5 To speed to day, to be put back to morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine on feare and sorrow;
To have thy Princes grace yet want her Peeres;
To have thy asking yet waite manie yeeres;
To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;
10 To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires;
To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne,
To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne.
Unhappie wight, borne to desastrous end

That doth his life in so long tendance spend !

7. Want her peeres:-Spenser is supposed to refer here to Lord Burleigh in particular, who, as we know from other passages of the poet's works, looked rather doubtfully upon him.

31. Sir Philip Sidney. 1554-1586. (History, p. 56.)

SONNET TO SLEEP.

Come, sleep, O sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
Th' indifferent judge between the high and low!
5 With shield of proof, shield me from out the prease
Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw :
O make me in those civil wars to cease!

I will good tribute pay if thou do so.

Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed
10 A chamber deaf to noise, and blind to light;
A rosy garland, and a weary head;

And if these things, as being thine by right,
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,
Livelier than elsewhere Stella's image see.

2. Baiting-place of wit, the place where wit (which in Sidney's time meant intellect) baits, i.e., takes rest and refreshment. In M. E. bayte meant to feed, as in Chaucer, C. L., 194–

"Eke ye moste bayte on many a hevy mele;"

then to stop for refreshment, as in Paradise Lost, xii. 1—

"As one who on his journey baits at noon."

4. Indifferent, impartial, who makes no difference between one man and another. 5. Prease, press, crowd.

32. Christopher Marlowe. 1564-1593. (History, p. 71.)

A PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That grove or valley, hill or field,
Or wood and steepy mountain yield.
5 Where we will sit on rising rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

Pleased will I make thee beds of roses,
10 And twine a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers and rural kirtle,
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.
A jaunty gown of finest wool,

Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
15 And shoes lined choicely for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold:
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;

If these, these pleasures can thee move,
20 Come live with me, and be my love.

8. Madrigal is, according to Diez, properly a pastoral song, fr. L. L. mandra, a flock, through It. madrigale. Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, quotes from line 7 to 10.

10. Posies:-posy is properly a motto

1

or device, Fr. pensée; and its modern meaning seems to have arisen from flowers being used emblematically; hence pansy (Wedgwood).

11. Kirtle, an upper garment for either sex, O. E. cyrtel.

33. Sir Walter Raleigh. 1552-1618. (History, p. 95.)
THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD.

If all the world and Love were young,
And truth on every Shepherd's tongue,
These pleasures might my passion move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

5 But fading flowers in every field,
To winter floods their treasures yield;
A honey'd tongue-a heart of gall,
Is Fancy's spring, but Sorrow's fall.

Thy gown, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
10 Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Are all soon wither'd, broke, forgotten,
In Folly ripe, in Reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw, and ivy-buds,
Thy coral clasps, and amber studs,
15 Can me with no enticements move,
To live with thee, and be thy love.

But could Youth last, could Love still breed ;
Had joys no date, had Age no need ;

Then those delights my mind might move

20 To live with thee, and be thy love.

8. Fancy, phantsie, phantasy, was often used by the poets of the Elizabethan age in the sense of love, as

"Tell me where is Fancy bred."-Mer. of Ven.

15. Enticements:-entice is fr. Fr. attiser, to stir up, and that from It. tizzo, a firebrand (Diez).

34. THE SOUL'S ERRAND.

This celebrated poem is sometimes called "The Lie," and, among other poets, has been assigned to Silvester and to Sir Walter Raleigh. It appeared in "Davison's Poetical Rhapsody" (1608).

Go, Soul, the Body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;

The truth shall be thy warrant.

2. Errand:-Max Müller takes errand, O. E. ærend (which meant simply work) from the root ar (as in Lat. arare, ear, to till, earth, oar, &c.), the prevalence of

which is a proof of the high esteem in which agriculture was held by the Aryan family of nations.

25 Tell those that brave it most,

They beg for more by spending, Who, in their greatest cost,

Seek nothing but commending.

And if they make reply,

30 Spare not to give the lie.

Tell Zeal it lacks devotion;

Tell Love it is but lust;
Tell Time it is but motion;
Tell Flesh it is but dust:

35 And wish them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.
Tell Age it daily wasteth;
Tell Honour how it alters;
Tell Beauty that it blasteth;

And as they do reply,

Give every one the lie.

Tell Wit how much it wrangles
In fickle points of niceness;
45 Tell Wisdom she entangles
Herself in over-wiseness:
And if they do reply,

50

Then give them both the lie.

Tell Physic of her boldness;
Tell Skill it is pretension;
Tell Charity of coldness;

Tell Law it is contention :
And if they yield reply,
Then give them still the lie.

55 Tell Fortune of her blindness;
Tell Nature of decay;

Tell Friendship of unkindness;
Tell Justice of delay:

And if they do reply,

60 Then give them all the lie.

Tell Arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming ;

Tell Schools they lack profoundness,

And stand too much on seeming.

65 If Arts and Schools reply,