SONNETSWRITTEN BY SPENSER,COLLECTED FKOM THE ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS IN WHICH THEY APPEARED.I*.To the right worshipfull, my singular good frend, M. Gabriell Harvey, Doctor of the Lawes.Harvey, the happy above happiest menI read**; that, sitting like a looker-onOf this worldes stage, doest note with critique penThe sharpe dislikes of each condition:And, as one carelesse of suspition,Ne fawnest for the favour of the great,Ne fearest foolish reprehensionOf faulty men, which daunger to thee threat:But freely doest of what thee list entreat,@Like a great lord of peerelesse liberty,Lifting the good up to high Honours seat,And the evill damning evermore to dy:For life and death is in thy doomeful writing;So thy renowme lives ever by endighting.Dublin, this xviij. of July, 1586.Your devoted friend, during life,EDMUND SPENCER.[* From “Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets especially touching RobertGreene, and other parties by him abused,” &c. London, 1592. TODD.][**Read, consider.][@Entreat, treat.]II*.Whoso wil seeke, by right deserts, t’attaineUnto the type of true nobility,And not by painted shewes, and titles vaine,Derived farre from famous auncestrie,Behold them both in their right visnomy**Here truly pourtray’d as they ought to be,And striving both for termes of dignitie,To be advanced highest in degree.And when thou doost with equall insight seeThe ods twist both, of both then deem aright,And chuse the better of them both to thee;But thanks to him that it deserves behight@:To Nenna first, that first this worke created,And next to Iones, that truely it translated.ED. SPENSER.[* Prefixed to “Nennio, or A Treatise of Nobility, &c. Written inItalian by that famous Doctor and worthy Knight, Sir John BaptistaNenna of Bari. Done into English by William Iones, Gent.” 1595. TODD.][**Visnomy, features.][@Behight, accord.]III*.Upon the Historie of George Castriot, alias Scanderbeg, King of the Epirots, translated into English.Wherefore doth vaine Antiquitie so vauntHer ancient monuments of mightie peeres,And old heröes, which their world did dauntWith their great deedes and fild their childrens eares?Who, rapt with wonder of their famous praise,Admire their statues, their colossoes great,Their rich triumphall arcks which they did raise,Their huge pyrámids, which do heaven threat.Lo! one, whom later age hath brought to light,Matchable to the greatest of those great;Great both by name, and great in power and might,And meriting a meere** triumphant seate.The scourge of Turkes, and plague of infidels,Thy acts, O Scanderbeg, this volume tels.ED. SPENSER.[* Prefixed to the “Historie of George Castriot, alias Scanderbeg, King of Albanie: Containing his famous actes, &c. Newly translated out of French into English by Z.I. Gentleman.” 1596. TODD.] [**Meere, absolute, decided.]IV*.The antique Babel, empresse of the East,Upreard her buildinges to the threatned skie:And second Babell, tyrant of the West,Her ayry towers upraised much more high.But with the weight of their own surquedry**They both are fallen, that all the earth did feare,And buried now in their own ashes ly,Yet shewing, by their heapes, how great they were.But in their place doth now a third appeare,Fayre Venice, flower of the last worlds delight;And next to them in beauty draweth neare,But farre exceedes in policie of right.Yet not so fayre her buildinges to beholdAs Lewkenors stile that hath her beautie told.EDM. SPENCER.[* Prefixed to “The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, Written by the Cardinall Gaspar Contareno, and translated out of Italian into English by Lewes Lewkenor, Esquire.” London, 1599. TODD.] [**Surquedry, presumption.]
To the right worshipfull, my singular good frend, M. Gabriell Harvey, Doctor of the Lawes.
Harvey, the happy above happiest menI read**; that, sitting like a looker-onOf this worldes stage, doest note with critique penThe sharpe dislikes of each condition:And, as one carelesse of suspition,Ne fawnest for the favour of the great,Ne fearest foolish reprehensionOf faulty men, which daunger to thee threat:But freely doest of what thee list entreat,@Like a great lord of peerelesse liberty,Lifting the good up to high Honours seat,And the evill damning evermore to dy:For life and death is in thy doomeful writing;So thy renowme lives ever by endighting.
Dublin, this xviij. of July, 1586.
Your devoted friend, during life,
[* From “Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets especially touching RobertGreene, and other parties by him abused,” &c. London, 1592. TODD.][**Read, consider.][@Entreat, treat.]
Whoso wil seeke, by right deserts, t’attaineUnto the type of true nobility,And not by painted shewes, and titles vaine,Derived farre from famous auncestrie,Behold them both in their right visnomy**Here truly pourtray’d as they ought to be,And striving both for termes of dignitie,To be advanced highest in degree.And when thou doost with equall insight seeThe ods twist both, of both then deem aright,And chuse the better of them both to thee;But thanks to him that it deserves behight@:To Nenna first, that first this worke created,And next to Iones, that truely it translated.
[* Prefixed to “Nennio, or A Treatise of Nobility, &c. Written inItalian by that famous Doctor and worthy Knight, Sir John BaptistaNenna of Bari. Done into English by William Iones, Gent.” 1595. TODD.][**Visnomy, features.][@Behight, accord.]
Upon the Historie of George Castriot, alias Scanderbeg, King of the Epirots, translated into English.
Wherefore doth vaine Antiquitie so vauntHer ancient monuments of mightie peeres,And old heröes, which their world did dauntWith their great deedes and fild their childrens eares?Who, rapt with wonder of their famous praise,Admire their statues, their colossoes great,Their rich triumphall arcks which they did raise,Their huge pyrámids, which do heaven threat.Lo! one, whom later age hath brought to light,Matchable to the greatest of those great;Great both by name, and great in power and might,And meriting a meere** triumphant seate.The scourge of Turkes, and plague of infidels,Thy acts, O Scanderbeg, this volume tels.
[* Prefixed to the “Historie of George Castriot, alias Scanderbeg, King of Albanie: Containing his famous actes, &c. Newly translated out of French into English by Z.I. Gentleman.” 1596. TODD.] [**Meere, absolute, decided.]
The antique Babel, empresse of the East,Upreard her buildinges to the threatned skie:And second Babell, tyrant of the West,Her ayry towers upraised much more high.But with the weight of their own surquedry**They both are fallen, that all the earth did feare,And buried now in their own ashes ly,Yet shewing, by their heapes, how great they were.But in their place doth now a third appeare,Fayre Venice, flower of the last worlds delight;And next to them in beauty draweth neare,But farre exceedes in policie of right.Yet not so fayre her buildinges to beholdAs Lewkenors stile that hath her beautie told.
[* Prefixed to “The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, Written by the Cardinall Gaspar Contareno, and translated out of Italian into English by Lewes Lewkenor, Esquire.” London, 1599. TODD.] [**Surquedry, presumption.]