the month, the year now 
 drooping, and as it were drawing to his last age. For as in 
 this time of year, so then in our bodies, there is a dry and 
 withering cold, which congealeth the curdled blood, and 
 freezeth the weather-beaten flesh with storms of fortune, 
 and hoar frosts of care. To which purpose the old man 
 telleth a tale of the Oak and the Briar, so lively and so 
 feelingly, as if the thing were set forth in some picture- 
 before our eyes, more plainly could not appear. 
 
 CUDDIE. THLNOT. 
 
 Cuddie. 
 
 AH for pity, will rank winter's rage 
 These bitter blasts never gin to assuage ? 
 The keen cold blows through my beaten Mcle, % 
 All as I were through the body griae : 
 My ragged ronis all shiver and shake, 
 As do high towers in an earthquake: 
 They wont in the wind wag their wriggle tails, 
 Perk as a peacock but now it avails. 
 
 Thenot. 
 Lewdly complainest thou, lazy lad, A 
 
34 THE SHEPHERDS' C/'vENDAR 
 
 Of winter's wrack for niajdng tl; /<) sad 
 ' Must not the world, wend in his c mnion course, 
 From good to bad, and from ba fco worse, 
 From worse unto that is worst ^l all, 
 And then return to his former fall ? 
 Who will not suffer the stormy time, 
 Where will he live till the lusty prime ? 
 Self have I worn out thrice thirty years, 
 Some in much joy, many in many tears, 
 Tet never complained of cold nor heat, 
 Of summer's flame, nor of winter's threat, 
 Ne ever was to fortune f oeman, 
 But gently took that ungently came ; ^ \* 
 And ever my flock was my chief care, 
 Winter or summer they mought well fare. 
 
 Cuddle. 
 
 No marvel, Thenot, if thou can bear 
 Cheerfully the winter's wrathful cheer ; 
 For age and winter accord full nigh, 
 This chill, that cold ; this crooked, that wry ; 
 And as the louring weather looks down, 
 So seem'st thou like Good Friday to frown : 
 But my flow'ring youth is foe to frost, 
 My ship unwont in storms to be tossed. 
 
 Thenot. 
 j^efV^vua. 
 The sovereign of seas he blames in vain, A^ *!> 
 
FEBRUARY. 35 
 
 That, once sea-beat, will to sea again. 
 So loit'ring live you little herd-grooms, 
 Keeping your beasts in the budded brooms : 
 And, when the shining sun laugheth once, t 
 Ton deemen the spring is come at once ; 
 Tho gin you, fond flies, the cold to scorn^ 
 And, crowing in pipes made of green corn^ 
 You thinken to be Lords of the year ; 
 But eft, when ye count you freed from f ear^ 
 Comes the breme winter with cnanm-ea brows,. 
 Pull of wrinkles and frosty furrows, 
 Drearily shooting his stormy dart, 
 
 Which curdles the blood and pricks the hearty \ ^T U1 N K 
 
 pLUCTHT DouJO i v*m 
 Then is your careless courage accoyed, S) 
 
 Your careful herds with cold bene annoyeji : 
 Then pay you the price of your surquearie, 
 With weeping, and wailing, and misery. 
 
 Cuddle. 
 
 Ah, foolish old man, I scorn thy skill, 
 That would'st me my springing youth to spill : 
 I deem thy brain emperished be 
 Through rusty eld that hath rotted the : 
 Or stoKer tky he,d very tottie is, 
 So on thy corDe^ shoulder it leans amiss. 
 Xo\v thyself has lost both lop and top, 
 Als my budding branch thou wouldest crop ; 
 But were thy years green, as now be mine, * I 
 
36 THE SHEPHERD- OALENDAR. 
 
 To I'tlier delights they would incline : 
 
 ould'st thoii learn io carol of love,' 
 And nery with hymns thy lassie's glove ; 
 Tho w^uldest thoii idpe of Phyllis praise-; 
 
 'hyllis in 'line for many days. 
 > ai her with a girdle of gelt, 
 Embost with bugle about the belt : 
 Such one ;s shepherds would make' full fain ; 
 Such an one would make thee young again. 
 
 Thenot. 
 foot_ 
 Thou art a ion of thy love to boast ; 
 
 All that is lent to love will be lost. 
 
 Cuddie. 
 
 Seest how brag yon bullock bears, 
 So smirk, so smooth, his pricked ears ? 
 His horns bene as broad as rainbow bent, 
 His dewlap as lithe as lass of Kent : 
 See how he Venteth into the wind ; 
 "Weenest of love is not his mind ? 
 Seemeth thy flock thy counsel can, 
 So lustless be they, so weak, so wan ; 
 Clothed with cold, and hoary with frost, 
 Thy floclrs father his courage hath lost. 
 Thy ewes, that wont to have blowen bags, 
 Like wailful widows hangeii their crags ; 
 The rather lambes bene starved with cold, 
 All for their master is lustless and old. . \ 
 
FEBRUARY. 37 
 
 Thenot. 
 
 Cuddle, I wot tkou kenst little good, 
 So vainly t' advance thy headless hood ; 
 For youth 's a bubble blown up with breath, 
 Whose wit is weakness, whose wage is death, 
 Whose way is wilderness, whose inn Penancer, 
 And stoop-gallant Age, the host of Grievance. 
 But shall I tell thoo a tale of truth, 
 Which I conn* In ray youth; QjU**^ 
 
 Keeping his sheep 011 tiio hills of Kent? 
 
 Cuddie. 
 
 To nought more, Thenot, my mind is bent 
 Than to hear novels of his devise-; 
 -They bene so well- the wed, and so wise,- 
 Whatever that good old man bespake,. 
 
 Thenot 
 
 Many meet tales of youth did he make, 
 And some of love and some of chivalry; 
 But none fitter than this to apply. 
 Now listen awhile and hearken the end. 
 
 There grew an aged tree on the green.,. 
 A goodly Oak sometime had it boon. 
 With arms fall strong and largely displayed, 
 But of thoir loaves they were disarrayed : 
 The body big, and mightily jpight, 
 Throughly rooted, and of wondrous hoigjit; \ 
 
38 THE SHEPHEBDS CALENDAB. 
 
 Whilom had been the king of the field, 
 And mochell mast to th' husband did yield, 
 And with his nuts larded many swine : 
 But now the grey moss marred his rine ; 
 His bared boughs were beaten with storms, 
 His top was bald and wasted with worms, 
 His honour decayed, his branches sere. 
 
 Hard by his side grew a bragging Brere, 
 Which proudly thrust into th' element, 
 And seemed to threat the firmament : 
 It was embellished with blossoms fair, 
 And thereto aye wonned to repair 
 The shepherds' daughters to gather flowers, 
 To paint their garlands with his colours ; 
 And in his small bushes used to shroud 
 The sweet nightingale singing so loud ; 
 Which made this foolish Brere wax so bold, 
 That on a time he cast him to scold 
 And sneb the good Oak, for he was old. 
 
 u Why standst there (quoth he), thou brutish block-? 
 !Nor for fruit nor for shadow serves thy stock ; 
 Seest how fresh my flowers bene spread, 
 Dyed in lily white and crimson red, 
 With leaves engrained in lusty green ; 
 Colours meet to clothe a maiden queen- ? 
 Thy waste bigness but cumbers the ground, 
 And dirks the beauty of my blossoms round.: 
 
 The mouldy moss, which thee accloyeth : ** \ 
 
 V, ^ 
 
FEBRUARY. 39 
 
 My cinnamon smell too much annoyeth : 
 Wherefore soon I rede thee hence remove, 
 Lest thou the price of my displeasure prove." 
 So spake this bold Brere with great disdain : 
 Little him answered the Oak again, 
 But yielded, with shame and grief adawed, 
 That of a weed he was overcrawed. 
 
 It chanceM after upon a day, 
 The husbandman's self to come that way> 
 Of custom for to survey his ground, 
 And his trees of state in compass round : 
 Him when the spiteful Brere had espied. 
 Causeless complained, and loudly cried 
 Unto his lord, stirring up stern strife. 
 
 " Oh, my liege lord ! the god of my life-! 
 Pleaseth you ponder your suppliant's plaint,- 
 Caused of wrong and cruel constraint, 
 Which I your poor vassal daily endure; 
 And, by your goodness the same recure, 
 Am like for desperate dole to die, 
 Through felonous force of mine enemie." 
 
 Greatly aghast with this piteous plea, 
 Him rested the goodman on the lea, 
 And bad the Brere in his plaint proceed. 
 With painted words tho gan this proud weed 
 (As most usen ambitious folk :) 
 His coloured crime with craft to cloak. 
 
 ." Ah, my sovereign 1 Lord of creatures all, (^ \j y 
 
40 THE SHEPHERDS* CALENDAR. 
 
 Thou placer of plants both humble and tall, 
 
 Was not I planted of thine own hand, 
 
 To be the primrose of all thy land ; 
 
 With flow'ring blooms to furnish the prime, 
 
 And scarlet berries in summer time ? 
 
 How falls it then that this faded Oak, 
 
 Whose body is sere, whose branches are broke, 
 
 Whose naked arms stretch unto the fire, 
 
 Unto such tyranny doth aspire ; 
 
 Hind'ring with his shade my lovely light, 
 
 And robbing me of the sweet sun's sight ? 
 
 So beat his old boughs my tender side, 
 
 That oft the blood springeth from wounds wide ; 
 
 Untimely my flowers forced to fall, 
 
 That bene th' honour of your coronal : 
 
 And oft he lets his canker-worms light 
 
 Upon my branches, to work me more spite ; 
 
 And oft his hoary locks down doth cast, 
 
 Wherewith my fresh flowerets been defaced : 
 
 For this, and many more such outrage, 
 
 Craving your goodlihead to assuage 
 
 The rancorous rigour of his might, 
 
 Nought ask I, but only to hold my right ; 
 
 Submitting me to your good sufferance, 
 
 And praying to be guarded from grievance." 
 
 To this the Oak cast him to replie 
 Well as he couth ; but his eiiemie 
 "Had kindled such coals of displeasure, 
 
FEBRUARY. 
 
 That the good man nould stay his leisure, 
 
 But home him hasted with furious heat, 
 
 Increasing 's wrath with many a threat : 
 
 His harmful hatchet he hent in hand 
 
 (Alas, that it so ready should stand ! ) 
 
 And to the field alone he speedeth, 
 
 (Aye little help to harm there needeth ! ) 
 
 Anger nould let him speak to the tree, 
 
 Enaunter his rage mought cooled be ; 
 
 But to the root bent his sturdy stroke, 
 
 And made many wounds in the vast Oak. 
 
 The axe's edge did oft turn again, 
 
 As half unwilling to cut the grain ; 
 
 Seemed the senseless iron did fear, 
 
 Or to wrong holy eld did forbear ^ 
 
 For it had been an ancient tree, 
 
 Sacred with many a mysteree, 
 
 And often crossed with the priest's crew, 
 
 And often hallowed with holy-water dew : 
 
 But sike fancies were f oolerie, 
 
 And brought this Oak to this miserie ; 
 
 For nought mought they quitten him from decay, 
 
 For fiercely the good man at him did lay. 
 
 The block oft groaned under the blow, 
 
 And sighed to see his near overthrow. 
 
 In fine, the steel had pierced his pith, 
 
 Tho 5 down to the earth he fell forthwith. 
 
 His wondrous weight made the ground to quake, 
 
42 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Th' earth shrunk under him, and seemed to shake : 
 There lieth the Oak, pitied of none ! 
 
 Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, 
 Puft'ed up with pride and vain pleasance ; 
 But all this glee had no continuance, 
 For ef tsoones winter gan to approach ; 
 The blust'ririg Boreas did encroach, 
 And beat upon the solitary Brere ; 
 For now no succour was seen him near. 
 Xow gan he repent his pride too late ; 
 For, naked left and disconsolate, 
 The biting frost nipt his stalke dead, 
 The wat'ry wet weighed down his head, 
 And heaped snow burdened him so sore, 
 That now upright he can stand no more; 
 And, being down, is trod in the dirt 
 ( >f cattle, and bruised, and sorely hurt. 
 Such was th' end of this ambitious Brere, 
 For scorning Eld 
 
 Cuddie. 
 
 Now pri 5 thee, shepherd, tell it not forth : 
 Here is a long tale, and little worth. 
 So long have I listened to thy speech, 
 That grafted to the ground is my breech : 
 My heart-blood is well nigh f rorne, I feel, 
 And my galage grown fast to my heel : 
 But little ease of thy lewd tale I tasted : 
 Hie thee home, shepherd, the day is nigh wasted. 
 
FEBRUARY. 43 
 
 THENOT'S EMBLEM. 
 Iddio, perche e vecchio, 
 Fa suoi al suo essempio. 
 
 CUDDIE'S EMBLEM. 
 Niuno vecchio 
 Spaventa Iddio. 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Keen, sharp. 
 
 Gride, pierced : an old word much used of Lydgate, but not 
 found (that I know of) in Chaucer. 
 
 Ronts, young bullocks. 
 
 Wrack, ruin or violence, whence cometh shipwreck : and 
 not wreak, that is vengeance or wrath. 
 
 Foeman, a foe. 
 
 Thenot, the name of a shepherd in Marot his JEglogues. 
 
 The sovereign of seas, is ^eptune the God of the seas. The 
 saying is borrowed of Mimus Publianus, which used this proverb 
 in a verse. 
 
 " Improb6 Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit." 
 
 Herd-grooms, Chaucer's verse almost whole. 
 
 Fond flies : He compareth careless sluggards, or ill husband- 
 men, to flies that, so soon as the sun shineth, or yet waxeth 
 anything warm, begin to fly abroad, when suddenly they be 
 overtaken with cold. 
 
 But eft when, a very excellent and lively description of 
 winter, so as may be indifferently taken, either for old age, or 
 for winter season. 
 
 Brenie, chill, bitter. 
 
 Chamfred, chapt, or wrinkled. 
 
44 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Accoy cd, plucked down and daunted. 
 
 Snrquedrie, pride. 
 
 Eld, old age. 
 
 Sicker, sure. 
 
 Tottie, wavering. 
 
 Corbe, crooked. 
 
 Hcrie, worship. 
 
 Phyllis, the name of some maid unknown, whom Cuddie r 
 whose person is secret, loved. The name is usual in Theo- 
 critus, Virgil, and Mantuan. 
 
 Belt, a girdle or waist-band. 
 
 Afon, a fool. 
 
 Lithe, soft and gentle. 
 
 Venteth, snuffeth in the wind. 
 
 Thy flock's father, the ram. 
 
 Crags, necks. 
 
 Rather lambs, that be ewed early in the beginning of the 
 year. 
 
 Youth is, a very moral and pithy Allegory of youth, and the 
 lusts thereof, compared to a weary wayfaring man. 
 
 Tityrus, I suppose he means Chaucer, whose praise for 
 pleasant tales cannot die, so long as the memory of his name 
 shall live, and the name of poetry shall endure. 
 
 Well-thewed, that is, Bene moratce, full of moral wiseness. 
 
 There grew : This tale of the Oak and the Briar, he telleth 
 as learned of Chaucer, but it is clean in another kind, and 
 rather like to .^Esop's fables. It is very excellent for pleasant 
 descriptions, being altogether a certain Icon, or Hypotyposis 
 of disdainful younkers. 
 
 Embellished, beautified and adorned. j 
 
 To wonne, to haunt or frequent. 
 
 Sneb, check. 
 
 Why standst, the speech is scornful and very presumptuous. 
 
 Engrained, dyed in grain. 
 
 Accloyeth, encumbereth. 
 
 Adawed, daunted and confounded. 
 
 Trees of state, taller trees, fit for timber wood. 
 
FEBRUARY. 45 
 
 Sterne strife, said Chaucer, s. fell and sturdy. 
 
 O my liege, a manner of supplication, wherein is kindly 
 coloured the affection and speech of ambitious men. 
 
 Coronal, garland. 
 
 Fl-owerets, young blossoms. 
 
 The primrose, the chief and worthiest. 
 
 Naked arms, metaphorically meant of the bare boughs, spoiled 
 of leaves. This colourably he speaketh, as adjudging him to 
 the fire. 
 
 The blood, spoken of a block, as it were of a living creature, 
 figuratively, and (as they say) KO.T eiKa.a-fj.ov. 
 
 Hoary locks, metaphorically for withered leaves. 
 
 Hent, caught. 
 
 Nould, for would not. 
 
 Ay, evermore. 
 
 Wounds, gashes. 
 
 Enaunter, least that. 
 
 The priest's crew, holy water pot, wherewith the popish 
 priest used to sprinkle and hallow the trees from mischance. 
 * Such blindness was in those times, which the poet supposeth 
 to have been the final decay of this ancient Oak. 
 
 The block oft groaned, a lively figure, which giveth sense and 
 feeling to unsensible creatures, as Virgil also sayeth : "$axa 
 gemunt gravido," &c. 
 
 Boreas, the northern wind, that bringeth the most stormy 
 weather. 
 
 Glee, cheer and jollity. 
 
 For scorniny Eld, and minding (as should seem) to have 
 made rhyme to the former verse, he is cunningly cut off by 
 Cuddie, as disdaining to hear any more. 
 
 Galage, a startup or clownish shoe* 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 This emblem is spoken of Thenot, as a moral of his former 
 
 tale : namely, that God, which is himself most aged, being 
 
 all ages, and without beginning, maketh those whom 
 
 he loveth, like to himself, in heaping years unto their days. 
 
46 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 and blessing them with long life. For the blessing of age is 
 not given to all, but unto those whom God will so bless. And 
 albeit that many evil men reach unto such fulness of years, 
 ' and some also were old in misery and thraldom, yet therefore 
 is not age ever the less blessing. For even to such evil men 
 such number of years is added, that they may in their last 
 days repent, and come to their first home. So the old man 
 checketh the rash-headed boy for despising his grey and frosty 
 hairs. 
 
 "Whom Cuddy doth counterbuff with a biting and bitter 
 proverb, spoken indeed at the first in contempt of old age 
 generally : for it was an old opinion, and yet is continued in 
 some men's conceit, that men of years have no fear of God at 
 all, or not so much as younger folk ; for that being ripened 
 with long experience, and having passed many bitter brunts 
 and blasts of vengeance, they dread no storms of fortune, nor 
 wrath of God, nor danger of men, as being either by long and 
 ripe wisdom armed against all mischances and adversity, or 
 with much trouble hardened against all troublesome tides : 
 like unto the ape, of which is said in jEsop's fables, that, often- 
 times meeting the lion, he was at first sore aghast and dis- 
 mayed at the grimness and austerity of his countenance, but at 
 last, being acquainted with his looks, he was so far from fear- 
 ing him, that he would familiarly gibe and jest with him : such 
 long experience breedeth in some men security. Although it 
 please Erasmus, a great clerk, and good old father, more 
 fatherly and favourably to construe it, in his Adages, for his 
 own behoof: that by the proverb, "Nemo senex metuit 
 Jovem," is not meant, that old men have no fear of God at 
 all, but that they be far from superstition and idolatrous 
 regard of false gods, as is Jupiter. But his great learning 
 notwithstanding, it is too plain to be gainsaid, that old men 
 are much more inclined to such fond fooleries than younger 
 heads. 
 
MARCH. 
 
 JEGLOGA TERTIA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 In this ^KyK Td's boys, taking occasion of the 
 
 season, begin r > ruike purpose of love and other pleasance 
 which to spring time is most agreeeble. The special mean- 
 ing hereof is, to give certain marks and tokens to know 
 Cupid, the poet's god of love. But more particularly, I 
 think, in the person of Thomalin is meant some secret 
 friend, who scorned love and his knights so long, till at 
 length himself was entangled, and unawares wounded 
 with the dart of some beautiful regard, which is Cupid's 
 arrow. 
 
 WILLY. 
 
 Wil. THOMALIN, why sit we so, 
 As weren overwent with woe, 
 
 Upon so fair a morrow ? 
 The joyous time now nighes fast, 
 That shall allay this bitter blast, 
 
 And slake the winter's sorrow. 
 Tho. Sicker, Willy, thou warnest well ; 
 For winter's wrath begins to quell, 
 
 And pleasant spring appeareth : 
 The grass now gins to be refreshed, 
 The swallow peeps out of her nest, 
 
 And cloudy welkin cleareth. 
 Wil. Seest not thilk same hawthorn stud, 
 How bragly it begins to bud, ^ 
 
 *^\ B K A 
 
 
48 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 And utter his tender head ? 
 Flora now calleth forth each flower, 
 And bids make ready Maia's bower, 
 
 That new is uprist from bed : 
 Tho shall we sporten in delight, 
 And learn with Lettice to wax light, 
 
 That scornfully looks askance ; 
 Tho will we little Love awake, 
 That now sleepeth in Lethe lake, 
 
 And pray him lead our dance. 
 Tho. Willy, I ween thou be assot ; 
 For lusty Love still sleepeth not, 
 
 But is abroad at 's game. 
 Wil. How kenst thou that he is awoke ? 
 Or hast thyself his slumber broke, 
 
 Or made privy to th' same ? 
 Tho. No ; but haply I him spied, 
 Where in a bush he did him hide, 
 
 With wings of purple and blue ; 
 And, were not that my sheep would stray, 
 The privy marks I would bewray 
 
 Whereby by chance I him knew. ,* .^ 
 Wil. Thomalin, have no care f or-tny ; 
 Myself will have a double eye, 
 . Tlike to my flock and thine ; 
 For als at home I have a sire, 
 A stepdame eke, as hot as fire, 
 
 That duly adays counts mine. - . 
 
MA.RCH. 49 
 
 Tho. Nay, but thy seeing will not serve, 
 My sheep for that may chance to swerve, 
 
 And fall into some mischief : 
 For sit hens is but the third morrow 
 That I chanced to fall asleep with sorrow 
 
 And waked again with grief ; 
 The while thilk same unhappy ewe. 
 Whose clouted leg her hurt doth shew, 
 
 Fell headlong into a dell. 
 And there unjointed both her bones : 
 Mought her neck bene jointed attones, 
 
 She should have need no more spell ; 
 Th'elf was so wanton and so wood, 
 (But now I trow can better good,) 
 
 She mought ne gang on the green. 
 Wil. Let be, as may be, that is past : 
 That is to come, let be forecast : 
 
 Now tell us what thou hast seen. 
 Tho. It was upon a holiday, 
 When shepherds, grooms, had leave to play, 
 
 I cast to go a shooting. 
 Long wand'ring up and down the land, 
 With bow and bolts in either hand, 
 
 For birds in bushes tooting. 
 At length within an ivy tod, 
 (There shrouded was the little god) 
 
 I heard a busy bustling, 
 I bent my bolt against the bush, ^ ^ 
 
50 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Li stoning if anything did rnsli, 
 
 But then heard no more rustling : 
 Tho, peeping close into the thick, 
 Might see the moving of some quick, 
 
 Whose shape appeared not; 
 But were it fairy, fiend, or snake, 
 My courasfe yearned it to awake, 
 
 And manfully thereat shot. 
 With that sprang forth a naked swain 
 With spotted wings, like peacock's train, 
 
 And laughing lope to a tree ; 
 His gildeii quiver at his back, 
 And silver bow, which was but slack, 
 
 Which lightly he bent at me : 
 That seeing, I levelled again 
 And shot at him with might and main, 
 
 As thick as it had hailed. 
 So long I shot, that all was spent ; 
 Tho pumie stones I hastly hent 
 
 And threw ; but nought availed : (3 \ 
 He was so wimble and so wight, 
 From bough to bough he leaped light* 
 
 And oft the pumies latched. 
 Therewith afraid, I ran away ; 
 ' But he, that erst seemed but to play, 
 
 A shaft in earnest snatched, 
 And hit me running in the heel : 
 For then I little smart did f eel, 
 
MARCH. 51 
 
 But soon it sore increased ; 
 And now it rankleth more and more, 
 And inwardly it fest'reth sore, 
 
 Ne wot I how to cease 't. 
 Wil. Tliomalin, I pity thy plight, 
 Perdy with love thou diddest fight : 
 
 I know him by a token ; 
 For once I heard my father say, 
 How he him caught upon a day, 
 
 (Whereof he will be wroken) 
 Entangled in a fowling net, 
 Which he for carrion crows had set 
 
 That in our pear-tree haunted : 
 Tho said, he was a winged lad, 
 But bow and shafts as then none had, 
 
 Else had he sore be daunted. 
 But see, the welkin thicks apace, 
 And stooping Phosbus steeps his face : 
 
 It's time to haste us homeward. 
 
 WILLIE'S EMBLEM. 
 To be wise, and eke to love, 
 Is granted scarce to Gods above. 
 
 THOMALIN'S EMBLEM. 
 Of honey and of gall in love there is store j 
 The honey is much } but the gall is more. 
 
I 
 
 52 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 / This JSglogue seemeth somewhat to resemble that same of 
 Theocritus, wherein the boy likewise telling the old man that 
 he had shot at a winged boy in a tree, was by him warned to 
 beware of mischief to come. 
 
 Ovenoent, overgone. 
 
 Alegge, to lessen or assuage. 
 
 To quell, to abate. 
 
 Welkin, the sky. 
 
 The swallow, which bird useth to be counted the messenger, 
 and as it were, the forerunner of spring. 
 
 Flora, the goddess of flowers, but indeed (as saith Tacitus) 
 a famous harlot, which, with the abuse of her body having 
 gotten great riches, made the people of Rome her heir ; who, 
 in remembrance of so great beneficence, appointed a yearly 
 feast for the melnorial of her, calling her, not as she was, nor 
 as some do think, Andronica, but Flora : making her the god- 
 de*ss of flowers, and doing yearly to her solemn sacrifice. 
 
 Maitfs bower, that is, the pleasant field, or rather the May 
 bushes. Maia is a goddess, and the mother of Mercury, in 
 honour of whom the month of May is of her name so called, 
 as saith Macrobius. 
 
 Lettice, the name of some country lass. 
 
 Askance, askew, or asquint. 
 
 Foi*-thy, therefore. 
 
 Lethe, is a lake in hell, which the poets call the lake of 
 forgetfulness. For Lethe signifieth forgetfulness. Wherein 
 the souls being dipped did forget the cares of their former life. 
 So that by love sleeping in Lethe lake, he meaiieth he was 
 almost forgotten, and out of knowledge, by reason of winter's 
 hardness, when all pleasures, as it were, sleep and wear out of 
 mind. 
 
 Assot, to dote. 
 
 His slumber, to break love's slumber is to exercise the 
 delights of love and wanton pleasures. 
 
MARCH. 53 
 
 Wings of purple, so is he feigned of the poets. 
 For afs, he imitateth Virgil's verse 
 
 ' Est mihi namque domi pater, est injusta noverca,' &c. 
 
 A dell, a hole in the ground. 
 
 Spell, is a kind of verse or charm, that in older times they 
 used often to say over everything that they would have pre- 
 served, as the night spell for thieves, and the woodspell. And 
 herehence, I think, is named the gospel, as it were God's spell 
 or word. And so saith Chaucer, Listeneth Lordings to my 
 spell. 
 
 Gang, goe. 
 
 An ivy tod, a thick bush. 
 
 Swain, a boy : for so is he described of the poets to be a 
 boy, s. always fresh and lusty ; blindfolded, because he maketh 
 no difference of personages; with divers coloured wings, s. 
 full of flying fancies ; with bow and arrow, that is, with glance 
 of beauty, which pricketh as a forked arrow. He is said also 
 to have shafts, some leaden, some golden : that is, both pleasure 
 for the gracious and loved, and sorrow for the lover that is 
 disdained or forsaken. But who list more at large to behold 
 Cupid's colours and furniture, let him read either Propertius, or 
 Moschus his Idyllion of winged love, being now most excellently 
 translated into Latin, by the singular learned man Angelus 
 Politianus : which work I have seen, amongst other of this 
 poet's doings, very well translated also into English rhymes. 
 
 Wimble and wight, quick and deliver. 
 
 In the heele, is very poetically spoken,, and not without; special 
 judgment. For I remember that in honour it is said of Thetis, 
 that she took her young babe Achilles, being newly born, and, 
 holding him by the heel, dipped him in the Kiver of Styx. 
 The virtue whereof is, to defend and keep the bodies washed 
 therein from any mortal wound. So Achilles being washed all 
 over, save only his heel, by which his mother held, was in the 
 rest invulnerable : therefore by Paris was feigned to be shot 
 with a poisoned arrow in the heel, while he was busy about the 
 marrying of Polyxena in the Temple of Apollo : which mystical 
 
54 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 fable Eustathius unfolding saith : that by wounding in the 
 heel is meant lustful love. For from the heel (as say the 
 best physicians) to the privie parts there pass certain veins 
 and slender sinews, as also the like come from the head, and 
 are carried like little pipes behind the ears : so that (as saith 
 Hippocrates) if those veins there be cut asunder, the party 
 straight becometh cold and unfruitful. Which reason our 
 poet well weighing, maketh this shepherd's boy of purpose to 
 be wounded by love in the heel. 
 
 Latched, caught. 
 
 Wroken, revenged. 
 
 F<yr once : In this tale is set out the simplicity of shepherds' 
 opinion of love. 
 
 Stoopiny Ph'C l >n,s is a periphrasis of the sun setting. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 Hereby is meant, that all the delights of love, wherein wanton 
 youth walloweth, be but folly mixed with bitterness, and sorrow 
 sauced with repentance. For besides that the very affection 
 of love itself tormenteth the mind, and vexeth the body many 
 ways, with unrestfulness all night, and weariness all day, 
 seeking for that we cannot have, and finding that we would 
 not have : even the self things which best before us liked, in 
 course of time and change of riper years, which also therewith- 
 all changeth our wonted liking and former fantasies, will then 
 eeem loathsome, and breed us annoyance, when youth's flower 
 is withered, and we find our bodies and wits answer not to 
 such vain jollitie and lustful pleasaunce. 
 
55 
 
 APRIL. 
 
 JEGLOGA QTJARTA. AKGTJMENT. 
 
 This JSglogue is purposely intended to the honour and praise 
 of our most gracious sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. The 
 speakers herein be Hobbinol and^Thenot^ two shepherds : 
 the which Hobbinol, being before-, mentioned greatly to 
 have loved Colin, is here set forth more largely, complain- 
 ing hinTol that boy's great misadventure in love : whereby 
 his mind was alienate and withdrawn not only from him 
 who most loved him, but also from all former delights and 
 studies, as well in pleasant piping as conning rhyming 
 and singing, and other his laudable exercises. Whereby 
 he taketh occasion, for proof of his more excellence and 
 skill in poetry, to record a song, which the said Colin 
 sometime made in honour of her Majesty, whom abruptly 
 he termeth Elisa. 
 
 THENOT. HOBBINOL. 
 
 The. TELL me, good Hobbinol, what gars thee gre< 
 What ? hath some wolf thy tender lambs ytorn f 
 
 Or is thy bagpipe broke that sounds so sweet ? 
 Or art thou of thy loved lass forlorn ? 
 
 Or bene thine eyes attempered to the year, 
 
 Quenching the gasping furrows' thirst with rain P 
 
 Like April shower so streams the trickling tear 
 Adown thy cheek to quench thy thirsty pain, yf 
 
56 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Hob. Nor this, nor that, so much doth make me 
 
 mourn, 
 
 f But for the lad whom long I loved so dear, 
 I Now loves a lass that all his love doth scorn : 
 y He, plunged in pain, his tressed locks doth tear. 
 
 Shepherds' delights he doth them all forswear ; 
 
 His pleasant pipe, which made us merriment, 
 He wilfully hath broke, and doth forbear 
 
 His wonted songs, wherein he all outwent. 
 
 Tlie. What is he for a lad, you so lament ? 
 
 Is love such pinching pain to them that prove ? 
 And hath he skill to make so excellent, 
 
 Yet hath so little skill to bridle love ? 
 
 Hob. Qolin-thou kenst, the southern shepherd's boy ; 
 
 Him lovejiath wounded witk a deadly dart : 
 Whilom on him was all my care and joy, 
 
 ' Forcing with gifts to win his wanton heart, 
 all 
 
 aeeit now from me his madding mind is start, 
 b ^And woes the widow's daughter of the glen ; 
 now fair Rosalind hath bred his smart, 
 So now his friend is changed for a fren. 
 
 he. But if his ditties be so trimly dight, 
 I pray thee, Hobbinol, record some one. 
 
 The whiles our flocks do graze about in sight, 
 And we close shrouded in this sliade alone. 
 
 l) 
 
APRIL. 57 
 
 Sob. Contented I ; then, will I sing his lay 
 
 Of fair Elisa, queen of shepherds all, 
 Which once he made as by a spring he lay," 
 
 AmHuned^ 
 
 " Ye dainty nymphs, that in this blessed brook A 
 
 Do bathe your breast, A- """ 
 Forsake your watery bowers, and hither look, -u. 
 
 At my request : 4*~ 
 
 And eke you virgins, that on Parnasse dwell, c. 
 Whence floweth Helicon, the learned well, <=. 
 
 Help me to bla/e ^ 0X-eUe> tjU*** 
 
 Er worthy praise, <^ 
 Which in her sex doth all excel. <*. Qju^W o 
 
 -Vto ^jVjL- '4- 
 
 ** Of fair Elisa be your silver song, <~ 
 
 ^i^L 
 
 That blessed wight, ,J^ j 
 
 The flower of virgins : may she flourish long 
 
 
 
 In princely plight ! 
 
 For she is Syrinx daughter without spot, 
 Which Pan, the shepherd's god, of her begot : 
 
 So sprung her grace 
 
 Of heavenly raca. 
 No mortal blemish may her blot. 't^xjQ. 
 
 " See, where she sits upon the grassy green, '* 
 
 (O seemly sight ! ) 
 Yclad in scarlet, like a maiden queen, 
 
 And ermines white : 
 
58 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAB. 
 
 Upon her head a crimson coronet, 
 With damask roses and daffodillies set : 
 
 Bay leaves between, - 
 
 And primroses green, 
 Embellish the sweet violet. ^^^-6. 
 
 " Tell me, have ye seen her angelic face, 
 
 Like Phoebe fair ? 
 Her heavenly haviour, her princely grace, 
 
 Can you well compare ? 
 The red rose medled with the white yf ere, 
 In either cheek depicting lively cheer : 
 
 Her modest eye, 
 
 Her majesty, 
 Where have you seen the like but there ? 
 
 " I saw Phcebus thrust out his golden head, 
 
 Upon her to gaze : 
 But, when he saw how broad her beams did spread, 
 
 It did him amaze. 
 
 He blushed to see another sun below, 
 Nor durst again his fiery face out show : 
 
 Let him, if he dare, 
 
 His brightness compare 
 With hers, to have the overthrow. 
 
 " Show thyself, Cynthia, with thy silver rays, 
 
 And be not abashed : ~ ^ 
 
APRIL. 59 
 
 When she the beams of her beauty displays, 
 
 O, how art thou clashed ! 
 But *[ will not match her with Latona's seed, 
 Such folly great sorrow to JSTiobe did breed : 
 
 Now she is a stone, 
 
 And makes daily moan, 
 Warning all other to take heed. 
 
 " Pan may be proud that ever he begot 
 
 Such a Bellibone ; 
 And Syrinx rejoice that ever was her lot 
 
 To bear such an one. 
 
 Soon as my younglings crying for the dam 
 To her will I offer a milk-white lamb : 
 
 She is my goddess plain, v 
 
 And I her shepherd's swain, ) 
 Albeit forswonck and f orswat I am. ^ 
 
 " I see Calliope speed her to the place, 
 
 Where my goddess shines ; 
 And after her the other Muses trace, 
 
 With their violines. 
 
 Be they not bay branches which they do bear,. 
 All for Elisa in her hand to wear ? 
 
 So sweetly they play, 
 
 And sing all the way, 
 That it a heaven is to hear. I ^ ^ 
 
60 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 " Lo ! how finely the Graces can it foot 
 
 To the instrument : 
 They dancing deftly, and singing soote, 
 
 In their merriment. 
 
 Wants not a fourth Grace, to make the dance even ? 
 Let that room to my lady be given : 
 
 She shall be a Grace, 
 
 To fill the fourth place, 
 And reign with the rest in heaven. 
 
 " And whither runs this bevy of ladies bright, 
 
 Hanged in a row ? 
 They be all Ladies of the Lake behight, 
 
 That unto her go. 
 
 Chloris, that is the chief est nymph of all, 
 Of olive branches bears a coronal : 
 
 Olives being for peace, 
 
 When wars do surcease : 
 Such for a princess be principal. 
 
 " Ye shepherds' daughters, that dwell on the green, 
 
 Hie you there apace : 
 Let none come there but that virgins bene, 
 
 To adorn her grace : 
 
 And, when you come whereas she is in place, 
 See that your rudeness do not you disgrace : 
 
 Bind your fillets fast, 
 
 And gird in your waist, 
 For more fineness, with a tawdrie lace. 
 
APRIL. 61 
 
 " Bring hither the pink and purple columbine, 
 
 With gilliflowers ; 
 Bring coronations, and sops in wine, 
 
 Worn of paramours : 
 
 Strew me the ground with daffadowndillies, 
 And cowslips, and kingcups, and loved lilies : 
 
 The pretty pawnee; 
 
 And the chevisaunce, 
 Shall match with the fair flowerdelice. 
 
 " Now rise up, Elisa, decked as thou art 
 
 In royal array ; 
 And now ye dainty damsels may depart 
 
 Each one her way. 
 
 I fear I have troubled your troops too long : 
 Let dame Elisa thank you for her song : 
 
 And if yon come hither 
 
 When damsons I gather, 
 I will part them all you among." 
 
 The. And was thilk same song of Colin's own 
 making ? 
 
 Ah, foolish boy ! that is with love yblent : 
 Great pity is, he be in such taking, 
 
 For nought caren that bene so lewdly bent. 
 
 Hob. Sicker I hold him for a greater fon, \ 
 That loves the thing he cannot purchase:/ 
 
62 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 But let us homeward, for night draweth on, 
 And twinkling stars the daylight hence chase. 
 
 THENOT'S EMBLEM. 
 guam te memorem Virgo ! 
 
 HOBBINOL'S EMBLEM. 
 dea certe I 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 (Tora tkee greete, causeth thee weep and complain. 
 
 Forlorn, left and forsaken. 
 
 Attempered to the year, agreeable to the season of the year, 
 that is April, which month is most bent to showers and 
 seasonable rain : to quench, that is, to delay the drought, 
 caused through dryness of March winds. 
 
 The lad, Colin Clout. 
 
 The lass, Rosalinda. 
 
 Tressed locks, wreathed and curled. 
 
 7s he for a lad ? a strange manner of speaking, s. what 
 manner of lad is he ? 
 
 To make, to rhyme and versify. For in this word, making, 
 our old English poets were wont to comprehend all the skill of 
 poetry, according to the Greek word rroieii/, to make, whence 
 cometh the name of Poets. . 
 
 Colin thou kenst, knowest. Seemeth hereby that Colin 
 pertaineth to some southern nobleman, and perhaps in Surrey 
 or Kent, the rather because he so often nameth the Kentish 
 downs, and before, As lythe as lass of Kent. 
 
 The Widow's, he calleth Rosalind the widow's daughter of 
 the glen, that is, of a country hamlet or borough, which I 
 think is rather said to colour and conceal the person, than 
 
APBIL. 63 
 
 simply spoken. For it is well known, even in spite of Colin 
 and Hobbinol, that she is a gentlewoman of no mean house, 
 nor endued with any vulgar and common gifts, both of 
 nature and manners ; but such indeed, as need neither Colin 
 be ashamed to have her made known by his verses, nor Hob- 
 binol be grieved that so she should be commended to immor- 
 tality for her rare and singular virtues : specially deserving it 
 no less than either Myrto, the most excellent poet Theocritus 
 his darling, or Lauretta the divine Petrarch's goddess, or 
 Himera, the worthy poet Stesichorus his idol, upon whom he 
 is said so much to have doted, that, in regard of her excel- 
 lency, he scorned and wrote against the beauty of Helena. 
 For which his presumptuous and unheedy hardiness, he is said 
 by vengeance of the gods, thereat being offended, to have lost 
 both his eyes. 
 
 Fren, a stranger. The word, I think, was first poetically 
 put, and afterwards used in common custom of speech for 
 foreign. 
 
 Dight, adorned. 
 
 Lay, a song, as roundelays and virelays. 
 
 In all this song is not to be respected, what the worthiness 
 of her Majesty deserveth, nor what to the highness of a prince 
 is agreeable, but what is most comely for the meanness of a 
 shepherd wit, or to conceive, or to utter. And therefore he 
 calleth her Elisa, as through rudeness tripping in her name ; 
 and a shepherd's daughter, it being very unfit that a shep- 
 herd's boy, brought up in the sheepfold, should know, or ever 
 seem to have heard of, a Queen's royalty. 
 
 Ye daintie, is, as it were, an Exordium ad preparandos 
 animos. 
 
 Virgins, the nine Muses, daughters of Apollo and Memory, 
 whose abode the poets feign to be on Parnassus, a hill in 
 Greece, for that in that country specially nourished the 
 honour of all excellent studies. 
 
 Helicon is both the name of a fountain at the foot of 
 Parnassus, and also of a mountain in Bceotia, out of which 
 floweth the famous spring Castalius, dedicate also to tlie 
 
64 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Muses : of which spring it is said that when Pegasus the 
 winged horse of Perseus (whereby is meant fame and flying 
 renown) struck the ground with' his hoof, suddenly thereout 
 sprang a well of most clear and pleasant water, which from 
 thenceforth was consecrate to the Muses and Ladies of learn- 
 ing. 
 
 Your silver song, seemeth to imitate the like in Hesiodus 
 
 apyvptov fxe\O5. 
 
 Syrinx is the name of a nymph of Arcadie, whom when 
 Pan being in love pursued, she, flying from him, of the gods 
 was turned into a reed. So that Pan catching at the reeds, 
 instead of the damsel, and puffing hard (for he was almost 
 out of wind), with his breath made the reeds to pipe ; which 
 he seeing, took of them, and, in remembrance of his lost love, 
 made him a pipe thereof. But here by Pan and Syrinx is not 
 to be thought that the shepherd simply meant those poetical 
 gods ; but rather supposing (as seemeth) her grace's progeny to 
 be divine and immortal (so as the Paynims were wont to 
 judge of all kings and princes, according to Homer's saying, 
 
 " Uju-bs Se fxeya? ecrrt Storpe^eos /Sao-tArjos, 
 TI/U.TJ 8' IK AIDS eorri, <>tAet Se e joujTieTa. Zev?,") 
 
 could devise no parents in his judgment so worthy for her as 
 Pan the shepherd's god and his best beloved Syrinx. So that 
 by Pan is here meant the most famous and victorious king, 
 her highness' father, late of worthy memory, King Henry the 
 Eighth. And by that name ofttimes (as hereafter appeareth) 
 be noted kings and mighty potentates, and in some place 
 Christ Himself, who is the very Pan and god of shepherds. 
 
 Cremosin coronet, he deviseth her crown to be of the finest 
 and most delicate flowers, instead of pearls and precious stones, 
 wherewith princes' diadems use to be adorned and embossed. 
 
 Embellish, beautify and set out. 
 
 Phcebe, the moon, whom the poets feign to be sister unto 
 Phoebus, that is, the sun. 
 
 Medled, mingled. 
 
 Yfere, together. By the mingling of the red rose and the 
 
AP&IL. 65 
 
 white is meant the uniting of the two principal houses of 
 Lancaster ami York : by whose long discord and deadly 
 debate this realm many years was sore travailed, and almost 
 clean decayed. Till the famous Henry the Seventh, of the 
 line of Lancaster, taking to wife the most virtuous Princess 
 Elizabeth, daughter to the fourth Edward of the house of 
 York, begat the most royal Henry the Eighth aforesaid, in 
 whom was the first union of the white rose and the red. 
 
 Calliope, one of the nine Muses, to whom they assign the 
 honour of all poetical invention, and the first glory of the 
 heroical verse. Others say, that she is the goddess of rhetoric ; 
 but by Virgil it is manifest that they mistake the thing. 
 For there, in his epigrams, that art seemeth to be attributed to 
 Polymnia, saying 
 
 " Signat cuncta maim, loquiturque Polymnia gestu." 
 
 "Which seemeth specially to be meant of action and elocution.,, 
 both special parts of rhetoric : beside that her name, which-.' 
 (as some construe it) importeth great remembrance, contain- 
 eth another part ; but I hold rather with them which call her 
 Polymnia, or Polyhymnia, of her good singing. 
 
 Bay branches be the sign of honour and victory, and there- 
 fore of mighty conquerors worn in their triumphs, and eke of 
 famous poets, as saith Petrarch in his sonnets, 
 
 " Arbor vittoriosa triomphale,- 
 Honour d' Imperadori e di Poeti," &e. 
 
 The Graces be three sisters, the daughters of Jupiter (whose 
 names are Aglaia, Thalia, Euphrosyne ; and Homer only 
 added a fourth, s. Pasithea), otherwise called Charites, that is 
 thanks : whom the poets feigned to be the goddesses of all 
 bounty and comeliness, which therefore (as saith Theodontius) 
 they make three, to wit, that men first ought to be gracious 
 and bountiful to other freely ; then to receive benefits at other 
 men's hands courteously ; and thirdly, to requite them thank- 
 fully ; which are three sundry actions in liberality. And 
 Boccace saith, that they be painted naked (as they were indeed 
 
66 THE SHEPHERDS* CALENDAR. 
 
 on the tomb of C. Julius Caesar) the one having her back to- 
 ward us, and her face fromward, as proceeding from us ; the 
 other two toward us, noting double thanks to be due to us for 
 the benefit we have done. 
 
 Dejfly, finely and nimbly. 
 
 ftoote, sweet. 
 
 Merriment, mirth. 
 
 Bevy, a bevy of ladies is spoken figuratively for a com- 
 pany or troop : the term is taken of larks. For they say a 
 bevy of larks, even as a covey of partridges, or an eye of 
 pheasants. 
 
 Ladies of the Lake be Nymphes. For it was an old opinion 
 amongst the ancient heathen, that of every spring and foun- 
 tain was a goddess the Sovereign. "Which opinion stuck in the 
 minds of men not many years since, by means of certain fine 
 fablers and loud liars, such as were the" authors of King 
 Arthur the Great, and such like, who tell many an unlawful 
 leasing of the ladies of the lake, that is, the nymphs. For 
 the word Nymph in Greek signifieth well water, or other- 
 wise, a spouse or bride. 
 
 Behight, called or named. 
 
 '" - 'or is, the name of a nymph, and signifieth greenness ; of 
 w 1 >m is said, that Zephyrus, the western wind, being in love 
 witii her, arid coveting her to wife, gave her for a dowry the 
 chief dom and sovereignty of all flowers and green herbs grow- 
 ing on earth. 
 
 Olive* baif, the olive was wont to be the ensign of peace and 
 quietness, either for that it cannot be planted and pruned, 
 and so carefully looked to as it ought, but in time of peace ; or 
 else for that the olive tree, they say, will not grow near the 
 fir tree, which is dedicate te Mars the God of battle, and used 
 most for spears and other instruments of war. Whereupon 
 is finely feigned, that when Neptune and Minerva strove for 
 the naming of the city of Athens, Neptune striking the ground 
 with Ins mace caused a horse to come forth, that iinporteth 
 war, but a,t Minerva's stroke sprang out an olive, to note that 
 it should be a nurse of learning, and such peaceable studies. 
 
APRIL. 67 
 
 Bind your, spoken rudely, and according to shepherd's 
 simplicity. 
 
 Bring, all these be names of flowers. Sops in wine, a flower 
 In colour much like to a carnation, but differing in smell and 
 quantity. Flower delice, that which they use to misterm flower 
 deluce, being in Latin called Flos delitiarum. 
 
 A Bellibone, or bonibel, homely spoken for a fair maid or 
 bonny lass. 
 
 jForswonck, and forswat, overlaboured and sunburnt. 
 
 / saw Phcebus, the sun. A sensible narration, and present 
 view of the thing mentioned, which they call Trapowia.. 
 
 Cynthia, the moon, so called of Cynthus, a hill, where she 
 was honoured. 
 
 Latona's seed was Apollo and Diana. Whom, whenas 
 Niobe the wife of Amphion scorned, in respect of the noble 
 fruit of her womb, namely her seven sons and so many 
 daughters, Latona, being therewith displeased, commanded 
 her son Phoebus to slay all the sons, and Diana -all the 
 daughters : whereat the unfortunate Niobe being sore dis- 
 mayed, and lamenting out of measure, was feigned of the 
 poets to be turned into a stone, upon the sepulchre of her 
 children : for which case the shepherd saith he wili\&ot com- 
 pare her to them, for fear of like misfortune. 
 
 Now rise is the conclusion. For, having so decked fte'r with 
 praises and comparisons, he returneth all. the thanks of his 
 labour to the excellency of her majesty. 
 
 When damsons, a base reward of a clownish giver. 
 
 Y blent, Y is a poetical addition ; blent, blinded. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 This poesy is taken out of Virgil, and there of him used in 
 the person of ^Eneas to his mother Venus, appearing to him in 
 likeness of one of Diana's damsels : being there most divinely 
 set forth. To which similitude of divinity Hobbinol com- 
 paring the excellency of Elisa, and being, through the worthi- 
 ness of Colin's song, as it were, overcome with the hugeness of 
 
68 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Ms imagination, bursteth out in great admiration ( O quam te 
 memorem mrgo!\ being otherwise unable than by sudden 
 silence, to express the worthiness of his conceit. Whom 
 Thenot answereth with another part of the like verse, as con- 
 firming by his grant and approvance that Elisa is no whit 
 inferior to the majesty of her, of whom that poet so boldly 
 pronounced O <l 
 
69 
 
 MAY. 
 
 .3EGLOQA QUINTA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 IN this fifth jEglogue, under the persons of two shepherds, 
 Piers and Palinode, be represented two forms of pastors 
 or ministers, or the Protestant and the Catholic ; whose 
 chief talk standeth in reasoning whether the life of the 
 one must be like the other : with whom having showed 
 that it is dangerous to maintain any fellowship, or give too 
 much credit to their colourable and feigned good will, he 
 telleth him a tale of the Fox, that, by such a counter- 
 point of craftiness, deceived and devoured the credulous 
 Kid. 
 
 PALINODE. PIERS. 
 
 ^Palinode. Is not tliilke the merry month of May, 
 When love-lads masken in fresh array ? 
 How falls it, then, we no merrier bene, 
 Ylike as others, girt in gawdy green ? 
 Our bloncket liveries bene all too sad 
 For thilke same season, when all 's yclad 
 With pleasaimce ; the ground with grass, the woods 
 Witli green leaves, the bushes with blooming buds. 
 Youth's folk now flocken in everywhere, 
 To gather May-buskets and smelling brere : 
 And home they hasten the posts to dignt, 
 And air the Kirk pillars ere daylight, 
 With hawthorn buds, and sweet eglantine, 
 And ga'rlands of r6ses, and sops in wine. ^ ^ 
 
70 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Suel i merimake holy saints doth queme, 
 But we here siiteii as drowned in a dream. 
 
 Piers. For younkers, Palinode, such follies fit, 
 But we tway bene men of elder wit. 
 
 Pal. Sicker this morrow, 116 longer ago, 
 I saw a shoal of shepherds out go 
 With singing and shouting and jolly cheer : 
 Before them yode a lusty tabrere, 
 That to a many a hornpipe played, 
 Whereto they dance, each one with his maid. 
 To see those folks make such jovysaunce 
 Made my heart after the pipe to dance : 
 Tho to the green wood they speeden hem all, 
 To f etchen home may with their musical : i/4 
 And home they bfingeii in a royal throne, 
 Crowned as king : and his queen attone 
 Was Lady Flora, on whom did attend 
 A fair flock of fairies, and a fresh bend 
 Of lovely Nymphs. (O that I were there, 
 To helpen the ladies their maybush bear !) 
 Ah, Piers, bene not thy teeth on edge, to think 
 How great sport they gainen with little swinck ? 
 
 Piers. Perdie, so far am 1 from envy, 
 That their fondness inly I pity : 
 Those f } .garden their charge, 
 
 While they, letting their sheep run at large, 
 Passeii their time, that should be sparely spent, 
 In lustihede and wanton merriment. 
 
71 
 
 ; i 
 
 Thilke same bene sliepherds for the Devil's stead, 
 That playen while their flocks be unfed : 
 Well is it scon their sheep bene not their own, 
 That letten them run at randon alone : 
 But they bene hired for little pay 
 Of other, that caren as little as they 
 What fallen the flock, so they han the fleece, 
 And get all the gain, paying but a piece. 
 I muse, what account both these will make ; 
 The one for the hire which he doth take, 
 And th'other for leaving his lord's task, 
 When great Pan account of shepherds shall ask. 
 Pal. Sicker, now I see thou speakest of spite, 
 All for thou lackest sornedele their delight, 
 I (as I am) had rather be envied, 
 All were it of my foe, then f only pitied : 
 And yet, if need were, pitied would be, 
 Rather then other should scorn at me : 
 For pitied is mishap that nas remedie, 
 But scorned bene deeds of fond foolerie. 
 What shoulden shepherds other things tend, 
 Than, sith their God his good does them send, 
 Reapen the fruit thereof, that is pleasure, 
 The while they here liven at ease and leisure ? 
 For when they bene dead, their good is ygoe,, d 
 They sleepen in rest, well as other raoe. : 
 Tho with them wends what they spent in cost, 
 But what they left behind them is lost. 
 
72 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 yXjrood is 110 good, but if it be spend ; 
 
 \God giveth good for none other end. 
 ^ Piers. Ah ! Palinode, thou art a world's child: 
 "Who touches pitch niought needs be denied ; 
 But shepherds (as Algrind used to say) 
 Might not live ylike as men of the lay. 7 (^ 
 "With thi'in it sits to care for their heir, 
 Ena miter their heritage do impair. 
 They must provide for means of maint'imnce, 
 And to continue their wont countenance 
 But shepherd must walk, another way. 
 Site worldly sovenance he must forsay. 
 The son of 's loins why should lie regard 
 To leave enriched with that he hath spar'd ? 
 Should not thilke God, that gave him that good, 
 Eke cherish his child, if in his ways he stood ? 
 For if he mislive in lewdness and lust, 
 Little boots all the wealth and the trust 
 That his father left by inheritance; 
 All will be soon wasted with misgovernance ; 
 33ut throng] i this, and other their iniscreance, 
 They niakeu many a wrong chevisance, 
 Heaping up waves of wealth and woe, 
 The jloods whereof shall them overflow 
 
 /'Bike men's folly I cannot compare 
 
 ( Better then to the ape's foolish care, 
 That 's so enamoured of her young one, 
 >(And yet. God wot, such cause hath she none) <J \ 
 
MAY. 73 
 
 That with her hard hold and straight embracing, 
 She stoppeth the breath of her youngling. 
 So oftentimes, whenas good is meant, 
 Evil ensueth of wrong entent. 
 
 The time was once, and may again retorne, 
 (For ought may happen, that hath been heforne) 
 When shepherds had none inheritance, 
 NQ of land, nor fee in sufferance 
 But what might arise of the bare sheep, 
 (Were it more or less) which they did keep- 
 Well ywis was it with shepherds tho : 
 Nought having, nought feared they to forgo, ; 
 For Pan himself was their inheritance, 
 And little them served for their maintenance, 
 The shepherds' god so well them guided, 
 That of nought they were unprovided ; 
 Butter enough, honey, milk, and whey, 
 And their flocks' fleeces them to array : 
 But tract of time, and long prosperity, 
 That nurse of vice, this of insoleiicy, 
 Lulled the shepherds in such security, 
 That, not content with loyal obeisance, 
 Some gan to gape for greedy governance, ' 
 And match themselves with mighty potentates, 
 Lovers of lordship, and troublers of states. 
 Tho gan shepherds swains to look aloft, 
 And leave to live hard, and learn to lie soft : 
 Tho, under colour of shepherds, some while 
 
74 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 There crept in wolves, full of fraud and guile, 
 Tliat often devoured their own sheep, 
 And oft the shepherds that did them keep : 
 This was the first source of shepherds' sorrow, 
 That now nil! be quit with bail nor borrow. 
 
 Pal. Three things to bear bene very burdendus. 
 But the fourth to forbear is outrageous : 
 Women, that of love's longing once lust, 
 Hardly forbearen but have it they must : 
 So when choler 's inflamed with rage, 
 Wanting revenge, is hard to assuage : 
 And who can counsel a thirsty soul, 
 With patience to forbear the offered bowl? 
 IBut, of all burdens that, a man can bear, 
 Most is, a fool's talk to bear and to hear, 
 I ween the giant has not such a weight, 
 That bears on his shoulders the heaven's height. 
 Thou findest fault where nis to be found, 
 And buildest strong work upon a weak ground : 
 Thou railest on, right without reason, 
 And blamest hem much for all encheason. 
 How shoulden shepherds live, if not so ? 
 What, should they pynen in pain and woe ? 
 Nay, say I thereto, by my dear borrow, 
 If I may rest I nill live in sorrow. 
 
 Sorrow ne need be hastened on, 
 For he will come, without calling, anon. 
 While times enduren of tranquillitie, 
 
M AT - 
 
 Usen YTO freely our felicitie ; 
 
 For,, when approachen the stormy stowres, 
 
 We mought with our shoulders bear off the sharp 
 
 showers 
 
 And, sooth to say, nought seemeth sike strife, 
 That shepherds so witen each others' life, 
 And layeii their faults the world beforne, 
 The while their foes done each of hem scorn. 
 Let none mislike of that may not be mended, 
 So conteck soon by concord mought be ended. 
 
 Piers. Shepherd, I list none accordance make 
 With shepherd Ili.-.i doth tho right way forsake: 
 And of the twain, if choice were to me, 
 Had liever my foe than niy friend he be ; 
 For what concord han light and dark sain ? 
 Or what peace has the Lion with the Lamb ? 
 Such faitors when thoir false hearts bene hid, i")<J 
 Will do as did the Fox by the Kid. 
 
 Pal. Now, Piers,*of fellowship, tell us that saying : 
 For the lad can keep both our flocks from straying. 
 
 Piers. Thilke same Kid (as I can well devise) 
 Was too very foolish and unwise ; 
 For on a time, in summer season, 
 The goat her dame, that had good reason, 
 Yode forth abroad unto the green wood, 
 To browse, or play, or what she thought good: 
 But, for she had a motherly care 
 Of her young son, and wit to beware, 
 
76 THE SHEPHERDS' CAT 
 
 She set her youngling before her knee, 
 
 That was both fresh and lovely to see, 
 
 And full of favour as Kid mought be. 
 
 His velvet head began to shoot out, 
 
 And his wreathed horns gan newly sprout : 
 
 The blossoms of lust to bud did begin, 
 
 And spring forth rankly under his chin. 
 
 " My son " (quoth she, and with that gan weepj<jj-<f 
 
 For careful thoughts in her heart did creep), 
 
 " God bless thee, poor orphan ! as he mought me, 
 
 And send thee joy of thy jollitee. 
 
 Thy father " (that word she spake with pain, 
 
 For a sigh had nigh rent her heart in twain), 
 
 " Thy father, had he lived this day, 
 
 To see the branch of his body display, 
 
 How would he have joyed at this sweet sight [ 
 
 But ah, false Fortune such joy did him spite, 
 
 And cut off his days with untimely woe, 
 
 Betraying him into the trains of his foe. 
 
 Now I, a wailful widow benight, 
 
 Of my old age have this one delight, 
 
 To see thee succeed in thy father's stead, 
 
 And flourish in flowers of lustyhead : 
 
 For even so thy father his head upheld, 
 
 And so his haughty horns did he weld." 
 
 Tho marking him with melting eyes, 
 A thrilling throb from her heart did arise, 
 And interrupted all her other speech ^0 \ 
 
MAY. 77 
 
 With some old sorrow that made a new breach : 
 
 Seemed she saw in the youngling's face 
 
 The old lineaments of his father's grace. 
 
 At last her solemn silence she broke, 
 
 And gan his new-budded beard to stroke. 
 
 " Kiddie" (quoth she), " thou kenst the great care 
 
 I have of thy health and thy welfare, 
 
 Which many wild beasts liggen in wait 
 
 For to entrap in thy tender state : 
 
 But most the Fox, master of collusion : 
 
 For he has vowed thy last confusion. 
 
 For-thy, my Kiddie, be ruled by me, 
 
 And ne'er give trust to his treacheree :* ; 
 
 And, if he chance come when I 'm abroad, 
 
 Sperre the gate fast for fear of fraud : 
 
 !N"e for all his worst, nor for his best, 
 
 Open the door at his request." 
 
 So schooled the goat her wanton son> 
 That answered his mother, all should be done. 
 Tho went the pensive dame out of door, 
 And chanced to stumble at the threshold floor : 
 Her stumbling step somewhat her amazed, 
 (For such, as signs of ill luck, bene dispraised ; ) 
 Yet forth she yode, thereat half aghast : 
 And Kiddie the door sperred after her fast. 
 It was not long, after she was gone, 
 But the false Fox came to the door anon : 
 Not as a Fox, for then he had be kend, 
 
78 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 But all as a poor pedlar he did wend, 
 
 Bearing a truss of trifles at his back, 
 
 As bells, and babes, and glasses in his pack : 
 
 A biggen he had got about his brain, 
 
 For in 's head-piece he felt a sore pain : 
 
 His hinder heel was wrapped in a clout, 
 
 For with great cold he had got the gout. 
 
 There at the door he cast me down his pack, 
 
 And laid him down and groaned, " Alack ! Alack! 
 
 Ah, dear Lord ! and sweet Saint Charity ! 
 
 That some good body would once pity me ! " 
 
 "Well heard Kiddie all this sore constraint, 
 And longed to know the cause of ' s complaint : 
 Tho creeping close behind the wicket's clink, 
 Privily he peeped out through a chink, 
 Yet not so privily but the fox him spied ; 
 For deceitful meaning is double eyed. 
 
 " Ah, good young master ! " (then gan he cry). 
 " Jesus bless that sweet face I espy, 
 And keep your corpse from the careful stounds 
 That in my carrion carcase abounds." 
 
 The Kid, pitying his heaviness, 
 Asked the cause of his great distress, 
 And also who, and whence that he were ? 
 
 Tho he, that had well yconned his lere, 
 Thus medled his talk with many a tear : 
 " Sick, sick, alas ! a little lack of dead, 
 But I be relieved by your 
 
MAY. 79 s 
 
 I 'm a poor sheep, albe my colour dun, 
 For with long travel I 'm brent in the sun : 
 And, if that my grandsire me said be true, 
 Sicker, I am very sybbe to you : 
 So be your goodlihead do not disdain 
 The base kindred of so simple swaine. 
 Of mercy and favour, then, I you pray 
 With your aid to fore-stall my near decay." 
 
 Tho out of his pack a glass he took, 
 Wherein while Kiddie unwares did look, 
 He was so enamoured with the newell, 
 That nought he deemed dear for the jewel. 
 Tho opened he the door, and in came 
 The false fox, as he were stark lame : 
 His tail he clapped betwixt his legs twain, 
 Lest he should be descried by his train. 
 
 Being within, the Kiddie made him good glee, 
 AH for the love of the glass he did see. 
 After his chere the pedlar gan chat, 
 And tell many leasiugs of this and that 1 , 
 And how he could show many a fine knack : 
 Tho showed his ware and opened his pack. 
 All save a bell, which he left behind 
 In the basket for the Kid to find : 
 Which when the Kid stooped down to catch, 
 He popped him in, and his basket did latch : 
 Kor stayed he once the door to make fast, 
 But ran away with him in all hast. *^ 
 
SO THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Home when the doubtful dam had her hied 
 She mought see the door stand open wide. 
 AH aghast, loudly she gan to call 
 Her Kid ; but he nould answer at all : 
 Tho on the floor she saw the merchandise 
 Of which her son had set too dear a price 
 What help ? her Kid she knew well was gone : 
 She weeped, and wailed and made great moan, 
 Such end had the kid, for he nould warned be 
 Of craft, coloured with simplicitie : 
 And such end, perdie, does all hem remain, 
 That of such falsers' friendship been fain. 
 
 Pal. Truly, Piers, thou art beside thy wit, 
 Furthest fro the mark, weening it to hit. 
 N"ow, I pray thee, let mo thy tale borrow 
 For our Sir John, to say to-morrow 
 At the kirk, when it is holiday ; 
 For well he means, but little can say. 
 But, and if Foxes beue so crafty as so, 
 Much needeth all shepherds hem to know. 
 
 Piers. Of their falsehood more could I recount, 
 But now the bright sun ginneth to dismount ; 
 And, for the dewy night now draw'th nye, 
 1 hold it best for us home to hye. 
 
 PALINODE S EMBLEM. 
 Has utv aTrioToy a.iri<TTi. 
 
MAY. 81 
 
 PIERS HIS EMBLEM. 
 Tis 5' &pa Triffris 
 
 - 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Thttke, this same month. It is applied to the season of the 
 month when all men delight themselves with pleasaunce of 
 fields, and gardens, and garments. 
 
 Bloncket liveries, gray coats. 
 
 Ydad, arrayed, Y redoundeth, as before. 
 
 In everywhere a strange, yet proper kind of speaking. 
 
 Buskets, a diminutive, s. little bushes of hawthorn. 
 
 Kirk, church. 
 
 Queme, please. 
 
 A shoal, a multitude, taken of fish, whereof some, going in 
 great companies, are said to swim in a shoal. 
 
 Yode, went. 
 
 Jovyssaunce, joy. 
 
 Swinck, labour. 
 
 Inly, entirely. 
 
 Faitours, vagabonds. 
 
 G-reat Pan, is Christ., the very God of all shepherds, which 
 calleBT Himself the great and good shepherd. The name is 
 most rightly (methinks) applied to Him ; for Pan signifieth all, 
 or omnipotent, which is only the Lord Jesus. And by that 
 name (as I remember) he is called of Eusebius, in his fifth book 
 De Prepared,. Evang. , who thereof telleth a proper story to that 
 purpose. Which story is first recorded of Plutarch, in his book 
 of the ceasing of Oracles : and of Lavatere translated, in his 
 book of walking sprights ; who saith, that about the same time 
 that our Lord suffered His most bitter passion, for the redemp- 
 tion of man, certain passengers sailing from Italy to Cj T pms, 
 ajidpassing by certain islerf called Paxa, heard a voice calling 
 aloucT Thamus, Thumus ! (now Thamus was the name of an 
 : in. which was pilot of the ship) who, giving ear to the 
 
82 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 cry, was bidden, when he came to Palodes, to tell that the great 
 Pan was dead : which he doubting to do, yet for that when he 
 came to Palodes, there suddenly was such a calm of wind, 
 that the ship stood still in the sea unmoved, he was forced to 
 cry aloud, that Pan was dead : wherewithal there was heard 
 such piteous outcries, and dreadful shrieking, as hath not been 
 the like. By which Pan, though of some be understood the 
 great Satanas, whose kingdom at that time was by Christ con- 
 quered, the gates of hell broken up, and death by death de- 
 livered to eternal death (for at that time, as he saith, all Ora- 
 cles surceased, and enchanted spirits, that were wont to delude 
 the people, thenceforth held their peace) : and also at the 
 demand of the Emperor Tiberius, who that Pan should be, 
 answer was made him by the wisest and best learned, that it 
 was the son of Mercury and Penelope : yet I think it more 
 properly meant of the death of Christ, the only and very Pan, 
 then suffering for His flock. 
 
 I as I am, seemeth to imitate the common proverb, malim 
 invidere mihi omnes, quam miserescere. 
 
 Nas is a syncope, for ne has, or has not : as nould for would 
 not. 
 
 Tho with them doth imitate the epitaph of the riotous king 
 Sardanapalus, which he caused to be written on his tomb in 
 Greek : which verses be thus translated by Tully : 
 
 " Hsec habui qure edi, quaeque exaturata libido 
 Hausit, at ilia maiient multa ac prseclara relicta. 
 
 ly gorged : 
 >thers. 
 
 Which may thus be turned into English : 
 
 " All that I eat did I joy, and all that I greedilj 
 As for those many goodly matters left I for o 
 
 Much like the epitaph of a good old Earl of Devonshire, 
 which though much more wisdom bewrayeth than Sardanapalus, 
 yet hath a smack of his sensual delights and beastliness : the 
 rhymes be these : 
 
 " Ho, ho ! who lies here ? 
 I the sood Earl of Devonshire, 
 
MAY. 83 
 
 And Maud my wife that was full dear : 
 We lived together fifty-five year. 
 
 That we spent, we had : 
 
 That we gave, we have : 
 That we left, we lost." 
 
 Algrind, the name of a shepherd. 
 
 Men of the lay, Laymen. 
 
 Enaunter, least that. 
 
 Sovcnaunce, remembrance. 
 
 Mi.wMnw, despair, or misbelief. 
 
 Chevisaunce, sometime of Chaucer used for gain : sometime 
 of other for spoil, or booty, or enterprise, and sometime for 
 chief dom. 
 
 Pan himself, God : according as is said in Deuteronomy, 
 that, in division of the land of Canaan, to the tribe of Levi 
 no portion of heritage should be allotted, for God himself was 
 their inheritance. 
 
 Some (/an, meant of the Pope, and his Antichristian prelates, 
 which usurp a tyrannical dominion in the Church, and with 
 Peter's counterfeit keys open a wide gate to all wickedness and 
 insolent government. Nought here spoken as of purpose to- 
 deny fatherly rule and governance (as some maliciously of late 
 have done, to the great unrest and hindrance of the Church) 
 but to display the pride and disorder of such as, instead of 
 feeding their sheep, indeed feed of their sheep. 
 
 Source, wellspring and original. 
 
 Borrow, pledge or surety. 
 
 The giant is the great Atlas, whom the poets feign to be a 
 huge giant, that beareth Heaven on his shoulders : being 
 indeed a marvellous high mountain in Mauritania, that now is 
 Barbary, which, to man's seeming, pierceth the clouds, and 
 seemethto touch the heavens. Others think, and they not 
 amiss, that this fable was meant of one Atlas king of the same 
 country (of whom may be that that hill had his denomination), 
 brother to Prometheus, who (as the Greeks say) did first find 
 out the hidden courses of the stars, by an excellent imagin- 
 ation : wherefore the poets feigned that he sustained the 
 
84 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 firmament on his shoulders. Many other conjectures needless 
 be told hereof. 
 
 Warke, work. 
 
 Encheason, cause, occasion. 
 
 Dear borrow, that is our Saviour, the common pledge of all 
 men's debts to death. 
 
 Wyten, blame. 
 
 Nought seemeth, is unseemly. 
 
 Conteck, strife, contention. 
 
 Her, their, as useth Chaucer. 
 
 Han, for have. 
 
 Sam, together. 
 
 This tale is much like to that in ^Esop's fables, but the 
 catastrophe and end is far different. By the kid may be un- 
 derstood the simple sort of the faithful and true Christians. 
 By his dam Christ, that hath already with careful watch- 
 words (as here doth the goat) warned her little ones to beware 
 of such doubling deceit. By the fox, the false and faithless 
 Papists, to whom is no credit to be given, nor fellowship to be 
 used. 
 
 The Gate, the goat : northernly spoken, to turn O into A. 
 
 Yode, went : aforesaid. 
 
 She set, a figure called Fictio, which useth to attribute reason- 
 able actions and speeches to unreasonable creatures. 
 
 The blossoms of lust be the young and mossy hairs, which 
 then begin to sprout and shoot forth when lustful heat begin- 
 neth to kindle. 
 
 And with, a very poetical Trados. 
 
 Orphan, a youngling or pupil, that needeth a tutor and 
 governor. 
 
 That word, a pathetical parenthesis, to increase a careful 
 hyperbaton. 
 
 The branch, of the father's body, is the child. 
 
 For even so, Alluded to the saying of Andromache to As- 
 canius in Virgil. 
 
 "Sic oculos, sic ille maims, sic ora ferebat." 
 
 A thrilling throb, a piercing sigh. 
 
MAY. 85 
 
 Liggen, lie. 
 
 Maister of collusion, s., coloured guile, because the fox, of 
 all beasts, is most wily and crafty. 
 
 Sperre the gate, shut the door. 
 
 For such) the goat's stumbling is here noted as an evil sign. 
 The like to be marked in all histories ; and that not the least 
 of the Lord Hastings in King Richard III. his days. For, 
 beside his dangerous dream (which was a shrewd prophecy of 
 his mishap that followed) it is said, that in the morning, riding 
 toward the Tower of London, there to sit upon matters of 
 council, his horse stumbled twice or thrice by the way : which 
 of some, that riding with him in his company were privy to 
 his near destiny, was secretly marked, and afterward noted for 
 memory of his great mishap that ensued. For being then as 
 merry as man might be, and least doubting any mortal danger, 
 he was within two hours after of the tyrant put to a shameful 
 death. 
 
 As bells, by such trifles are noted, the relics and rags of 
 popish superstition, which put no small religion in bells and 
 babies, s. idols, and glasses, s. paxes, and such like trumperies. 
 
 Great cold, for they boast much of their outward patience, 
 and voluntary sufferance, as a work of merit and holy 
 humbleness. 
 
 Sweet S. Charity, The Catholics' common oath, and only 
 speech, to have charity always in their mouth, and sometime 
 in their outward actions, but never inwardly in faith and godly 
 zeal. 
 
 Clincke, a keyhole. Whose diminutive is clicket, used of 
 Chaucer for a key. 
 
 Stounds, fits : aforesaid. 
 
 His lere, his lesson. 
 
 Meddled, mingled. 
 
 Jjcastlihead, agreeing to the person of a beast. 
 
 Sibbe, of kin. 
 
 Newell* a new thing. 
 
 To forest'iU, to prevent. 
 
 Glee, cheer : aforesaid. 
 
86 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Dear a price, his life which he lost'for those toys. 
 
 Such end is an epiphonema, or rather the moral of the whole 
 tale, whose purpose is to warn the Protestant beware how he 
 giveth credit to the unfaithful Catholic; whereof we have 
 daily proofs sufficient, but one most famous of all practised of 
 late years in France, by Charles IX. 
 
 Fain, glad or desirous. 
 
 Owr Sir John, a Popish priest. A saying fit for the gross- 
 ness of a shepherd, but spoken to taunt unlearned priests. 
 
 Dismount, descend or set. 
 
 Nigh, draweth near. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 Both these Emblems make one whole Hexameter. The first 
 spoken of Palinode, as in reproach of them that be distrustful, 
 is a piece of Theognis' verse, intending, that who doth most 
 mistrust is most false. For such experience in falsehood 
 breedeth mistrust in the mind, thinking no less guile to lurk in 
 others than in himself. But Piers thereto strongly replieth 
 with another piece of the same verse, saying, as in his former 
 fable, what faith then is there in the faithless ? For if faith be 
 the ground of religion, which faith they daily false, what hold 
 then is there of their religion ? And this is all that they say. 
 
 v &ft4^KML 
 
87 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 -EGLOGA SEXTA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 THIS JSglogue is wholly vowed to the complaining of Colin's ill 
 success in his love. For being (as is aforesaid) enamoured of a 
 country lass, Rosalind, and having (as seemeth) found place in 
 her heart, he lamenteth to his dear friend Hobbinol that he 
 is now forsaken unfaithfully, and in his stead Menalcas, 
 another shepherd, received disloyally. And this is the whole 
 Argument of this JEglogue. "" 
 
 f 
 
 HOBBINOL. COLIN CLOUT. 
 
 Hob. Lo! Colin, here the place whose pleasant sito 
 
 From other shades liath weaned my wandering mind : ' 
 Tell me, what wants me here to work delight ? 
 
 The simple air, the gentle warbling wind, 
 
 So calm, so cool, as nowhere else I find : 
 The grassy ground with dainty daisies dight; 
 
 The bramble bush, where birds of every kind b 
 To the waters' fall their tunes attemper right. 
 
 / Col. sO happy Hobbinol ! I bless thy state, 
 / That Paradise hast found which Adam lost : 
 Here wander may thy flock, early or late, 
 Withouten dread of wolves to bene ytost : 
 Thy lovely lays here mayst thou freely boast. 
 
 I But I, unhappy man, whom cruel fate 
 
 And angry gods pursue from coast to coast, 
 Can nowhere find to shroud my luckless pate. 
 
88 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Hob. Then, if by me thou list advised be, 
 Forsake the soil that so doth thee bewitch 
 
 Leave ine those hills where harbrough nis to see, 
 Nor holly-bush, nor brere, nor winding witch 
 And to the dales resort, where shepherds rich, 
 
 And fruitful flocks bene everywhere to see : 
 
 Here no night-ravens lodge, more black than pitch, 
 
 Nor elvish ghosts, nor ghastly owls do flee. 
 
 XBut friendly fairies, met with many Graces, 
 
 And lightfoot nymphs, can chase the lingering night 
 With heydeguyes, and trimly trodden traces, 
 
 Whilst sisters nine, which dwell on Parnasse height, 
 Do make them music for their more delight ; ^ ^ 
 
 IAnd Pan himself, to kiss their crystal faces, 
 Will pipe and dance when Phoebe shineth bright : 
 ^Such peerless pleasures have we in these places. 
 
 Col. And I, whilst youth and course of careless years 
 Did let me walk withouten links of love, 
 
 In such delights did joy amongst my peers ; 
 But riper age such pleasures did reprove : 
 My fancy eke from former follies move 
 
 To stayed steps ; for time in passing wears 
 (As garments doeii, which wexeii old above), 
 
 And drawetli new delights with hoary hairs, 
 
 Tho couth I sing of love, and tune my pipe 
 Unto my plaintive pleas in verses made : 
 
JUNE. 89 
 
 Tho would I seek for queen-apples unripe, 
 To give my Rosalind ; and in summer shade 
 Dight gaudy garlands, was my common trade 
 
 To crown her golden locks ; but years more ripe, 
 And loss of her, whose love as life I weighed, 
 
 Those weary wanton toys away did wipe. 
 
 Hob. Colin, to hear thy rhymes and roundelays, 
 / Which thou wert wont on wasteful hills to sing, 
 I more delight than lark in summer days : 
 
 Whose echo made the neighbour groves to ring, 
 And taught the birds, which in the lower spring 
 Did shroud in shady leaves from sunny rays, 
 
 Frame to thy song their cheerful chirruping, 
 Or hold their peace, for shame of thy sweet lays. 
 
 I saw Calliope with Muses moe, 
 
 Soon as thy oaten pipe began to sound, 
 Their ivory lutes and tambourines forgo, 
 
 And from the fountain, where they sat around, 
 
 Run after hastily thy silver sound ; 
 But, when they came where thou thy skill didst show, 
 
 They drew aback, as half with shame confound 
 Shepherd to see them in their art outgo. 
 
 Col. Of Muses, Hobbinol, I con no skill, 
 For they bene daughters of the highest Jove, 
 And holden scorn of homely shepherds' quill ; -j ^ 
 
90 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 For since I heard that Pan with Phoebus strove, 
 Which him to much rebuke and danger drove, 
 
 I never list presume to Parnasse hill, 
 But, piping low in shade of lowly grove, 
 
 I play to please myself, all be it ill. 
 
 Nought weigh I who my song doth praise or blame, 
 
 Ne strive to win renown, or pass the rest : 
 With shepherds sits not follow flying fame, 
 
 But feed his flock in fields where falls hem best. 
 
 I wote my rhymes bene rough, and rudely dressed ; 
 The fitter they my careful case to frame : 
 
 Enough is me to paint out my unrest, 
 And pour my piteous plaints out in the same. 
 
 Sthe god of shepherds. Tityrus, is dead, 
 / Who taught me homely, as I can, to make : 
 | He, whilst he lived, was the sovereign head 
 1 Of shepherds all that bene with love ytake. 
 
 Well couth he wail his woes, and lightly slake 
 The flames which love within his heart had bred, 
 
 And tell us merry tales to keep us wake, 
 The while our sheep about us safely fed. 
 
 Now dead he is, and lieth wrapped in lead, 
 
 (Oh, why should Death on him such outrage show ?) 
 
 And all his passing skill with him is fled, 
 The fame whereof doth daily greater grow. 
 But if on me some little drops would flow 
 
JUNE. 91 
 
 Of that the spring* was in his learned head, 
 
 I soon- would learn these words to wail niy woe, 
 And teach the trees their trickling tears to shed. 
 
 Then should nay plaints, caused of discourtesy, 
 As messengers of this my painful plight, 
 
 Fly to my love, wherever that she be, 
 
 And pierce her heart with point of worthy wight, 
 As she deserves that wrought so deadly spite, 
 
 And thou, Menalcas, that by treachery 
 Didst underfong my lass to wexe to light, 
 
 Shouldst well be known for such thy villainy. 
 
 But since I am not as -I wish I were, 
 
 Te gentle shepherds, which your flocks do feed. 
 Whether on hills or dales, or other where, 
 
 Bear witness all of this so wicked deed ; 
 
 And tell the lass, whose flower is woxe a weed, { j * 
 And faultless faith is turned to faithless fere, 
 
 That she the truest shepherd's heart made bleed ^\ 
 That lives on earth, and loved her most dear. # 
 
 Hob. O careful Colin ! I lament thy case ; 
 Thy tears would make the hardest flint to flow I 
 
 fAh, faithless E/osalind and void of grace, 
 That art the root of all this ruthful woe ! 
 But now is time, I guess, homeward to go : 
 Then rise, ye blessed flocks, and home apace, 
 Lest night with stealing steps do you forslow, 
 A.nd wet your tender lambs that by you trace. 
 
THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 COLIN'S EMBLEM. 
 Gia speme spenta. 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Site, situation and place. 
 
 Paradise. A Paradise in Greek signifieth a garden of 
 pleasure, or place of delights. So he compare th the soil 
 wherein Hobbinol made his abode, to that earthly paradise, 
 in Scripture called Eden, wherein Adam in his first creation 
 was placed : which of the most learned is thought to be in 
 Mesopotamia, the most fertile, pleasant country in the world 
 (as may. appear by Diodorus Siculus' description of it, in the 
 history of Alexander's conquest thereof), lying between the 
 two famous rivers (which are said in Scripture to flow out of 
 Paradise), Tigris and Euphrates, whereof it is so denominate. 
 
 Forsake the soil. This is no poetical fiction, but unfeignedly 
 spoken of the poet self, who for special occasion of private 
 affairs (as I have been partly of himself informed), and for 
 his more preferment, removing out of the north parts, came 
 into the south, as Hobbinol indeed advised him privately. 
 
 Those hills, that is in the north country, where he dwelt. 
 
 jL\is, is not. 
 
 The dales. The south parts, where he now abideth, which 
 though they be full of hills and woods (for Kent is very hilly 
 and woody ; and therefore so called, for Kantsh in the Saxon 
 tongue signifieth woody), yet in respect of the north parts 
 they be called dales. For indeed the north is counted the 
 higher country. 
 
 Night ravens* &c. By such hateful birds he meaneth all 
 misfortunes (whereof they be tokens) flying everywhere. 
 
 Frendly faeries. The opinion of fairies and elves is very 
 old, and yet sticketh very religiously in the minds of some. 
 But to root that rank opinion of elves out of men's hearts, the 
 truth is, that there be no such things, nor yet the shadows of 
 the things, but only by a sort of bald friars and knavish shave- 
 
JUNE. 93 
 
 lings so feigned ; which as in all other things, so in that, sought 
 to nousell the common people in ignorance, lest, being once ac- 
 quainted with the truth of things, they would in time smell out 
 the untruth of their packed pelf, and Mass-penny religion. But 
 the sooth is, that when all Italy was distracted into the factions 
 of the Guelphs and the Ghibelines, being two famous houses in 
 Florence, the name began through their great mischiefs and 
 many outrages to be so odious, or rather dreadful, in the 
 people's ears, that if their children at any time were froward 
 and wanton, they would say to them that the Guelph or the 
 Ghibeline came. Which words now from them (as many things 
 else), be come into our usage, and for Guelphs and Ghibelines 
 we say elves and goblins. No otherwise than the Frenchmen 
 used to say of that valiant captain, the very scourge of France, 
 the Lord Talbot, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury, whose noble- 
 ness bred such a terror in the hearts of the French that 
 ofttimes even great armies were defeated and put to flight at 
 the only hearing of his name. Insomuch that the French 
 women, to affray their children, would tell them that the 
 Talbot cometh. 
 
 Many Graces, Miough there be indeed but three Graces or 
 Charities (as afore is said), or at the utmost but four, yet, 
 in respect of many gifts of bounty there may be said more. 
 And so Musaeus saith, that in Hero's either eye there sat a 
 hundred Graces. And, by that authority, this samo poet, 
 in his "Pageants," saith, "An hundred Graces on her eyelid 
 sat," &c. 
 
 Heydct inies, a country dance or round. The conceit is, that 
 the Graces and Nymphs do dance unto the Muses and Pan his 
 music all night by moonlight. To signify the pleasantness 
 of the soil. 
 
 Peeres. Equals, and fellow-shepherds. 
 
 Queen-apples unripe, imitating Virgil's verse : 
 
 "Ipse ego cana legam tenera lanugine mala." 
 
 Neighbour r/ro/r.s-, a strange phrase in English, but word for 
 Word expressing the Latin vicirut nemora. 
 
94 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 &prin&, not of water, but of young trees springing. 
 
 Calliope, aforesaid. This staff is full of very poetical in- 
 vention. 
 
 Tamburines, an old kind of instrument, which of some is 
 supposed to be the clarion. 
 
 Pan with Phoebus, the tale is well known, how that Pan and 
 Apollo, striving for excellency in music, chose Midas for their 
 judge. Who being corrupted with partial affection, gave the 
 victory to Pan undeserved: for which Phoebus set a pair of 
 ass's ears upon his head, &c. 
 
 Tityrus, that by Tityrus is meant Chaucer hath been already 
 sufficiently said ; and by this more plain appeareth, that he 
 saith he told merry tales. Such as be his Canterbury Tales, 
 whom he calleth the god of poets for his excellency ; so as 
 Tully calleth Lentulus, Deum vitce suce, s. the god of his life. 
 
 To make, to versify. 
 
 O why, a pretty Epanorthosis, or correction. 
 
 Discourtesy : he meaneth the falseness of his lover Rosalind, 
 who forsaking him had chosen another. 
 
 Point of worthy wight, the prick of deserved blame. 
 
 Menalcas, the name of a shepherd in Virgil; but here is 
 meant a person unknown and secret, against whom he often 
 bitterly inveigheth. 
 
 Underfong, undermine, and deceive by false suggestion. 
 
 You remember that in the first u3Sglogue Coliii's poesy was 
 Andiora speme : for that as then there was Lope of favour to 
 be found in time. But now being clean forlorn and rejected 
 of her, as whose ^hope that was is clean extinguished and 
 turned into despair, he renounceth all comfort, and hope oi 
 goodness to come : which is all the meaning of this Emblem. 
 
95 
 
 JULY- 
 
 -EOLOGA SEPTIMA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 Thia JEglogue is made in the honour and commendation of 
 good shepherds, and to the shame and dispraise of proud 
 and ambitious pastors : such as Morrell is here imagined 
 to be. 
 
 THOMALIN. MORRELL. 
 
 Thorn. Is not thilke same a goatherd proud, 
 
 That sits on yonder bank, 
 Whose straying herd themself doth shroud 
 
 Among the bushes rank ? 
 Mor. What, ho ! thou jolly shepherd's swain, 
 
 Come up the hill to me ; 
 Better is than the lowly plain, 
 
 Als for thy flock and thee. 
 Thorn. Ah, God shield, man, tha I should climb, 
 
 And learn to look aloft ; 
 This rede is rife, that of tentime 
 
 Great climbers fall unsoft. 
 In humble dales is footing fast, 
 
 The trode is not so tickle : 
 And though one fall through heedless hast, 
 
 Yet is his miss not mickle. 
 And now the sun hath reared up 
 
 His fiery-footed team, ' , 
 
THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Making his way between the Cup 
 
 And golden Diademe : 
 The rampant Lion hunts he fast, 
 
 With dogs of noisome breath, 
 Whose baleful barking brings in hast 
 
 Pine, plagues, and dreary death. 
 Against his cruel scorching heat 
 
 Where hast thou coverture ? 
 The wasteful hills unto his threat 
 
 Is a plain overture. 
 But, if thee lust to holden chat 
 
 With seely shepherd's swain, 
 Come down and learn the little what, 
 
 That Thomalin can sayne. 
 Jfbr. Sicker, thou's but a lazy loord 
 
 And recks much of thy swiiik, 
 That with fond terms and witless words 
 
 To blear mine eyes dost think. 
 In evil hour thou hentest in hond 
 
 Thus holy hills to blame, 
 For sacred unto saints they stand, 
 
 And of them han their name. 
 St. Michael's Mount who doth not know, 
 
 That wards the western coast ? 
 And of St. Bridget's bower, I trow, 
 
 All Kent can rightly boast : 
 And they that con of Muses' skill 
 
 Sayne most-what, that they dwell 
 
JULY. 97 
 
 (As goatherds wont) upon a hill, 
 
 Beside a learned well. 
 And wonned not the great god Pan 
 
 Upon Mount Olivet, 
 , Feeding the blessed flock of Dan, 
 
 Which did himself beget ? 
 Thorn. O blessed sheep ! O shepherd great ! 
 
 That bought his flock so. dear, 
 And them did save with bloody sweat 
 
 From wolves that would them tear. 
 Mor. Beside, as holy fathers sayne, 
 
 There is a hilly place, 
 Where Titan riseth from the main 
 
 To run his daily race, 
 Upon whose top the stars bene stayed, 
 
 And all the sky doth lean ; 
 There is the cave where Phoebe laid 
 
 The shepherd long to dream. 
 Whilome there used shepherds all 
 
 To feed their flocks at will, 
 Till by his folly one did fall, 
 
 That all the rest did spill. 
 And, sithens shepherds bene forsaid 
 
 From places of delight, 
 For-thy I ween thou be afraid- 
 
 To climb this hilles height. 
 Of Sinali can I tell thee more, 
 
 And of Our Lady's Bower; -^ U 
 
THE SHEPHERDS CALENDAB. 
 
 But little needs to strow my store : 
 
 Suffice this hill of our. 
 Here han the holy Fauns recourse, 
 
 And Sylvans haunten rathe ; 
 Here has the salt Medway his source, 
 
 "Wherein the nymphs do bathe ; 
 The salt Medway, that trickling streams 
 
 Adown the dales .of Kent, 
 Till with his elder brother Themes 
 
 His brackish waves be meynt. 
 Here grows melampode everywhere, 
 
 And terebinth, good for goats : 
 The one my madding kids to smere, 
 
 The next to heal their throats. 
 Hereto, the hills bene nigher heaven, 
 
 And thence the passage ethe ; 
 As well can prove the piercing levin, * 
 
 That seldom falls beneath. 
 Thorn. Sicker, thou speaks like a lewd lorrell, 
 
 Of Heaven to demen so ; 
 How be I am but rude and borrell, 
 
 Yet nearer ways I know. 
 To kirk the narre, from God more f arre, 
 
 Has bene an old- said saw, 
 And he that strives to touch a star 
 
 Oft stumbles at a straw. 
 Alsoone may shepherd climb to sky 
 
 That leads in lowly dales, ~ 
 
JULY. 99 
 
 As goatherd proud, that, sitting high, 
 
 Upon the mountain sails. 
 My seely sheep like well below, 
 
 They need not melampode : 
 For they bene hale enough, I trow, 
 
 And liken their abode ; 
 But, if they with thy goats should yede, 
 
 They soon might be corrupted, 
 Or like not of the frowie feed, 
 
 Or with the weeds be glutted. 
 The hills where dwelled holy saints. 
 
 I reverence and adore : 
 Not for them self but for the saints 
 
 Which han bene dead of yore. 
 And now they bene to heaven forewent, 
 
 Their good is with them goe : 
 Their sample only to us lent, 
 
 That als we mought do so. 
 Shepherds they weren of the best, 
 
 And lived in lowly leas : 
 And, sith their souls bene now at rest, 
 
 Why done we them disease ? 
 Such one he was (as I have heard 
 
 Old Algrind often sayne) 
 That whilome was the first shepherd, 
 
 And lived with little gain : 
 And meek he was, as meek mought be, 
 
 Simple as simple sheep ; 
 
THE SHEPHERDS CALENDAR. 
 
 Humble, and like in each degree 
 
 The flock which he did keep. 
 Often he used of his keep 
 
 A sacrifice to bring, 
 Now with a kid, now with a sheep, 
 
 The altars hallowing. 
 So louted he unto his lord, 
 
 Such favour couth he find, 
 That sithens never was abhorred 
 
 The simple shepherds' kind. 
 And such, I ween, the brethren were 
 
 That came from Canaan : 
 The brethren twelve that kept yfere 
 
 The flocks of mighty Pan. 
 But nothing such thilke shepherd was 
 
 Whom Ida hill did bear, 
 That left his flock to fetch a lass, 
 
 Whose love he bought too dear, 
 For he was proud that ill was paid 
 
 (No such mought shepherds be), 
 And with lewd lust was overlaid : 
 
 Tway things doen ill agree. 
 But shepherd mought be meek and mild, 
 
 Well-eyed, as Argus was, 
 With fleshly follies undefiled, 
 
 And stout as steed of brass. 
 Sike one (said Algrind) Moses was, 
 
 That saw his Maker's face, - 
 
JULY. 101 
 
 His face, more clear than crystal glass, 
 
 And spake to him in place. 
 This had a brother (his name I knew) 
 
 The first of all his cote, 
 A shepherd true, yet not so true 
 
 As he that erst I hote. 1 ^ 
 
 Whilome all these were low and lief, 
 
 And loved their flocks to feed ; 
 They never stroven to be chief, 
 
 And simple was their weed : 
 But now (thanked be God therefore) 
 
 The world is well amend, 
 Their weeds bene not so nighly wore ; 
 
 Such sirnplesse mought them shend- : 
 They bene yclad in purple and pall, 
 
 So hath their god them blist; 
 They reign and rulen over all, 
 
 And lord it as they list : 
 Tgirt with belts of glitterand gold, 
 
 (Mought they good shepherds bene ? ) 
 Their Pan their sheep to them has sold, 
 
 I say as some have seen. 
 For Palinode (if thou him ken) 
 
 Yode late on pilgrimage fr T- 
 To Rome (if such be Rome), and then 
 
 He saw thilke misusage ; 
 For shepherds (said he) there doen lead 
 
 As Lords done other where ; 
 
102 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Their sheep han crusts, and they the bread ; 
 
 The chips, and they the cheer : 
 They han the fleece, and eke the flesh, 
 
 O,. seely sheep, the while ! ) 
 The corn is theirs, let other thresh, 
 
 Their hands they may not file. 
 They han great stores and thrifty stocks, 
 
 Great friends and feeble foes : 
 What need hem caren for their flocks, 
 
 Their boys can look to those. 
 These wizards welter in wealth's waves, 
 
 Pampered in pleasures deep : 
 They han fat kernes, and leany knaves, 
 
 Their fasting flocks to keep. 
 Sike mister men bene all misgone, 
 
 They heapen hills of wrath ; 
 Like surly shepherds han we none, 
 
 They keepen all the path. 
 Mor. Here is a great deal of good matter 
 
 Lost for lack of telling : 
 Now, sicker, I see thou doest but clatter, 
 
 Harm may come of melling. 
 Thou meddlest more than shall have thank, 
 
 To wyten shepherds wealth : 
 When folk bene fat, and riches rank, 
 
 It is a sign of health. 
 But say me, what is Algrind, he 
 
 That is so oft bynempt ? 
 
t*_ Mv.tGUw- OJUk. MMWU -w* 
 
 . JULY. 103 
 
 Thorn. He is a shepherd great in gree, */ * 
 
 But hath been long ypeut. 
 One day he sat upon a hill, 
 
 (As now thou wouldest me : 
 But I am taught, by Algrind's ill, 
 
 To love the low degree) ; 
 For sitting so with bared scalp, 
 
 An eagle soared high, 
 That, weening his white head was chalk, 
 
 A shell-fish down let fly : 
 She weened the shell- fish to have broke, 
 
 But therewith bruised his brain ; 
 So now, astonied with the stroke, 
 
 He lies in lingering pain. 
 Mor. Ah, good Algrind, his hap was ill, 
 
 But shall be better in time. 
 Now farewell, shepherd, sith this hill 
 
 Thou hast such doubt to climb. 
 
 THOMALIN'S EMBLEM. < 
 In medio virtus. 
 
 MOKRELL'S EMBLEM. 
 In summo fcelicitas. 
 
 /-' 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 A Goatherd : by goats, in Scripture, be represented the 
 wicked and reprobate, whose pastor also must needs be such. 
 Bank, is the seat of honour. 
 
104 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Straying herd, which wander out of the way of truth. 
 
 Als, for also. 
 
 Climb, spoken of Ambition. 
 
 Great climbers, according to Seneca his verse. "Decidunt 
 celsa graviore lapsu. " Mickle, much. 
 
 The sun, A reason why he refuseth to dwell on mountains, 
 because there is no shelter against the scorching sun, accord- 
 ing to the time of the year, which is the hottest month of all. 
 
 The Cap and Diadem be two signs in the Firmament, 
 through which the sun maketh his course in the month of July. 
 
 Lion, This is poetically spoken, as if the sun did hunt a Lion 
 with one dog. The meaning whereof is, that in July the sun 
 is in Leo. At which time the dog star, which is called Syrius, 
 or Canicula, reigneth with immoderate heat, causing pestilence, 
 drought, and many diseases. 
 
 Overture, an open place. The word is borrowed of the 
 French, and used in good writers. 
 
 To holden chat, to talk and prate. 
 
 A loorde was wont among the old Britons to signify a lord ; 
 and therefore the Danes, that long time usurped their tyranny 
 here in Britain, were called, for more dread than dignity, Lur- 
 danes, s. Lord Danes. At which time it is said that the in- 
 solency and pride of that nation was so outrageous in this realm 
 that if it fortuned a Briton to be going over a bridge, and saw 
 the Dane set foot upon the same, he must return back till the 
 Dane were clean over, or else abide the price of his displeasure, 
 which was no less than present death. But being afterwards 
 expelled, that name of Lurdane became so odious unto the 
 people whom they had long oppressed, that even at this day 
 they use, for more reproach, to call the quartan ague the 
 fever Lurdane. 
 
 Recks much of thy sifink, counts much of thy pains. 
 
 Witless, not understood. 
 
 St. Michel's Mount is a promontory in the west part of 
 England. 
 
 A hill, Parnassus aforesaid. 
 
 Pan, Christ. 
 
JULY. 105 
 
 Dan, one tribe is put for the whole nation, per Synecdochen. 
 
 Where Titan, the sun. Which story is to be read in Dio- 
 dorus Siculus of the hill Ida ; from whence, he saith, all night 
 time is to be seen a mighty fire, as if the sky burned, which 
 toward morning begins to gather into a round form, and thereof 
 riseth the sun, whom the poets call Titan. 
 
 The Shepherd is Endymion, whom the poets feign to have 
 been so beloved of Phoebe, s. the Moon, that he was by her 
 kept asleep in a cave by the space of thirty years, for to enjoy 
 his company. 
 
 There, that is, in Paradise, where, through error of the 
 shepherd's understanding, he saith that all shepherds did use 
 to feed their flocks, till one (that is Adam), by his folly and 
 disobedience made all the rest of his offspring be debarred and 
 shut out from thence. 
 
 Sinah, a hill in Arabia, where God appeared. 
 
 Our Lady's lower, a place of pleasure so called. 
 
 Fauns, or tft/Ir<ni*, be of poets feigned to be gods of the 
 wood. 
 
 Medway, the name of a river in Kent, which, running by 
 Rochester, meeteth with Thames, whom he calleth his elder 
 brother, both because he is greater, and also falleth sooner 
 into the sea. 
 
 Mcynt, mingled. 
 
 Mclampode and Terebinth be herbs good to cure diseased 
 goats ; of the one speaketh Mantuan, and of the other Theo- 
 critus. 
 
 Tepfj.il/0ov rpdyw ^inarov aKpe^ova- 
 
 Nig her heaven : Note the shepherd's simpleness, which 
 supposeth that from the hills is nearer way to heaven. 
 
 Levin, lightning, which he taketh for an argument to prove 
 the ni^lmess to heaven, because the lightning doth commonly 
 light on high mountains, according to the saying of the poet : 
 "Feriuutque snmmos fuliuina montes." 
 
 Lorretl, a losell. 
 
 A borrcll, a plain fellow. 
 
 fiarre, nearer. 
 
106 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Hale, for hole. 
 
 Yede, go. 
 
 Frowye, musty or mossy 
 
 Of yore, long ago. 
 
 forewent, gone afore. 
 
 The first shepherd was Abel the righteous, who (as Scripture 
 saith) bent his mind to keeping of sheep, as did his brother 
 Cain to tilling the ground. 
 
 His keep, his charge, s. his flock. 
 
 Louted, did honour and reverence. 
 
 The brethren, the twelve sons of Jacob, which were sheep- 
 masters, and lived only thereupon. 
 
 Whom Ida, Paris, which being the son of Priamus king of 
 Troy, for his mother Hecuba's dream, which, being with child 
 of him, dreamed she brought forth a firebrand, that set all the 
 tower of Ilium on fire, was cast forth on the hill Ida, where 
 being fostered of shepherds, he eke in time became a shepherd, 
 and lastly came to the knowledge of his parentage. 
 
 A lass, Helena, the wife of Menelaus king of Lacedemonia, 
 was by Venus, for the golden apple to her given, then promised 
 to Paris, who thereupon with a sort of lusty Troyans, stole 
 her out of Lacedemonia, and kept her in Troy, which was the 
 cause of the ten years' war in Troy, and the most famous city 
 of all Asia lamentably sacked and defaced. 
 
 Argus, was of the poets devised to be full of eyes, and there- 
 fore to him was committed the keeping of the transformed 
 cow, lo : so called, because that, in the print of a cow's foot 
 there is figured an I in the midst of an O. 
 
 His name, he meaneth Aaron, whose name, for more 
 decorum, the shepherd saith he hath forgot, least his re- 
 membrance and skill in antiquities of holy writ should seem to 
 xceed the meanness of the person. 
 
 Not so true, for Aaron, in the absence of Moses, started 
 aside, and committed idolatry. 
 
 In purple, spoken of the Popes and Cardinals, which use 
 uch tyrannical colours and pompous painting. 
 
 Belts, girdles. 
 
JULY. 107 
 
 Glitterand, glittering, a participle used sometimes in Chaucer, 
 but altogether in I. Gower. 
 
 Their Pan, that is, the Pope, whom they count their God 
 and greatest shepherd. 
 
 Palinode, a shepherd of whose report he seemeth to speak all 
 this. 
 
 W'izards, great learned heads. 
 
 Welter, wallow. 
 
 Kerne, a churl or farmer. 
 
 Bike mister men, such kind of men. 
 
 Surly, stately and proud. 
 
 Melting, meddling. 
 
 Sett, better. 
 
 Bynempt, named. 
 
 Gree, for degree. 
 
 Algrind, the name of a shepherd aforesaid, whose mishap he 
 alludeth to the chance that happened to the poet ^Eschylus, 
 that was brained with a shell fish. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 By this poesy Thomalin confirmeth that which in his former 
 speech by sundry reasons he had proved ; for being both him- 
 self sequestered from all ambition, and also abhorring it in 
 others of his cote, he taketh occasion to praise the mean and 
 lowly state, as that wherein is safety without fear, and quiet 
 without danger ; according to the saying of old philosophers, 
 that virtue dwelleth in the midst, being environed with two 
 contrary vices ; whereto Morrell replieth with continuance of 
 the same philosopher's opinion, that albeit all bounty dwelleth 
 in mediocrity, yet perfect felicity dwelleth in supremacy : for 
 they say; and most true it is, that happiness is placed in the 
 highest degree, so as if anything be higher or better, then that 
 straightway ceaseth to be perfect happiness. Much like to 
 that which once I heard alleged in defence of humility, out of a 
 great doctor "Suorum Christus humillimus :" which saying 
 a gentleman in the company taking at the rebound, beat back 
 again with a like saying of another doctor, as he said, " Suo- 
 rum Deus altissimus," 
 
108 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 AUGUST. 
 
 .EGLOGA OCTAVA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 In this -/Eglogue is set forth a delecta.ble controversy, made in 
 imitation of that in Theocritus : whereto also Virgil 
 fashioned his third and seventh JSglogue. They choose 
 for umpire of their strife Cuddie, a neatherd's boy ; who, 
 having ended their cause, reciteth also himself a proper 
 song, where of Colin, he saith, was author. 
 
 WILLIE. PERIGOT. CUIXDIE. 
 Wil. TELL me, Peri got, what shall be the game, 
 Wherefore with mine thou dare thy music match ? 
 Or bene thy bagpipes run far out of frame ? 
 Or hath the cramp thy joints benumbed with ache ? 
 Per. Ah ! Willie, when the heart is ill assayed, 
 How can bagpipe or joints be well apayed ? 
 Wil. What the foul evil hath thee so bestad ? 
 
 Whilome thou was peregall to the best, ' 
 And wont to make the jolly shepherds glad, 
 
 With piping and dancing did pass the rest. 
 Per. Ah ! Willie, now I have learned a new dance ; 
 My old music marred by a new mischance. 
 Wil. Mischief mought to that mischance befall, 
 
 That so hath raft us of our merriment. 
 But rede me what pain doth thee so appall ; 
 
 Or lovest thou, or bene thy younglings miswent ? 
 Per. Love hath misled both my younglings and me i 
 
AUGUST. 109 
 
 I pine for pain, and they my pain to see. 
 
 Wil. Perdie and wellaway, ill may they thrive ! 
 
 Never knew I lovers' sheep in good plight : 
 But, and if in rhymes with me thou dare strive, 
 
 Such fond fancies shall soon be put to flight. 
 Per. That shall I do, though mochell worse I fared 
 !N"ever shall be said that Perigot was dared. 
 Wil. Then lo, Perigot, the pledge which I plight, 
 
 A mazer ywrought of the maple warre, 
 Wherein is enchased many a fair sight " 
 
 Of bears and tigers that make fierce war ; 
 And o'er them spread a goodly wild vine, 
 Ent railed with a wanton ivy twine. J J 
 
 Thereby 's a lamb in the wolves jaws : 
 
 But see, how fast runneth the shepherd swain 
 
 To save the innocent from the beast's paws, 
 And here with his sheep-hook hath him slain. 
 
 Tell me, such a cup hast thou ever seen ? 
 
 Well mought it beseem any harvest queen. 
 
 Per. Thereto will I pawn yonder spotted lamb, 
 Of all my flock there's iiis sike another, 
 
 Por I brought him up without the dam : 
 But Colin Clout reft me of his brother, 
 
 That he purchased of me in the plain field : 
 
 Sore against my will was I forced to yield. 
 
 Wil. Sicker, make like account of his brother. 
 But who shall judge the wager won or lost ^ ^ 
 
110 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Per. That shall yonder herdgroom, and none other, 
 Which over the ponsse hitherward doth post. 
 
 Wil. But, for the sunbeam so sore doth us beat, 
 
 Were not better to shun the scorching heat ? 
 
 Per. Well agreed, Willie ; then sit thee down, swain t 
 
 Sike a song never heardest thou but Colin sing. 
 I Cud. Ginne when ye list, ye jolly shepherds twain : 
 ( Sike a judge as Cuddle were for a king. 
 
 Per. " It fell upon a holy eve, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, holiday ! 
 
 Per. When holy fathers went to shrieve : 
 
 Wil. Now ginneth this roundelay. 
 
 Per. Sitting upon a hill so high H 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, the high hill ! 
 
 Per. The while my flock did feed thereby : 
 
 Wil. The while the shepherd self did spill. 
 
 Per. I saw the bouncing Bellibone, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, Bonnibell ! 
 
 Per. Tripping o'er the dale alone, 
 
 Wil. She can trip it very well. 
 
 Per. Well decked in a frock of grey, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, grey is greet ! 
 
 Per. And in a kirtle of green save, 
 
 Wil. The green is for maidens meet. 
 
 Per. A chaplet on her head she wore, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, chapelet ! 
 
 Per. Of sweet violets therein was store, 
 
 Wil. She swept or than the violet. * / 
 
AUGUST. 
 
 Per. My sheep did leave their wonted food, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, seely sheep ! 
 
 Per. And gazed on her as they were wood, 
 
 Wil. Wood as he that did them keep. 
 
 Per. As the bonny lass passed by, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, bonny lass ! 
 
 Per. She roved at me with glancing eye, 
 
 Wil. As clear as the crystal glass ; 
 
 Per. All as the sunny beam so bright, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, the sunnebeam ! 
 
 Per. G-lanceth from Phoebus face forthright, 
 
 Wil. So love into thy heart did stream ; 
 
 Per. Or as the thunder cleaves the clouds, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, the thunder ! 
 
 Per. Wherein the lightsome levin shrouds, 
 
 Wil. So cleaves thy soul asunder ; 
 
 Per. Or as Dame Cynthia's silver ray, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, the moonlight ! 
 
 Per. Upon the glittering wave doth play, 
 
 Wil. Such play is a piteous plight. 
 
 Per. The glance into my heart did glide, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, the glider ! 
 
 Per. Therewith my soul was sharply gpride, 
 
 Wil. Such wounds soon wexen wider. 
 
 Per. Hasting to raunch the arrow out, 
 
 Wil. Hey, ho, Perigot ! 
 
 Per. I left the head in my hart-root, 
 
 Wil. It was a desperate shot. 
 
112 THE SHEPHEE-DS CALENDAR. 
 
 Per. There it rankleth, aye more and more, 
 Wil. Hey, ho, the arrow ! 
 Per. N"e can I find salve for my sore : 
 Wil. Love is a cureless sorrow. 
 Per. And though my bale with death I bought, 
 Wil. Hey, ho, heavy cheer ! 
 Per. Yet should thilke lass not from my thought, 
 Wil. So you may buy gold too clear. 
 Per. But whether in painful love I pine, 
 Wil. Hey, ho, pinching pain ! 
 Per. Or thrive in wealth, she shall be mine, . 
 Wil. But if thou can her obtain. 
 Per. And if for graceless grief I die,, 
 Wil. Hey, ho, graceless grief ! 
 Per. Witness, she slew me with her eye, 
 Wil. Let thy folly be the prief. 
 Per. And you, that saw it, simple sheep, 
 Wil. Hey, ho, the fair flock ! 
 Per. For prief thereof, my death shall weep, 
 Wil. And moan with many a mock. 
 Per. So learned I love on a holy eve, 
 Wil. Hey, ho, holiday ! 
 Per. That ever since my heart did grieve, 
 Wil. Now endeth our roundelay." 
 'Cud. Sicker, sike a roundle never heard I none : 
 
 Little lacketh Perigot of the best, 
 And Willie is not greatly overgone, 
 
 So weren his under- songs well addressed.. > ^ 
 
AUGUST. 113 
 
 Wil. Herdgroom, I fear me, thou have a squint eye : 
 
 Areed uprightly who has the victory e. 
 
 Cud. Faith of niy soul, I deem each have gained : 
 
 For-thy let the lamb be Willie his own : 
 And for Perigot, so well hath him pained, 
 
 To him be the wroughten mazeFlOxmer 
 Per. Perigot is well pleased with the doom, 
 Ne can Willie wile the witeless herdgroom. 
 Wil. Never dempt more right of beauty, I ween, 
 The shepherd of Ida that judged beauty's queen. 
 Cud. But tell me, shepherds, should it not yshend 
 
 Tour roundels fresh to hear a doleful verse 
 Of Rosalind (who knows not Rosalind ?) 
 
 That Colin made? y Ike can I you rehearse. 
 Per. Now say it, Cuddie, as thou art a lad : 
 With merry thing it's good to medle sad. 
 Wil. Faith of my soul, thou shalt ycrouned be 
 
 In Colin's stead, if thou this song areede ; 
 For never thing 011 earth so pleaseth me 
 
 As him to hear, or matter of his deed. 
 Cud. Then listeneth each unto my heavy lay, 
 And tune your pipes as ruthful as ye may. 
 
 Ye wasteful woods ! bear witness of my woe, 
 Wherein my plaints did oftentimes resound : 
 Ye careless birds are privy to my cries, 
 Which in your songs were wont to make a part : 
 'Thou, pleasant spring, hast lulled me oft asleep, 
 Whose streams my trickling tears did oft augment. 
 
114 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 " Resort of people doth iny griefs augment, 
 The walled towns do work my greater woe ; 
 
 r'The forest wide is fitter to resound 
 
 \The hollow echo of my careful cries : 
 I hate the house, since thence niy love did part, 
 Whose wailful want debars mine eyes from sleep. 
 
 
 " Let streams of tears supply the place of sleep ; 
 Let all, that sweet is, void : and all that may aug* 
 
 merit 
 
 My dole draw near ! more meet to wail my woe 
 Bene the wild woods, my sorrows to resound, 
 Then bed, or bower, both which 1 fill with cries, 
 r When I them see so waste, and find no part 
 
 " Of pleasure past. Here will I dwell apart 
 In gas (ful grove, therefore, till my last sleep 
 Do close mine eyes : so shall I not augment 
 With sight of such a change my restless woe. 
 Help me, ye baneful birds, whose shrieking sound 
 Is sign of dreary death, my deadly cries 
 
 " Most ruthfully to tune : And as my cries 
 (Which of my woe cannot bewray least part) 
 You hear all night, when nature craveth sleep, 
 Increase, so let your irksome yells augment. 
 Thus, all the night in plaints, the day in woe, 
 I vowed have to waste, till safe and sound 
 
AUGUST. 115 
 
 " She home return, whose voice's silver sound 
 To cheerful songs can change iny cheerless cries. 
 Hence with the nightingale will I take part, 
 That blessed bird, that spends her time of sleep 
 In songs and plaintive pleas, the more t' augment 
 The memory of his misdeed that bred her woe. 
 
 " And you that feel no woe, 
 
 Whenas the sound 
 Of these my nightly cries 
 
 Ye hear apart, 
 Let break your sounder sleep, 
 
 And pity augment." 
 
 Per. Colin, Colin. ! tlio shepherds' joy, 
 How I admire each turning of thy verse ! 
 
 And Cuddie, fresh Cuddie, the liefest boy, 
 How dolefully his dole thou didst rehearse ! 
 
 Cud. Then blow your pipes, shepherds, till you be at 
 home ; 
 
 The night nigheth fast, it's time to be gone. 
 
 PEKJGOT HIS EMBLEM. 
 
 Vincenti gloria victi. 
 
 WILLIE'S EMBLEM. 
 
 Vinto non vitto. 
 
 CUDDIE'S EMBLEM. 
 Felice chi puo. 
 
116 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 GLOSSAKY. 
 Bestad, disposed, ordered. 
 Peregall, equal. 
 WJiilome, once. 
 Reft, bereft, deprived. 
 Miswent, gone astray. 
 lU may, according to Virgil. 
 
 " Infelix o semper ovis pecus." 
 
 A mazer : So also do Theocritus and Virgil feign pledges of 
 their strife. 
 
 Enchased, engraved. Such pretty descriptions everywhere 
 useth Theocritus to bring in his Idyllia. For which special 
 cause, indeed, he by that name termeth his ^Eglogues ; for 
 Idyllion in Greek signifieth the shape or picture of anything, 
 whereof kis book is full. And not, as I have heard some fondly 
 guess, that they be called not Idyliia, but Hsedilia, of the goat- 
 herds in them. 
 
 Entrailed, wrought between. 
 
 Harvest Queen, the manner of country folk in harvest-time. 
 
 Pousse, Pease. 
 
 It fell upon : Perigot maketh all his song in praise of his 
 love, to whom Willie answereth every underverse. By Perigot 
 who is meant, I cannot uprightly say ; but if it be who is sup- 
 posed, his love, she deserveth no less praise than he giveth her. 
 
 Greete, weeping and complaint. 
 
 Chaplet, a kind of garland like a crown. 
 
 Leven, lightning. 
 
 Cynthia-, was said to be the moon. 
 
 Gride, pierced. 
 
 But if, not unless. 
 
 Squint eye, partial judgment. 
 
 Each have, so saith Virgil, 
 
 " Et vitula tu dignus, et hie," &c. 
 
 So by interchange of gifts Cuddie pleaseth both parties. 
 
AUGUST. 117 
 
 Doom, judgment. 
 Dempt, for deemed, judged. 
 Wite the witeless, blame the blameless. 
 The shepherd of Ida, was said to be Paris. 
 Beauty's Queen, Venus, to whom Paris adjudged the golden 
 apple as the price of her beauty. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 The meaning hereof is very ambiguous : for Perigot by his 
 poesy claiming the conquest, and Willie not yielding, Cud die 
 the arbiter of their cause, and patron of his own, seemeth to 
 challenge it as his due, saying, that he is happy which can, so 
 abruptly ending : but he meaneth either him that can win 
 the best, or moderate himself being best, and leave off with 
 the best. 
 
118 
 
 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 .EGLOGA NONA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 Herein Diggon Davie is devised to be a shepherd that, in hope 
 of more gain, drove his sheep into a far country. The 
 abuses whereof, and loose living of Popish prelates, by 
 occasion of Hobbinol's demand, he discourseth at large. 
 
 HOBBINOL. DIGGON DAVIE. 
 
 Hob. DIGGON DAVIE ! I bid her good day; 
 Or Diggon her is, or I missay. 
 
 Dig. Her was her, while it was daylight, 
 But now her is a most wretched wight : 
 For day, that was, is wightly past, 
 And now at erst, the dark night doth hast. 
 
 Hob. Diggon, areed who has thee so dight P 
 Never I wist thee in so poor a plight. 
 "Where is the fair flock thou was wont to lead ? 
 Or feene they chaffred, or at mischief dead ? 
 
 Dig. Ah ! for love of that is to thee most leefe, 
 Hobbinol, I pray thee, gall not my old grief : 
 Sike question rippeth up cause of new woe, 
 For one, opened, mote unfold many moe. 
 
 Hob. Nay, but sorrow close shrouded in heart, 
 I know, to keep is a burdenous smart : 
 Each thing imparted is more eath to bear : 
 "When the rain 's fallen, the clouds wexen clear. \ \ 
 
SEPTEMBER. 119 
 
 And now, sithence I saw thy head last, 
 Thrice three moons bene fully spent and past ; 
 Since when thou hast measured much ground, 
 And wandered, I ween, about the world round, 
 So as thou can many things relate ; 
 But tell me first of thy flock's estate. 
 
 Dig. My sheep beue wasted (wae is me there- 
 
 fore !) ; 
 
 The jolly shepherd that was of yore 
 Is now nor jolly nor shepherd more. 
 In foreign coasts men said was plenty >; 
 And so there is, but all of misery : 
 I deinpt there much to have eeked my store, 
 But such eeking hath made my heart sore. 
 In tho countries, whereas I have been, 
 No being for those that truly mean ; 
 But for such, as of guile maken gain, 
 No such country as there to remain; 
 They setten to sale their shops of shame, 
 And maken a mart of their good name : 
 The shepherds there robben one another, 
 And layeii baits to beguile her brother ; 
 Or they will buy his sheep out of the cote, 
 Or they will car veil the shepherd's throat. 
 The shepherd's swain you cannot well ken, 
 But it be by his pride, from other men : 
 They looken big as bulls that bene bate, 
 And bearen the crag so stiff and so state, U^' 
 
120 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 As cock on his dunghill crowing cranck. 
 
 Sob. Diggon, I am so stiff and so stanek, 
 That uneth may I stand any more : 
 And now the western wind bloweth sore, 
 That now is in his chief sovereignty, 
 Beating the withered leaf from the tree, 
 Sit we down here under the hill ; 
 Tho may we talk and tellen our fill, 
 And make a mock at the blustering blast. 
 Now say on, Diggon, whatever thou hast. 
 
 Dig. Hobbin, ah Hobbin, I curse the stound 
 That ever I cast to have lorne this ground : 
 Wellaway the while I was so fond 
 To leave the good that I had in hond, 
 In hope of better that was uncouth ! 
 So lost the dog the flesh in his mouth. 
 My seely sheep (ah, seely sheep !) 
 That here by there I whilome used to keep 
 All were they lusty as thou didst see, 
 Bene all starved with pine and penury : 
 Hardly myself escaped thilke x>ain, 
 Driven for need to come homo again. 
 
 Hob. Ah fon ! now by thy loss art taught,. 
 That seldom change the better brought : 
 Content who lives with tried state 
 Need fear no change of frowning fate ; 
 But who will seek for unknown gain, 
 Oft lives by loss, ancl leaves with pain. -^^\ 
 
SEPTEMBER. 121 
 
 Dig. I wote ne, Hobbin, how I was bewitched 
 With vain desire and hope to be enriched ; 
 But, sicker, so it is, as the bright star 
 Seemeth ay greater when it is far, 
 I thought the soil would have made me rich, 
 But now I wot it is nothing sich ; 
 For either the shepherds bone idle and still, 
 And led of their sheep what way they will, 
 Or they bene false, and full of covetise, 
 And casten to compass many wrong emprise : 
 But the more bene fraught with fraud and spite, 
 Ne in good nor goodness taken delight; ** *S 
 But kindle coals of conteck and ire, 
 Wherewith they set all the world on fire-; 
 Which when they thinken again to quench, 
 With holy water they doen hem all drench. 
 They say they con to heaven the highway, 
 But, by my soul, 1 dare undersay 
 They never set foot in that same trode, 
 But balk the right way, and strayen abroad. 
 They boast they han the devil at commaund, 
 But ask hem therefore what they han paund : 
 Marry ! that great Pan bought with dear borrow, 
 To quite it from the black bower of sorrow. 
 But they han sold thilke same long ago, 
 For-thy woulden draw with hem many moe. 
 But let hem gang alone a God's name ; 
 As they han brewed, so let hem bear blame, j ^ 
 
122 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Hob. Diggon, I pray thee, speak not so dirke ; 
 Such mister saying me seemetli to inirke. 
 
 Dig. Then, plainly to speak of shepherds most 
 
 what, 
 
 Bad is the best (this English is flat). 
 Their ill haviour gars men missay 
 Both of their doctrine, and of their f aye. 
 They sayne the world is much waur then it wont, 
 All for her shepherds bene beastly and blont : 
 Other sayne, but how truly I note, 
 All for thy holdeii shame of their cote : 
 Some stick not to say (hot coal on her tongue !) 
 That sike mischief graseth hem among, 
 All for they casten too much of world's care, 
 To deck her dame, and enrich her hair ; 
 For such encheason, if you go nigh, 
 Few chimneys reeking you shall espie : 
 The fat ox, that wont ligge in the stall, 
 Is now fast stalled in her crumenall. 
 Thus chatten the people in their steads, 
 Tlike as a monster of many heads ; 
 But they that shooten nearest the prick 
 Sayne, other the fat from their beards doen lick : 
 For big bulls of Basan brace hem about, 
 That with their horns butteii the more stout; 
 But the lean souls treaden under foot, 
 And to seeke redress mought little boot; 
 For liker bene they to pluck away more ~ *fc 
 
SEPTEMBER. 123 
 
 Than ought of the gotten good to restore : 
 For they bene like foul quagmires overgrast. 
 That, if thy galage once sticketh fast, 
 The more to wind it out thou doest swink, 
 Thou mought aye deeper and deeper sink* 
 Yet better leave off with a little loss 
 Than by much wrestling to lose the gross. 
 
 Hob. Now, Diggon, I see thou speakest too 
 
 plain ; 
 
 Better it were a little to feign, 
 And cleanly cover that cannot be cured : 
 Such ill as is forced mought needs be endured. 
 But of sike pastors how done the flocks creep ? 
 
 Dig. Sike as the shepherds, sike bene her sheep, 
 For they nill listen to the shepherd's voice, 
 But-if he call hem at their good choice : 
 They wander at will and stay at pleasure, 
 And to their folds yeed at their own leisure. 
 But they had be better come at their call ; 
 For many han into mischief fall, 
 And bene of ravenous wolves yrent, 
 All for they nould be buxom and bent. 
 
 Hob. Fie on thee, Diggon, and all thy fonl 
 
 leasing ! 
 
 Well is known that sith the Saxon king 
 Never was waif seen, many nor some, 
 
 Nor in all Kent, nor in Christendom : 
 
 "*4 
 
 But the fewer wolves (the sooth to say no) P 1 
 
124 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 The more bene the foxes that here remain. 
 
 Dig. Yes, but they gang in more secret wise, 
 And with sheep's clothing doen hem disguise. 
 They walk not widely as they were wont, 
 For fear of rangers and the great hunt, 
 But privily prowling to and fro, 
 Enaunter they mought be inly know. 
 
 Hob. Or privy or pert if any bene, 
 We have great bandogs will tear their skin. 
 
 Dig. Indeed, thy Ball is a bold big cur, 
 And could make a jolly hole in their fur : 
 But not good dogs hem needeth to chase, 
 But heedy shepherds to discern their face ; 
 For all their craft is in their countenance, 
 They bene so grave and full of maintenance. 
 But shall I tell thee what myself know 
 Chanced to Roffinn not long ago ? 
 
 Hob. Say it out, Diggon, whatever it hight, 
 For not but well mought him betight : 
 He is so meek, wise, and merciable, 
 And with his word his work is convenabl \ 
 Colin Clout, I ween, be his self boy 
 (Ah, for Colin, he whilome my joy !) ; 
 Shepherds sich, God mought us many send, 
 That doen so carefully their flocks tend. 
 
 Dig. Thilke same shepherd mought I well mark, 
 He has a dog to bite or to bark ; 
 Never had shepherd so keen a cur ? 
 
SEPTEMBER. 125 
 
 That waketli and if but a leaf stir. 
 
 Whilome there wormed a wicked wolf, 
 
 That with many a lamb had glutted his gulf, 
 
 And ever at night wont to repair 
 
 Unto the flock, when the welkin shone fair, 
 
 Yclad in clothing of seely sheep, 
 
 When the good old man used to sleep. 
 
 Tho at midnight he would bark and bawl 
 
 (For he had eft learned a curres call), 
 
 As if a wolf were among the sheep : 
 
 With that the shepherd would break his sleep, 
 
 And send out Lowder (for so his dog hote) 
 
 To range the fields with wide open throat: 
 
 Tho, whenas Lowder was far away, 
 
 This wolfish sheep would catchen his prey, 
 
 A lamb, or a kid, or a weanell wast ; 
 
 With that to the wood would he speed him fast. 
 
 Long time he used this slippery prank, 
 
 Ere Roify could for his labour him thank. 
 
 At end tho shepherd his practice spied 
 
 (For Roffy is wise, and as Argus eyed), 
 
 And when at even he came to the flock, 
 
 Fast in their folds he did them lock,- 
 
 And took out the wolf in his counterfeit coat, 
 
 And let out the sheep's blood at his throat. 
 
 Hob. Marry, Diggon, what should him affray 
 To take his own wherever it lay ? ^ 
 
126 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 For had his wizen been a little widder, 
 
 He would have devoured both hidder and shidder. 
 
 Dig. Mischief light on him, and God's great 
 
 curse ! 
 
 Too good for him had been a great deal worse ; 
 For it was a perilous beast above all, 
 And eke had he conned the shepherd's call, 
 And oft in the night caine to the sheepcote, 
 And called Lowder, with a hollow throat, 
 As if it the old man's self had been : 
 The dog his master's voice did it ween ; 
 Yet half in doubt he opened the door, 
 And ran out, as he was wont of yore. 
 No sooner was out, but, swifter than thought, 
 Fast by the hide the wolf Low&er caught ; 
 And had not Hoify run to the steven, 
 Lowder had been slain thilke same even. 
 
 Hob. God shield, man, he should so ill have 
 
 thrive, 
 
 All for he did his devoir belive ! 
 If site beiie wolves, as thou hast told, 
 How mought we, Diggon, hem behold ? 
 
 Dig. How, but with heed and watchfulness, 
 Forstallen hem of their wiliness : 
 For-thy with shepherds sits not play, f\^ 
 
SEPTEMBER. 127 
 
 Or sleep, as some doen, all the long day ; 
 
 But ever liggoii in watch and ward. 
 
 From sudden force their flocks for to guard. 
 
 Hob. Ah, Diggon, thilke same rule were too 
 
 straight, 
 
 All the cold season to watch and wait ; 
 We bene of flesh, men as other be, 
 Why should w"e be bound to such miseree ? 
 Whatever thing lacketh changeable rest, 
 Mought needs decay when it is at best. 
 
 Dig. All, but, Hobbinol, all this long tale 
 Nought easeth the care that dotli me f orhale : lu 1 * ^ 
 What shall I do ? what way shall I wend, 
 My piteous plight and loss to amend ? 
 Ah ! good Hebbinol, mought I thee pray 
 Of aid or counsel in my decay. 
 
 Hob. Now by iny soul, Diggon, I lament 
 The hapless mischief that has thee hent ; 
 Natheless thou seest my lowly sail, 
 That f roward fortune doth ever a vale : 
 But were Hobbinol as God mought please, 
 Diggon should soon find favour and ease : 
 But if to my cottage thou wilt resort, 
 So as I can I will thee comfort ; 
 There mayst thou ligge in a vetchy bed, 
 Till fairer fortune show forth her head. 
 
THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR. 
 
 Dig. Ah, Hobbinol ! God raought it thee 
 
 requite ; 
 Diggon on few such friends did ever light. 
 
 DIGGON'S EMBLEM. 
 Inopem me copia fecit. 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 The dialect and phrase of speech in this dialogue seemeth 
 somewhat to differ from the common. The cause whereof is sup- 
 posed to be by occasion of the party herein meant, who being 
 very friendly to the author hereof, had been long in foreign 
 countries, and there seen many disorders, which he here re- 
 counteth to Hobbinol. 
 
 Bid her, Bid good morrow. For to bid is to pray, whereof 
 cometh beads for prayers, and so they say, To bid his beads, s. 
 to say his prayers. 
 
 Wightly, quickly, or suddenly. 
 
 Ckaffred, sold. 
 
 Dead at mischief, an unusual speech, but much usurped of 
 Lydgate, and sometimes of Chaucer. 
 
 Leef, dear. 
 
 Ethe, easy. 
 
 Thrice three moons') nine months. 
 
 Measured, for travelled. 
 
 Woe, woe, northernly. 
 
 Eeked, increased. 
 
 Carven, cut. 
 
 Ren< know. 
 
 Crag, neck. 
 
 State, stoutly. 
 
 Stanck, weary or faint. 
 
SEPTEMBER 
 
 s 
 
 . {Tm T 
 
 123 
 
 And now : he applietli it to the time of the' year, which is 
 in the end of harvest, which they call the fall of the leaf; 
 at which time the western wind beareth most sway. 
 
 A mock, imitating Horace, " Dcbcs ludibrium ventis." 
 
 Lome, left. 
 
 Soote, sweet. 
 
 Uncouth, unknown. 
 
 Hereby there, here and there. 
 
 As the bright, translated out of Mantuan. 
 
 Emprise, for enterprise. Per Syncopen. 
 
 Conteck, strife. 
 
 Trode, path. 
 
 Marry that, that is, their souls, which by popish exorcisms 
 and practices they damn to hell. 
 
 Black, hell. 
 
 Gang, go. 
 
 Mister, manner. 
 
 Mir fee, obscure. 
 
 Waur, worse. 
 
 Crumenall, purse. 
 
 Brace, compass. 
 
 Encheason, occasion. 
 
 Overgrast, overgrown with grass. 
 
 Galage, shoe. 
 
 The gross, the whole. 
 
 Buxom and bent, meek and obedient. 
 
 Saxon Kiny, King Edgar, that reigned here in Britain, in the 
 year of our Lord 957 975, which king caused all the wolves, 
 whereof then was store in this country, by a proper policy to be 
 destroyed. So as never since that time there have been wolves 
 here found, unless they were brought from other countries. 
 And, therefore, Hobbinol rebuketh him of untruth, for saying 
 that there be wolves in England. 
 
 Nor in Christendom : This saying seemeth to be strange and 
 unreasonable ; but, indeed, it wa,s wont to be an old proverb 
 and common phrase. The original whereof was, for that most 
 part of England in the reign of King Ethelbert was christened, 
 
130 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Kent only excepted, which remained long after in misbelief 
 and unchristened ; so that Kent was counted no part of 
 Christendom. 
 
 Great hunt, executing of laws and justice. 
 
 Enavntcr, least that. 
 
 Inly, inwardly ; aforesaid. 
 
 Privily or pert, openly, saith Chaucer. 
 
 Roffi/, the name of a shepherd in Marot his ^Eglogue of 
 Robin and the king, whom he here commendetli for great care 
 and wise governance of his flock. 
 
 Colin Clout: Now I think no man doubteth but by Colin is 
 meant the author self, whose especial good friend Hobbinol 
 saith he is, or, more rightly, Master Gabriel Harvey, of whose 
 special commendation, as well in poetry as rhetoric and other 
 choice learning, we have lately had a sufficient trial in divers of 
 his works, but specially in his " Musarum Lachrymse," and his 
 late " Gratulationum Valdinensium," which book, in the pro- 
 gress at Audley in Essex, he dedicated in writing to her 
 Majesty, afterwards presenting the same in print to her 
 Highness at the worshipful Master Capell's in Hertfordshire. 
 Besides other his sundry most rare and very notable writings, 
 partly under unknown titles, and partly under counterfeit 
 names, as his " Tyrannomastix," his " Ode Natalitia," his 
 "Rameidos," and especially that part of ' * Philomusus, " his 
 divine " Anticosmopolita," and divers other of like importance. 
 As also, by the names of other shepherds, he covereth the 
 persons of divers other his familiar friends and best ac- 
 quaintances. 
 
 This tale of Roffy seemeth to colour some particular action 
 of his ; but what I certainly know not. 
 Wormed, haunted. 
 Welkin, sky; aforesaid. 
 A ivcancll waste, a weaned youngling. 
 Hiddcr and shidder, he and she, male and female. 
 Steven, noise. 
 Belive, quickly. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 131 
 
 What c.ucr, Ovid's verse translated , 
 
 " Quod caret alterna reqtiie durabile lion est." 
 Forehaile, draw or distress. 
 Vetchie, of peas straw. 
 
 This is the saying of Narcissus in Ovid. For when the 
 foolish boy, by beholding his face in the brook, fell in love with 
 his own likeness, and was not able to content himself with much 
 looking thereon, he cried out that plenty made him poor, 
 meaning that much gazing had bereft him of sense. But our 
 Diggon useth it to other purpose, as who that, by trial of many 
 ways, had found the worst, and through great plenty was fallen 
 into great penury. This poesy I know to have been much 
 used of the author, and to such like effect as first Narcissus 
 spake it. 
 
132 
 
 OCTOBER. 
 
 JSGLOGA DECIMA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 In Cuddle is set out the perfect pattern of a poet, which 
 finding no maintenance of his state and studies, complaineth 
 of the contempt of poetry, and the causes thereof ; specially 
 having been in all ages, and even amongst the most bar- 
 barous, always of singular account and honour, and being, 
 indeed, so worthy and commendable an art ; or rather no 
 art, but a Divine gift and heavenly instinct not to be 
 gotten by labour and learning, but adorned with both, and 
 poured into the wit by a certain ' J^ov-e^a a>wr-gmd celestial 
 inspiration, as the author hereof elsewhere at large dis- 
 coxirseth in his book called "The English Poet, ' which 
 book being lately come to my hands, I mind also, by God's 
 grace, upon further advisement, to publish. 
 
 PIERS. CUDDIE. 
 
 Piers. CTJDDIE, for shame ! hold up thy heavy 
 head, 
 
 And let us cast with what deliglit to chase 
 
 And weary this long* lingering Phcebus^iftice. 
 Whilom thou wont the shepherds' lads to lead 
 
 In rhymes, in riddles, and in bidding base ; 
 Now they in thee, and thou in sleep art dead. 
 
 Cud. Piers, I have piped erst so long wit)} pain, 
 That all mine oaten reeds bene rent and wore, 
 And my poor Muse hath spent her spared store, 
 Yet little good hath got, and much less 
 
OCTOBER. 133 
 
 Such pleasance makes the grasshopper so poor, 
 And ligge so laid, when winter doth her strain. 
 
 The dapper ditties, that I wont devise 
 
 To feed youth's fancy, and the flocking fry, 
 Delighten much ; what I the bet for- thy ? 
 
 They han the pleasure, I a slender prize ; 
 I beat the bush, the birds to them do fly : 
 
 What good thereof to Cuddie can arise? 
 
 Piers. Cuddie, the praise is better than the price, 
 
 The glory eke much greater than the gain : 
 
 Oh, what an honour is it to restrain 
 The lust of lawless youth with good device, 
 
 Or prick them forth with pleasance of thy vein, 
 Whereto thou list their trained wills entice ! 
 
 Soon as thou ginst to set thy notes in frame, 
 Oh, how the rural routs to thee do cleave ! 
 Seemeth thou dost their soul of sense bereave ; 
 
 All as the shepherd that did fetch his daine 
 From Pluto's baleful bower withouten leave, 
 
 His music's might* the hellish hound did tame. 
 
 Cud. So praisen babes the peacock's spotted train, 
 - And wonder at bright Argus' blazing eye ; 
 
 But who rewards him ere the more for-thy, 
 Or feeds him once the fuller by a grain ? 
 
 Sike praise is sinoke, that sheddeth in the sky ; 
 Sike words bone wind, and wasten soon in vain. 
 
134 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Piers. Abandon, then, the base and viler clown; 
 
 Lift np thyself out of the lowly dust, 
 
 And sing of bloody Mars, of wars, of giusts ; 
 Turn thee to those that wield the awful crown, 
 
 To doubted knights, whose woundless armour rusts, 
 And helms unbruised wexen daily brown. 
 
 There may thy Muse display her fluttering wingr 
 And stretch herself at large from east to west ; 
 Whither thou list in fair Elisa rest, 
 
 Or, if thee please in bigger notes to sing, 
 Advance the worthy whom she loveth best, 
 
 That first the white bear to the stake did bring. 
 
 And, when the stubborn stroke of stronger stouiids 
 'Has somewhat slacked the tenor of thy string, " 
 Of love and lustihead tho rnayst thou sing, 
 
 And carol loud, and lead the Millers' round, 
 All were Elisa one of thilk same ring; 
 
 So mought onr Cuddie's name to heaven sound. 
 
 Cud. Indeed the iioraish Tityrus, I hear, 
 Through his Mecsenas left his oaten reed, 
 Whereon he erst had taught his flocks to feed, 
 
 And laboured lands to yield the timely ear, 
 And eft did sing of wars and deadly drede, 
 
 So as the heavens did quake his verse to hear. 
 
 But ah ! Mecamas is yclad in elay, 
 And great Augustus long ago is dead, 
 
135 
 
 And all the. worthies Siggeu wrapped in lead 
 That matter made; for poeis on to play : 
 
 For ever, who in derring-do wore dread. 
 The lofty verse of hem was loved aye. 
 
 But after virtue gaii for age to stoop, 
 
 And 7m'!riy manhood : lied of ense, 
 
 The vaunting poets found nought worth a pease, 
 
 To put in pre*K*e .'.mong the learned troop: 
 
 Tlio gaii the streams of flowing wits to cm --. 
 
 And sun-bright honour penned in shameful coop, 
 
 that any buds of poesy. 
 Yet, of the old stock, gan to shoot again, 
 Or it men's follies mote be forced to feign. 
 
 And roll with rest in rhymes of ribaldry , 
 Or, as it sprang, it wither must again : 
 
 Tom Piper makes us better melody. 
 
 Piers. O peerless poesy ! where is then thy place ? 
 
 If not in prince's palace thou do sit 
 
 (And yet is prince's palace the most fit), 
 Ne breast of baser birth doth thee embrace, 
 
 Then make thee wings of thine aspiring wit, 
 And, whence thou cain'st, fly back to heaven apace. 
 
 Cud. Ah, Percy ! it is all too weak and wan, 
 So high to soar and make so large a flight ; 
 Her pieced pinions beue not so in plight : 
 For Colin fits such famous flight to scan ; 
 
136 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 He, were he not with love so ill bedight, 
 Would mount as high, and sing as sweet as 
 Swan. 
 
 Piers. Ah, f on ! for love does teach him climb so 
 
 high. 
 Am"' lifts hhn np out of the loathsome mire : 
 
 eli immortal mirror, as he doth admire. 
 Would raise one's mind above the starry sky, 
 
 And cause a caitiff courage to aspire ; 
 For lofty love doth loath a lowly eye. 
 
 Cud. All otherwise the stale of poet stands; 
 
 For lordly love is such a tyrant fell, 
 
 That where he rules all power he doth expel; 
 The vaunted verse a vacant head demands, 
 
 !N"e wont with crabbed care the muses dwell : 
 Unwisely weaves that takes two webs in hands. 
 
 Whoever casts to compass weighty prize, 
 
 And thinks to throw out thundering words of 
 
 threatv. 
 Let pour in lavish ciipss and thrifty bits of meat, 
 
 For Bacchus' fruit is friend to Phcebus wise ; 
 And when with wine the brain begins to sweat 
 
 The numbers flow as fast as spring doth rise. 
 
 Thou kenst not, Percy, how the rhyme should 
 
 rage, 
 Oh ! if my temples were distained with wine, 
 
OCTOBER. 137 
 
 And girt in garlands of wild ivy twine, 
 How I could rear the muse on stately stage; 
 
 And teach her tread aloft in buskin fine, 
 With quaint Bellona in her equipage ! 
 
 But ah ! my courage cools ere it be warm : 
 For-thy content us in this humble shade, 
 Where no such troublous tides han us assayed ; 
 
 Here we our slender pipes may safely charm. 
 Piers. And, when my goats shall han their bellies 
 laid, 
 
 Onddie shall have a kid to store his farm, 
 
 CTTDDIE'S EMBLEM. 
 Agitante calescimus illo, etc. 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 This yEglogue is made in imitation of Theocritus his Sixteenth 
 Idilion, wherein he reproved the tyrant Hero of Syracuse for 
 his niggardness towards poets, in whom is the power to make 
 men immortal for their good deeds, or shameful for their 
 naughty life. And the like also is in Mantuan. The styte 
 hereof, as also that in Theocritus, is more lofty than the rest, 
 and applied to the height of poetical wit. 
 
 Cuddie : I doubt whether by Caddie be specified the author 
 self, or some other. For in the eighth JEglogue the same person 
 was brought in, singing a caution of Colin 's making, as h 
 saith. So that some doubt that the persons be different. 
 
 Whilom, sometime. 
 
 Oaten reeds, Avena. 
 
 Ligge so laid, lie so faint and unlusty. 
 
138 THE SHEPHERDfeT CALENDAR. 
 
 Dapper, pretty. 
 
 Fry is a bold metaphor, forced from the spawning fishes; 
 for the multitude of young fish be called the fry. 
 
 To restrain : This place seemeth to conspire with Plato, 
 who in his first book de Legibus saith, that the first invention 
 of poetry was of very virtuous intent. For at what time an in- 
 finite number of youth usually came to their great solemn 
 feasts called Panegyrica, which they used every five years to 
 hold, some learned man, being more able than the rest for 
 special gifts of wit and music, would take upon him to sing 
 fine verses to the people, in praise either of virtue, or of victory, 
 or of immortality, or such like. At whose wonderful gift all 
 men being astonished, and as it were ravished with delight, 
 thinking (as it was indeed) that he was inspired from above, 
 called him Vatem : which kind of men afterwards framing 
 their verses to lighter music (as of music be many kinds, some 
 sadder, some lighter, some martial, some heroical, and so di- 
 versely eke affect the minds of men), found out lighter matter 
 of poesy also, some playing with love, some scorning at men's 
 fashions, some poured out in pleasures : and so were called 
 Poets or Makers. 
 
 Sense bereave : What the secret working of music is in the 
 minds of men, as- well appeareth hereby, that some of the an- 
 cient philosophers, and those the most wise, as Plato and Py- 
 thagoras", held for opinion that the mind was made of a certain 
 harmony and musical numbers, for the great compassion and 
 likeness of affection in the one and in the other, as also by that 
 memorable history of Alexander : to whom whenas Timotheus 
 the great musician played the Phrygian melody, it is said that 
 lie was distraught with such unwonted fury, that straightway 
 rising from the table in great rage, he caused himself to be 
 armed, as ready to go to war (for that music is very warlike). 
 And immediately whenas the musician changed his stroke into 
 the Lydian and Ionic harmony, he was so far from warring" 
 that he sat as still as if he had been in matters of counsel. 
 Such might is in music. Wherefore Plato and Aristotle forbid 
 the Arcadian melody from children and youth. For that being 
 
OCTOBER. 139 
 
 altogeth jr on the fifth and seventh tone, it is of great force to 
 mollify and quench the kindly courage, which useth to burn in 
 young breasts. So that it is not incredible which the poet here 
 saith, that music can bereave the soul of sense. 
 
 The shepherd that, Orpheus : of whom is said, that by his 
 excellent skill in music and poetry he recovered his wife Eu- 
 rydice from hell. 
 
 Argus eyes : Of Argus is before said, that Juno to him com- 
 mitted her husband Jupiter his Paragon lo, because he had an 
 hundred eyes ; but afterwards Mercury, with his music lulling 
 Argus asleep, slew him and brought lo away, whose eyes it is 
 aid that Juno, for his eternal memory, placed in her bird the 
 peacock's tail ; for those coloured spots indeed resemble eyes. 
 
 Woundless armour, unwounded in war, do rust through 
 long peace. 
 
 Display, a poetical metaphor, whereof the meaning is, that 
 if the poet list show his skill in matter of more dignity than is 
 the homely ./Eglogue, good occasion is him offered of higher 
 vein and more heroical argument in the person of our most 
 gracious sovereign, whom (as before) he calleth Elisa. Or if 
 matter of knighthood and chivalry please him better, that 
 there be many noble and valiant men that are both worthy of 
 his pain in their deserved praises, and also favourers of his 
 skill and faculty. 
 
 The worthy, he meaneth (as I guess) the most honourable 
 and renowned the Earl of Leicester, whom by his cognisance 
 (although the same be also proper to other), rather than by 
 his name he bewray eth, being not likely that the names of 
 worldly princes be known to country clown. 
 
 Slack, that is when thou changest thy verse from stately dis- 
 course to matter of more pleasance and delight. 
 
 The Millers', a kind of dance. 
 
 Ring, company of dancers. 
 
 The Romish Tityrus, well known to be Virgil, who by 
 Mecsenas' means was brought into the favour of the Emperor 
 Augustus, and by him moved to write in loftier kind than he 
 erst had done. 
 
140 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Whereon, in the^e three verses are the three several works 
 of Virgil intended, for in teaching his flocks to feed is meant 
 his ^glogues. In labouring of lands is his Bucolics. In 
 singing of wars and deadly drede is his divine JEneis figured. 
 
 In derring do, in manhood and chivalry. 
 
 For ever : He showeth the cause why poets were wont to be 
 had in such honour of noble men, that is, that by them their 
 worthiness and valour should through their famous poesies 
 be commended to all posterities. Wherefore it is said, that 
 Achilles had never been so famous as he is but for Homer's 
 immortal verses, which is the only advantage which he had of 
 Hector. And also that Alexander the Great, coming to his 
 tomb in Sigeus, with natural tears blessed him, that ever was 
 his hap to be honoured with so excellent a poet's work, as so 
 renowned and ennobled only by his means. Which being 
 declared in a most eloquent oration of Tally's, is of Petrarch 
 no less worthily set forth in a sonnet. 
 
 " Giunto Alessandro a la famosa tomba 
 Del fero Achille, sospirando disse : 
 O fortunate, clie si chiara troniba. Trovasti," &e. 
 
 And that such account hath been always made of poets, 
 as well showeth this, that the worthy Scipio, in all his wars 
 against Carthage and Numantia, had evermore in his company, 
 and that in a most familiar sort, the good old poet Ennius ; as 
 also that Alexander destroying Thebes, when he was informed 
 that the famous lyric poet Pindarus was born in that city, not 
 only commanded straitly that no man should, upon pain of 
 death, do any violence to that house, by fire or otherwise, but 
 also specially spared most, and some highly rewarded, that were 
 of his kin. So favoured he the only mime of a poet, which praise 
 otherwise was in the same man no less famous, that when he 
 came to ransacking of King Darius' coffers, whom he lately 
 had overthrown, he found in a little coffer of silver the two 
 books of Homer's works, as laid up there for special jewels and 
 riches, which he taking thence, put one of them daily in his 
 bosom, and the other every night laid under his pillow. Such 
 honour have poets always found in the sight of princes and 
 
OCTOBER. 141 
 
 noble men, which this author here very well showefch, as else- 
 where more notably. 
 
 But after, he showeth the cause of contempt of poetry to be 
 idleness and baseness of mind. 
 
 Pent, shut up in sloth, as in a coop or cage. 
 
 Tom Piper, an ironical sarcasmus, spoken in derision of these 
 rude wits, which make more account of a rhyming ribald 
 than of skill grounded upon learning and judgment. 
 
 Ne breast, the meaner sort of men. 
 
 Her pieced piniom, unperfect skill : spoken with humble 
 modesty. 
 
 As soote as Swan : The comparison seemeth to be strange, 
 for the swan hath ever won small commendation for her 
 sweet singing ; but it is said of the learned that the swan a 
 little before her death singeth most pleasantly, as prophesying 
 by a secret instinct her near destiny. As well saith the poet 
 elsewhere in one of his sonnets : 
 
 " The silver swan doth sing before her dying day, 
 As she that feels the deep delight that is in death," &c. 
 
 Immortal mirror, Beauty, which is an excellent object 
 of poetical spirits, as appeareth by the worthy Petrarch, 
 
 saying, 
 
 " Fiorir faceva il inio rtebile ingegno, 
 
 A la suaombni, e crescer ne gli aflanni." 
 
 A caitiff courage, a base and abject mind. 
 
 For lofty love, I think this playing with the letter to be 
 rather a fault than a figure, as well in our English tongue as 
 it hath been in the Latin called Cacozelon. 
 
 A vacant, imitateth Mantuaii's saying, "vacuum curis 
 divina cerebrum Poscit. " 
 
 Lavish caps, resembleth the common verse, " Fcecundi 
 calicos quern non f ecere disertum. " 
 
 O if my, he seemeth here to be ravished with a poetical 
 fury. For (if one rightly mark) the numbers rise so full, and 
 the verse groweth so big, that it seemeth he had forgot the 
 meanness of shepherd's state and style. 
 
142 THE SHEPHERDS* CALENDAR. 
 
 Wild ivy, for it is dedicated to Bacchus, and therefore it is 
 said that the Msenades (that is Bacchus' frantic priests) used 
 in their sacrifice to carry thyrsos, which were pointed staves 
 or javelins, wrapped about with ivy. 
 
 In buskin, it was the manner of poets and players in 
 tragedies to wear buskins, as also in comedies to use stocks and 
 light shoes. So that the buskin in poetry is used for tragical 
 matter, as is said in Virgil, " Sola Sophocleo tua carmina 
 digna cotlmrno." And the like in Horace, "Magnum loqui, 
 nitique cothurno." 
 
 Quaint, strange. Bellona, the goddess of battle, that is, 
 Pallas, which may therefore well be called quaint, for that (as 
 Luciaii saith), when Jupiter her father was in travail of her, 
 he caused his son Vulcan with his axe to hew his head, out 
 of which leaped forth lustily a valiant damsel armed at all 
 points, whom Vulcan seeing, so fair and comely, lightly leaping 
 to her, preferred her some courtesy, which the lady disdaining, 
 shook her spear at him, and threatened his sauciness. There- 
 fore such strangeness is well applied to her. 
 
 Equipage, order. 
 
 Tides, seasons. 
 
 Charm, temper and order ; for charms were wont to be 
 made by verses, as Ovid saith, " Aut si carminibus. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 Hereby is meant, as also in the whole course of this JEglogue, 
 that poetry is a divine instinct, and unnatural rage, passing 
 the reach of common reason. Whom Piers' answereth Epipho- 
 nematicos, as admitting the excellency of the skill, whereof in 
 Oucldie he had already had a taste. 
 
143 
 
 NOVEMBER, 
 
 UNDECIMA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 In this Eleventh JEglogue he bewaileth the death of some maiden 
 of great blood, whom he calleth Dido. The personage is 
 secret, and to me altogether unknown, albe of himself I 
 often required the same. This JEglogue is made in 
 imitation of Marot his song, which he made upon the 
 death of Loise the French Queen ; but far passing his 
 reach, and in mine opinion all other the ./Eglogues of this 
 book. 
 
 THENOT. COLIN. 
 
 The. COLIN, nay dear, when shall it please thee sing, 
 
 As thou were wont, songs of some jouisance ? 
 Thy Muse too long slumb'reth in sorrowing, 
 
 Lulled asleep through love's misgovernance. 
 
 Now some what sing, whose endless sovenance 
 Among the shepherds' swains may aye remain, 
 
 Whether thee list thy loved lass advance, 
 Or honour Pan with hymns of higher vein. 
 
 Col. Thenot, now nis the time of inerirnake, 
 
 Nor Pan to herie, nor with love to play ; 
 Sike mirth in May is meefest for to make, 
 
 Or summer shade, under the cocked hay. 
 
 But now sad winter welked hath the day, 
 And Phoebus, weary of his yearly task, 
 
 Y stabled hath his steeds in lowly lay, 
 And taken up his inn in Fish's hask. 
 
144 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 Thilk sullen season sadder plight doth ask, 
 
 And loatheth sike delights as thou dost praise : 
 
 The mournful Muse in mirth now list ne mask, 
 As she was wont in youth and summer days ; 
 But if thou algate lust light virelays, 
 
 And looser songs of love to underf ong, 
 
 Who but thyself deserves sike poet's praise ? 
 
 Relieve thy oaten pipes that sleepen long. 
 Tlie. The nightingale is sovereign of song, 
 Before him sits the titmouse silent be ; 
 
 And I, unfit to thrust in skilful throng, 
 Should Colin make judge of my foolery: 
 Nay, better learn of hem that learned be, 
 
 And han be watered at the Muse's well ; 
 The kindly dew drops from the higher tree, 
 
 And wets the little plants that lowly dwell. 
 
 But if sad winter's wrath and season chill 
 
 Accord not with thy Muse's merriment, 
 To sadder times thou mayst attune thy quill, 
 
 And sing of sorrow and death's dreariment ; 
 
 For dead is Dido, dead, alas ! and drent ; 
 Dido ! the great shepherd his daughter sheen. 
 
 The fairest may she was that ever went, 
 Her like she has not left behind, I ween. 
 
 And, if thou wilt bewail my woeful teen, 
 
 I shall thee give yond cosset for thy pain ; 
 And, if thy rhymes as round and rueful bene J^ 
 
NOVEMBER. 145 
 
 As those that did thy Rosalind complain, 
 
 Much greater gifts for guerdon fhou slialt gain 
 Than kid or cosset which I thee byiieinpt. 
 
 Then up, I say, thou jolly shepherd swain, 
 Let not my small demand be so contempt. 
 
 Col. Thenot, to that I choose thou dost me tempt ; 
 
 But ah, too well I wot my humble vein", 
 And how my rhymes bene rugged and unkempt ; 
 
 Yet, as I con, my conning I will strain. 
 
 " Up, then, Melpomene ! the mournfulst Muse of nine, 
 Such cause of mourning never hadst afore ; 
 Up, grisly ghosts ! and up my rueful rhyme ! 
 Matter of mirth now shalt thou have no more ; 
 For dead she is, that mirth thee made of yore-. 
 
 Dido, my dear, alas, is dead, 
 
 Dead, and lieth wrapped in lead. 
 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 Let streaming tears be poured out in store ; 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 " Shepherds, that by your flocks on Kentish downs 
 abide, 
 
 "VVail ye this woeful waste of Nature's wark ; 
 Wail we the wight whose presence was our pride ; 
 
 Wail we the wight whose absence is our cark ; 
 
 The sun of all the world is dim and dark : 
 The earth now lacks her wonted light, 
 And all we dwell in deadly night. , 
 
\ 
 
 146 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAB. 
 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 Break we our pipes that shrilled as loud as lark 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 " Why do we longer live (ah, why live we so long ?) 
 Whose better days death had shut up in woe ? 
 
 The fairest flower our garland all among 
 Is faded quite and into dust ygoe. -7^ 
 Sing now, ye shepherds' daughters, sing no moe 
 
 The songs that Colin made you in her praise, 
 
 But into weeping turn your wanton lays. 
 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 Now is time to die : nay, time was long ago : 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 " Whence is it that the floweret of the field doth fade, 
 
 And lieth buried long in Winter's bale ; 
 Yet, soon as spring his mantle hath displayed, 
 
 It flowereth fresh, as it should never fail ? 
 
 But thing on earth that is of most avail, 
 As virtue's branch and beauty's bud, 
 Reliven not for any good. 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 The branch once dead, the bud eke needs must quail . 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 " She, while she was (that was, a woeful word to sayne !) 
 
 For beauty's praise and pleasance had no peer ; 
 So well she could the shepherds entertain Q^C. 
 
NOVEMBER. 147 
 
 With cakes and cracknels, and such country cheer : 
 Ne would she scorn the simple shepherd's swain ; 
 
 For she would call him often heame, 
 
 And give him curds and clouted cream. 
 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 Als Colin Clout she would not once disdain ; 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 '' But now sike happy cheer is turned to heavy chance, 
 
 Such pleasance now displaced by dolours dint : 
 All music sleeps, where death doth lead the dance, 
 
 And shepherds' wonted solace is extinct. 
 
 The blue in black, the green in grey is tinct ; 
 The gaudy garlands deck her grave, 
 The faded flowers her corpse einbrave. 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 Mourn now, my muse, now mourn with tears besprint ; 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 " O thou great shepherd, Lobbin, how great is thy grief! 
 
 Where bene the nosegays that she dight for thee ? 
 The coloured chaplets wrought with a chief, 
 
 The knotted rush rings, and gilt rosemaree ? 
 
 For she deemed nothing too dear for thee. 
 Ah ! they bene all yclad in clay ; 
 One bitter blast blew all away. 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 Thereof nought remains but the memory ; 
 O careful verse ! 
 
143 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 " Ay me, that dreary Death should strike so mortal 
 stroke, 
 
 That can undo Dame Nature's kindly course ; 
 The faded locks fall from the lofty oak. 
 
 The floods do gasp, for dried is their source, 
 
 And floods of tears flow in their stead perforce : 
 The mantled meadows mourn, 
 Their sundry colours tourne. 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 The heavens do melt in tears without remorse ; 
 O careful. verse ! 
 
 " The feeble flocks in field refuse their former food, 
 And hang- their heads as they would learn to weep ; 
 
 The beasts in forest wail as they were wood, 
 
 Except the wolves, that "chase the wandering sheep 
 Now she is gone that safely did hern keep : 
 
 The turtle on the bared branteh 
 
 Laments the wound that Death did launch. 
 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 And Philomel her song with tears doth steep ; 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 "The water nymphs,, that wont with her to sing and 
 
 dance. 
 And for her garland olive brandies bear, 
 
 Now baleful boughs of cypress do advance ; 
 The Muses that were wont green bays to wear, 
 Now briiigen bitter elder Branches sere ; 
 
NOVEMBER. 149 
 
 The fatal sisters eke repent 
 
 Her vital thread so soon was spent. 
 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 Mourn now, my muse, now mourn with heavy cheer, 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 " Oh, trustless state of earthly things, and slipper hope 
 Of mortal men, that swink and sweat for nought, 
 
 And shooting wide do miss the marked scope ; 
 Now have I learned (a ]esson dearly bought) 
 That nis on earth assurance to be sought ; 
 
 For what might be in earthly mould, 
 
 That did her buried body hold. 
 
 O heavy hearse ! 
 
 Yet saw I on the bier when it was brought; 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 V 
 "But maugre death, and dreaded sisters' deadly 
 
 spite, 
 
 And gates of hell, and fiery furies' force, 
 She hath the bonds broke of eternal night, 
 
 Her soul unbodied of the burdenous corpse. 
 
 "Why then weeps Lobbin so without remorse P 
 O Lobb ! thy loss no longer lament ; 
 Dido nis dead, but into heaven hent. 
 O happy hearse ! 
 
 Cease now, my muse, now cease thy sorrow's source j 
 O joyful verse ! 
 
150 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 wall we then ? why weary we the gods with 
 plaints, 
 
 As if some evil were to her betight 1 
 She reigns a goddess now among the saints, 
 
 That whilome was the saint of shepherds' light, 
 
 And is installed now in heaven's height. 
 I see thee, blessed soul, I see 
 "Walk in Elysiaii fields so free. 
 O happy hearse ! 
 
 Might I once come to thee (O, that I im>ht !) 
 O joyful verse ! 
 
 " Unwise and wretched men to weet what s good or 
 ill 
 
 We deem of death as doom of ill desert ; 
 But knew we, fools, what it us brings until, 
 
 Die would we daily, once it to expert ! 
 
 No danger there the shepherd can astert ; 
 Fair fields and pleasant leas there bene ; 
 The fields aye fresh, the grass aye green. 
 O happy hearse ! 
 
 Make haste, ye shepherds, thither to reverfc : 
 O joyful verse ! 
 
 O 
 
 E* Dido is gone afore (whose turn shall be the next ?) ; 
 There lives she with the blessed gods in bliss, 
 There drinks she nectar with ambrosia mixed, 
 And joys enjoys that mortal men do miss. 
 The honour now of highest gods she is, 
 
NO^KJMBER. 151 
 
 That wliilome was poor shepherd's pride, 
 While here on earth she did abide. 
 O happy hearse ! 
 
 Cease now, my song, my woe now wasted is ; 
 O joyful verse ! " 
 
 The. Ay, frank shepherd, how bene thy verses meint 
 With doleful pleasance, so as I lie wot 
 Whether rejoice or weep for great constraint. 
 Thine be the cosset, well hast thou it got. 
 Up, Colin up ! enough thou mourned hast ; 
 Now gins to mizzle ; hie we homeward fast. 
 
 COLIN'S EMBLEM. 
 La mort ny mord. 
 
 GLOSSAEY. 
 
 Jouisance, mirth. 
 
 Sovenance, remembrance. 
 
 Hcrie, honour. 
 
 Wdked, shortened or impaired. As the moon being in the 
 wane is said of Lydgate to welk. 
 
 In lowly lay, according to the season of the month November, 
 when the sun draweth low in the south toward his tropic or 
 return. 
 
 In Fish's haxk, the sun reigneth, that is, in the sign Pisces 
 all November : a hask is a wicker pad, wherein they use to 
 carry fish. 
 
 Virelays, a ligjit kind of song. 
 
 Be watered, for it is a saying of poets, that they have drunk 
 
152 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 of the Muses' well Castalias, whereof was before sufficiently 
 said. 
 
 Drear iment, dreary and heavy cheer. 
 
 The great shepherd is some man of high degree, and not, as 
 some vainly suppose, God Pan. -The person both of the shep- 
 herd and of Dido is unknown, and closely buried in the author's 
 conceit. But out of doubt I am, that it is not Rosalind, as 
 some imagine : for he speaketh soon after of her also. 
 
 Sheen, fair and shining. 
 
 May, for maid. 
 
 Teen, sorrow. 
 
 Guerdon, reward. 
 
 Byncmpt, bequeathed. 
 
 Cosset, a lamb brought up without the dam. 
 
 Unkempt, incompti. Not combed, that is rude and unhand- 
 some. 
 
 Melpomene, the sad and wailful Muse, used of poets in 
 honour of tragedies: as saith Virgil, "Melpomene tragico 
 proclamat mossta boatu. " I 
 
 Up grisly (/hosts, the mannerlof tragical poets, to call for 
 help of furies, and damned ghosfls : so is Hecuba of Euripides, 
 and Tantalus brought in of Seneca. And the rest of the 
 rest. 
 
 Hearse is the solemn obsequy in funerals. 
 
 Waste of, decay of so beautiful a piece. 
 
 Cark, care. 
 
 Ah, why, an elegant epanorthosis, as also soon after : nay, 
 time was long ago. 
 
 Moweret, a diminutive for a little flower. This is a notable 
 and sententious comparison, " A minorc ad majus." 
 
 Reliven not, live not again, s. not in their earthly bodies : for 
 in heaven they enjoy their due reward. 
 
 The branch, he meaneth Dido, who being as it were the 
 main branch now withered, the buds, that is, beauty (as he 
 said before) can no more flourish. 
 
 With cakes, fit for shepherds' banquets. 
 
 Heame, for home, after the northern pronouncing. 
 
NOVEMBER. 153 
 
 Tinct, dyed or stained. 
 
 The gaudy : The meaning is, that the things which were the 
 ornaments of her life are made the honour of her funeral, as is 
 used in burials. 
 
 Lobbin, the name of a shepherd, which seemethto have been 
 the lover and dear friend of Dido. 
 
 Rush rings, agreeable for such base gifts. 
 
 Faded locks, dried leaves. As if Nature herself bewailed 
 the death of the maid. 
 
 Source, spring. 
 
 Mantled meadows, for the sundry flowers are like a mantle 
 or coverlet wrought with many colours. 
 
 Philomel, the nightingale : whom the poets feign once to 
 have been a lady of great beauty, till, being ravished by her 
 sister's husband, she desired to be turned into a bird of her 
 name, whose complaints be very well set forth of Mr. George 
 Gascoigue, a witty gentleman, and the very chief of *our late 
 rhymers, who, and if some parts of learning wanted not 
 (albeit is well known, he altogether wanted not learning), no 
 doubt would have attained to the excellency of those famous 
 poets. For gifts of wit and natural promptness appear in him 
 abundantly. 
 
 Cypress, used of the old Pa^nims in the furnishing of their 
 funeral pom}), and properly the sign of all sorrow and heavi- 
 ness. 
 
 The fatal sisters, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, daughters 
 of Erebus and the Night, whom the poets feign to spin the 
 life of man, as it were a long thread, which they draw out in 
 length, till his fatal hour and timely death be come ; but if by 
 other casualty his days be abridged, then one of them, that is, 
 Atropos, is said to have cut the thread in twain. Hereof 
 cometh a common verse 
 
 "Clotho colum bajulat. Lachesis trahit, Atropos occat." 
 
 O trustless, a gallant exclamation, moralised with great 
 wisdom, and passionate with great affection. 
 
 Bier, a frame, whereon they use to lay the dead corpse. 
 
 Furies, of poets, are feigned to be three, Persephone, Alecto, 
 
154 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 and Megera, which are said to be the authors of all evil and 
 mischief. 
 
 Eternal night, is death or darkness of hell. 
 
 Betight, happened. 
 
 I see, a lovely Icon or representation, as if he saw her in 
 heaven present. 
 
 Elysian fields, be devised of poets to be a place of pleasure 
 like Paradise, where the happy souls do rest in peace and eter- 
 nal happiness. 
 
 Die would, the very express saying of Plato in "Phsedo." 
 
 Astert, befall unawares. 
 
 Nectar and ambrosia, be feigned to be the drink and food 
 of the gods : ambrosia they liken to manna in Scripture, and 
 nectar to be white like cream, whereof is a proper tale of Hebe, 
 that spilt a cup of it, and stained the heavens, as yet appeareth. 
 But I have already discoursed that at large in my Commentary 
 upon the dreams of the same author. 
 
 Meint, mingled. 
 
 Which is as much to say, as death biteth not. For although 
 by course of nature we be born to die, and being ripened with 
 age, as with a timely harvest, we must be gathered in time, or 
 else of ourselves we fall like rotted ripe fruit from the tree : 
 yet death is not to be counted for evil, nor (as the poet said a 
 little before) as doom of ill desert. For though the trespass 
 of the first man brought death into the world, as the guerdon 
 of sin, yet being overcome by the death of one that died for 
 all, it is now made (as Chaucer saith) the green pathway to 
 life. So that it agreeth well with that was said, that death 
 biteth not, that is, hurteth not at all. 
 
155 
 
 DECEMBER, 
 
 .1ULOG-A DUODECIMA. ARGUMENT. 
 
 This ./Eglogue, even as the first began, is ended with a com- 
 plaint of ( 'olin to God Pan ; wherein, as weary of his 
 former ways, he proportioned his life* to the four seasons 
 of the year, comparing his youth to the spring time, when 
 he was fresh and free from love's folly : his manhood to 
 the summer, which, he saith, was consumed with great 
 heat and excessive drought, caused through a comet or 
 blazing star, by which he meaneth love, which passion is 
 commonly compared to such flames and immoderate heat : 
 his riper years he resembleth to an unseasonable harvest, 
 wherein the fruits fall ere they be ripe : his latter age to 
 winter's chill and frosty season, now drawing near to his 
 last end. 
 
 The gentle shepherd sat beside a spring, 
 All iii the shadow of a bushy brere, 
 
 That Colin hight, which well could pipe and sing, 
 For he of Tityrus his songs did lere : 
 There, as he sat in secret shade alone, 
 Thus gan he make of love his piteous moan. 
 
 " O sovereign Pan ! thou. god of shepherds all, 
 Which of our tender lambkins takest keep, 
 
 And, when our flocks into mischance monght fall, 
 Dost save from mischief the unwary sheep, 
 Als of their masters hast no less regard 
 Than of the flocks which thou dost watch and ward ; 
 
156 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 " I thee beseech (so be thou deign to hear 
 Rude ditties, tuned to shepherd's oaten reed, 
 
 Or if I ever sonnet song so clear, 
 
 As it with pleasure might thy fancy feed, 
 Hearken awhile, from thy green cabinet, 
 The rural song of careful Colinet. 
 
 "Whilom in youth, when flowered my joyful Spring, 
 Like swallow swift I wandered here and there ; 
 
 For heat of heedless lust me so did sting, 
 That I of doubted danger had no fear : 
 I went the wasteful woods and forest wide, 
 Withouten dread of wolves to bene espied. 
 
 " I went to range amid the mazy thicket, 
 
 And gather nuts to make me Christmas game, 
 
 And joyed oft to chase the trembling pricket, 
 Or hunt the artless hare till she were tame. 
 
 What recked I of wintry age's waste ? 
 
 Tho deemed I my spring would ever last. 
 
 " How often have I scaled the craggy oak, 
 All to dislodge the raven of her nest ? 
 
 How have I wearied with many a stroke 
 The stately walnut-tree, the while the rest 
 Under the tree fell all for nuts at strife ? 
 For ylike to me was liberty and life. 
 
 " And for I was in thilke same looser years, 
 
 (Whether the inuse so wrought me from my birth, 
 
DECEMBER. 157 
 
 Or I too much believed my shepherd peers), 
 Somedeal ybent to song and music's mirth, 
 A good old shepherd, Wrenock was his name, 
 Made me by art more cunning in the same. 
 
 " Fro thence I durst in derring-do compare 
 With shepherd's swain whatever fed in field ; 
 
 And, if that Hobbiuol right judgment bare, 
 To Pan his own self pipe I need not yield : */<* 
 For, if the flocking nymph's did follow Pan, 
 The wiser Muses after Colin ran. 
 
 " But, ah ! such pride at length was ill repaid : 
 The shepherd's god (perdie god was he none) 
 
 My hurtless pleasance did me ill upbraid ; 
 My freedom lorn, my life he left to moan. 
 Love they him called that gave me checkmate, 
 But better mought they have behote him Hate. 
 
 " Tho gan my lovely Spring bid me farewell, 
 And Summer season sped him to display 
 
 (For love then in the Lion's house did dwell) 
 The raging fire that kindled at his ray. 
 A comet stirred up that unkindly heat 
 That reign6d (as men said) in Yenus' seat. 
 
 " Forth was I led, not as I wont afore, 
 
 When choice I had to choose my wandering way, 
 But whither luck and love's unbridled lore 
 
 Would lead me forth on fancy's bit to play : 
 
158 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 The bush iny bed, the bramble was my bower, 
 The woods can witness many a woeful stour. 
 
 " Where I was wont to seek the honey bee, 
 Working her formal rooms in waxen frame, 
 
 The grisly toad-stool grown there mought I see, 
 And loathed paddocks lording on the same : 
 And where the chanting birds lulled me asleep, 
 The ghastly owl her grievous inn doth keep. 
 
 " Then, as the Spring gives place to elder time, 
 And bringeth forth the fruit of Summer's pride ; 
 
 AJso my age, now passed youthly prime, 
 To things of riper reason self applied, 
 And learned of lighter timber cotes to frame, 
 Such as might save my sheep and me fro shame. 
 
 *' To make fine cages for the nightingale, 
 And baskets of bulrushes, was my wont : 
 
 Who to entrap the fish in winding sale 
 
 Was better seen, or hurtful beasts to hunt ? 
 
 I learned als the signs of heaven to ken, 
 
 How Phoebe fails, where Yenus sits, and when. 
 
 " And tried time yet taught me greater things; 
 The sudden rising of the raging seas, 
 
 The sooth of birds by beating of their wings, 
 
 The power of herbs, both which can hurt and ease, 
 And which be wont t' enrage the restless sheep, 
 And which be wont to work eternal sleep. 
 
DECEMBER. 159 
 
 " But, ah, unwise and witless Colin Clout, 
 
 That kidst the hidden kinds of many a weed, 
 Yet kidst not e'en to cure thy sore heart-root, 
 
 Whose rankling wound as yet does rifely bleed. 
 
 Why livest thou still, and yet hast thy death's 
 wound ? 
 
 Why diest thou still, and yet alive art found F 
 
 " Thus is my Summer worn away and wasted, 
 Thus is niy Harvest hastened all too rathe ; 
 
 The ear that budded fair is burnt and blasted, 
 And all my hoped gain is turned to scathe : 
 Of all the seed that in my youth was sown 
 Was nought but brakes and brambles to be mown. 
 
 * ; My boughs with blossoms that crowned were at first, 
 And promised of timely fruit such store, 
 
 Are left both bare and barren now at erst ; 
 The flattering fruit is fallen to ground before. 
 
 And rotted ere they were half mellow ripe ; 
 
 My harvest waste, my hope away did wipe. 
 
 ** The fragrant flowers, that in my garden grew, 
 Bene withered, as they had been gathered long : 
 
 Their roots bene dried up for lack of dew, 
 
 Yet dewed with tears they han be ever among. 
 
 Ah, who has wrought my Rosalind this spite, 
 
 To spill the flowers that should her garland dight P 
 
160 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 " And I, that whilonie wont to frame my pipe 
 
 Unto the shifting of the shepherd's foot, 
 Sike follies now have gathered as too ripe, 
 
 And cast hem out as rotten and nnsoot. 
 
 The loser lass I cast to please no more ; 
 
 One if I please, enough is me therefore. 
 
 " And thus of all my Harvest-hope I have 
 Nought reaped but a weedy crop of -care ; 
 
 Which, when I thought have threshed in swelling 
 
 sheave, 
 
 Cockle for corn, and chaff for barley, bare : 
 Soon as the chaff should in the fan be fined, 
 All was blown away of the wavering wind. 
 
 " So now my year draws to his latter term. 
 
 My Spring is spent, my Summer burnt up quite ; 
 My Harvest hastes to stir up Winter stern, 
 
 And bids him claim with rigorous rage his right : 
 
 So now he storms with many a sturdy stour ; 
 
 So now his blustering blast each coast doth scour. 
 
 " The careful cold hath nipped my rugged rind, 
 And in my face deep furrows eld hath pight : 
 
 My head besprent with hoary frost I find, 
 
 And by mine eye the crow his claw doth wright : 
 Delight is laid abed ; and pleasure past ; 
 No sun now shines ; clouds hail all overcast. 
 
DECEMBER. 161 
 
 " Now leave, ye shepherds' boys, your merry glee ; 
 
 My muse is hoarse and weary of this stound : 
 Here will I hang' my pipe upon this tree : 
 
 Was never pipe of reed did better sound. 
 
 "Winter is come that blows the bitter blast, 
 
 And after Winter dreary death does hast. 
 
 " Gather together ye my little flock, 
 
 My little flock, that was to me so liefe ; 
 
 Let me. ah, let me in your folds ye lock, 
 
 Ere the breme Winter breed you greater grief. 
 Winter is come, that blows the baleful breath, 
 And after winter cometh timely death. 
 
 " Adieu, delights, that lulled me asleep ; 
 
 Adieii, my dear, whose love I bought so dear ; 
 
 Adieu, my little lambs and loved sheep; 
 
 Adieu, ye woods, that oft my witness were : 
 Adieu, good Hobbinol, that was so true, 
 Tell Rosalind, her Colin b : ds her adieu." 
 
 COLIN'S EMBLEM. 
 
 Vivitar ingcnio : ccetera mortis erunt. 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Titi/rus, Chaucer, as hath been oft said. 
 Lautlikhi-x, young lambs. 
 
 A/8 of their, seemeth to express Virgil's verse. 
 " Pan curat oves oviumque magistros.* 
 vouchsafe. 
 
IplS THE SHEPHERDS CALENDAR. 
 
 Cabinet, Coll net, diminutives. 
 
 Mazy, for they be like to a maze whence it is hard to get out 
 again. 
 
 Peers, fellows and companions. 
 
 Mnxic, That is poetry, as Terence saith, "Qui artem trac- 
 tant muaicam," speaking of poets. 
 
 Derrivft doc, aforesaid. 
 
 Lion's house : he imagineth simply that Cupid, which is love, 
 had his abode in the hot sign Leo, which is in the midst of 
 summer ; a pretty allegory ; whereof the meaning is, that 
 love in him wrought an extraordinary heat of lust. 
 
 His ray, which is Cupid's beam or flames of Love. 
 
 A cornel, a blazing star, meant of beauty, which was the 
 cause of his hot love. 
 
 Venus, the goddess of beauty or pleasure. Also a sign in 
 heaven, as it is here taken. So he meaneth that beauty, 
 which hath always aspect to Venus, was the cause of his un- 
 quietness in love. 
 
 Where I was : a fine description of the change of his life and 
 liking, for all things now seemed to him to have altered their 
 kindly course. 
 
 Lording : spoken after the manner of paddocks and frogs 
 sitting, which is indeed lordly, not removing nor looking once 
 aside, unless they be stirred. 
 
 Then as : the second part, that is, his manhood. 
 
 Cotes, sheepcotes, for such be the exercises of shepherds. 
 
 Sale, or sallow, a kind of wood like willow, fit to wreath 
 and bind in leaps to catch fish withal. 
 
 Phoebe fails, the eclipse of the moon, which is always in 
 Cauda, or Capite Draconis, signs in heaven. 
 
 Venus, s. Venus star, otherwise called Hesperus, and 
 Vesper, and Lucifer, both because he seemeth to be one of the 
 brightest stars, and also first riseth, and setteth last. All 
 which skill in stars being convenient for shepherds to know, 
 Theocritus and the rest use. 
 
 Raging seas : the cause of the swelling and ebbing of the sea 
 
DECEMBER. 1U> 
 
 cometh of the course of the moon, sometimes increasing, some- 
 times waning and decreasing. 
 
 Sooth of birds, a kind of soothsaying used in elder times, 
 which they gathered by the flying of birds : first (as is said) in- 
 vented by the Tuscans, and from them derived to the 
 Romans who, as it is said in Livy, were so superstitiously 
 rooted in the same, that they agreed that every nobleman 
 should put his son to the Tuscans, by them to be brought up 
 in that knowledge. 
 
 Of herbs : That wondrous things be wrought by herbs, as 
 well appeareth by the common working of them in our bodies, 
 as also by the wonderful enchantments and soroeries that have 
 been wrought by them, insomuch that it is said that Circe, a 
 famous sorceress, turned men into sundry kinds of beasts and 
 monsters, and only by herbs ; as the poet saith, 
 " Doa sajva potentibus herbis," &c. 
 
 Kydxt, knewest. 
 
 Ear, of corn. 
 
 Scathe, loss, hindrance. 
 
 The fragrant flowers, sundry studies and laudable parts of 
 learning, wherein our poet is seen, be they witness which are 
 privy to this study. 
 
 Eve)' among, ever and anon. 
 
 Thus is my. The third part wherein is set forth his ripe 
 years as an untimely harvest that bringeth little fruit. 
 
 So now my year : The last part, wherein is described his age, 
 by comparison of wintry storms. 
 
 Careful cold, for care is said to cool the blood. 
 
 Glee, mirth, 
 
 Hoary frost, a metaphor of hoary hairs scattered like to a 
 grey frost. 
 
 Breme, sharp and bitter. 
 
 Adieu delights, is a conclusion of all, where in six verses he 
 comprehendeth briefly all that was touched in this book. In 
 the first verse his delights of youth generally ; in the second, 
 the love of Rosalind ; in the third, the keeping of sheep, 
 which is the argument of all the ^Eglogues ; in the fourth, hia 
 
164 THE SHEPHERDS' CALENDAR. 
 
 complaints ; and in the last two, his professed friendship and 
 good will to his good friend Hobbinol. 
 
 EMBLEM. 
 
 The meaning whereof is, that all things perish and come to 
 their last end, but works of learned wit and monuments of 
 poetry abide for ever. And therefore Horace of his Odes, a 
 work, though full indeed of great wit and learning, yet of not 
 so great weight and importance, boldly saith, 
 
 " Exegi monimentum sere perenmus, 
 Quod nee imber edax, nee aquilo vorax," &c. 
 
 Therefore let not be envied, that this poet in his epilogue 
 saith, he hath made a Calendar 'that shall endure as long as 
 time, &c. following the ensample of Horace and Ovid in the like. 
 
 " Grande opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignis, 
 Nee ferum potent nee edax abolere vetustas," &c. 
 
 Lo ! I have made a calendar for every year, 
 That steel in strength, and time in durance, shall out- 
 wear ; 
 
 And, if I marked well the stars' revolution, 
 It shall continue till the world's dissolution, 
 To teach the ruder shepherd how to feed his sheep, 
 And from the f alser's fraud his folded flock to keep. 
 
 Go, little Calendar, thou hast a free passport ; 
 Go but a lowly gate amongst the meaner sort : 
 Dare not to match thy pipe with Tityrus his style, 
 Nor with the Pilgrim that the Ploughman played 
 
 awhile ; 
 
 But follow them far off, and their high steps adore : 
 The better please, the worse despise ; I ask no more. 
 
 MERGE NON MERCEDE. 
 
CLEMENT MAKOT'S LAMENT 
 FOE LOUISE OF SAVOY. 
 
 LOUISE OF SAVOY died on the 29th, and Marot was 
 commissioned by her son, Francis I., to write a lament 
 for her. The result was the first of his pastorals, a 
 work that obtained much admiration from the critics of 
 the time. 
 
 Clement Marot had been himself near death, when, 
 in his eclogue on Queen Louise, he sang- of the glory 
 of the world beyond the grave. He was then not re- 
 covered from an illness which had lasted for some 
 months, and three doctors had been in attendance. A 
 lively letter in verse to his friend, Lieutenant Gontier, 
 written in half -burlesque admiration of some lines with 
 which his friend had praised him, says that he should 
 have answered him before if pale-faced sickness had 
 not perturbed his mind ; and in. the course of the same 
 letter he says, that if he writes little, it is because he is 
 constrained to think of other things ; his verses must 
 lament the hard death of the mother of the king. In 
 a letter to the king, which tells how the poet was 
 robbed by a servant, Marot refers to the same illness 
 as having lasted three mouths, and, while he speaks of 
 advancing winter, says that the doctors give him no 
 liMpo of complete recovery until the spring. He had 
 
166 CLEMENT MAROT'S LAMENT 
 
 been ill, therefore, for some time, and although his 
 light heart never left him, and his rhymed letters from 
 the sick-room are full of the old kindly gaiety, there 
 was still also the earnest soul within, and the close of 
 the eclogue on the Shepherdess Loise comes with the 
 more solemn earnestness from one who had just been 
 by the brink of his own grave. 
 
 Thenot and Colin are the speakers of the dialogue. 
 Thenot is the name given to one of the speakers in the 
 fourth eclogue of Spenser's Shepheard's Calender, but 
 Thenot and Colin are the speakers of Spenser's eleventh 
 eclogue, which is throughout founded upon Clement 
 Marot's eclogue on the death of the queen regent of 
 France. Even Colin's Emblem, which Spenser appends, 
 is, as we shall find, the motto chosen by Marot, accord- 
 ing to a custom among authors of his time, and 
 appended to all his printed works, "La Mort ny 
 Mordr 
 
 The lament for Louise of Savoy Spenser transforms 
 into a lament for Dido ; and Francis I. is, in Spenser's 
 version, the " great Shepherd Lobbin." In the original 
 . lition of the Shepheard's Calender, E. K. says of 
 i liis eclogue that Spenser " bewaileth the death of some 
 
 idcn of great blood, whom he calleth Dido. The 
 iiage .is secret, and to me altogether unknown, 
 albe of himself I often required the same. This eclogue 
 is made in imitation of Marot, his song which he made 
 upon the death of Louise, the French queen; but far 
 passing his reach, and in mine opinion all other the 
 eclogues of this book." 
 
 Marot begins thus, in verse hardly less musical than 
 Spenser's : 
 
FOB- LOUISE OF SAVOY. 107' 
 
 " Thenot. In this fair vale are excellent delights, a 
 clear brook noisy by the shade, grass to one's wish, the 
 winds not violent: then do you, Colin, not abate in 
 homage to Pan, who gives zeal for song : when you go 
 with him to the fields, you will have more profit than 
 harm from it ; he will teach you, and you will instruct 
 him. As for songs, you would labour them with skill 
 so great that, if there were contest, although you gained 
 nothing over Pan, Pan could claim nothing over you. 
 If he win for prize a fine soft cheese, you will win a 
 jar of curded milk ; or if he like better to take the 
 milk, to you the cheese will be given. 
 
 " Colin. Shepherd Thenot, I am amazed at your 
 songs, and I steep myself in them more than when I 
 hear the awakened linnet, or the din of water falling 
 from a mountain ; against them at evensong you would 
 obtain the prize, or if it happened that such noble 
 concert overcame you in the evening, it would be you 
 who conquered in the morning. Now, I pray you, 
 while my mastiff shall keep good watch, and I put our 
 flocks to feed, sing somewhat of Katie, to describe her 
 pretty rustic dress. 
 
 " Thenot.- -The nightingale is the master of song, 
 before him it is fit that the woodpeckers be silent : and 
 you being what you know how to become, I will make 
 my diverse reeds to be silent. But if you will sing' 
 ten times ten verses to (Jeplore the Shepherdess Loise, 
 you shall have quinces, six yellow and six green, the 
 sweetest smelling that have been seen since Moses. 
 And if your verses are as well put as the last you made 
 of Isabeau, you sliall not have what I have promised, 
 but much more, and better and more fair. You shall 
 
168 CLEMENT MAROT'S LAMENT 
 
 have from me a double pipe, made by the hand of Roffy 
 of Lyons : which I hardly got for a goat from the good 
 pastor Michau, whom you know. I have never yet 
 played it but once, and keep it with as much care as 
 my life : and, at any rate, you will be heartily disposed 
 to do that to which I invite you/' 
 
 Let us now read Spenser's eclogue up to the same 
 point. Spenser, having placed the piece in his series as 
 a November eclogue, omits suggestions of summer, and 
 interpolates November in the two first speeches : 
 
 Thenot. Colin, my dear, when shall it please thee sing, 
 
 As thou werfc wont, songs of some jouissance? 
 Thy muse too long slumbreth in sorrowing, 
 
 Lulled to sleep through love's misgovernance. 
 Now somewhat sing, whose endless sovenance 
 
 Among the shepherds swains may aye remain, 
 Whether thee list thy loved lass advance, 
 
 Or honour Pan with hymns of higher vein. 
 
 Colin. Thenot, now is the time of merrymake, 
 
 , Nor Pan to herye, nor with love to play ; 
 Sike mirth in May is meetest for to make, 
 
 Or summer shade under the cocked hay. 
 But now sad winter welked hath the day, 
 
 And Phoebus, weary of his yearly task, 
 Established hath his steeds in lowly lay, 
 
 And taken up his inn in Fish's hask. 
 Thilk sullen season sadder plight doth ask, 
 
 And loatheth sike delights as thou dost praise : 
 The mournful Muse in mirth now list ne mask 
 
 As she was wont in youth and summer days ; 
 
 But if thou algate lust light virelays 
 And looser songs of love to underfong, 
 
 Who but thyself deserves sike poet's praise ? 
 Believe thy oaten pipes that sleepeii long. 
 
FOE, LOUISE OF SAVOY, 169 
 
 Thenot. The nightingale is sovereign of song, 
 
 Before him fits the titmouse silent be ; 
 And I, unfit to thrust in skilful throng, 
 
 Should Colin make judge of my foolery ; 
 Nay, better learned of hem that learned be, 
 
 And han be watered at the Muses' well ; 
 The kindly dew drops from the higher tree, 
 
 And wets the little plants that lowly dwell. 
 
 But if sad winter's wrath and season chill 
 
 Accord not with thy Muse's merriment, 
 To sadder times thou mayest attune thy quill,. 
 
 And sing of sorrow and death's dreriment ; 
 For dead is Dido, dead, alas ! and drent ; 
 
 Dido, the great shepherd his daughter sheen. 
 The fairest may she was that ever went, 
 
 Her like she has not left behind, I ween : 
 
 And if thou wilt bewail my woful teen, 
 
 I shall thee give yond cosset for thy pain : 
 And if thy rhymes as round and rueful been 
 
 As those that did thy Rosalind complain, 
 Much greater gifts for guerdon thou shalt gain, 
 
 Than kid or cosset, which I thee bynempt. 
 Then up, I say, thou jolly shepherd swain, 
 
 Let not my small demand be so contempt. 
 
 Marot goes on : 
 
 Colin. You ask me that which I desire to do. Up, 
 then, my verses, sing your songs of grief, since death 
 has snatched away Loise who kept our courts so 
 vigorous. We are unhappy now, more stricken by her 
 mortal absence than lambs in the hour when they miss 
 the watchful mother from about them. Let us weep, 
 shepherds, Nature permits it ! Let us weep for. the 
 mother of the Great Shepherd of this land ! Let us 
 weep for the mother of Margot the excellent ! Let us 
 
170 CLEMENT MAROT'S LAMENT 
 
 weep for the mother even also of us ! O Great Shep- 
 herd, what care is yours ! I know not whether it be 
 for you or for your mother that I am blackened most 
 with grief. Sing, O my verses, sing the bitter grief ! 
 
 When Loise yet prospered in her home, she managed 
 her fair household with good sense; every shepherd, 
 rich father as he might be, chose place within it for 
 his daughter. Once Loise bethought herself to make 
 them sit under a great elm, and she, being in their 
 midst, said to them : Daughters, there is one thing 
 you should be told, that it is not enough to have a 
 pleasant form, hounds, flocks, a father rich and strong : 
 foresight is needful lest vice should deform by long 
 repose your age of bloom. Be you no nourishers of 
 idleness, for that is worse among young shepherdesses 
 than among the sheep the great ravening wolf that 
 comes always at evening among these brakes. Be 
 therefore always light for labour : may God pardon the 
 goodman Hoger, who always said that idleness ought 
 not to find lodgings with any housewife. So said the 
 mother of the Great Shepherd, and according to her 
 word the shepherd maidens laboured ; one planted 
 herbs in an orchard; another fed pigeons and turtle- 
 doves : another worked at new things with the needle ; 
 another afterwards made chaplets of flowers; but now 
 the fair ones, alas ! make nothing more, nothing but 
 rivulets of tears. Their dances they have changed to 
 dolours, their blue to brown, bright green to tawny, 
 and their bright tints to sad colours. Sing, O my 
 verses, sing the ordained song of grief. 
 
 Since Death dealt this great blow, all pleasures of 
 the fields grew dull ; even the little breezes sighed of 
 
FOE LOUISE OF SAVOY. 173 
 
 it. Leaves and fruits were shaken from the trees; 
 the clear sun gave its heat no more, the meadows 
 stripped themselves of their green mantle ; the clouded 
 sky poured wide its tears. The Great Shepherd broke 
 his pipes, for he would be familiar only with tears, 
 whereat his flock that heard his lament quitted its 
 pasture and began to bleat. And when Margot heard 
 all the sorrow her gentle heart had no skill to keep 
 the eye from dropping tears, but of her tears there 
 were a thousand wept. The earth in that time be- 
 came naked and feeble ; many a brook stood all dry ; 
 the sea was troubled and restless, and therein wept the 
 young dolphins. Does and stags stood stricken, 
 beasts of prey and beasts of pasture, all creatures 
 grieved for Loise, except the wolves of an ill nature. 
 So sharp was the stroke and the event so full of mis- 
 fortune, that the fair lily took a tint of black, and the 
 flocks carried black wool. From a dry tree Philomel 
 complained; the swallows' cries were piteous and 
 piercing ; the turtle mourned for it with equal grief. 
 My song accords with theirs. O frank shepherds, who 
 walk on the free grass, what do you say of it, what 
 grief, what heaviness is this, to see wither the flower 
 of all our fields. Sing, O my verses, sing farewell to joy. 
 Nymphs and gods came by night in great distress 
 to see her, and they said to her, Alas ! do you sleep 
 here, mistress of shepherdesses ? Or is it Death who 
 has you in his toils ? Alas, your colour, such as you 
 have, proves to us surely that you rest in death. 
 Ha, untoward Death ! ever most busy to snatch from 
 us excellent things. So much wise thought was 
 bound up in her head ! so well she knew love for the 
 
172 CLEMENT MABOT'S LAMENT 
 
 bounds of France ; so well she knew how to restore 
 there the roses to the lily ; so well she knew how to 
 sow there good seed; so well she knew how to make 
 safe and sure all cattle of all corners of the land ; 
 so well she knew to shut and lock the fold, that 
 never wolf was seen to enter there. So many a day 
 her prudence warned against the dark and rainy timfe, 
 that France has not, for long has not, known such a shdp- 
 herdess, from what the oldest tell. Adieu, Loise, adijeu 
 through all our tears ; adieu the body that adorned 
 the earth. Thus saying, nymphs and gods withdrew 
 themselves. Sing, O my verses, sing of grief again. 
 
 [Cognac, Bemorantin, Anjou, Aiigouleme, Amboise, 
 the Maine and the Toure, mourn uiitranslatably by 
 methods that admit of wordplay on their names. Then 
 of the Toure, sings Colin :] On its water the white 
 swans, with which it is all covered, sing day and night, 
 prognosticating in the song to them ill boding, that 
 death by death opens his door for them. What do you 
 in tliis green forest, Fauns, Satyrs ? .1 think you are 
 sleeping there. Awake, awake, to mourn with us this 
 loss, or if you sleep, dream of it in your sleeping : 
 dream about death, dream of the wrong she does ; do 
 not sleep without dreaming of her spite. Then at your 
 waking tell me all you've dreamed, that I may sing it. 
 Why does the dry herb come back to life when summer 
 comes again ? And she who lies under the heavy 
 tomb, however great she be, comes back no more. 
 Sing, O my verses, a fresh strain of grief. 
 
 No, now be still ; that is lament enough : she is 
 received in the Elysian fields, freed from the labours 
 of this weeping world. There, where she is, nothing 
 
FOE, LOUISE OF SAVOY. 17o 
 
 'has lost its bloom ; there never die the day and its 
 delights ; there never dies the freshness of the green, 
 nor die they who are dwellers with her there. For all 
 ambrosial odours flourish there, nor have they ever two 
 seasons or three, but all one spring ; and there they 
 never weep the loss of friends, as we do. In those fail- 
 fields and homes of innocence Loise lives without fear, 
 pain, or disease ; and we down here, full of our human 
 reasons, are troubled, it would seem, at her content. 
 There she sees nothing ihat gives any pain ; there she 
 tastes fruit beyond all count of price ; there she drinks 
 water that allays all thirst; there she will know a 
 thousand noble souls. All pleasant animals are gathered 
 there ; a thousand birds there make immortal joy, 
 among whom there is flying through the space her 
 popinjay that passed away before her. There she 
 beholds such light that we should wish to die and look 
 on it. Since, then, she has so great a fulness of e1 
 joy, cease, O niy verses, cease your grief. 
 
 Cold to your mountains and your pines, seek France, 
 nymphs of Savoy, to honour her whose praise gave 
 worth to her country (here is introduced wordplay 
 upon the name of Savoy) ; come, that before death youi 
 eyes may see where she was laid after her happy end. 
 Bring each upon the arm a basket full of herbs and 
 flowers from, her native land, to scatter them over her 
 marble; none that we have seen is fine or more fit. 
 Bring branches of full growth, bring laurel, ivy, 
 honoured white lilies and green rosemary, roses in 
 plenty, yellow marigolds, the golden crowfoot, purple 
 amaranth, fresh lavender and pinks of lively hue, 
 hawthorn and the hawthorn tinted blue, all 
 
174 CLEMENT MAGOT'S LAMENT 
 
 flowers that are sweet and beautiful. Let each take* 
 heed to bring, then heap them thick upon the tomb, 
 and with them let there be many an olive branch, 
 because she was the Shepherdess of Peace. She knew 
 how to produce complete accord among* the shepherds 
 when throughout the world one sought to hurt another. 
 Come, thou God Pan, swifter than swallow come ; 
 leave your close haunts and part from Arcady, cease 
 singing of blonde Syrinx, come thou near and take my 
 place to swell with better grace the praise of her I 
 undertake to sing. Not, truly that I weary of her 
 praise, but thou art wrong that dost not mourn for her. 
 And you, Thenot, who have been shedding tears to 
 hear me speak of her who is so good, deliver me the 
 promised double pipe that I may make it sound to this 
 last close ; and through its sound may pay my thanks 
 and give praise to the gods of the high hills and plains- 
 so loudly, that it echo through this vale. Cease, O my 
 verses, here cease your lament. 
 
 Thenot. O frank Shepherd, how full are your 
 verses of great sweetness and of great bitterness. The 
 song pleases me, and you constrain my heart to grief 
 beyond its wont. When all is said, Melpomene kindles 
 in your soft style the sad singing. Besides, there is no 
 heart and never was an anvil of a heart in which this- 
 theme would not raise a lament. Wherefore, Colin, 
 without flattering or vaunting, you not only deserve the 
 good flute, but a garland of green laurel should be 
 given you for things so well said. Up, mighty bulls, 
 you also, little sheep, go to your shelter, you have 
 browsed enough, for the sun sets over this narrow vale, 
 and from the other side comes night. 
 
FOR LOUISE OF SAVOY. 175 
 
 There Marot ends. Speser, after paraphrasing 
 Colin's speech, " You ask me that which I .desire to 
 do," in the four lines beginning " Thenot, to that I 
 choose thou dost me tempt," makes his own use as a 
 poet of the plan of the lament. Following its poetical 
 conception, he effaces all that particular reference tx> 
 the subject of the eclogue which gave beauty of fitness 
 to Marbt's work, but could have no interest for an / 
 Englishman who wrote almost fifty years later. The^ 
 uniform measure of the eclogue in Marot, Spenser 
 breaks by giving a new chime and greater prominence 
 to the contrasted burdens of Colin's song, and arrang- 
 ing it into most musical stanzas with the recurring 
 words in the first burden, " O heavy herse ! O careful 
 verse ! " and in the second, " O happy herse 1 O joyful 
 verse!" The reference to King Francis remain 
 such lines as " O thou great Shepherd Lobbin, how . 
 great is thy grief ! " and although Spenser's eclogue 
 is not that of a dull translator, but of a poet rich in 
 music of his own, who shows lively appreciation of the 
 genius of a predecessor, some of the most musical pas- 
 sages in the lament of Colin are those which most nearly 
 reproduce thoughts of Marot. This, for example : 
 
 Whence is it that the floweret of the field doth fade? 
 
 And lieth buried long in Winter's bale ; 
 Yet soon as spring his mantle hath displayed 
 It flow'reth fresh, as it should never fail? 
 But thing on earth that is of most avail, 
 
 As virtue's branch and beauty's bed, 
 
 Reliven not for any good. 
 
 O heavy herse ! 
 The branch once dead, the bud eke needs must quail j 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 
176 CLEMENT MAROT'S LAMENT 
 
 And when the pleasaunce is displaced by dolour's 
 dint 
 
 The blue in black, the green in grey is tinct. 
 
 Spenser proceeds with the lament, following closely 
 that part of the poem which may have suggested it to 
 him as fit model for a November eclogue : 
 
 Ay me ! that dreary death should strike so mortal stroke, 
 
 That can undo Dame Nature's kindly course ; 
 The faded locks fall from the lofty oak, 
 
 The floods do gasp, for dried is their source, 
 And floods of tears flow in their stead perforce : 
 
 The mantled meadows mourn, 
 
 Their sundry colours turn, 
 
 O heavy herse ! 
 The heavens do melt in tears without remorse ; 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 The feeble flocks in field refuse their former food, 
 
 And hang their heads as they would learn to weep ; 
 The beasts in forest wail as they were wood, 
 
 Except the wolves that chase the wandering sheep, 
 Now she is gone that safely did them keep : 
 
 The turtle on the bared branch 
 
 Laments the wound that death did launch. 
 
 O heavy herse ! 
 And Philomel her song with tears doth steep, 
 
 O careful verse ! 
 
 Xiet us now turn to the other side of the strain, the 
 strain of religious hope which must have especially 
 commended Marot's music to the religious mind of 
 Spenser : 
 
 Why wail we then ? Why weary we the gods with plaints, 
 
 As if some evil were to her betight ! 
 She reigns a goddess now among the saints, 
 That whilom was the saint of shepherd's light, 
 
FOK LOUISE OF SAVOY. 177 
 
 And is installed now in heaven's height. 
 
 I see thee, blessed soul, I see 
 
 Walk in Elysian fields so free. 
 
 O happy herse ! 
 Might ,1 once come to thee (oh, that I might !) 
 
 O joyful verse ! 
 
 Unwise and wretched men, to weet what's good or ill, 
 
 We deem of death as doom of ill desert : 
 But knew we fools what it us brings until, 
 Die would we daily, once it to expert. 
 No danger there the shepherd can astert ; 
 
 Fair fields and pleasant lays there bene, 
 
 The fields aye fresh, the grass aye green. 
 
 O happy herse ! 
 Make haste, ye shepherds, thither to revert : 
 
 O joyful verse ! 
 
 Exactly following to the end the plan of his 
 original, Spenser paraphrases also the parting words of 
 Thenot. The change in the form of their last thought 
 being intended to close the poem as it was opened with 
 due regard to the month given to this eclogue in the 
 poet's Calendar. Nor, I think, can it be doubtful that 
 when Spenser makes Thenot praise Colin as " frank 
 Shepherd/' adopting Marot's epithet when he desires 
 to point to the name of his country, the " frank 
 Shepherd" in his mind" was Clement Marot, whom ho 
 immediately afterwards identifies with Colin by append- 
 ing Marot's motto as Colin's Emblem : La Mort iiy 
 Mord : 
 
 Thenot. Ay, frank shepherd, how bene thy verses meint 
 
 With doleful pleasaunce, so as I ne wot 
 . Whether rejoice or weep for great constraint.- 
 Thine be the cosset, well hast thou it got. 
 
178 CLEMENT MAKOT'S LAMENT 
 
 Up, Colin, up ! enough thou mourned hast ; 
 Now gins to mizzle, hie we homeward fast. 
 
 Marot's eclogue, the first piece of mark in that form 
 of French literature, was written at the close of 1531 ; 
 Spenser's in 1579. 
 
 That such music should float over the grave of 
 Louise of Savoy ! Death was for her a king of Terrors ; 
 she dreaded in life to hear death named. But the 
 poet who took for his motto La Mort ny Mord, sang 
 over her " O Death, where is thy sting." He grieves, 
 only to pass from grief to a glad sense of life with God, 
 the joy of immortality : 
 
 La elle veoit une lumiere telle, 
 
 Que pour le veoir mourir devrions vouloir. 
 
 Die would we daily once it to expert. 
 
 Always she had been worldly and loved power; to 
 the last she governed, or desired to govern, through her 
 son. This feature in her character Marot laid stress 
 upon, and it was happy for his verse that her last act 
 in politics had been in her own person to negotiate the 
 Paix des Dames. Marot loved God and France too 
 well to be blind to the wrongs and miseries of war. 
 The terms of the peace made, if we scrutinise details, 
 showed weakness and want of generosity ; but it was 
 peace rich in genius and power for the future ; peace 
 to France after long weary years of burden on the 
 people from ignoble war, waged not for the well-being 
 of the nation, but to satisfy the appetites of those who 
 ruled. Peace was the last gift of the dead queen to 
 France, and Clement Marot felt with his whole soul 
 the worth of that. 
 
FOR LOUISE OF SAVOY. 17$ 
 
 The ladies of her court, daughters of richest shep- 
 herds Avho were glad to place them there, had certainly 
 no idle mistress, and she doubtless taught them to be 
 busy ; but her court was not a school of all the virtues 
 a young shepherdess can have. She must have had 
 graces and good gifts, or she would not have retained 
 to the last as firmly the love of the daughter whom she 
 could not spoil as that of the son whom she did spoil. 
 The weakness of Francis and the inherent good nature 
 which had been corrupted by his mother's influence, 
 may have led him to lean so much as he did on his 
 mother and sister. Family ties would be cherished by 
 the gentle heart of Marguerite. To Louise, intensely 
 selfish, her children wore precious, as being hers, and 
 she could only indulge her love of rule through close 
 alliance with them. But motives of men and women 
 are not to be thus trimmed to pattern, labelled, pigeon- 
 holed. There is a breath from Grod in all our hearts, 
 and some of it surely stirred through all the love there 
 was between this mother and her children. 
 
180 CLEMENT MAE'OT'S ECLOGUE 
 
 CLEMENT MABOT'S ECLOGUE 
 OF PAN AND ROBIN. 
 
 MAE.OT at the time of Iris refuge among the neutral 
 4'iti/,ens of Venice, if not somewhat later, wrote 
 that little pastoral upon the course of his own life 
 which Spenser has paraphrased in the December 
 eclogue of his " Shepherds' Calendar." Spenser has 
 varied Marot's motto at the close by a Latin paraphrase 
 of its meaning, Vivitur ingenio, cwtera mortis erunt. 
 
 "A shepherd boy named Robin lately went alone 
 among the beeches, shady trees, and there with bold 
 heart, being by himself, he made the woods and the 
 calm air resound as thus he sang : ' O sovereign god 
 Pan, who never yet hast been slow to protect our folds 
 and flocks and those in charge of them, and liftest up 
 all gentle shepherd boys who have not meadows, cot- 
 tages, or herds, thee I beseech if ever in these low 
 ways them deignest to hear little rustic songs, hearken 
 awhile from thy green cabinet the rural song of little 
 Robinet.' " 
 
 So Marot began. Thus begins Spenser : 
 
 "The gentle shepherd sat beside a spring, 
 All in the shadow of a bushy brere, 
 That Colin hight, which well could pipe and sing, 
 For he of Tityrus his songs did lere : 
 
OF FAN AND ROBIN. 181 
 
 There as he sat in secret shade alone, 
 
 Thus gan he make of love his piteous moan." 
 
 " O sovereign Pan ! thou God of shepherds all, 
 Which of our tender lambkins takest keep, 
 And when our flocks into mischance mought fall, 
 Dost save from mischief the unwary sheep, 
 Als of their masters hast no less regard 
 Than of the flocks which thou dost watch and ward : 
 
 " I thee beseech (so be thou deign to hear 
 Kude ditties tuned to shepherd's oaten reed, 
 Or if I ever sonnet sang so clear 
 As it with pleasaunce mought thy fancy feed) 
 Hearken awhile, from thy green cabinet, 
 The rural song of careful Colinet. " 
 
 Marot continues : 
 
 " In the Spring season of my idle youth I was like 
 the swallow who flies, now here, now there ; that age 
 led me without fear or care whither the heart said I 
 should go. In the woods, without fear of the wolves, 
 I often went to gather the holly, to make birdlime, to 
 take singing birds, all differing in song and plumage ; 
 or I used to make traps to take them, and cages to put 
 them in ; or swam across the deep rivers, or patched 
 the rags at my knee. Then I learned to shoot straight 
 and far, for chase of wolves, and to knock nuts down. 
 Oh, how many a time have I climbed the trees to take 
 from her nest the pie or the jay, or to throw down to 
 my companions, who spread their hats, the fruit* 
 already ripe and fair to see." 
 
182 CLEMENT MAROT'S ECLOGUE 
 
 Spenser continues : 
 
 *' Whilom in youth, when flowered my joyful spring, 
 
 Like swallow swift I wandered here and there ; 
 For heat of heedless lust me so did sting 
 That I of doubled danger had no fear : 
 I went the wasteful woods and forests wide, 
 With out en dread of wolves to bene espied. 
 
 "I wont to range amid the mazy thicket, 
 
 And gather nuts to make me Christmas game, 
 And joyed oft to chase the trembling pricket, 
 
 Or hunt the heartless hare till she were tame. 
 What recked I of wintry ages waste ? 
 Tho deemed I my spring would ever last. 
 
 *' How often have I scaled the craggy oak, 
 
 All to dislodge the raven of her nest ? 
 How have I wearied with many a stroke 
 
 The stately walnut tree, the while the rest 
 Under the tree fell all for nuts at strife ? 
 For ylike to me was liberty and life.'* 
 
 In this paraphrase, as in that of the eclogue on 
 Louise of Savoy, it will be observed that there is 
 something lost by erasure of the local colouring, which 
 by its truth gives so great a charm to Marot's verse. 
 In Marot's lament for Louise, stern realities in the 
 condition of France, longing for peace in an afflicted 
 nation, genuine sympathy with mourners, blend with 
 the fresh strain of religion. These disappear, or be- 
 come simply poetical ornament, in Spenser's lament for 
 Dido. So in this eclogue one feels that Marot is 
 painting with a vigorous simplicity and in verse 
 hardly less musical than Spenser's from true recol- 
 
Or PAN AND ROBIN. 183 
 
 lections and a lively present sense of Ms own life in 
 the France of the sixteenth century, and that the 
 homely incidents which Spenser passes over, as well as 
 the wilder features that he tames, as when Marot's 
 wolf became Spenser's hare, show in Marot the strength 
 as well as grace of a true artist. 
 
 Marot goes on : " Sometimes I went to the moun- 
 tains and sometimes to the depths of the valleys to find 
 the homes of the martens, the hedgehogs, or white 
 ermines, or went step by step along the thickets 
 searching for the nests of the goldfinches, or of the 
 yellowhammers, the chaffinches, or linnets. Yet 
 already I used to make some notes of rustic song, and 
 under the young elms sounded the reeds when almost a 
 child. I could not well say or think who taught me 
 to begin so soon ; either a nature inclined to the Muses, 
 or my fortune that so marked me for your service ; if 
 it was not one of these, I may be sure that it was both. 
 Seeing which the good Janot (Jean Marot) my father, 
 would wager with Jaquet, his comrade, two twin 
 lambs against a fat calf that some day, O sacred Pan, I 
 should make songs in thy praise, songs, that is which 
 would please thee. And I remember how often on 
 holidays, when we looked from afar on our feeding 
 flocks it was his custom to give me a lesson in the sweet 
 -sounding of the flute, or the inditing of some rural 
 song to be sung in the manner of the shepherds. Of 
 evenings, too, when the scattered flocks were folded, 
 the good old man worked for me, and watched late with 
 me by the lamp, as shepherds by the fireside stoop over 
 their magpies or starlings. True it is that this gave 
 trouble to him, but it was so full of pleasure, that in 
 
184 CLEMENT MAROT'S ECLOGUE 
 
 doing it he was like the good shepherd who is watering 
 some young plant in his little garden, or bringing to 
 the teat the lamb that he loves best in all his flock. 
 And the great labour he took surely was that, after his 
 example, in a day to coine, I might sing thy praise, O 
 Pan, who enlarged his bounds, preserved the verdure 
 of his fields, and kept his flock from frost." 
 
 This picture of Clement's early bent towards song, 
 and the tender reference to his father's careful training, 
 is represented by the next stanza of Spenser's eclogue : 
 
 " And for I was in thilke same looser years 
 
 (Whether the muse so wrought me from my birth, 
 Or I too much believed my shepherd peers) 
 
 Somedele ybent to song and music's mirth. 
 A good old shepherd, Wrenock was his name, 
 Made me by art more cunning in the same." 
 
 There can be little doubt that Marot contrived this 
 poem with a double sense, like that which is frequent 
 in the " Fairy Queen." Pan is as distinctly God in 
 Marot's eclogue as the Fairy Queen is the glory of God 
 in Spenser's allegory. But as Queen Elizabeth might 
 find herself, and was referred to purposely sometimes 
 by double senses in Gloriana, so in this poem Marot 
 meant that King Francis should be able to read him- 
 self into Pan, the god of shepherds, patron of poets. 
 Francis had been the later source of Jean Marot's 
 income, Clement was trained to serve him, Francis 
 wrote verse himself, as the next passage indicates. But 
 Marot put his soul also into the deeper sense of the 
 allegory. Also there was the word of God, uttered in 
 music, 011 the lips of the psalmist and the prophets. 
 
OF PAN AND ROBIN. 185 
 
 And to that Marot was even planning to attune the 
 voices of his countrymen. 
 
 Recalling still the time when the poet-father hung over 
 his son as guide and protector, Clement proceeds thus : 
 " 'Pan/ he would say, * is the triumphant god over the 
 pastors. It is he, my child, who first pierced the roods 
 and took counsel with himself to form them into flutes. 
 Even he also deigns to be careful in use of the art 
 which I will teach you. Learn it, then, that the hills 
 and woods, the rocks and pools, may learn from your 
 voice to sing after you the high name of this great god, 
 who is so often in my mind ; for it is he through 
 whom your field, your vine will yield abundance, and 
 who will make you to dwell pleasantly among the 
 sacred rills. There you will have on one side the great 
 enclosure of thick willows, where the honey-bees go to 
 suck flowers for their pasture, and will often lull you 
 to steep by their soft humming, even then when you 
 shall feel your rustic flute weary with its much music. 
 Then soon afterwards from the next thicket, the pie 
 will wake you with its chattering, the dove, too, will 
 awaken you to sing again your best/ Thus, careful 
 for my good, the good Janot spoke to me, and little 
 then I minded. For then I had no care within my 
 heart for cattle or for any pasturage." 
 
 For this record of fatherly religious counsel Spenser 
 substitutes, in two stanzas, the advent of love to the 
 young shepherd. Marot continues : 
 
 " When the Spring fails us, and the Summer comes, 
 then the herb grows in form and strength. So when I 
 too, had passed out of my Spring, and my days came 
 to their Summer, the sense grew, but not the care. 
 
186 CLEMENT MAROT'S ECLOGUE 
 
 Then I employed my mind, and body too, on things 
 most suited to that age, in building cotes of wood that 
 could be carried, in rolling them from place to place, 
 in strewing rushes on their floors ; in trimming trel- 
 lises, bushes, and hedges ; in the right interlacing of 
 the hurdles that were to close the sheep folds ; or in 
 weaving, to make cheese, baskets of osier with rush 
 fastenings of which I used, for I loved her then, to 
 make presents to Helen the blonde. I learnt, the 
 names of the four parts of the world. I learnt the 
 names of the winds which proceed from them, their 
 qualities, and what weather they bring ; of which the 
 birds, those wise diviners of ihe fields, gave me in- 
 struction by their flight and song. I learnt also, when 
 I went to the pastures to avoid dangerous herbage, and 
 to know and cura many ailments which sometimes hurt 
 the creatures in our fields ; but, above all things, by as 
 much as I loved the white rose more than the hawthorn, 
 I loved best to sound my pipes and make them resound 
 through all bucolic notes and songs, songs of lament 
 and melancholy songs. So that one day the listening 
 oreads, fauns, dryads, sylphs, and satyrs, wept to hear, 
 and the more sovereign gods wept also, and the 
 shepherdess Margot who is of worth so great. Nt> 
 wonder that they wept, for I caused my pipes to sing 
 the death, alas, the death of Loisette, who now takes 
 delight in looking down from heaven upon her flocks 
 here below." 
 
 In Spenser this passage is paraphrased by the fol- 
 lowing stanzas : 
 
 "Then as the Spring gives place to elder time, 
 
 And bringeth forth the fruit of Summer's pride ; 
 
OF PA:N AND B.OBIN. 187 
 
 Also my age now passed youtbly prime 
 To things of riper season self applied, 
 And learned of lighter timber cotes to frame, 
 Such as might save my sheep and me from shame. 
 
 " To make fine cages for the nightingale, 
 
 And baskets of bulrushes was my wont : 
 Who to entrap the fish in winding saile 
 
 "Was better seen, or hurtful beasts to hunt ? 
 I learned also the signs of heaven to ken 
 How Phoebe fails, where Venus sits, and when. 
 
 " And trieM Time yet taught me greater things ; 
 
 The sudden rising of the raging seas, 
 The sooth of birds by beating of their wings, 
 
 The power of herbs, both which can hurt and ease, 
 And which be wont t' enrage the restless sheep, 
 And which be wont to work eternal sleep." 
 
 A stanza representing plaint of love is then substi- 
 tuted by Spenser for these next thoughts of Marot : 
 
 " Another time, for love of my beloved, I hung up 
 my pipes against all comers, and on that day it was 
 hard to know which of the two had won the prize, 
 Merlin or I, when with noble step Thony came into the 
 field to bring us to accord, and adorned two shepherds' 
 crooks of equal length with many violets, then gave 
 them to us for his pleasure, but I yielded the right of 
 choice to Merlin." 
 
 This is Marot's brotherly reference to Mellin do St. 
 Gelais,the poet of his own time, who stood next him- 
 self in reputation. The Thony who stepped nobly was 
 another poet of the day, distinct from Antoine Heroet. 
 Scattered about Marot's writing is abundant evidence 
 of his fine sense of the brotherhood of letters. The 
 
188 CLEMENT MAKOT'S ECLOGUE 
 
 sense of Ms own genius only made him the more able 
 to perceive and prompt to recognise the genius of 
 others. There was room in his heart to 
 
 "Welcome all who lead or follow 
 To the oracle of Apollo." 
 
 Love of his work meant brotherhood with all his 
 honest fellow workers, and with all who, out of fellow 
 feeling, gave to work of his and theirs willing atten- 
 tion. Marot proceeds : 
 
 "And dost thou think, O kind God Pan, that the 
 practice and the daily pains I took to sound the flute 
 were only that I might obtain the prize? No; but I 
 sought to learn so well that thou, who art the Prince of 
 Shepherds, shouldst take pleasure in the hearing of 
 my song, as in the hearing of the wave upon the shore, 
 or the fall of the water springs from the high rocks 
 into the valley. Truly this was the greatest care that 
 I had then, and I take to witness of it the golden 
 Phoebus, who looks down on me and sees me if this 
 close wood do not shut him out, and who has seen me 
 cross many a rock and many a flood that I might come 
 nearer to thee. 
 
 "Then did the gods of heaven and of earth make 
 *me so happy, even the wood gods, that thou hadst 
 pleasure in my little rustic notes, and didst listen to 
 my hymns and canticles, permitting me to sing them, 
 in thy temple, where still I contemplate the image of 
 thy grandeur which bears in one hand the rich and 
 strong pastoral crook of hard service -wood, and the 
 other holds the pipe of seven reeds, made according to 
 the harmony of the Heavens, wherein are the seven 
 
OF PAN AND ROBIN. 
 
 high and radiant gods, and denoting the seven Liberal 
 Arts which are inscribed within thy holy head girt 
 with its crown of pine. 
 
 " Thus and then in the Summer of my days it pleased 
 me more in our rustic meetings to have done that, O 
 Pan, which was pleasing to thee, or which might in 
 some measure delight thine ear, than to have as many 
 sheep as Tityrus. And a hundred times more did ii. 
 please me to hear said, ' Pan looks with favour on the 
 shepherd E/obin,' than to see three hundred cattle 
 about my home. For then I had no care within my 
 heart for cattle or for any pasturage. 
 
 " But now that I am in Autumn I know* not what 
 unaccustomed care surprises me, so that the strain of 
 song becomes in me, not weary or vain, but sad and 
 slow; and, in truth, often stretched on the grass, I 
 hear my pipes, hung on a tree in a fresh breeze, 
 murmur against me that I had made them idle. Then 
 suddenly desire awakes again, and wishing to do 
 wondrously in song, finds fixed before its eyes this 
 Care which makes it sad, dismays it ; for so swarthy 
 pale is Care, so ugly, that at sight of her the rustic 
 Muse, even the bold heroic Muse, is chilled. Both in 
 a moment turn and fly from her, like sheep before tlie 
 wolf's gaunt hideousness. 
 
 " I hear on the other side the harsh noise of the 
 wood-pecker, the kite whistle, and the bittern boom, 
 see the starling, the heron, and the swallow strangely 
 wheel about, warning me that cold has come of the sad 
 Winter that unclothes the earth. 'On the other side I 
 hear the north wind whistling winter, and my flocks, 
 in dread of it and worse, keep themselves . 
 
190 CLEMENT MAROT'S ECLOGUE 
 
 huddled in a heap. To hear them bleat one would say 
 that they wished with me to call tliee to their help, 
 and that they know that thou hast fed them from their 
 birth." 
 
 Spenser continues the adaptation of Marot's idea of 
 the change of seasons, the advent of winter to the love 
 plaint in his December eclogue. It will be enough to 
 quote two stanzas in illustration : 
 
 " So now my year draws to his latter term, 
 
 My spring is spent, my summer burnt up quite, 
 My harvest hastes to stir up winter stern 
 
 And bids him claim with rigorous rage his right. 
 So now his storms with many a sturdy stour, 
 So now his blustering blast each coast does scour. 
 
 " The careful cold hath nipped my rugged rind 
 
 And in my face "deep furrows eld hath piglit ; 
 , My head besprent with hoary frost I find, 
 
 And by mine eye the crow his claw doth wright. 
 Delight is laid abed ; and pleasure past ; 
 No sun now shines ; clouds have all overcast. " 
 
 Then follows Spenser's close. Thus ends Marot : 
 " I do not ask, O sovereign goodness, for two thou- 
 sand acres of pasture in Touraine, nor for a thousand 
 oxen wandering over the grass of the Auvergne hills. 
 It is enough for me if thou save my flock from the 
 wolves, the bears, tha> ; lions, and the lynxes, and me 
 from frost, for coming winter has" begun to snow upon 
 my head. 
 
 " Then Care will no more spoil my song, but fly 
 from me more swiftly than she makes the Muses fly 
 before her, when she shall see that I have thy favour. 
 Then my pipe which hangs from the oak will quickly 
 
OF PAN AND ROBIN. 191 
 
 be taken down by me, and I sliall sing in safety 
 throughout the winter, more loudly and clearly than 
 ever I did in summer time. Then in knowledge, 
 music, and tone, one of my verses shall be worth a 
 song, a song worth a rustic eclogue, and an eclogue a 
 bucolic. What shall I say more ? Let come what 
 may : rather shall the Rhone run upwards, rather 
 shall the great forest have no branches in it, swans 
 become black, crows white, than I forget thee, O Pan 
 great of renown, or cease to give praise to thy high 
 name. Up, my sheep, flock small and lean, leap 
 around me with glad heart, for already Pan from his 
 green mansion lias done this good to me, that he has 
 heard my prayer." 
 
 Edmund Kirke, whose explanations of the Shepherd's 
 Calendar fall very far short of a true insight into 
 his friend's work, makes one or two references to 
 Marot. In his gloss on Spenser's name of Colin 
 Clout taken undoubtedly from Skelton E. K. writes, 
 " Colin Clout is a name not greatly used, and yet 
 have I seen a poesy of M. Skelton's under that title. 
 But indeed the word of Colin is French, and used by 
 the French poet Marot, if he be worthy of the name 
 of a poet, in a certain Eclogue." On the name of 
 Roffy in the ninth Eclogue E. K. says that it is 
 "the name of a shepherd in Marot his eclogue of 
 Robin and the king." It is Marot's pastoral form of 
 the name of his publisher, Pierre Roft'et. Upon the 
 eleventh Eclogue, E. K. states in the argument that it 
 is made in imitation of " Marot his song, which he made 
 upon the death of Losie, the French Queen." But of 
 
CLEMENT MAROT S ECLOGUE. 
 
 the twelfth Eclogue he gives us no hint that it also is 
 made in imitation of one of " Marot his songs," being* 
 that one before men '" med of Robin and the King. 
 Thomas Warton was the first to point out the parallel, 
 but he .overstated it in saying that Spenser's twelfth 
 Eclogue was " literally translated " from Marot's Pan 
 and Robin. Less direct indications of the influence of 
 Marot on young Spenser are to be found also in other 
 passages of Spenser's early verse. 
 
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