But hydes of beasts, which when they liv'd they of their choice beauties, nor for Ceres' loade kept,

The fertile lands burd'ned with needlesse woaded Sero'd them for bed and cov'ring when they slept. Through the wide seas no winged pine did goe If any softer lay, 'twas (by the losse

To lands unknowne for staining indico; Of some rock's warmth) on thicke and spungy, Nor men in scorching clymates moor'd their keelo mosse,

To trafficke for the costly coucheneele. Or on the ground: some simple wall of clay Unknown was then the Phrygian brodery, Parting their beds from where their cattle lay: The Tyrian purple, and the scarlet dye, And on such pallats one man clipped then Such as their sheepe: clad, such they wove and wore, More golden slumbers than this age agen.

Russet or white, or those mixt, and no more: That time physitians trivd not : or if any, Except sometimes (to bravery inclinde) I dare say, alt: get then were thrice as many They dyde them yealow caps with alder rynde As now profess't, and more; for every man The Græcian mantle, Tuscan robes of state, Was his own patient and physician.

Tissue por cloth of gold of highest rate, None had a body then so weake and thin, They never saw ; onely in pleasant woods, Bankrupt of Nature's store, to feede the siane Or by th' embordered margin of the foods, Of an insatiate female, in whose wombe,

The dainty nymphs they ofteu did behold Could Nature all hers past, and all to come Clad in their light silke robes, stitcht oft with gold, Infuse, with vertue of all drugs beside,

The așras hangings round their comely hals, She might he tyr'd, but never satisfied.

Wanted the cerite's web and minerals : To please which orke her husband's weak’ned peece Greene boughes of trees with fatning acomes lade, Must have his collis mixt with amber-greece, Hung full with flowres and garlands quaintly Pheasant and partridge into jelly turnd,

made, Grated with gold, seven times refind and burn'd, Their homely cotes deck'd trim in low degree, With dust of orient pearle, richer the east As now the court with richest tapistry. Yet ne're beheld : (0 Epicurean feast!)

Instead of cushions wrought in windowes laine, This is his breakfast, and his meale at night They pick'd the cockle from their fields of graine, Possets, no lesse provoking appetite,

Sleepe-bringing poppy (by the plow-men late Whose deare ingredients valew'd are at more Not without cause to Ceres conseerate) Than all his ancestors were worth before.

For being round and full at his halfe birth When such as we by poore and simple fare It signifid the perfect orbe of Earth; More able lip'd and dyde not without beyre, And by his inequalities when blowne, Sprung from our own loynes, and a spotlesse bed The Earth's low vales and higher bills were showne; Of any other powre umseconded :

By multitude of graines it beld within, When th other's issue (like a man falne sicke, Of men and beasts the number noted bin ; Or through the fever, gout, or lanatike,

And she since taking care all earth to please, Changing bis doctors oft, each as his notion Had in her Thesbiophoria off'red these. Prescribes a ser'rall dyet, sev'rall potion,

Or cause that seede our elders us'd to eate, Meeting his friend (who meet we now-a-dayes With honey mixt (and was their after meate) That hath not some receipt for each Jisease?) Or since her daughter that she lov'd so will, He tels him of a plaister, which he takes; By him that in th' infernall shades doth dwell, And finding after that, his torments slakes, And on the Stygian bankes for ever raignes (Whether because the humour is out-wrought, (Troubled with horrid cryes and noyse of chaines) Or by the skill which his physilian brought, (Fairest Proserpina) was rapt away ; It makes no matter :) for he surely thinkes And she in plaints, the night; in teares, the day None of their purges, nor their dyet drinkes Had long time spent; when no high power could Have made him sonnd; but his beliefe is fast

give her That med'cine was his health which he tooke last: Any redresse ; the poppy did relieve her : So (by a mother) being taught to call

For eating of the seedes they sleepe procur'u, One for his father, though a sonne to all, And so beguild those griefes she long endur'd. His mother's often 'scapes, (though:truely knowne) Or rather since her love (then happy map) Cannot divert him ; but will ever owne

Micon (ycleep'd) the brare Athepian, For his begetter, him, whose name and rents Had beene transform'd into this gentle Howre He must inhierit. Such are the descents

And his protection kept from Flora's powre. Of these men: to make up whose limber heyre" The daizy scattred on each meade and downe, As many as in him, must have a share ;

A golden tuft within a silver crowne' When he that keepes the last yet least adoe, (Fayre fall that dainty flowre! and may there be Fathers the people's childe, and gladly too. No shepheard grac'd that doth not honour thee !)

Iłappyer those times were, when the flaxen clew The primrose, when with sixe leaves gotten grace By fairë Arachne's hand the Lydians kuew, Maids as a true-love in their bosomes place; And sought not to the worme for silken threds, The spotlesse lilly, by whose pure leares be To rowle their bodies in, or dresse their heads. Noted, the chaste thoughts of virginitie; When wise Minerva did th’ Athenians teame Carnations sweet with colour bike the fire, To draw their milk-white fleeces into Farne; The fit impresa's for inflam'd desire; And knowing not the mixtures which bogati (Of colours) from the Babilonian,

Otopapógiai and Sneharpese were sacrifices pecuNor wool in Sardis dyde, more various knownte liar to Ceres, the one for beiwg a law-giver, the By baes, than Iris to the world hath showne: other as goddesse of the grounds. The bowels of our mother were not ript

• See Claudian's Rape of Proserpine. For mader-pits, nor the sweet meadowes stript • Vide Serviam in Virg. Georg. 1.

The hare-belle for her stainlesse azar'd hue, They thought that Heaven to him no-life did give,
Claimes to be worge of none but those are true; Who onely thought upon the meanes to live,
The rose, like ready youth, inticing stands, Nor wish'd they 'twere ordain'd to live here ever
And would be cropt if it might choose the hands; But as life was ordain'd they might persever.
The yealow king-cup, Flora themn assign'd

O happy men ! you ever did possesse
To be the badges of a jealous minde ;

No wisedome, but was mixt with simplenesse; The oriage-tawny marigold, the night

So, wanting malice: and from folly free, Hides not her colour from a searching sight. Since reason went with you simplicitie. To thee then dearest friend (my song's chief mate) You search'd yourselves if all within were faire, This colour chiefely I appropriate,

And did not learne of others what you were. That,'spite of all the mists oblivion can

Your lives the patterns of those vertues gave Or envious frettings of a guilty man,

Which adulation tels men now they have. Retain'st thy worth ; nay, mak'st it more in prise, With povertie, in love we onely close, Like tennis-bals throwne downe hard, highest rise. Because our lovers it most truely showes: The columbine in tawny often taken,

When they who in that blessed age did more, Is then ascrib'd to such as are forsaken ;

Knew neyther poverty nor want of love. Flora's choice buttons of a russet dye

The hatred which they bare was onely this, Is hope even in the depth of misery.

That every one did hate to doe amisse. The pansie, thistle, all with prickles set,

Their fortune still was subject to their will: The cowslip, honeysuckle, violet,

Their want (0 happy !) was the want of ill.. And many hundreds more that grac'd the meades, Ye trúest, fairest, lovelyest nymphs that can Gardens and groves (where beauteous Flora treads) | Out of your eyes lend fire Promethian. Were by the shepheardzo daughters (az yet are All-beauteous ladies, love-alluring dames, Us’d in our cotes) brougbt home with speciall care: That on the banks of Isca, Humber, Thames, For bruising them they not alone would quell By your incouragement can make a swaine But rot the rest, and spoile their pleasing smell. Climbe by his song where none but soules attaine: Much like a law, who in his tender prime And by the gracefull reading of our lines Sent from his friends to learn the use of time, Renew our beate to further brave designes : As are bis mates, or good or bad, so he

(You, by whose meanes my Muse thus boldly sayes: Thrives to the world, and such his actions be. Though she doe sing of shepheards' loves and layes,

As in the rainbowe's many coloured hewe And fagging weakly lowe gets not on wing Here see we watchet deep'ned with a blewe, To second that of Hellen's ravishing : There a darke tawny with a purple mixt,

Nor bath the love nor beauty of a queene , Yealow and fame, with strrakes of greene betwixt, My subject grac'd, as other workes have beené; A bloudy streame into a blushing run

Yet not to doe their age nor ours a wrong, (song) And ends still with ţhe colour which begun, Though queenes, nay goddesses, fam'd Homer's Drawing the deeper to a lighter staine,

Mine hath been tun'd and heard by beauties more Bringing the lightest to the deep'st againe, Than all the poets that have liv'd before. With such rare art each mingleth with his fellow, Not 'cause it is more worth: but it doth fall The blew with watchet, greene and red with yea- That Nature now is tura'd a prodigall, Like to the changes wbich we daily see [low; And on this age so much perfection spends, About the dove's necke with varietie,

That to her last of treasure it extends; Where none can say (though he it strict attends) For all the ages that are slid away Here one begins; and there the other ends : Had not so many beauties as this day. So did the maidens with their various flowres O what a rapture have I gotten now! Decke up their windowes, and make neat their That age of gold, this of the lovely browe Using such cunning as they did dispose [bowres: Have drawne me from my song ! I onward run The ruddy piny with the lighter rose,

Clane froin the end to which I first begun. The monek's-hood with the buglosse, and intwine But ye the beavenly creatures of the west, l'he wbite, the blewe, the flesh-like columbine In whom thie vertues and the graces rest, With pinckes, sweet-williams ; that farre offe the Pardon! that I have run astray so long, Could not the manner of their mixtures spye. [eye And grow so tedious in so rude a song,

Then with those flowres they most of all did prise If you yourselves should come to add one grace (With all their skill and in most curious sise Unto a pleasant grove or snch like place, On tafts of hearhs or rushes) would they frame Where here the curious cutting of a hedge,

daiotie border round the shepheard's name. There, by a pond, the trimming of the sedge ; Or posies make, so quaint, so apt, so rare, Here the fine setting of well shading trees, As if the Muses onely lived there :

The walkes there mounting up by small degrees, And that the after world should strive in vaine The gravell and the greene so equall lye, What they then did to counterfeit againe.

It, with the rest, drawes on your lingring eye : Nor will the needle nor the loome e're be

Here the sweet smels that doe perfume the ayre, So perfect in their best embroderie;

Arising from the infinite repayre
Nor such composures make of silke and gold, Of odoriferous buds, and hearbs of price
As theirs, when Nature all her cunning told. (As if it were another paradice)

The word of mine did no man then bewitch, So please the smelling sence, that you are faine · They thought none could be fortunate if rich. Where last you walk'd to turné and walke againe. And to the covetous did wish 'no' wrong

There the small birds with their barmonious notes But what himself desir'd: to live here long. Sing to a spring that smileth as she floates :

As of their songs so of their lives they deem'd, Por in her face a many dimples show, Not of the long'st, but best perform'd, esteem'd. And often skips as it did dancing goe:

Here further downe an over-arched alley Following a well-fed lambe: with many á shout That from a bill goes winding in a valley,

They then pursu'd him all the plaine about. You spy at end thereof a standing lake

And eyther with fore-laying of his way, Where some ingenious artist strives to make Or be full gorg'd ran not so swift as they, The water (brought in turning pipes of lead Before he could recover downe the strand Through birds of earth most lively fashioned) No swaine but on hiin had a fast'ned hand. To counterfeit and mocke the Silvans all

R--joicing then (the worst wolfe to their flocke In singing well their owne set madrigall.

Lay in their powres) they bound him to a rocke, This with no small delight retaynes your eare, With chaines tane from the plow, and leaving And makes you think none blest but who live there.

him Then in another place the fruits that be

Return'd back to their feast. His eyes late din In gallant clusters decking each good tree

Now sparkle forth in flames, he grindes his teeth, Invite your hand to crop them from the stem, And strives to catch at every thing he seeth: And liking one, taste every sort of them :

But to no purpose : all the hope of food Then to the arbours walk, then to the bowres, Was tane away; his little flesh, lesse bloud, Thence to the walkes againe, thence to the flowres, He suck'd and tore at Isst, and that denyde, Then to the birds, and to the cleare spring thence, With fearefull shriekes most miserably dyde. Now pleasing one, and then another sence :

Unfortunate Marina thoa art free Here one walkes oft, and yet anew begin'th, From his jawes now, though not from misery. As if it were some bidden laborinth;

Within the cave thou likely art to pine, So loath to part, and so content to stay,

If (O may never) faile a helpe divine, That when the gardner knockes for you away, And though such ayd thy wants doe still supply, It grieres you so to leave the pleasures in it, Yet in a prison thoa must ever lye: That you could wish that you had never seene it: But Heav'n, that fed thee, will not long defer Blame me not then, if while to you I told

To send thee thither some deliverer: The happiness our fathers clipt of old,

Por, tben to spend thy sighes there to the maine The mere imagination of their blisse

Thou fitter wert to honour Thetis' trayne. So rapt my thoughts, and made me sing amisse. Who so far now with her harmonious crew And still the more they ran on those dayes' worth, Scour'd through the seas (O who yet ever knew The more unwilling was I to come forth.

So rare a consort ?) she had left behinde O! if the apprehension joy us so,

The Kentish, Sussex shores, the isle & assignde What would the action in a humane show! To brave Vespasian's conquest, and was come Such were the shepheards (to all goodness bent) Where the shrill trumpet and the ratling drum About whose thorps' that night curs'd Limos went. Made the waves tremble (ere befell this chance) Where he had learn'd, that next day all the swaines And to no softer musicke us'd to dance. That any sheepe fed on the fertilt plaines,

Hail thou my native soil ! thou blessed plot The feast of Pales, goddesse of their grounds Whose equall all the world affordeth nut! Did meane to celebrate. Fitly this sounds Shew me who can? so many christall rils, He thought, to what he formerly intended, Such sweet-cloath'd vallies, or aspiring hils, His stealth should by their absence be befriended : Such wood ground, pastores, quarries, wealthy For whilst they in their off'rings busied were,

mynes, He 'mongst the flockes might range with lesser Such rockes in whom the diamond fairely shines : feare.

And if the earth can show the like agen; How to contrive his stealth he spent the night. Yet will she faile in her sea-ruling men.

The morning now in colours richly dight Time never can produce men to ore-take Stept o're the easterne thresholds, and no lad The fames of Greenvil, Davies, Gilbert, Drake, That joy'd to see his pastures freshly clad, Or worthy Hawkins or of thousands more But for the holy rites himselfe addrest

That by their powre made the Devonian shore With necessaries proper to that feast.

Mocke the proud Tagus ; for whose richest spoyle The altars every where now smoaking be The boasting Spaniard left the India sople With beane-stalkes, savine, laurell, rosemary, Banckrupt of store, knowing it would quit cost Their cakes of grummell-seed they did preferre, By winning this though all the rest were lost. And pailes of milke in sacrifice to her.

As oft the sea-nimphes on her strand have set, Then hymne of praise they all devoutly sung Learning of fishermen to knit a net, In those Palilia for increase of young.

Wherein to wind up their disheveld hayres, But ere the ceremonies were half past

They have beheld the frolicke marriners One of their boyes came down the bill in haste, For exercise (got early from their beds) And told them Limos was among their sheepe; Pitch bars of silver, and cast golden slerts. That he, his fellowes, nor their dogs could keepe At Ex, a lovely nymph with Thetis-met, The rar'ner from their flockes; great store were She singing came, and was all round beset kild,

[fild. With other watry powres, which by her song Whose blood he suck'd, and yet his paunch not She had allur'd to flowe with her along. O hasten then away! for in an houre

The lay she chanted she had learn'd of yore, He will the chiefest of your fold devour.

Taught by a skilfull swaine ', who on her shore With this most ran (leaving behind some few To finish what was to fair Pales due)

• Vecta quam Vespasianus a Claudio missus And as they had ascended up the bill

subjugavit. Vide Bed. in Hist. Ecc. lib. 1. cap. 3. Limos they met, with no meane pace and skill, 9 Joseph of Exeter writ a poem of the Trojan

warre according to Dares the Phrigian's story, but ? Villages.

falsly attributed to Cornelius Nepos, as it is