—Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act ii, sc. vii.
"Know one false step is ne'er retrieved . . .
Nor all that glisters gold."
—Gray, On a Favourite Cat, etc.
fayre. Fairly. An old form of the adverb, sanctioned by very old usage, but not current in Spenser's time.
[2.] princes court. Spenser had had experience of the many bitter disappointments which befall him who seeks the favor of royalty. In "Mother Hubbard's Tale" he complains in this wise:
"Full little knowest thou that hast not tride,
What hell it is in suing long to bide:
To lose good dayes that might be better spent;
To wast long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed today, to be put back tomorrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow;
To have thy Princes grace, yet want her Peeres;
To have thy asking, yet waite manie yeeres;
To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;
To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires;
To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne;
To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne."
[3.] silver streaming Themmes. Sir John Denham's apostrophe to the Thames is well known:
"Oh, could I flow like thee, and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage; without overflowing full."
—Cooper's Hill, 189.
And Pope praises the stream in still more extravagant terms: