he was a boy of twelve: see the picture of it in Spedding, Works, vol. vi.

The last two of the stanzas above quoted prepare the way for the butterfly's flight which follows, and fill the poem, as it were, with sunlight.

The variety of the author's tastes and accomplishments are indicated under the figure of the fly's accoutrements, and in the description of the wings the poet's genius is evidently alluded to, of which the feminine element (which seems to be always more or less present in genius) is signified under the fable of the nymph "Astery. This may have been more intuitive than deliberate, and on that account is all the more interesting. He speaks of the envy of the ladies of the Court, who

Beholding them, him secretly envide,

And wisht that two such fannes, so silken soft
And golden faire, her Love would her provide;

» 1

the envy being that of women for the grace and beauty of one of their own sex.

The author's usual carelessness in writing, due probably to rapidity, is shown in the imperfect connection between the story of Astery and the origin of Clarion's wings; but having provided the little episode, he hurries on without troubling about this, and in the lines of the butterfly's flight, which follow, the poet becomes entirely identified with the creature, so natural and vivid is the description:

Thus the fresh Clarion, being readie dight,
Unto his journey did himselfe addresse,
And with good speed began to take his flight.
Over the fields, in his franke lustinesse,
And all the champain o're he soared light;
And all the countrey wide he did possesse,
Feeding upon their pleasures bounteouslie,
That none gainsaid, nor none did him envie.
The woods, the rivers, and the medowes green,
With his aire-cutting wings he measured wide,
Ne did he leave the mountaines bare unseene,
Nor the ranke grassie fennes delights untride.

1 "Star." Cf. 66 Astrophel and Stella" (Sidney and Spenser) and "Hermes Stella" (Bacon).

But none of these, how ever sweete they beene,
Mote please his fancie, nor him cause t' abide :
His choicefull sense with every change doth flit :
No common things may please a wavering wit.

To the gay gardins his unstaid desire
Him wholly caried, to refresh his sprights:
There lavish Nature, in her best attire,
Powres forth sweete odors and alluring sights;
And Arte, with her contending, doth aspire
T'excell the naturall with made delights;
And all, that faire or pleasant may be found,
In riotous excesse doth there abound.

There he arriving round about doth flie,
From bed to bed, from one to other border,
And takes survey, with curious busie eye,
Of every flowre and herbe there set in order:
Now this, now that, he tasteth tenderly,
Yet none of them he rudely doth disorder,
Ne with his feete their silken leaves deface,
But pastures on the pleasures of each place.

And evermore, with most varietie

And change of sweetnesse, (for all change is sweete) He casts his glutton sense to satisfie,

Now sucking of the sap of herbe most meete,

Or of the deaw which yet on them does lie,
Now in the same bathing his tender feete;

And then he pearcheth on some braunch thereby,
To weather him, and his moyst wings to dry.

And then againe he turneth to his play,
To spoyle the pleasures of that Paradise ;
The wholesome Saulge, and Lavender still gray,
Ranke-smelling Rue, and Cummin good for eyes,
The Roses raigning in the pride of May,
Sharpe Isope, good for greene wounds remedies,
Faire Marigoldes, and Bees-alluring Thime,
Sweet Marjoram, and Daysies decking prime :

Coole Violets, and Orpine growing still,
Embathed Balme, and chearfull Galingale,
Fresh Costmarie, and breathfull Camomill,
Dull Poppie, and drink-quickning Setuale,
Veyne-healing Verven, and hed-purging Dill,
Sound Savorie, and Bazil hartie-hale,
Fat Colworts, and comforting Perseline,
Colde Lettuce, and refreshing Rosmarine

This passage has been interpreted as an expression of the pleasure which Spenser found in the society of the ladies of the Court. But when he came to London he was past the age for such enthusiasm, and wholly unqualified by his condition from indulging in the liberties of the courtier. Such an interpretation also is obviously too limited and material. The sensations described are those of a boy, or at any rate of a youth, at the opening out of his nature in its first contact with the world, and the allegory covers the varied range of a kindled imagination over the whole field of knowledge and of nature and art. This is further indicated in the lines which follow:

What more felicitie can fall to creature
Then to enjoy delight with libertie,

And to be Lord of all the workes of Nature,

To raine in th'aire from th'earth to highest skie,

To feed on flowres and weeds of glorious feature,

To take what ever thing doth please the eie?

He then gives the other side of the picture, harping on the strain which runs through all these poems:

But what on earth can long abide in state?

and so concludes with the account of the disaster which forms the burden of the Complaint.

The poem is dedicated to Lady Carey, eldest of the three daughters of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe, and wife of Sir George Carey, then Governor of the Isle of Wight. His father, whom he succeeded in the title, was the first Lord Hunsdon, first cousin, on the mother's side, to the Queen.

CHAPTER VII

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY: "LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH"

IT will be convenient at this point to say something about Sir Philip Sidney, to whom Spenser is supposed to have owed his introduction to his uncle, the Earl of Leicester, and to the Court. And here, perhaps, I had better make my confession at once that I do not believe that Sidney wrote a line of the principal works which are attributed to him; but I can only touch for the present on some of the points which bear on this question, and I will begin with the well-known address presented to the Queen by Sidney in 1580 deprecating the French marriage. With two exceptions, to which I shall come, the published letters of Sidney are so little distinguished by any literary skill, that it is incredible that he could have written this address to the Queen himself. Nor, if he did not, is there anything unusual or extraordinary about it, as the art of expression on paper was at that time very rare. It has been suggested that the "Apology of the able Prince of Orange was composed by Languet, and Walsingham used the hand of Bacon to vindicate Elizabeth's proceedings towards the Catholics on the one hand and the Puritans on the other, in his letter to "Monsieur Critoy, secretary of France," circ. 1589. The greater part of that letter is reproduced in Bacon's Observations on a Libel, and an unfinished copy of it was found in the "Northumberland Manuscript" in 1867. There is therefore no doubt about the authorship. The copy in

1 The Arcadia, Astrophel and Stella, and the Apologie for Poetrie.
2 Spedding, Life, i. 97, and A Conference of Pleasure, 1870.

that collection is headed "translated out of french into English by W. W.," a class of ruse frequently adopted by Bacon to conceal the authorship, in this case no doubt from motives of prudence or reasons of State. It is a masterly composition, and the style is quite unmistakable. The style of the letter presented by Sidney to the Queen in 1580 is the same, though, being earlier, it is cruder. Moreover a copy of it appears among the "Northumberland" collection, with the entry on the outside sheet, "Philipp against Monsieur." In his little book on that collection ("A Conference of Pleasure," 1870) Spedding refers to the letter as "commonly attributed to Sir Philip Sidney," but hazards no opinion as to the authorship. From a Latin letter written by Languet to Sidney, dated 22nd October 1580, of which the following is a translation, it appears that Sidney informed Languet that he had written the letter by the order of others, who, from the words used and the known facts, were, without much doubt, Sir Henry Sidney, Leicester, and perhaps Pembroke.

I am glad you have told me how your letter about the Duke of Anjou has come to the knowledge of so many persons; for it was supposed before that you had made it known to show that you despised him, and cared nothing for his dislike, which appeared to me by no means a safe proceeding, and inconsistent besides with your natural modesty. . . . Since, however, you were ordered to write as you did by those whom you were bound to obey, no fair-judging man can blame you for putting forward freely what you thought good for your country, nor even for exaggerating some circumstances in order to convince them of what you judge expedient.

The letter, in the opinion of Hume, is written "with an unusual elegance of expression and force of reading," and there is no doubt that this is so. In this respect it is in most marked contrast to Sidney's style as displayed in his letters, and in a longer piece, unquestionably written by him, and attested by his brother and nephew as in Sidney's "own hand," in reply to the anonymous writer of Leicester's Commonwealth. Nor could the letter have

1 See Collins, Letters and Memorials of State, 1746, and below, p. 193.