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

564 POEMS OF EDMUND SPENSER. [APRIL.
He was so wimble and so wight,' Or is thy bagpipe broke, that sounds so sweet?
From bough to bough he leap6d light, Or art thou of thy loved lass forlorn?
And oft the pumies latched: 2 Or be thine eyes attemper'd to the year,
Therewith afraid I ran away; Quenching the gasping furrows' thirst with
But he, that erst 3 seem'd but to play, rain?
A shaft in earnest snatched, Like April show'r, so stream the trickling tears,
And hit me, running, in the heel: Adown thy cheek, to quench thy thirsty pain.
For then 4 I little smart did feel, H. Nor this, nor that, so much doth make me
But soon it sore increas6d; mourn,
And now it rankleth more and more, But for8 the lad, whom long I lov'd so dear,
And inwardly it fest'reth sore, Now loves a lass that all his love doth scorn:
Nor wot I how to cease it. He, plung'd in pain, his tress6d locks doth tear;
W. Thomalin, I pity thy plight, Shepherds' delights he doth them all forswear;
Pardie,5 with Love thou diddest fight; His pleasant pipe, which made us merriment,
I know him by a token: He wilfully hath broke, and doth forbear
For once I heard my father say, His wonted songs wherein he all outwent.9
How he him caught upon a day T. What is he for a lad 10 you so lament?
(Whereof he will be wroken 6), Is love such pinching pain to them that prove?
Entangled in a fowling net, And hath he skill to make 11 so excellent,
Which he for carrion crows had set Yet hath so little skill to bridle love?
That in our pear-tree haunted: H. Colin thou ken'st,12 the southern shepherd's
Then said, he was a winged lad, boy;
But bow and shafts as then none had, Him Love hath wounded with a deadly dart -
Else had he sore been daunted. Whilom on him was all my care and joy,
But see, the welkin thicks apace, Forcing with gifts to win his wanton heart.
And stooping Phoebus steeps his face; But now from me his madding mind is start,
It's time to haste us homeward. And wooes the widow's daughter of the glen;
So now fair Rosalind hath bred his smart;
WILLY'S EMBLEM: So now his friend is changid for a fren.13
To be wise and eke to love, 1'. But if his ditties be so trimly dight,
Is granted scarce to gods above. I pray thee, Hobbinol, record 14 some one,
The while our flocks do graze about in sight,
THOMALIN'S EMBLEM: And we close shrouded in this shade alone.
Of honey and of gall in love there is store; H. Contented I: then will I sing his lay
The honey is much, but the gall is more. Of fair Elisa, queen of shepherds all,
Which once he made as by a spring he lay,
And tunid it unto the waters' fall.
APRIL. " Ye dainty Nymphs, that in this blessed brook
Do bathe your breast,
ZEGLOGA QUARTA. -ARGUMENT. Forsake your watery bow'rs, and hither look,
This X.Jglogue is purposely intended to the honour and At my request.
praise of our most gracious Sovereign, Queen Eliza- And eke you Virgins, that on Parnass' dwell,
beth. The speakers herein be Hobbinol and Thenot, Whence floweth Helicon, the learn6d well,
two shepherds: the which Hobbinol, being before Help me to blaze
mentioned greatly to have loved Colin, is here set Her worthy praise,
forth more largely, complaining him of that boy's Which in her sex doth all excel.
great misadventure in love; whereby his mind was
alienated and withdrawn not only from him, who
most loved him, but also from all former delights Of far lisa be your silver song,
and studies, as well in pleasant piping, as cunning That blessid wight,
rhyming and singing, and other his laudable exer- The flow'r of virgins; may she flourish long
cises. Whereby he taketh occasion, for proof of his In princely plight!
more excellency and skill in poetry, to record a song,For she is Syrinx' daughter without spot
which the said Colin sometime made in honour of Which Pan,5 the shepherds' god, of her begot
her Majesty, whom abruptly he termeth Elisa. So sprg hr
So sprung her grace
Thenot. Hobbinol. Of heav'nly race,
No mortal blemish may her blot.
T. TELL me, good Hobbinol, what gars thee
greet? "See, where she sits upon the grassy green
What! hathsomewolfthy tenderlambsy-torn? (O seemly sight!)
So nimble and active. 2 Caught. 11 Versify. 12 Knowest.
3 Before. 4 At the time. 13 A stranger; otherwise "frem" or " fremd;" Ger5 Of a surety. 6 Revenged. man, Fremde." 14 Call to mind, rehearse.
7 What makes thee weep? 8 Because. 15 " By Pan is here meant the most famous and vic9 Excelled. torious king, her Highness's father, late of worthy
o0 What sort of lad is he? The idiom is that of the memory, King Henry the Eighth."-E. K. Syrinx,
Germans, " Was fur ein Junge ist er? " therefore, must signify Anne Boleyn.