To the right honourable the Earle of Cumberland.

R

EDOUBTED Lord, in whose corageous mind The flowre of chevalry, now bloofming faire, Doth promise fruite worthy the noble kind Which of their praises have left you the haire; Το this humble prefent I prepare,

you

For love of vertue and of Martial praise ;
To which though nobly ye inclined are,
As goodlie well ye fhew'd in late affaies,
Yet brave enfample of long paffed daies,
In which trew honor yee may fashiond see,
To like defire of honor may ye raife,
And fill your mind with magnanimitee.
Receive it, Lord, therefore, as it was ment,
For honor of your name and high descent.

E. S.

To the right honourable the Lord of Hunfdon, high Chamberlaine to her Majesty.

ENOWMED Lord, that, for your worthineffe
And noble deeds, have your deserved place
High in the favour of that Empereffe,

The worlds fole glory and her fexes grace;
Here eke of right have you a worthie place,
Both for your nearnes to that Faerie Queene,
And for your owne high merit in like cace:

the Earle of Cumberland.] A naval commander of great enterprife and fuccefs. The earldom had been conferred upon the Cliffords in 1525; and George Clifford, whom this Sonnet celebrates, came to the title in 1569, and died in 1605. The preceding is the earliest sonnet to which the initials of the poet are appended: the diftinction feems almost arbitrary C.

s the Lord of Hunfdon.] He was raised to the peerage just after Elizabeth, his coufin by the mother's fide, came to the throne. He died in 1596, being ftill Lord Chamberlain. C.

Of which, apparaunt proofe was to be feene,
When that tumultuous rage and fearfull deene*
Of Northerne rebels ye did pacify,

And their difloiall powre defaced clene,
The record of enduring memory.
Live, Lord, for ever in this lafting verse,
That all pofteritie thy honor may reherse.

E. S.

To the right honourable the Lord of Buckhurst," one of her Majefties privie Counfell.

N vain I thinke, right honourable Lord,

By this rude rime to memorize thy name,

Whofe learned Muse hath writ her owne record

In golden verse, worthy immortal fame :
Thou much more fit (were leasure to the fame)
Thy gracious Soverain praises to compile,
And her imperiall Majestie to frame

In loftie numbers and heroicke ftile.
But, fith thou maist not so, give leave a while
To bafer wit his power therein to spend,
Whofe groffe defaults thy daintie pen may file,
And unadvised oversights amend.

t and fearfull deene.] T. Warton is right in explaining "deene" here as din, noife; but entirely wrong in his example from Skelton's "Colin Clout:" the expreffion

"With fuche storyes bydene,"

there used, means with such stories collected. In his "Hift. English Poetry" he is equally mistaken when he tells us that "bydene" means "by the dozen." Vol. iii. p. 169, edit. 8vo. 1824. C.

the Lord of Buckhurst.] Thomas Sackville, created Baron Buckhurst in 1567, and Earl of Dorset in 1603, wrote the two last acts of " the Tragedy of Gorboduc," printed in 1565, befides the Induction to "The Mirror for Magiftrates," and the Legend of the Duke of Buckingham" in the fame work. He became Lord Treasurer on the death of Lord Burghley; and during the later part of his career feems to have avoided reference to his own early poetical propenfity. C.

But evermore vouchfafe it to maintaine
Against vile Zoilus backbitings vaine.

To the right honourable Sir Fr. Walfingham, knight, principall Secretary to her Majefty, and one of her honourable privy Counfell.

YHAT Mantuane Poets incompared spirit,

Whose girland now is fet in highest place,
Had not Mecænas, for his worthy merit,

It first advaunft to great Auguftus grace,
Might long perhaps have lien in filence bace,
Ne bene fo much admir'd of later age.
This lowly Mufe, that learns like steps to trace,
Flies for like aide unto your Patronage,

That are the great Mecenas of this age,
As wel to al that civil artes profeffe,
As thofe that are infpir'd with Martial rage,
And craves protection of her feebleneffe:
Which if ye yield, perhaps ye may her rayse
In bigger tunes to found your living prayfe.

E. S.

To the right noble Lord and most valiaunt Captaine, Sir John Norris, knight, Lord prefident of Mounfter.

HO ever gave more honourable prize

To the sweet Mufe then did the Martiall crew,
That their brave deeds fhe might immortalise

* Sir Fr. Walfingham.] He was made one of the Queen's Secretaries in 1573, and in 1586 established a new divinity lecture at Oxford, more effectually to oppofe the encroachments of Rome. As he died the 6th of April 1590, the date of this Sonnet may be confidered ascertained; and hence we may infer that the whole of them were written in the winter of 1589, or in the fpring of 1590. This is a point that feems to have hitherto received no attention. C.

Sir John Norris.] A very valiant and fuccessful foldier in the Low

In her fhril tromp, and found their praises dew?
Who then ought more to favour her then you,

Mofte noble Lord, the honor of this age,
And Precedent of all that armes enfue?
Whose warlike proweffe and manly courage,
Tempred with reason and advizement fage,
Hath fild fad Belgicke with victorious spoile;
In Fraunce and Ireland left a famous gage;
And lately shakt the Lufitanian foile.

Sith, then, each where thou haft difpredd thy fame,
Love him that hath eternized your name.

E. S.

To the right honourable and most vertuous Lady the
Counteffe of Penbroke."

EMEMBRAUNCE of that moft Heroicke
spirit,

The hevens pride, the glory of our daies,
Which now triumpheth, through immortall merit
Of his brave vertues, crown'd with lafting baies
Of hevenlie blis and everlasting praies;

Who first my Mufe did lift out of the flore,
To fing his sweet delights in lowlie laies;
Bids me, most noble Lady, to adore

His goodly image, living evermore

In the divine resemblaunce of your face;

Countries, France, Ireland, &c. and at one time, as the title of this Sonnet informs us, Lord Prefident of Munfter. His expedition to "the Lufitanian foil" was not fortunate, and he died in 1597. C.

2 the Counteffe of Penbroke.] Sifter to Sir Philip Sidney, to whom Spenfer alludes. She was herself a Poetefs, and translated a tragedy, called "Antonie," from the French, which was completed in 1590, but was not printed until five years afterwards. She alfo wrote feveral fhort poems, and died in 1621. To her Sidney dedicated his " Arcadia," first published in 4to. 1590; and fhe is the Pandora of Drayton's Eglog. vi." Pandora thou, our Phoebus was thy brother." Edit. 1593,

Which with your vertues ye embellish more, And native beauty deck with heavenlie grace: For his, and for your owne efpecial fake,

Vouchsafe from him this token in good worth to take.

E. S.

To the most vertuous and beautifull Lady, the Lady

N

Carew.a

E may I, without blot of endleffe blame,

You, fairest Lady, leave out of this place;
But with remembraunce of your gracious

name,

Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace
And deck the world, adorne these verses base.
Not that these few lines can in them comprise
Those glorious ornaments of hevenly grace,
Wherewith ye triumph over feeble eyes,
And in fubdued harts do tyranyse;

For thereunto doth need a golden quill,
And filver leaves, them rightly to devise;

fign. G. In the State Paper Office are preserved various letters from Lady Pembroke and her husband refpecting the marriage of their fon with Bridget, daughter to Lord Burghley. The intended bride was then (1597) only 13 years old; and it was propofed that her husband should travel for a few years after the union, and the wife remain with the Countefs. To fhow how true was Gifford's remark on the confidence reposed in "fervants" of the nobility, it may be mentioned that the whole affair was negociated by Maflinger, the father of the poet, then one of the most trusted retainers of the Pembroke family. As to the Chriftian name of that father, the intelligence derived from the fame source is decifive, for one or more letters are subscribed "Arth. Massynger;" fo that there can be no doubt that his name was not like that of his son, Philip, but Arthur. See Gifford's "Maflinger," edit. 1813, vol. i. p. xxxvii. C.

the Lady Carew.] Second daughter to Sir John Spenfer of Althorpe, and wife to Sir George Carew, or Carey, who fucceeded to the title of Lord Hunfdon on the death of his father in 1596. She had a daughter of the fame names, and to both various works of science and imagination were dedicated. C.