MISCELLANEOUS

POEMS.

THE

SHEPHEARDS CALENDER:

CONTEINING

TWELVE AEGLOGUES,

PROPORTIONABLE TO THE TWELVE MONETHES.

ENTITLED TO THE NOBLE AND VERTUOUS GENTLEMAN, MOST WORTHIE OF ALL TITLES BOTH OF LEARNING AND CHIVALRY,

MAISTER PHILIP SIDNEY.

TO HIS BOOKE.

GOE, little Booke! thy selfe present,
As childe whose parent is unkent,1
To him that is the President

Of Noblenesse and Chevalree:
And if that Envie barke at thee,
As sure it will, for succour flee
Under the shadow of his wing.
And, asked who thee forth did bring,
A shepheards swaine, say, did thee sing,
All as his straying flocke he fedde:
And, when his Honour has thee redde,
Crave pardon for thy hardy-hedde.
But, if that any aske thy name,
Say, thou wert base-begot with blame;
Forthy thereof thou takest shame.
And, when thou art past ieopardee,
Come tell me what was said of mee,
And I will send more after thee.

IMMERITO.

1 Unkent, unknown. 2 Forthy, therefore.

TO THE MOST EXCELLENT AND LEARNED,

BOTH ORATOR AND POET,

MAISTER GABRIEL HARVEY,

HIS VERIE SPECIALL AND SINGULAR GOOD FRIEND E. K. COMMENDETH THE GOOD LYKING OF THIS HIS GOOD LABOUR, AND THE PATRONAGE OF THE NEW POET.

UNCOUTH, unkist, said the old famous poet Chaucer: whom for his excellencie and wonderfull skill in making,* his scholler Lidgate, a worthie scholler of so excellent a master, calleth the loadstarre of our language: and whom our Colin Clout in his Eglogue, calleth Tityrus the god of shepheards, comparing him to the worthinesse of the Roman Tityrus, Virgil. Which proverb, mine owne good friend M. Harvey, as in that good old poet it served well Pandares purpose for the bolstering of his bawdie brocage,1 so very well taketh place in this our new Poet, who for that hee is uncouth (as sayde Chaucer) is unkist, and unknowne to most men, is regarded but of a fewe. But I doubt not, so soone as his name shall come into the knowledge of men, and his woorthinesse bee sounded in the trumpe of Fame, but that hee shall bee not onely kist,

1 Brocage, pimping.

* In making.] That is, in writing poetry. The word poet comes from a Greek word signifying to make.