The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene &c., &c., &c., ed. for popular perusal with current illustrations and explanatory notes, by D. Laing Purves.

560 POEMS OF EDMUND SPENSER. [JANUARY.
Thy summer proud, with daffodillies dight; Yet for thou pleasest not where most I would;
And-now is come thy winter's stormy state, And thou, unlucky Muse, that wont'st to ease
Thy mantle marr'd wherein thou maskedst My musing mind, yet canst not when thou
late. should;
"Such rage as winter's reigneth in y heart, Both pipe and Muse shall sore the while
My life-blood freezing with unkindly cold;'by 6
Such stormy stours 1 do breed my baleful smart, So broke his oaten pipe, and down did lie.
As if my year were waste and waxen old; By that the welkd Phoebus 7 gan avail 8
And yet, alas! but now my spring begun, His weary wain; and now the frosty Night'And yet, alas! it is already done. Her mantle black through heav'n gan over"You naked trees, whose shady leaves are lost, hale:9
Whereinthe birdswerewontto buildtheir bow'r, Which seen, the pensive boy, half in despite,
And now are cloth'd with moss and hoary frost, Arose, and homeward drove his sunned sheep,
Instead of blossoms, wherewith your buds did Whose hanging heads did seem his careful
flow'r; case to weep.
I see yourtears that from your boughs do rain, COLINS EMBLEM
Whose drops in dreary icicles remain.
"All so my lustful leaf is dry and sear, Ancora speme. (Hope is my anchor.)
My timely buds with wailing all are wasted;
The blossom which my branch of youth did bear
With breathid sighs is blown away and blasted;
And from mine eyes the drizzling tears descend, FEBRUARY.
-As on your boughs the icicles depend..EGLOGA SECUNDA.-ARGUMENT.
"Thou feeble flock! whose fleece is rough and
rent, This.glogue is rather moral and general, than bent to
Whose knees are weak through fast and evil any secret or particular purpose. It specially confare, taineth a discourse of old age, in the person of TheMay'st witness well, by thy ill government not, an old shepherd, who, for his crookedness and
unlustiness, is scorned of Cuddie, an unhappy herdThy master's mind is overcome with care:an's boy. The atter very we accoreth with the
Thou weak, I wan; thou lean, I quite for- season of the month, the year now drooping, and as
lorn: it were drawing to his last age. For as in this time
With mourning pine I; you, with pining of year, so then in our bodies, there is a dry and
mourn, withering cold, which congealeth the curdled blood,
and freezeth the weather-beatenflesh, with storms of'"A thousand siths 2 Icurse that careful hour Fortune and hoar-frosts of Care. To which purWherein I long'd the neighbour town to see, pose the old man telleth a tale of the Oak and the
And eke ten thousand siths I bless the stour 3 Briar, so lively, and so feelingly, as, if the thing
Wherein I saw so fair a sight as she: were set forth in some picture before our eyes, more
Yet all for naught: such sight hath bred my lainy could not aear.
bane.
Ah, God! that love should breed both joy Cuddie. Thenot.
and pain! C. AH for pity! will rank winter's rage
c It is not Hobbinol4 wherefor I plain, These bitter blasts never gin t' assuage?
All be my love he seek with daily suit; The keen cold blows through my beaten hide,
His clownish gifts and court'sies I disdain, All as I were through'the body gride:l
His kids, his cracknels, and his early fruit. My ragged ronts all shiver and shake,
Ah, foolish Hobbinol! thy gifts be vain; As do high towers in an earthquake:
Colin them gives to Rosalind 5 again. They wont in the wind wag their wriggle tails
"I le tt ls (! wy I lov) Perk 12 as a peacock; but now it avails.13
"I love that lass (alas! why do I love?) complaines thou lazy lad,
1'. Lewdly 14 complainest, thou lazy lad,
And am forlorn (alas! why am I lorn?)
Of winter's wrack for making thee sad.
She deigns not my good wil, but doth reprove, O w w fo m g h sad.
She deigns not my good will, but dothreprove, Must not the world wend in his common course,
And of my rural music holdeth scorn.
And of my rural music holdeth scorn. From good to bad, and from bad to worse,
Shepherd's device she hateth as the snake, From worse unto that is worst of all,
And laughs the songs'that Colin Clout dothAnd then return to his former fall? 15
make. Who will not suffer the stormy time,
" Wherefore, my pipe, all be rude Pan thou Where will he live till the lusty prime? 16
please, Self have I worn out thrice thirty years,
1 Attacks, calamities. 6 Abide, suffer.
2 Times. 3 Occasion, chance. 7 The waning sun.
4 Under this name is understood to be represented 8 Bring down. 9 Draw over.
Spenser's University companion, Gabriel Harvey. 10 Pierced. 11 Young bullocks.
5 "Rosalind is a feigned name, which, being well 12 Pert, lively. 13 Droops.
ordered, will bewray the very name of his love and 14 Foolishly, ignorantly. 15 State.
mistress, whom by that name he coloureth."-E. K. 16 Spring.