April: Ægloga Quarta. Thenot & Hobbinoll.
Thenot.
Ell me good Hobbinoll, what garres thee greete?
What? hath some Wolfe thy tender Lambes ytorne?
Or is thy Bagpype broke, that soundes so sweete?
Or art thou of thy loued lasse forlorne? Or bene thine eyes attempred to the yeare,
Quenching the gasping furrowes thirst with rayne?
Like April shoure, so stremes the trickling teares Adowne thy cheeke, to quenche thye thirstye payne.
Hobbinoll.
Nor thys, not that, so muche doeth make me mourne,
But for the ladde, whom long I lovd so deare,
Nowe loues a lasse, that all his loue doth scorne:
He plonged in payne, his tressed locks dooth teare. Shepheards delights he dooth them all forsweare,
Hys pleasaunt Pipe, whych made vs meriment,
He wylfully hath broke, and doth forbeare His wonted songs, wherein he all outwent. Thenot.
What is he for a Ladde, you so lament?
Ys loue such pinching payne to them, that proue?
And hath he skill to make so excellent,
Yet hath so little skill to brydle loue? Hobbinoll.
Colin thou kenst, the Southerne shepheardes boye:
Him Loue hath wounded with a deadly darte.
Whilome on him was all my care and ioye,
Forcing with gyfts to winne his wanton heart. But now from me hys madding mynd is starte,
And woes the Widdowes daughter of the glenne:
So now fayre Rosalind hath bred hys smart,
So now his frend is chaunged for a frenne.
Thenot.
But if his ditties bene so trimly dight,
I pray thee Hobbinoll, record some one:
The whiles our flockes doe graze about in sight,
And we close shrowded in thys shade alone. Hobbinol.
Contented I: then will I singe his laye Of fayre Elisa,
Queene of shepheardes all:
Which once he made, as by a spring he laye,
And tuned it vnto the Waters fall.
E dayntye Nymphs, that in this blessed Brooke doe bathe your brest,
Forsake your watry bowres, and hether looke, at my request:
And eke you Virgins, that on Parnasse dwell,
Whence floweth Helicon the learned well,
Helpe me to blaze Her worthy praise,
Which in her sexe doth all excell. Of fayre Elisa be your siluer song, that blessed wight:
The flowre of Virgins, may shee florish long,
In princely plight.
For she is Syrinx daughter without spotte,
Which Pan the shepheards God of her begot:
So sprong her grace Of heauenly race,
No mortal blemishe may her blotte. See, where she sits vpon the grassie greene, (O seemly sight) Yclad in Scarlot like a mayden Queene,
And Ermines white.
Vpon her head a Cremosin coronet,
With Damaske roses and Dafadillies set:
Bayleaues betweene,
And Primroses greene Embellish the sweete Violet. Tell me, haue ye seene her angelick face,
Like Phoebe fayre?
Her heauenly haueour, her princely grace can you well compare?
The Redde rose medled with the White yfere,
In either cheeke depeincten liuely chere.
Her modest eye,
Her Maiestie,
Where haue you seene the like, but there? I sawe Phoebus thrust out his golden hedde, vpon her to gaze:
But when he sawe, how broade her beames did spredde, it did him amaze.
He blusht to see another Sunne belowe,
Ne durst againe his fyrye face out showe:
Let him, if he dare,
His brightnesse compare With hers, to haue the ouerthrowe. Shewe thy selfe Cynthia with thy siuer rayes, and be not abasht:
When shee the beames of her beauty displayes,
O how art thou dasht?
But I will not match her with Latonaes seede,
Such follie great sorow to Niobe did breede.
Now she is a stone,
And makes dayly mone,
Warning all others to take heede. Pan may be proud, that euer he begot such a Bellibone,
And Syrinx reioyse, that euer was her lot to beare such an one.
Soone as my younglings cryen for the dam,
To her will I offer a milkwhite Lamb:
Shee is my goddesse plaine,
And I her shepherds swayne,
Albee forswonck and forswatt I am. I see Calliope speede her to the place,
Where my Goddesse shines:
And after her the other Muses trace, with their Violines.
Bene they not Bay braunches, which they doe beare,
All for Elisa, in her hand to weare?
So sweetely they play,
And sing all the way,
That it a heauen is to heare. Lo how finely the graces can it foote to the Instrument:
They daucen deffly, and singen soote, in their merriment.
Wants [not] a fourth grace, to make the daunce euen?
Let that rowme to my Lady be yeuen:
She shalbe a grace,
To fyll the fourth place,
And reigne with the rest in heauen. And whither rennes this beuie of Ladies bright, raunged in a rowe?
They bene all Ladyes of the lake behight, that vnto her goe.
Chloris, that is the chiefest Nymph of al,
Of Oliue braunches beares a Coronall:
Oliues bene for peace,
When wars doe surcease:
Such for a Princesse bene principall. Ye shepheards daughters, that dwell on the greene, hye you there apace:
Let none come there, but that Virgins bene, to adorne her grace.
And when you come, whereas shee is in place,
See, that your rudenesse doe not you disgrace:
Binde your fillets faste,
And gird in your waste,
For more finesse with a tawdrie lace. Bring hether the Pincke and purple Cullambine,
With Gelliflowres:
Bring Coronations, and Sops in wine, worne of Paramoures.
Strowe me the ground with Daffadowndillies,
And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and loued Lillies:
The pretie Pawnce,
And the Cheuisaunce,
Shall match with the fayre flowre Delice. Now ryse vp Elisa, decked as thou art, in royall aray:
And now ye daintie Damsells may depart echeone her way,
I feare,
I haue troubled your troupes to longe:
Let dame Eliza thanke you for her song.
And if you come hether,
When Damsines I gether,
I will part them all you among.
Thenot.
And was thilk same song of Colins owne making?
Ah foolish boy, that is with loue yblent:
Great pittie is, he be in such taking,
For nought caren, that bene so lewdly bent. Hobbinol.
Sicker I hold him, for a greater fon,
That loues the thing, he cannot purchase.
But let vs homeward: for night draweth on,
And twincling starres the daylight hence chase. Thenots Embleme. O quam te memorem virgo?
Hobbinols Embleme. O dea certe.
Argument.
His Æglogue is purposely intended to the honor and prayse of our most gracious souereigne,
Queene Elizabeth.
The speakers herein be Hobbinoll and Thenott, two shepheardes:
The which Hobinoll being before mentioned, greatly to haue loued Colin, is here set forth more largely, complayning him of that boyes great misaduenture in Loue, whereby his mynd was alienate and with drawen not onely from him, who moste loued him, but also from all former delightes and studies, aswell in pleasaunt pyping, as conning ryming and singing, and other his laudable exercises.
Whereby he taketh occasion, for proofe of his more excellencie and skill in poetrie, to recorde a song, which the sayd Colin sometime made in honor of her Maiestie, whom abruptely he termeth Elysa. 1.
First published pseudonymously, under the name "Immerito," in 1579, with an introductory letter to Spenser's friend Gabriel Harvey and notes or "glosses" by "E.
K.," possibly Edward Kirke, another Cambridge friend.
It was reissued four times in Spenser's lifetime.
The text here printed is based on the first edition.
The poem is a series of twelve pastoral eclogues "proportionable to the twelve monethes," suggested by the pastorals of Theocritus,
Virgil,
Mantuan, and Marot\; the idea of a "shepherds' almanac" perhaps came from the widely known Kalendrier des Bergers.
Spenser follows "the example of the best and most auncient Poetes," especially Virgil, in beginning his poetic career with pastorals, employs the traditional modes of pastoral, e.g., the debate, the singing-match, the love-complaint, the elegy, with incidental satiric and personal allusions, and in his use of archaic and dialectal forms, interestingly defended by E.
K. in his introduction, consciously imitates the "homely" language of Theocritus and displays his admiration for Chaucer, though Sidney,to whom the poem was dedicated, disapproved of this practice.
E.
K. classifies the eclogues as "plaintive," "recreative," and "moral, which for the most part be mixed with some satyrical bitternesse." "Aprill" is recreative\; "October" is moral."This Æ\;glogue is purposely intended to the honor and prayse of our most gracious sovereigne,
Queene Elizabeth" (E.
K.). Æ\;loga: mistakenly for Lat. ecloga (Gr. eklog{ee}), a selection or short poem.
E.
K. derives ecloga from Gr. aigonom{o}n logoi, "goatherds' tales," hence the spelling.
Thenot: presumably one of Spenser's Cambridge friends\; the name comes from Marot's pastorals.
Hobbinoll:
Gabriel Harvey. garres thee greete: "causeth thee weepe and complain" (E.
K.)\;
Northern dialect. 5. attempred: "agreeable to the season of the yeare, that is Aprill, which moneth is most bent to showres and seasonable rayne" (E.
K.). 10. the ladde:
Colin Clout (i.e.,
Spenser), whose love-complaintis the theme of "January" and "June." 11. a lasse:
Rosalind\; see line 27. 17.
What is he for a Ladde: what kind of lad can he be? 18. prove: experience it. 19. to make: "to rime and versifye" (E.
K.). 21. kenst: knowest. the Southerne shepheardes boye: probably a reference to the fact that in 1578 Spenser was secretary to John Young,
Bishop of Rochester. 24.
Forcing: striving. 25. is starte: is turned away. 26-27. the Widdowes daughter . . .fayre Rosalind.
We do not know who Rosalind was, though there have been many guesses.
In a note to "January" E.
K. says that Rosalind "is ... a feigned name, which being wel ordered [i.e., it is an anagram] wil bewray the very name of hys love," and in his note to this passage adds that she is called "the Widdowes daughter of the glenne" to "concele the person," for "shee is a Gentle woman of no meane house." 28. frenne: stranger (OE.fremde). 29. trimly dight: neatly fashioned. 41.
Virgins: the nine Muses, daughters of Memory, "whose abode the Poets faine to be on Parnassus, a hill in Grece, for that in that countrye specially florished the honor of all excellent studies" (E.
K.). 42.
Helicon: in the classical tradition a mountain in Boeotia, from which sprang the fountains of the Muses,
Hippocrene and Aganippe\;
Spenser follows the mediaeval tradition in calling Helicon a well\;
Chaucer calls it "Elicon the clere well." 43. blaze: proclaim. 50.
Syrinx: "a Nymph of Arcadia, whom when Pan being in love pursued, she flying from him, of the Gods was turned into a reede" (E.
K.). 51.
Pan: "by that name, oftymes ... be noted kings and mighty Potentates\; and in some places Christ himselfe, who is the verye Pan and god of Shepheardes'' (E.
K.). 59.
Cremosin: crimson. 65.
Ph{oe}be: "the moone, whom the Poets faine to be sister unto Phoebus, that is the Sunne" (E.
K.)\; in late classical mythology Phoebe was identified with Diana (Cynthia)\; see line 82. 68. the Redde rose ... yfere: not only a tribute to the Queen's complexion, but a reference to the union of the houses of York and Lancaster in the Tudor line. medled: mingled. yfere: together. 81. to have the overthrow: to be sure to be worsted. 86-90.
Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, boasted that her seven sons and seven daughters made her superior to Leto (Latona) who had only two,
Apollo and Diana.
In revenge Apollo and Diana slew her children with arrows, and she wept until transformed into stone. 92.
Bellibone: fair maid. 99.
Though tired and covered with sweat. 100.
Calliope: the Muse of epic poetry. 104.
Bay braunches: ''the signe of honor and victory'' (E.
K.). 109. the graces: "three sisters, the daughters of Jupiter (whose names are Aglaia,
Thalia,
Euphrosyne . . .), otherwise called Charites, that is thanks.
Whom the Poets feyned to be the Goddesses of al bountie and comelines'' (E.
K.).
See F.
Q.,
VI, x, xxii-xxiv below. 111. deffly: nimbly, gracefully. soote: sweetly. 118. rennes: runs. 120.
Ladyes of the lake.
The Lady of the Lake, from the Arthurian legend, was one of the allegorical figures in the famous entertainment presented to Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth in 1575. behight: called. 121.
Chloris: the nymph who had "chiefdome and soveraigntye of al flowres and greene herbes" (E.
K.). 135. tawdrie lace: lace sold at the fair of St.
Audrey (Etheldreda),
October 17. 136-44.
Such "flower passages'' as this were commonplaces in late Latin literature.
Spenser's passage was often imitated by later poets, e.g. by Drayton,
John Fletcher, and perhaps by Milton in Lycidas.
Coronations: carnations.
Sops in wine: clove-pinks.
Pawnce: pansy.
Chevisaunce: not identified. flowre Delice: fleur-de-lis, as in the royal coat of arms. 152.
Damsines: damson-plums. 154. thilk: this. 155. yblent: blinded. 156. taking: condition. 157. caren: the Middle English plural form. 158.
Sicker: certainly. fon: fool. 162.
Thenots Embleme.
Both "emblems", or "Poesyes" as E.
K. calls them, come from Aeneas' address to Venus in Virgil, Æ\;neid,
I, 327-28: ''What shall I call thee' O maiden? ...
O goddess surely !''
