VI.
Lastly, I saw an Arke of purest golde
Upon a brazen pillour standing hie, 660
Which th’ashes seem’d of some great prince to hold,
Enclosde therein for endles memorie
Of him whom all the world did glorifie:
Seemed the heavens with the earth did disagree,
Whether should of those ashes keeper bee. 665
At last me seem’d wing-footed Mercurie,
From heaven descending to appease their strife,
The arke did beare with him above the skie,
And to those ashes gave a second life,
To live in heaven, where happines is rife: 670
At which the earth did grieve exceedingly,
And I for dole was almost like to die.
L’Envoy.
Immortall spirite of Philisides,
Which now art made the heavens ornament,
That whilome wast the worldës chiefst riches. 675
Give leave to him that lov’de thee to lament
His losse by lacke of thee to heaven hent*,
And with last duties of this broken verse,
Broken with sighes, to decke thy sable herse!
[* Hent, taken away.]
And ye, faire Ladie! th’honor of your daies 680
And glorie of the world, your high thoughts scorne,
Vouchsafe this moniment of his last praise
With some few silver dropping teares t’adorne;
And as ye be of heavenlie off-spring borne,
So unto heaven let your high minde aspire, 685
And loath this drosse of sinfull worlds desire.
FOOTNOTES:
Ver. 8.—Verlame. Veralam, or Verulamium, was a British and Roman town, near the present city of St. Alban’s in Hertfordshire. Some remains of its walls are still perceptible. H.
Ver. 64.—Th’Assyrian Lyonesse. These types of nations are taken from the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel. H.
Ver. 190.—I saw him die. Leicester died at Cornbury Lodge, in Oxfordshire. Todd suggests that he may have fallen sick at St. Alban’s, and that Spenser, hearing the report in Ireland, may havo concluded without inquiry that this was the place of his subsequent death, C.
Ver. 225.—Colin Cloute. Spenser himself, who had been befriended by
Leicester. H.
Ver. 239.—His brother. Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick.
Ver. 245.—His noble spouse. Anne, the eldest daughter of Francis
Russell, Earl of Bedford.
Ver. 260.—His sister. Lady Mary Sidney.
Ver. 261.—That good earle, &c. This Earl of Bedford died in 1585.—
TODD.
Ver. 267.—He, noble bud, &c. Edward Russell, grandson of Francis Earl of Bedford, succeeded in the earldom, his father, Francis, having been slain by the Scots.—OLDYS.
Ver. 275.—That goodly ladie, &c. Lady Mary Sidney, mother of Sir
Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke.
Ver. 281.—Most gentle spirite. Sir Philip Sidney.
Ver. 317.—Thine owne sister, &c. The Countess of Pembroke, to whom this poem is dedicated. “The Dolefull Lay of Clorinda” (Vol. IV. p. 426) appears to have been written by her.
Ver. 436.—Good Melibae. Sir Francis Walsingham, who died April 6,1590. The poet is Thomas Watson.—OLDYS.
Ver. 447-455.—These lines are aimed at Burghley, who was said to have opposed the Queen’s intended bounty to the poet. C.
Ver 491.—These allegorical representations of the vanity of exalted position, stately buildings, earthly pleasures, bodily strength, and works of beauty and magnificence, admit of an easy application to the splendid career of the Earl of Leicester,—his favor and influence with the Queen, his enlargement of Kenilworth, his princely style of living, and particularly (IV.) his military command in the Low Countries. The sixth of these “tragick pageants” strongly confirms this interpretation. The two bears are Robert and Ambrose Dudley. While Leicester was lieutenant in the Netherlands, he was in the habit of using the Warwick crest (a bear and ragged staff) instead of his own. Naunton, in his Fragmenta Regalia, calls him Ursa Major. C.
Ver. 497.—The holie brethren, &c. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Daniel, ch. iii. C.
Ver. 582-586.—A paraphrase of Sir Philip’s last words to his brother.
“Above all, govern your will and affection by the will and word of your
Creator, in me beholding the end of this world with all her vanities.”
This is pointed out by Zouch, Life of Sidney, p. 263. C.
Ver 590.—This second series of pageants is applicable exclusively to Sir Philip Sidney. The meaning of the third and fourth is hard to make out; but the third seems to have reference to the collection of the scattered sheets of the Arcadia, and the publication of this work by the Countess of Pembroke, after it had been condemned to destruction by the author. The fourth may indeed signify nothing more than Lady Sidney’s bereavement by her husband’s death; but this interpretation seems too literal for a professed allegory. The sixth obviously alludes to the splendid obsequies to Sidney, performed at the Queen’s expense, and to the competition of the States of Holland for the honor of burying his body. C.
L’ENVOY: L’Envoy was a sort of postscript sent with poetical compositions, and serving either to recommend them to the attention of some particular person, or to enforce what we call the moral of them.— TYRWHITT.
THE TEARES OF THE MUSES.
BY ED. SP.
LONDON.
IMPRINTED FOR WILLIAM PONSONBIE,
DWELLING IN PAULES CHURCHYARD
AT THE SIGNE OF THE
BISHOPS HEAD.
1591.
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE
THE LADIE STRANGE.
Most brave and noble Ladie, the things that make ye so much honored of the world as ye bee are such as (without my simple lines testimonie) are throughlie knowen to all men; namely, your excellent beautie, your vertuous behavior, and your noble match with that most honourable Lord, the verie paterne of right nobilitie. But the causes for which ye have thus deserved of me to be honoured, (if honour it be at all,) are, both your particular bounties, and also some private bands of affinitie*, which it hath pleased your Ladiship to acknowledge. Of which whenas I found my selfe in no part worthie, I devised this last slender meanes, both to intimate my humble affection to your Ladiship, and also to make the same universallie knowen to the world; that by honouring you they might know me, and by knowing me they might honor you. Vouchsafe, noble Lady, to accept this simple remembrance, though not worthy of your self, yet such as perhaps by good acceptance thereof ye may hereafter cull out a more meet and memorable evidence of your own excellent deserts. So recommending the same to your Ladiships good liking, I humbly take leave.
Your La: humbly ever.
ED. SP.
[Footnote: Lady Strange was Alice Spencer, sixth daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe. C.]