HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SUR- In faith, methink, some better ways

REY (1517-1547)*

DESCRIPTION OF SPRING, WHEREIN EACH THING
RENEWS, SAVE ONLY THE LOVER

The soote1 season that bud and bloom forth
brings

With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale;
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make2 hath told her tale:
Summer is come, for every spray now springs;|
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter cote he flings;
The fishes flete with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she slings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;
The busy bee her honey now she mings3.
Winter is worn, that was the flowers' bale:
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.

A PRAISE OF HIS Love, WHEREIN HE
REPROVETH THEM THAT COMPARE THEIR
LADIES WITH HIS

Give place, ye lovers, here before,

On your behalf might well be sought,
Than to compare, as ye have done,
To match the candle with the sun.

DEPARTURE OF AENEAS FROM DIDO
Such great complaints brake forth out of
her breast;

Whiles Aeneas full minded to depart,
All things prepared, slept in the poop on high.
To whom in sleep the wonted godhead's form
'Gan aye appear, returning in like shape1
As seemed him, and 'gan him thus advise,
Like unto Mercury in voice and hue,
With yellow bush2, and comely limbs of youth:
"O goddess' son, in such case canst thou

sleep,

Ne yet, bestraughts, the dangers dost foresee
That compass thee, nor hear 'st the fair winds
blow?

Dido in mind rolls vengeance and deceit;
Determ'd to die, swells with unstable ire.
Wilt thou not flee whiles thou hast time of
flight?

Straight shalt thou see the seas covered with
sails,

That spent your boasts and brags in vain; The blazing brands the shore all spread with

Or brightest day the darkest night.

And thereto hath a troth as just

As had Penelope the fair;
For what she saith, ye may it trust
As it by writing sealed were.
And virtues hath she many moe
Than I with pen have skill to show.

I could rehearse, if that I would,

The whole effect4 of Nature's plaint When she had lost the perfect mold,

The like to whom she could not paint.
With wringing hands how she did cry,
And what she said, I know it, I.

I know she swore with raging mind,
Her kingdom only set apart,
There was no loss, by law of kind5,

That could have gone so near her heart.
And this was chiefly all her pain:
She could not make the like again.

Sith nature thus gave her the praise
To be the chiefest work she wrought,

flame,

And if the morrow steal upon thee here.
Come off, have done, set all delay aside;
For full of change these women be alway."
This said, in the dark night he 'gan him hide.
Aeneas, of this sudden vision

Adread, starts up out of his sleep in haste,
Calls up his feress: "Awake, get up, my

men!

Aboard your ships, and hoise up sail with
speed.

A god me wills, sent from above again,
To haste my flight and wreathen cables cut.
O holy god, whatso thou art, we shall
Follow thee, and all blithe obey thy will.
Be at our hand and friendly us assist;
Address the stars with prosperous influence."'
And with that word his glistering sword un-
sheaths,

With which drawn he the cables cut in twain.
The like desire the rest embraced all.

All things in haste they cast, and forth they
whirl;

The shores they leave; with ships the seas are spread:

Cutting the foam by the blue seas thay sweep. (From the Translation of the Fourth Book of Virgil's Aeneid.)

Helpe then, O holy Virgin chiefe of nine,
Thy weaker Novice to performe thy will;
Lay forth cut of thine everlasting scrynes

QUEENE OF ENGLAND, FRAUNCE, AND IRELAND, The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still,

AND OF VIRGINIA,

DEFENDOUR OF THE FAITH, &C.

HER MOST HUMBLE SERVAUNT

EDMUND SPENSER

DOTH IN ALL HUMILITIE
DEDICATE, PRESENT, AND CONSECRATE
THESE HIS LABOURS

TO LIVE WITH THE ETERNITIE
OF HER FAME.

1

Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome1 did maske, As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds2,

Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,

1 formerly

2 Referring to the Shepheardes Calender, a pastoral
See Eng. Lit., 89-90.
poem.

*The Faerie Queene is an allegory designed to set
forth "a gentleman or noble person in virtuous
and gentle discipline." The central characters
are Gloriana, the queen of an imaginary

Of Faerie knights and fairest Tanaquill,
Whom that most noble Briton Princes so long
Sought through the world, and suffered so
much ill,

That I must rue his undeserved wrong:

O helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull tong.

3

And thou most dreaded impes of highest Jove,
Faire Venus sonne, that with thy cruell dart
At that good knight so cunningly didst rove,
That glorious fire it kindled in his hart,
Lay now thy deadly Heben10 bow apart,
And with thy mother milde come to mine ayde;
Come both, and with you bring triumphant
Mart11,

In loves and gentle jollities arrayd,
After his murdrous spoiles and bloudy rage
allayd.

bright,

4

("faerie") court, who symbolizes Glory, and And with them eke, O Goddesse heavenly her suitor Prince Arthur, who stands for Magnificence (Munificence), "which virtue is the perfection of all the rest." Besides these, the twelve moral virtues were to have been separately represented by twelve knights. each performing deeds and overcoming temptations according to his character. But as the poet's design was never finished, only half these virtues get representation, and the central characters receive rather less prominence

The

than the six several virtues which are set
forth in the six completed books. Each of
these books, consisting of twelve cantos, is
practically a complete story in itself.
first deals with the Knight of the Red Cross,
or Holiness, who, clad in the armor of the
Christian faith, is sent forth by his Queen as
the champion of Ina (Truth) to deliver her
parents, "who had been by an huge dragon
many years shut up in a brasen castle." Be-
neath the moral allegory may be read also a
political one, according to which Gloriana is
Queen Elizabeth, Prince Arthur is Lord
Leicester, Duessa is Mary Queen of Scots, etc.
But after all, the poetry of the poem is
worth far more than the elaborate allegory.
The language and spelling are deliberately
and sometimes falsely archaic. See Eng. Lit.,
pp. 91-94.

Mirrour of grace and Majestie divine,
Great Lady of the greatest Isle, whose light
Like Phoebus lampe12 throughout the world
doth shine,

Shed thy faire beames into my feeble eyne,
And raise my thoughts, too humble and too
vile,

To thinke of that true glorious type of thine,
The argument of mine afflicted stile13:
The which to heare, vouchsafe, O dearest
dred11, a-while.

THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSS AND HIS FIGHT | Seemed in heart some hidden care she had, WITH THE MONSTER ERROR. THE WILES

Which when by tracti they hunted had A thousand yong ones25, which she dayly fed,

She lookt about, and seeing one in mayle
Armed to point26, sought backe to turne
againe;

For light she hated as the deadly bale,
Ay wont in desert darknesse to remaine,
Where plain none might her see, nor she see
any plaine.

17

27

His Ladie seeing all that chaunst, from farre
Approcht in hast to greet his victorie,
And said, Faire knight, borne under happy
starre,

Who see your vanquisht foes before you lye:
Well worthie be you of that Armorie32,
Wherein ye have great glory wonne this day,
And proov'd your strength on a strong enimie,

Which when the valiant Elfe perceiv'd, he lept | Your first adventure: many such I pray,
As Lyon fierce upon the flying pray,

And with his trenchand blade her boldly kept
From turning backe, and forced her to stay:
Therewith enrag'd she loudly gan to bray,
And turning fierce, her speckled taile advaunst,
Threatning her angry sting, him to dismay:
Who nought aghast his mightie hand en-

haunst27:

And henceforth ever wish that like succeed it may.

28

Then mounted he upon his Steede againe,
And with the Lady backward sought to wend;
That path he kept which beaten was most
plaine,

Ne33 ever would to any by-way bend,
The stroke down from her head unto her But still did follow one unto the end,

shoulder glaunst.