The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 | Page 9

I for dole was
almost like to die.
_L'Envoy._
Immortall spirite of Philisides, Which now art made the heavens
ornament, That whilome wast the worldës chiefst riches. 675 Give
leave to him that lov'de thee to lament His losse by lacke of thee to
heaven hent*, And with last duties of this broken verse, Broken with
sighes, to decke thy sable herse! [* _Hent_, taken away.]
And ye, faire Ladie! th'honor of your daies 680 And glorie of the world,
your high thoughts scorne, Vouchsafe this moniment of his last praise
With some few silver dropping teares t'adorne; And as ye be of
heavenlie off-spring borne, So unto heaven let your high minde aspire,
685 And loath this drosse of sinfull worlds desire.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
Ver. 8.--_Verlame._ Veralam, or Verulamium, was a British and
Roman town, near the present city of St. Alban's in Hertfordshire.
Some remains of its walls are still perceptible. H.
Ver. 64.--_Th'Assyrian Lyonesse._ These types of nations are taken
from the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel. H.
Ver. 190.--I saw him die. Leicester died at Cornbury Lodge, in
Oxfordshire. Todd suggests that he may have fallen sick at St. Alban's,
and that Spenser, hearing the report in Ireland, may havo concluded

without inquiry that this was the place of his subsequent death, C.
Ver. 225.--_Colin Cloute._ Spenser himself, who had been befriended
by Leicester. H.
Ver. 239.--_His brother._ Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick.
Ver. 245.--_His noble spouse._ Anne, the eldest daughter of Francis
Russell, Earl of Bedford.
Ver. 260.--His sister. Lady Mary Sidney.
Ver. 261.--_That good earle_, &c. This Earl of Bedford died in 1585.--
TODD.
Ver. 267.--_He, noble bud_, &c. Edward Russell, grandson of Francis
Earl of Bedford, succeeded in the earldom, his father, Francis, having
been slain by the Scots.--OLDYS.
Ver. 275.--_That goodly ladie_, &c. Lady Mary Sidney, mother of Sir
Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke.
Ver. 281.--_Most gentle spirite._ Sir Philip Sidney.
Ver. 317.--_Thine owne sister,_ &c. The Countess of Pembroke, to
whom this poem is dedicated. "The Dolefull Lay of Clorinda" (Vol. IV.
p. 426) appears to have been written by her.
Ver. 436.--Good Melibae. Sir Francis Walsingham, who died April
6,1590. The poet is Thomas Watson.--OLDYS.
Ver. 447-455.--These lines are aimed at Burghley, who was said to
have opposed the Queen's intended bounty to the poet. C.
Ver 491.--These allegorical representations of the vanity of exalted
position, stately buildings, earthly pleasures, bodily strength, and works
of beauty and magnificence, admit of an easy application to the
splendid career of the Earl of Leicester,--his favor and influence with
the Queen, his enlargement of Kenilworth, his princely style of living,
and particularly (IV.) his military command in the Low Countries. The
sixth of these "tragick pageants" strongly confirms this interpretation.
The two bears are Robert and Ambrose Dudley. While Leicester was
lieutenant in the Netherlands, he was in the habit of using the Warwick
crest (a bear and ragged staff) instead of his own. Naunton, in his
Fragmenta Regalia, calls him Ursa Major. C.
Ver. 497.--_The holie brethren_, &c. Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. Daniel, ch. iii. C.
Ver. 582-586.--A paraphrase of Sir Philip's last words to his brother.
"Above all, govern your will and affection by the will and word of your

Creator, in me beholding the end of this world with all her vanities."
This is pointed out by Zouch, Life of Sidney, p. 263. C.
Ver 590.--This second series of pageants is applicable exclusively to
Sir Philip Sidney. The meaning of the third and fourth is hard to make
out; but the third seems to have reference to the collection of the
scattered sheets of the Arcadia, and the publication of this work by the
Countess of Pembroke, after it had been condemned to destruction by
the author. The fourth may indeed signify nothing more than Lady
Sidney's bereavement by her husband's death; but this interpretation
seems too literal for a professed allegory. The sixth obviously alludes
to the splendid obsequies to Sidney, performed at the Queen's expense,
and to the competition of the States of Holland for the honor of burying
his body. C.
L'ENVOY: _L'Envoy_ was a sort of postscript sent with poetical
compositions, and serving either to recommend them to the attention of
some particular person, or to enforce what we call the moral of them.--
TYRWHITT.
* * * * *

THE TEARES OF THE MUSES.
BY ED. SP.

LONDON:
IMPRINTED FOR WILLIAM PONSONBIE, DWELLING IN
PAULES CHURCHYARD AT THE SIGNE OF THE BISHOPS
HEAD.
1591.
* * * * *
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE
THE LADIE STRANGE.
Most brave and noble Ladie, the things that make ye so much honored
of the world as ye bee are such as (without my simple lines testimonie)
are throughlie knowen to