The shepheardes calender conteyning tvvelue æglogues proportionable to the twelue monethes. Entitled to the noble and vertuous gentleman most worthy of all titles both of learning and cheualrie M. Philip Sidney.

March.

[illustration]

Aegloga Tertia.

ARGVMENT.

IN this Aeglogue two shepheards boyes taking occasion of the season, be∣ginne to make purpose of loue and other plesaunce, which to spring time is most agreeable. The speciall meaning hereof is, to giue certaine markes

and tokens, to know Cupide the Poets God of Loue. But more particularlye I thinke, in the person of Thomalin is meant some secrete freend, who scorned Loue and his knights so long, till at length him selfe was entangled, and vn∣wares wounded with the dart of some beautifull regard, which is Cupides arrowe.

• VVillye
• Thomalin.

THomalin, why sytten we soe, As weren ouerwent with woe, Vpon so fayre a morow? The ioyous time now nighest fast, That shall alegge this bitter blast, And slake the winters sorowe.

Thomalin.

Sicker Willye, thou warnest well: For Winters wrath beginnes to quell, And pleasant spring appeareth. The grasse nowe ginnes to be refresht, The Swallow peepes out of her nest, And clowdie Welkin cleareth.

VVillye.

Seest not thilke same Hawthorne studde, How bragly it beginnes to budde, And vtter his tender head? Flora now calleth forth eche flower, And bids make ready Maias bowre, That newe is vpryst from bedde. Tho shall we sporten in delight, And learne with Lettice to wexe light, That scornefully lookes askaunce, Tho will we little Loue awake, That nowe sleepeth in Let he lake, And pray him leaden our daunce.

Thomalin.

Willye, I wene thou bee assott: For lustie Loue still sleepeth not, But is abroad at his game.

VVillye.

How kenst thou, that he is awoke?

Or hast thy selfe his slomber broke? Or made preuie to the same?

Thomalin.

No, but happely I hym spyde, Where in a bush he did him hide, With winges of purple and blewe. And were not, that my sheepe would stray, The preuie marks I would bewray, Whereby by chaunce I him knewe.

VVillye.

Thomalin, haue no care for thy, My selfe will haue a double eye, Ylike to my flocke and thine: For als at home I haue a syre, A stepdame eke as whott as fyre, That dewly adayes counts mine.

Thomalin.

Nay, but thy seeing will not serue, My sheepe for that may chaunce to swerue, And fall into some mischiefe. For sithens is but the third morowe, That I chaunst to fall a sleepe with sorowe, And waked againe with griefe: The while thilke same vnhappye Ewe, Whose clouted legge her hurt doth shewe, Fell headlong into a dell, And there vnioynted both her bones: Mought her necke bene ioynted attones, She shoulde haue neede no more spell. Thelf was so wanton aud so wood, (But now I trowe can better good) She mought ne gang on the greene,

VVillye.

Let be, as may be, that is past: That is to come, let be forecast. Now tell vs, what thou hast seene.

Thomalin.

It was vpon a holiday,

When shepheardes groomes han leaue to playe, I cast to goe a shooting. Long wandring vp and downe the land, With bowe and bolts in either hand, For birds in bushes tooting: At length within an Yuie todde (There shrouded was the little God) I heard a busie bustling. I bent my bolt against the bush, Listening if any thing did rushe, But then heard no more rustling. Tho peeping close into the thicke, Might see the mouing of some quicke, Whose shape appeared not: But were it faerie, feend, or snake, My courage earnd it to awake, And manfully thereat shotte. With that sprong forth a naked swayne, With spotted winges like Peacocks trayne, And laughing lope to a tree. His gylden quiuer at his backe, And siluer bowe, which was but slacke, Which lightly he bent at me. That seeing I, leuelde againe, And shott at him with might and maine, As thicke, as it had hayled. So long I shott, that al was spent: Tho pumie stones I hastly hent, And threwe: but nought availed: He was so wimble, and so wight, From bough to bough he lepped light, And oft the pumies latched. Therewith affrayd I ranne away: But he, thast earst seemd but to playe, A shaft in earnest snatched, And hit me running in the heele: For then I little smart did feele:

But soone it sore encreased. And now it ranckleth more and more, And inwardly it festreth sore, Ne wote I, how to cease it.

VVillye.

Thomalin, I pittie thy plight. Perdie with loue thou diddest fight: I know him by a token. For once I heard my father say, How he him caught vpon a day, (Whereof he wilbe wroken) Entangled in a fowling net, Which he for carrion Crowes had set, That in our Peeretree haunted. Tho sayd, he was a winged lad, But bowe and shaftes as then none had: Els had he sore be daunted. But see the Welkin thicks apace, And stouping Phebus steepes his face: Yts time to hast vs homeward.

Willyes Embleme.

To be wise and eke to loue, Is graunted scarce to God aboue.

Thomalins Embleme.

Of Hony and of Gaule in loue there is store: The Honye is much, but the Gaule is more.

GLOSS.

THIS Aeglogue seemeth somevvhat to resemble that same of Theocritus, vvherein the boy likewise telling the old man, that he had shot at a vvinged boy in a tree, vvas by hym warned, to beware of mischiefe to come.

Ouer vvent) ouergone

To quell) to abate.

Alegge) to lessen or asvvage.

VVelkin) the skie.

The swallow) vvhich bird vseth to be counted the messenger, and as it vvere, the fore∣runner of springe.

Flora) the Goddesse of flovvres, but indede (as saith Tacitus) a famous harlot, which vvith the abuse of her body hauing gottē great riches, made the people of Rome her heyre: who in remembraunce of so great beneficence, appointed a yearely feste for the memoriall of her, calling her, not as she was, nor as some doe think, An∣dronica, but Flora: making her the Goddesse of all floures, and doing yerely to her solemne facrifice.

Maias bovvre) that is the pleasaunt fielde, or rather the Maye bushes. Maia is a Goddes and the mother of Mercurie, in honour of whome the moneth of Maye is of her name so called, as sayth Macrobius.

Lettice) the name of some country lasse.

Ascaunce) askevve or asquint. For thy) therefore.

Lethe) is a lake in hell, vvhich the Poetes call the lake of forgetfulnes. For Lethe signifi∣eth forgetfulnes. VVherein the soules being dipped, did forget the cares of their former lyfe. So that by loue sleeping in Lethe lake, he meaneth he vvas almost forgotten and out of knovvledge, by reason of winters hardnesse, when al plea∣sures as it were, sleepe and weare oute of mynde.

Assotte) to dote.

His slomber) To breake Loues slomber, is to exercise the delightes of Loue and wan∣ton pleasures.

VVinges of purple) so is he feyned of the Poetes.

For als) he imitateth Virgils verse.

Est mihi namque domi pater, est iniusta nouerca &c.

A dell) a hole in the ground.

Spell) is a kinde of verse or charme, that in elder tymes they vsed often to say ouer euery thing, that they would haue preserued, as the Nightspel for theeues, and the vvoodspell. And herehence I thinke is named the gospell, as it were Gods spell or vvorde. And so sayth Chaucer, Listeneth Lordings to my spell.

Gange) goe.

An Yuie todde) a thicke bushe.

Swaine) a boye: For so is he described of the Poetes, to be a boye. s alwayes freshe and lustie: blindfolded, because he maketh no difference of Personages: wyth diuers coloured winges,. s ful of flying fancies: vvith bovve and arrow, that is vvith glaunce of beautye, vvhich prycketh as a forked arrowe. He is sayd also to haue shafts, some leaden, some golden: that is, both pleasure for the gracious and loued, and sorovv for the louer that is disdayned or forsaken. But vvho liste more at large to behold Cupids colours and furniture, let him reade ether Pro∣pertius, or Mofchus his Idyllion of wandring loue, being now most excellently translated into Latine by the singuler learned man Angelus Politianus: whych vvorke I haue seene amongst other of thys Poets doings, very wel translated al∣so into Englishe Rymes.

VVimble and vvighte) Quicke and deliuer.

In the heele) is very Poetically spoken, and not vvithout speciall iudgement. For I re∣member, that in Homer it is sayd of Thetis, that shee tooke her young babe A∣chilles being nevvely borne, and holding him by the heele, dipped him in the

Riuer of Styx. The vertue vvhereof is, to defend and keepe the bodyes vvashed therein from any mortall vvound. So Achilles being washed al ouer, saue onely his hele, by which his mother held, was in the rest in vulnerable: therfore by Pa∣ris vvas feyned to bee shotte vvith a poyfoned arrowe in the heele, vvhiles he vvas busie about the marying of Polyxena in the temple of Apollo. which my∣sticall fable Eustathius vnfolding, sayth: that by vvounding in the hele, is meant lustfull loue. For from the heele (as say the best Phisitions) to the preuie partes there passe certaine veines and slender synnevves, as also the like come from the head, and are carryed lyke little pypes behynd the eares: so that (as sayth Hipo∣crates) yf those veynes there be cut a sonder, the partie straighte becōmeth cold and vnfruiteful. vvhich reason our Poete vvel weighing, maketh this shepheards boye of purpose to be vvounded by Loue in the heele.

Latched) caught. VVroken) reuenged.

For once) In this tale is sette out the simplicitye of shepheards opinion of Loue.

Stouping Phaebus) Is a Periphrasis of the sunne setting.

Embleme. Hereby is meant, that all the delights of Loue, wherein vvanton youth vvallovveth, be but follye mixt vvith bitternesse, and sorovv savvced with repentaunce. For be∣sides that the very affection of Loue it selfe tormenteth the mynde, and vexeth the body many vvayes, vvith vnrestfulnesse all night, and vvearines all day, see∣king for that we can not haue, & fynding that we would not haue: euē the selfe things vvhich best before vs lyked, in course of time and chaung of ryper yeares, vvhiche also there vvithall chaungeth our vvonted lyking and former fantasies, vvill then seeme lothsome and breede vs annoyaunce, vvhen yougthes flovvre is vvithered, and vve fynde our bodyes and vvits aunswere not to suche vayne iollitie and lustfull pleasaunce.