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As that same apish crew is wont to do,
For he disdains himself to embase1 thereto.
He hates foul lesings2 and vile flattery,
Two filthy blots in noble genterie ;
And loathful idleness he doth detest,
The canker worm of every gentle breast;
The which to banish with fair exercise
Of knightly feats he daily doth devise:
Now menaging3 the mouths of stubborn steeds,
Now practising the proof of warlike deeds,
Now his bright arms assaying, now his spear,
Now the nigh-aimèd ring away to bear.
At other times he casts to sue the chase
Of swift wild beasts, or run on foot a race,

To enlarge his breath (large breath in arms most needful),
Or else by wrestling to wax strong and heedful,
Or his stiff arms to stretch with yewen5 bow....
Thus, when this courtly Gentleman with toil
Himself hath wearièd, he doth recoil
Unto his rest, and there, with sweet delight
Of Music's skill, revives his toilèd spright;
Or else with Love's and Ladies' gentle sports,
The joy of youth, himself he recomforts;
Or lastly, when the body list to pause,
His mind unto the Muses he withdraws :
Sweet lady Muses, ladies of delight,
Delights of life, and ornaments of light!

With whom he close confers, with wise discourse
Of Nature's works, of heaven's continual course,
Of foreign lands, of people different,

Of kingdom's change, of divers government,
Of dreadful battles of renowned knights;

With which he kindleth his ambitious sprights
To like desire and praise of noble fame,
The only upshot whereto he doth aim.
For all his mind on honour fixèd is,
To which he levels all his purposes,
And in his Prince's service spends his days;
Not so much for to gain, or for to raise
Himself to high degree, as for his grace,
And in his liking to win worthy place,
Through due deserts and comely carriage,
In whatso please 10 employ his personage

1 Debase.

5 Of yew.

9 Goal, end.

2 Lies.
6 Spirit.

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7 The course of the planets in their spheres, i.e. Astronomy.
10 His prince pleases to employ him.

8 Thoughts.

That may be matter meet to gain him praise :
For he is fit to use in all assays,1

Whether for arms and warlike amenance,2
Or else for wise and civil governance.
For he is practised well in policy,

And thereto doth his Courting most apply;
To learn the enterdeal3 of Princes strange,
To mark the intent of Councils, and the change
Of States, and eke1 of private men somewhile,
Supplanted by fine falsehood and fair guile;
Of all the which he gathereth what is fit
To enrich the store-house of his powerful wit;
Which, through wise speeches and grave conference,
He daily ekes and brings to excellence :

Such is the rightful Courtier.

THE MISERIES OF A COURT-LIFE.

So pitiful a thing is Suitor's state!
Most miserable man, whom wicked Fate
Hath brought to Court, to sue for "had I wist,"
That few have found and many one hath missed!
Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried,
What hell it is in sueing long to bide;
To lose good days that might be better spent ;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope; to pine with fear and sorrow;
To have thy Prince's grace, yet want her Peers';
To have thy asking, yet wait many years;
To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares;
To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs;
To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,
To spend, to give, to want, to be undone.
Unhappy wight, born to disastrous end,
That doth his life in so long tendance" spend !
Whoever leaves sweet home, where mean estate
In safe assurance, without strife or hate,
Finds all things needful for contentment meek,
And will to Court for shadows vain to seek,
Or hope to gain, himself will a daw try :8
That curse God send unto mine enemy!

1 Undertakings.

4 Also.

2 Behaviour. 3 Negotiation with foreign princes.

5 Increases.

6 Interpreted to mean "patronage," from the customary expression of patrons to their suitors, "Had I wist, I might have done so and so." 7 Waiting. 8 Will prove a jackdaw, a fool.

1 Sloth.

FROM THE TEARS OF THE MUSES.

TEARS OF EUTERPE (THE LYRIC MUSE).

A stony coldness hath benumbed the sense
And lively spirits of each living wight,
And dimmed with darkness their intelligence;
Darkness more than Cimmerians' daily night:
And monstrous Error, flying in the air,
Hath marred the face of all that seemèd fair :

Image of hellish horror, Ignorance;
Born in the bosom of the black Abyss,
And fed with Fury's milk for sustenance
Of his weak infancy; begot amiss

By yawning, Sloth on his own mother, Night;
So he1 his son's both sire and brother hight.2

He, armed with blindness and with boldness stout
(For blind is bold), hath our fair light defaced;
And, gathering unto him a ragged rout

Of Fauns and Satyrs, hath our dwellings rased;
And our chaste bowers, in which all virtue reigned,
With brutishness and beastly filth hath stained.
The sacred springs of horse-foot Helicon,3
So oft bedewed with our learned lays,
And speaking streams of pure Castalion,*
The famous witness of our wonted praise,

They trampled have, with their foul footings trade,5
And like to troubled puddles have them made.

Our pleasant groves, which planted were with pains,
That with our music wont so oft to ring,

And arbours sweet, in which the shepherd swains
Were wont so oft their pastorals to sing,

They have cut down, and all their pleasaunce marred,

That now no pastoral is to be heard.

Instead of them, foul goblins and shriek-owls

With fearful howling do all places fill;

And feeble Echo now laments and howls

The dreadful accents of their outcries shrill.

2 Was called.

3 Helicon, the Muses' mountain in Boeotia, where was the fountain Hippocrene,

made by the dint of the foot of the horse of Pegasus.

4 Castalia, the fountain of Delphi on Mount Parnassus, in Phocis.

5 Trodden.

So all is turned into wilderness,

Whilst Ignorance the Muses doth oppress.

And I, whose joy was erst with spirit full
To teach the warbling pipe to sound aloft,
My spirits now dismayed with sorrow dull,
Do moan my misery with silence soft:
Therefore I mourn and wail incessantly,
Till please the heavens afford me remedy.

FROM FOUR HYMNS IN HONOUR OF BEAUTY AND LOVE.

OF EARTHLY BEAUTY.

Hath white and red in it such wondrous power
That it can pierce through the eyes unto the heart,
And therein stir such rage and restless stour1
As nought but Death can stint his dolour's smart?2
Or can proportion of the outward part

Move such affection in the inward mind
That it can rob both sense and reason blind?3

Why do not then the blossoms of the field,
Which are arrayed with much more orient hue,
And to the sense most dainty odours yield,
Work like impression in the looker's view?
Or, why do not fair pictures like power show,
In which oft-times we nature see of art
Excelled, in perfect limning every part?

But ah, believe me, there is more than so,
That works such wonders in the minds of men !
I, that have often proved, too well it know,-
And who-so list the like assays to ken
Shall find by trial, and confess it then,—
That Beauty is not, as fond men misdeem,
An outward shew of things that only seem.

For that same goodly hue of white and red,
With which the cheeks are sprinkled, shall decay,
And those sweet rosy leaves, so fairly spread

1 Tumult. 2 Can stay the smart of its (the heart's) sorrow.
3 Both rob the sense and blind the reason.

4 Wishes.

5 Trials to know.

6 Foolish.

Upon the lips, shall fade and fall away
To that they were, even to corrupted clay;
That golden wire, those sparkling stars so bright,
Shall turn to dust and lose their goodly light:

But that fair lamp, from whose celestial ray
That light proceeds which kindleth lovers' fire,
Shall never be extinguished nor decay;
But, when the vital spirits do expire,
Unto her native planet shall retire;
For it is heavenly born, and cannot die,
Being a parcel1 of the purest sky.

For, when the Soul, the which derived was
At first out of that great immortal Spright2
By whom all live to love, whilom3 did pass
Down from the top of purest heaven's height
To be embodied here, it then took light
And lively spirits from that fairest Star

Which lights the world forth from his fiery car. . . .

Thereof it comes that these fair souls, which have
The most resemblance of that heavenly light,
Frame to themselves most beautiful and brave
Their fleshly bower, most fit for their delight,
And the gross matter by a soverain might
Tempers so trim, that it may well be seen
A palace fit for such a virgin queen.

So every spirit, as it is most pure,
And hath in it the more of heavenly light,
So it the fairer body doth procure
To habit in, and it more fairly dight1
With cheerful grace and amiable sight;
For of the soul the body form doth take;
For soul is form, and doth the body make.

FROM THE FAERY QUEENE.

THE RED-CROSS KNIGHT AND LADY Una.

A gentle Knight was pricking on the plain,
Y-clad in mighty arms and silver shield,
Wherein old dint of deep wounds did remain,
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
Yet arms till that time did he never wield.
3 Once on a time, long ago.

1 Part.

2 Spirit.

4 Adorn.

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