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

308 THE FAERIE QUEEN.
To you this humble present I prepare, of the Noble Order of the Garter, and one of
For love of virtue and of martial praise; her Majesty's Privy Council, &c.
To which though nobly ye inclined are AND ye, brave Lord,-whose goodly personage
(As goodly well ye show'd in late assays), And noble deeds, each other garnishing,
Yet brave ensample of long passed days, Make you example, to the present age,
In which true honour ye may fashion'd see, Of the old heroes, whose famofis offspring
To like desire of honour may ye raise, The antique poets wont so much to sing, -
And fill your mind with magnanimity. In this same pageant have a worthy place,
Receive it, Lord, theref6re, as it was meant, Since those huge castles of Castilian King,
For honour of your name and high descent. That vainly threaten'd kingdoms to displace,
Like flying doves ye did before you chase;
And that proud people, waxen 18 insolent
To the most Honourable and excellent Lord the Through many victories, didst first deface:
Earl of Essex,2 Great Master of the Horse Thy praise's everlasting monument
to her Highness, and Knight of the Noble Is in this verse engraven semblably,14
Order of the Garter, &c. That it may live to all posterity. E. S.
3MAGNIFIO Lord, whose virtues excellent
Do merit a most famous poet's wit
To be thy living praise's instrument; To the Right Honourable the Lord of Hunsdon,5
Yet do not sdeign3 to let thy name be writ High Chamberlain to her Majesty.
In this base poem, for thee far unfit; RENOWNED Lord, that, for your worthiness
Naught is thy worth disparaged thereby. And noble deeds, have your deserved place
Blt when my Muse,-whose feathers, nothing High in the favour of that Emperess,
flit,4 The world's sole glory and her sex's grace;
Do yet but flag and lowly learn to fly,- Here eke of right have you a worthy place,
With bolder wing shall dare aloft to sty 5 Both for your nearness to that Faery Queen,
To the last praises of this Faery Queen; And for your own high merit in like case:
Then shall it make most famous memory Of which, apparent proof was to be seen
Of thine heroic parts, such as they been: 6 When that tumultuous rage and fearful deenl6
Till then, vouchsafe thy noble countenance Of Northern rebels ye did pacify,l7
To their first labour's needed furtherance. And their disloyal power defaced clean,
E. S. The record of enduring memory.
Live, Lord, for ever in this lasting verse,
To the Right Honourable the Earl of Ormond That all posterity thy honour may rehearse.
and Ossory.7 E. S.
RECEIVE, most noble Lord, a simple taste
Of the wild fruit which salvages soil hath To the most renowned and valiant Lord, the
bred; Lord Grey of Wilton, Knight of the Noble
Which, being through long wars left almost Order of the Garter, &c.
waste, MOST noble Lord, the pillar of my life,
With brutish barbarism is overspread: And patron of my Muse's pupilage;
And, in so fair a land as may be read,9 Through whoselarge bounty,pourid on merife
Not one Parnassus, nor one Helicon In the first season of my feeble age,
Left for sweet Muses to be harboured, I now do live bound yours by vassalage
But where thyself hast thy brave mansin: (Since nothing ever may redeem, nor reave 18
There indeed dwell fair Graces many one, Out of your endless debt, so sure a gage 19);.
And gentle Nymphs, delights of learned wits; Vouchsafe in worth this small gift to receive,
And in thy person, without paragon,l0 Which in your noble hands for pledge I leave
All goodly bounty and true honour sits. Of all the rest that I am tied t' account: 20
Such therefore, as that wasted soil doth yield, Rude rhymes, the which a rustic Muse did
Receive, dear Lord, in worth," the fruit of weave
barren field. E. S. In salvage 8 soil, far from Parnassus Mount,
And roughly wrought in an unlearned loom:
To the Right Honourable the Lord Charles How. The which vouchsafe, dear Lord, your favourard, Lord high Admiral of England,l2 Knight able doom.21 E. S.
1 Essays, trials. 9 Read of, found. 10 Equal; rival.
2 Robert Devereux, who succeeded his father Walter li As worthy of your esteem.
in the Earldom in 1576; he was Queen Elizabeth's 12 Who commanded at sea against the Spanish
favourite, made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1599, and Armada in 1588. 13 Grown.
beheaded 1601. 14 With faithful resemblance.
3 Disdain; from Italian, "sdegnare." 15 Henry Carey, first Baron Hunsdon; he died in
4 Fleet, swift. 1596. His mother was sister to Anne Boleyn; so that
5 Ascend; German, "steigen," to climb, mount. Queen Elizabeth was his cousin. 16 Din
6 Are. 17 In the Rebellion of the North in 1569.
7 Lieutenant-General of the Army in Ireland when 18 Pluck away. 19 Pledge.
Spenser sent to him his first three books; he lived in 20 For which I am bound to account.
Ireland. 8 Savage, uncultured. 21 Judgment.