sayth hee is, or more rightly Mayster Gabriel Harvey of whose special commendation, aswell in Poetrye as Rhetorike and other choyce learning, we have lately had a sufficient tryall in divers his workes, but specially in his Musarum Lachrymæ, and his late Gratulationum Valdinensium,1 which boke, in the progresse at Audley in Essex, he dedicated in writing to her Majestie, afterward presenting the same in print to her Highnesse at the worshipfull Maister Capells in Hertfordshire. Beside other his sundrye most rare and very notable writings, partely under unknown tytles, and partly under counterfayt names, as his Tyrannomastix, his Ode Natalitia, his Rameidos, and esspecially that parte of Philomusus, his divine Anticosmopolita,2 and divers other of lyke importance. As also, by the name of other shepheardes, he covereth the persons of divers other his familiar freendes and best acquayntaunce.

The Eclogue for "October" is interesting as an expression of youthful disillusionment. "Cuddie," who in this Eclogue evidently is intended to represent the author of the poems, complains of the contempt in which poetry is held (see the "Argument" quoted at p. 13 above): What I the bett for-thy?

They han the pleasure, I a sclender prise ;
I beate the bush, the byrds to them doe flye:
What good thereof to Cuddie can arise?

But ah! Maecenas is yclad in claye,
And great Augustus long ygoe is dead,
And all the worthies liggen wrapt in leade,
That matter made for Poets on to play.

Piers encourages him to fresh efforts :

Piers. Abandon, then, the base and viler clowne;
Lyft up thy selfe out of the lowly dust,

And sing of bloody Mars, of wars, of giusts;
Turne thee to those that weld the awful crowne,

To doubted Knights, whose woundlesse armour rusts,
And helmes unbruzed wexen dayly browne.

There may thy Muse display her fluttryng wing,
And stretch her selfe at large from East to West;
Whither thou list in fayre Elisa rest,

Or, if thee please in bigger notes to sing,
Advaunce the worthy whome shee loveth best,
That first the white beare to the stake did bring.

1 Published in 1578.

2 See note on previous page,

THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER”

25

And, when the stubborne stroke of stronger stounds
Has somewhat slackt the tenor of thy string,

Of love and lustihead tho mayst thou sing,

And carroll lowde, and leade the Myllers rownde,

All were Elisa one of thilke same ring;

So mought our Cuddies name to heaven sownde.

The "

glosse" has the following characteristic, note explaining the reference in the eleventh line of Piers's speech above. Leicester was probably the poet's patron

at the time.

The worthy, he meaneth (as I guesse) the most honorable and renowmed the Erle of Leycester, whom by his cognisance (although the same be also proper to other) rather then by his name he bewrayeth, being not likely that the names of worldly princes be known to country clowne.

With the following discourse about poets, compare the observations in the same sense and style in Bacon's Advancement of Learning.

"E. K." :

For ever: He sheweth the cause why Poetes were wont to be had in such honor of noble men, that is, that by them their worthines and valor shold through theyr famous Poesies be commended to al posterities. Wherefore it is sayd, that Achilles had never bene so famous, as he is, but for Homeres immortal verses, which is the only advantage which he had of Hector. And also that Alexander the great, comming to his tombe in Sigeus, with naturall teares blessed him, that ever was his hap to be honoured with so excellent a Poets work, as so renowmed and ennobled onely by hys meanes. Which being declared in a most eloquent Oration of Tullies, is of Petrarch no lesse woorthely sette forth in a sonet.

Giunto Alexandro a la famosa tomba

Del fero Achille, sospirando disse :

O fortunato, che si chiara tromba. Trouasti, &c.

And that such account hath bene alwayes made of Poetes, as well sheweth this, that the worthy Scipio, in all his warres against Carthage and Numantia, had evermore in his company, and that in a most familiar sort, the good olde poet Ennius; as also that Alexander destroying Thebes, when he was enformed, that the famous Lyrick poet Pindarus was borne in that citie, not onely commaunded streightly, that no man should, upon payne of death, do any violence to that house, by fire or otherwise: but

also specially spared most, and some highly rewarded, that were of hys kinne. So favoured he the only name of a Poete, which prayse otherwise was in the same man no lesse famous, that when he came to ransacking of king Darius coffers, whom he lately had overthrowen, he founde in a little coffer of silver the two bookes of Homers works, as layd up there for speciall jewels and richesse, which he taking thence, put one of them dayly in his bosome, and thother every night layde under his pillowe. Such honor have Poetes alwayes found in the sight of princes and noble men, which this author here very well sheweth, as els where more notably.

Bacon's Advancement of Learning (book i.):

What price and estimation he [Alexander] had learning in doth notably appear in these three particulars: first, in the envy he used to express that he bore towards Achilles, in this, that he had so good a trumpet of his praises in Homer's verses; secondly in the judgment or solution he gave touching that precious cabinet of Darius, which was found amongst his jewels, whereof question was made as to what thing was worthy to be put into it, and he gave his opinion for Homer's works.

And further on in the same treatise :

For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred years, or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter; during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been decayed and demolished?

The

Under "November" a further allusion is made to unpublished work of the poet, and to another "commentarye" by "E. K." to which I referred above. author of the poems himself refers to this commentary in a postscript of a letter of "Immerito" to Harvey, published in 1580 in "Three proper and wittie familiar letters lately passed between two Universitie men: touching the Earthquake in April last, and our English refourmed Versifying." The two passages are as follow:

"E. K.":

Nectar and Ambrosia, be feigned to be the drink and foode of the gods: Ambrosia they liken to Manna in scripture, and Nectar to be white like Creme, whereof is a proper tale of Hebe, that spilt a cup of it, and stayned the heavens, as yet appeareth. But I have already discoursed that at large in my Commentarye upon the Dreames of the same Authour.

"Immerito":

I take best my Dreames shoulde come forth alone, being growen by meanes of the Glosse (running continually in maner of a Paraphrase) full as great as my Calendar. Therin be some things excellently, and many things wittily discoursed of E. K. and the pictures so singularly set forth and purtrayed, as if Michael Angelo were there, he could (I think) nor amende the beste, nor reprehende the worst. I know you woulde lyke them passing wel.

Youthful disillusionment is the burden of the last Eclogue, but the descriptions in detail must not be taken as autobiographical. It has been pointed out, for instance, that the three stanzas, beginning "Whilome in youth," are taken bodily from one of Marot's eclogues. It is evident, however, that under the imagery used the poet looks back with regret on his early boyhood, before fancy was disturbed by passion and the intrusions of personality, or (in the words of the "Argument," supposed to be provided by "E. K.") in "the spring time, when he was fresh and free from loves follye." Rosalind might be a real person, or a poetical type devised to represent a first love or the first attraction of feminine beauty. It is possible that the astrological line "For love then in the Lyons house did dwell" is intended as a clue, in which case she may have been a girl whom the writer met as a boy in the house of the Earl of Warwick or the Earl of Leicester. "Lyon" (with a "y" and a capital "L") is frequently used by Spenser with a heraldic significance. In any case, the note in the "glosse" suggests that the possibility of such an interpretation was in the writer's mind, because he uses the words "he imagineth simply" as though to anticipate it. But this, as also the changed spelling of "Lion," may possibly be by design, in order to mislead.1

The hand of the author seems more than usually evident in the concluding "glosse," where a brief survey is taken of a period of life which has closed. The period in the writer's mind was, I believe, from boyhood to adolescence, and under the "keeping of sheepe" is figured the writer's "studies" and pursuits.

1 See further on this subject in Chapters XIII, and XVII.

Adiew delights, is a conclusion of all where in sixe verses he comprehendeth briefly all that was touched in this booke. In the first verse his delights of youth generally: In the second, the love of Rosalind: In the thyrd, the keeping of sheepe, which is the argument of all the Æglogues: In the fourth, his complaints: And in the last two, his professed friendship and good will to his good friend Hobbinoll.

The verses referred to are the following:

Adieu, delightes, that lulled me asleepe;

Adieu, my deare, whose love I bought so deare;
Adieu, my little Lambes and loved sheepe;
Adieu, ye Woodes, that oft my witnesse were:
Adieu, good Hobbinoll, that was so true,
Tell Rosalind, her Colin bids her adieu.

In view of this farewell, and for other reasons which will appear later, I think the person alluded to in the last stanza but six, "One if I please, enough is me therefore," is Queen Elizabeth.

I have alluded above to the extraordinary self-esteem displayed in the Epilogue. "E. K." justifies it on the precedent of the lines of Horace, "Exegi monumentum," etc., and refers to the odes of that poet as "a worke though ful indede of great wit and learning yet of no so great weight and importaunce." But Horace had, at least, done something, whereas the Shepheards Calender is a very slender and immature performance. The interest of it is mainly in the genius which is unmistakably stamped on the poems. The self-esteem shown by the author, not only in this epilogue, but throughout the notes (as I believe), is evidence of youth and inexperience, but it is on such a prodigious scale and so little justified by this single piece of work (apart from the genius of which it gives indications) that it cannot be attributed only to that, A strange and quite abnormal personality is behind these utterances, and in the chapters which follow some further light will, I hope, be thrown on the problem which they present.

A word may be said about the antique and irregular language adopted, or invented, by the author in this collection of poems. It is partly a deliberate affectation