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

-612 POEMS OF EDMUND SPENSER.
Whom thou dost so enforce 1 to deify: She is the blossom of grace and courtesy,
That woods, and hills, and valleys thou hast Adorned with all honourable parts:
made She is the branch of true nobility,
Her name to echo unto heaven high. Belov'd of high and low with faithful hearts.
But say, who else vouchsafed thee of grace?" Nor less praiseworthy Stella 9 do I read,
"They all," quoth he," me graced goodly well, Though naught my praises of her needed are,
That all I praise; but, in the highest place, Whom verse of noblest shepherd lately dead
Urania,2 sister unto Astrophel, Hath prais'd and rais'd above each other star.
In whose brave mind, as in a golden coffer, Nor less praiseworthy are the sisters three,
All heav'nly gifts and riches locked are; The honour of the noble family
More rich than pearls of Ind, or gold of Ophir, Of which I meanest boast myself to be,'And in her sex more wonderful and rare. And most that unto them I am so nigh:
Nor less praiseworthy I Theana 3 read,4 Phyllis, Charyllis, and sweet Amaryllis.1Q
Whose goodly beams, though they be overdight 5 Phyllis, the fair, is eldest of the three:
With mourning stole of careful widowhead, The next to her is bountiful Charyllis:
Yet, through that darksome veil do glister But th' youngest is the highest in degree.
bright; Phyllis, the flower of rare perfection,
She is the well of bounty and brave mind, Fair spreading forth her leaves with fresh deExcelling most in glory and great light: light,
She is the ornament of womankind, That, with their beauty's amorous reflexion,
And Court's chief garland, with all virtues dight. Bereave of sense each rash beholder's sight.
Therefore great Cynthia her in chiefest grace But sweet Charyllis is the paragon
Doth hold, and next unto herself advance, Of peerless price, and ornament of praise,
Well worthy of so honourable place, Admir'd of all, yet envied of none,
For her great worth and noble governance. Through the mild temperance of her goodly rays.
Nor less praiseworthy is her sister dear, Thrice happy do I hold thee, noble swain,
Fair Marian,6 the Muses' only darling: The which art of so rich a spoil possest,
Whose beauty shineth as the morning clear, And, it'embracing dear without disdain,
With silver dew upon the roses pearling. Hast sole possession in so chaste a breast:
Nor less praiseworthy is Mansilia,7 Of all the shepherds' daughters which there be,
Best known by bearing up great Cynthia's train: And yet there be the fairest under sky,
That same is she to whom Daphnaida Or that elsewhere I ever yet did see,
Upon her niece's death I did complain: A fairer nymph yet never saw mine eye;
She is the pattern of true womanhead, She is the pride and primrose of the rest,
And only mirror of feminity: Made by the Maker's self to be admired;
Worthy next after Cynthia to tread, And like a goodly beacon high addrest,n
As she is next her in nobility. That is with sparks of heav'nly beauty fired.
Nor less praiseworthy Galathea seems But Amaryllis, —whether fortunate,
Than best of all that honourable crew, Or else unfortunate, may I aread,l2
Fair Galathea with bright shining beanms, That freed is from Cupid's yoke by fate,
Inflaming feeble eyes that her do view. Since which she doth new bands' adventure
She there then waited upon Cynthia, dread?Yet there is not her won;8 but here with us, Shepherd, whatever thou hast heard to be
About the borders of our rich Coshma, In this or that prais'd diversely apart,
Now made of Maa the nymph delicious. In her thou may'st them all assembled see,
Nor less praiseworthy fair Nesera is, And seal'd up in the treasure of her heart.
Neaera ours, not theirs, though there she be; Nor thee less worthy, gentle Flavia,
For of the famous Shure the nymph she is, For thy chaste life and virtue I esteem:
For high desert advanc'd to that degree. Nor thee less worthy, courteous Candida,13
1 Endeavour. beth, the second daughter, who married Sir George
2 Mary, Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir Philip Carey, the son of Lord Hunsdon-to which title he suc.
Sidney; to whom Spenser dedicated "The Ruins of ceeded in 1596; Spenser addressed to her one of the
Time," and addressed one of the recommendatory recommendatory sonnets prefixed to "The Faerie
sonnets prefixed to "The Faerie Queen;" page 309. Queen," and dedicated to her "Muiopotmos." Cha3 Anne, widow of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, ryllis is Anne, the fifth daughter who successively
whom the poet has also eulogised in "The Ruins of married Lord Mounteagle, Lord Compton, and Lord
Time" (page 585). Buckhurst (Earl of Dorset in 1608); to her was dedicated
4 Declare, consider. 5 Covered over, veiled. "Mother Hubberd's Tale." Amaryllis is the sixth and
6 Margaret, Countess of Cumberland. youngest daughter, Alice, to whom-as Lady Strange
7 Helena, Marchioness of Northampton, to whom -the poet inscribed- "The Tears of the Muses," and
Spenser dedicated his "Daphnalda." who was now the widowed Countess of Derby, Lord
8 Dwelling. Strange having succeeded to the earldom in: 1592, and
9 Lady Penelope Devereux, daughter of the Earl of died two years afterwards. Not merely in the lines in
Essex, whom Sir Philip Sidney celebrated in his the text, but in all the three dedications which have
"Arcadia" under the name of "Philoclea," and under been mentioned, does the poet advance his claim to
that of " Stella" in his poems of Astrophel; she had kindred with the high-connected Spencers.
married Lord Rich, but was at this time a widow. 11 Placed, prepared. 1 Pronounce.
10 Three of the six daughters of Sir JohnSpencer of 13 Of Galathea, Neaera, Flavia, and Candida, nothing
Althorpe, from whom sprang the noble houses of is known farther than that the first two were Irish
Spencer and Marlborough. Phyllis represents Eliza. ladies.