1 Former ly. Uncer tain. THE VIIITH CANTO, (IMPERFECT.) I. WHEN I bethink me on that speech whilere1 Me seems, that though she all unworthy were Whose flow'ring pride, so fading and so fickle, Short Time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle! II. Then gin I think on that which Nature said, That is contrair to Mutability: For all that moveth doth in change delight: With Him that is the God of Sabaoth* hight: O! that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sabbath's sight! THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR: CONTAINING TWELVE ECLOGUES, PROPORTIONABLE TO THE TWELVE MONTHS. ENTITLED TO THE NOBLE AND VIRTUOUS GENTLEMAN, MOST WORTHY OF ALL TITLES BOTH OF LEARNING AND CHIVALRY, MASTER PHILIP SIDNEY. TO HIS BOOK. Go, little Book! thyself present, As child whose parent is unkent,1 To him that is the Presider t Of Nobleness and Chivalry: And if that Envy bark at thee, As sure it will, for succour flee Under the shadow of his wing. And, asked who thee forth did bring A shepherd's swain, say, did thee sing, All as his straying flock he fed : And, when his Honour has thee read Crave pardon for thy hardyhed. But, if that any ask thy name, Say, thou wert base-begot with blame: Forthy thereof thou takest shame. 2 TO THE MOST EXCELLENT AND LEARNED, BOTH ORATOR AND POET, MASTER GABRIEL HARVEY, HIS VERY SPECIAL AND SINGULAR GOOD FRIEND E. K. COMMENDETH THE GOOD LIKING OF THIS HIS GOOD LABOUR, AND THE PATRONAGE OF THE NEW POET. 2 UNCOUTH, unkiss'd, said the old famous poet Chaucer: whom for his excellency and wonderful skill in making, his scholar Lidgate, a worthy scholar of so excellent a master, calleth the loadstar of our language: and whom our Colin Clout in his Æglogue, calleth Tityrus the god of shepherds, comparing him to the worthiness of the Roman Tityrus, Virgil. Which proverb, mine own good friend M. Harvey, as in that good old poet it served well Pandar's purpose for the bolstering of his bawdy brocage, so very well taketh place in this our new Poet, who for that he is uncouth (as said Chaucer) is unkiss'd, and unknown to most men, is regarded but of a few. But I doubt not, so soon as his name shall come into the knowledge of men, and his worthiness be sounded in the trump of Fame, but that he shall be not only kiss'd, but also beloved of all, embraced of the most, and wonder'd at of the best. No less, I think, deserveth his wittiness in devising, his pithiness in uttering, his complaints of love so lovely, his discourses of pleasure so pleasantly, his pastoral rudeness, his moral wiseness, his due observing of decorum every where, in personages, in seasons, in matter, in speech; and generally, in all seemly simplicity of handling his matters, and framing his words: the which of many things which in him be strange, I know will seem the strangest, and words themselves being so ancient, the knitting of them so short and intricate, and the whole period and compass of speech so delightsome for the roundness, and so grave for the strangeAnd first of the words to speak, I grant they be something ness. hard, and of most men unused, yet both English, and also used of most excellent authors, and most famous poets. In whom, when as this our Poet hath been much travailed and throughly read, how could it be, (as that worthy orator said) but that walking in the sun, although for other cause he walked, yet needs he must be sunburnt; and, having the sound of those ancient poets still ringing in his ears, he must needs, in singing, hit out some of their tunes. But whether he useth them by such casualty and custom, or of set purpose and choice, as thinking them fittest for such rustical rudeness of shepherds, either for that their rough sound would make his rhymes more ragged and rustical; or else because such old and obsolete words are most used of country folk, sure I think, and think I think not amiss, that they bring great grace, and, as one would say, authority to the verse. For albe, amongst many other faults, it specially be objected of Valla against Livy, and of other against Sallust, that with over much study they affect antiquity, as covering thereby credence and honour of elder years; yet I am of opinion, and eke the best learned are of the like, that those ancient solemn words are a great ornament, both in the one, and in the other: the one labouring to set forth in his work an eternal image of antiquity, and the other carefully discoursing matters of gravity and importance. For, if my memory fail not, Tully in that book, wherein he endeavoureth to set forth the pattern of a perfect orator, saith that ofttimes an ancient word maketh the style seem grave, and as it were reverend, no otherwise then we honour and reverence gray hairs for a certain religious regard, which we have of old age. Yet neither every where must old words be stuffed in, nor the common dialect and manner of speaking so corrupted thereby, that, as in old buildings, it seem disorderly and ruinous. But all as in most exquisite pictures they use to blaze and pourtray not only the dainty lineaments of beauty, but also round about it to shadow the rude thickets and craggy clifts, that, by the baseness of such parts, more excellency may accrue to the principal: for oftentimes we find ourselves, I know not how, singularly delighted with the shew of such natural rudeness, and take great pleasure in that disorderly order. Even so do those rough and harsh terms enlumine, and make more clearly to appear, the brightness of brave and glorious words. So oftentimes a discord in music maketh a comely concordance: so great delight took the worthy poet Alceus to behold a blemish in the joint of a wellshaped body. But, if any will rashly blame such his purpose in choice of old and unwonted words, him may I more justly blame and |