To thee therefore of this fame Iove I plaine,
And of his fellow-gods that faine to be,
That challenge to themselves the whole worlds raign, Of which the greatest part is due to me, And heaven itfelfe by heritage in fee: For heaven and earth I both alike do deeme, Sith heaven and earth are both alike to thee; And gods no more then men thou doeft efteeme: For even the gods to thee, as men to gods do feeme.
Then weigh, o foveraigne goddesse, by what right
Thefe gods do claime the worlds whole foverainty;
And that is onely dew unto thy might
Arrogate to themselves ambitiously:
As for the gods owne principality,
Which love ufurpes uniuflly, that to be
My heritage, Love's felf cannot deny,
From my great grandfire Titan unto mee
Deriv'd by dew descent ; as is well known to thee.
Yet mauger love, and all his gods befide,
I doe poffeffe the worlds most regiment ;
As if ye pleafe it into parts divide,
And every parts inbolders to convent,
Sball to your eyes appeare incontinent.
And firft the Earth (great mother of us all)
That only feems unmov'd and permanent,
And unto Mutability not thrall,
Yet is fhe chang'd in part, and eeke in generall:
For all that from her springs, and is ybredde,
However fayre it flourish for a time,
Yet fee we foone decay; and being dead
To turne again unto their earthly flime
Yet out of their decay and mortall crime
We daily fee new creatures to arize,
And of their winter fpring another prime,
Unlike in forme, and chang'd by frange difguize:
So turne they ftill about, and change in reftleffe wife
As for her tenants, that is man and beafts;
The beafts we daily fee maffacred dy,
As thralls and vassals unto mens beheafts;
And men themselves doe change continually,
From youth to eld, from wealth to poverty,
From good to bad, from bad to worst of all:
Ne doe their bodies only flit and fly;
But ceke their minds (which they immortall call)
Sill change and vary thoughts, as new occafions fall.
Ne is the water in more conftant cafe ;
Whether those fame on high, or thefe belowe:
For th' ocean moveth ftill from place to place;
And every river fill doth ebbe and flowe;
Ne any lake, that feems most ftill and flowe,
Ne poole fo fmall, that can his smoothnesse holde,
When any winde doth under heaven blowe;
With which the clouds are also toft and roll'd,
Now like great hills, and freight, like fluces, them unfold.
XXI.
So likewife are all watry living wights
Still toft and turned with continuall change,
Never abyding in their ftedfaft plights:
The fifb, ftill floting, doe at randon range,
And never reft, but evermore exchange
Their dwelling places, as the ftreames them carrie:
Ne have the watry foules a certaine grange
Wherein to reft, ne in one flead do tarry;
But flitting ftill doe flie, and fill their places vary.
Next is the ayre: which who feeles not by fenfe
(For of all fenfe it is the middle meane)
To flit ftill? and with fubtill influence
Of his thin fpirit all creatures to maintaine
In fiate of life? o weake life! that does leane
On thing fo tickle as th'unfteady ayre;
Which every howre is chang'd, and altred cleane
With every blaft that bloweth fowle or faire :
The faire doth it prolong; the fowle doth it impaire.
Therein the changes infinite beholde,
Which to her creatures every minute chaunce ;
Now boyling hot; ftreight friezing deadly cold;
Now faire fun-fhine, that makes all skip and daunce ;
Streight bitter forms and balefull countenance,
That makes them all to fhiver and to shake:
Rayne, hayle, and fnowe do pay them fad penance,
And dreadfull thunder-claps (that make them quake)
With flames and flashing lights that thousand changes make.
XXIV.
Laft is the fire; which though it live for ever,
Ne can be quenched quite; yet every day
We fee his parts, fo foone as they do fever,
To lose their heat and shortly to decay;
So makes himself his owne confuming pray:
Ne any living creatures doth be breed;
But all that are of others bredd doth flay,
And with their death his cruell life dooth feed,
Nought leaving but their barren ashes without feede.
XXV.
Thus all thefe four (the which the ground-work bee
Of all the world and of all living wights)
To thousand forts of change we fubject fee:
Yet are they chang'd by other wondrous flights
Into themfelves, and lofe their native mights;
The fire to aire, and th' ayre to water fheere,
And water into earth; yet water fights
With fire, and aire with earth approaching neere:
Yet all are in one body, and as one appeare.
XXVI.
So in them all raignes mutabilitie;
However thefe, that gods themselves do call,
Of them doe claime the rule and foverainty;
As Vefta of the fire aethereall,
Vulcan of this with us fo ufuall,
Ops of the earth, and Iuno of the ayre,
Neptune of feas, and nymphes of rivers all:
For all thofe rivers to me fubiect are;
And all the rest which they ufurp be all my share.
Which to approven true, as I have told,
Vouchsafe, 6 goddeffe, to thy prefence call
The reft which doe the world in being hold;
As Times and Seafons of the year that fall:
Of all the which demand in generall,
Or iudge thyfelfe by verdit of thine eye,
Whether to me they are not fubiect all.
Nature did yeeld thereto; and by and by
Bade Order call them all before her maiefty.
So forth iffew'd the Seafons of the
Firft lufty Spring, all dight in leaves of flowres
That freshly budded and new bloofmes did beare,
In which a thousand birds had built their bowres
That sweetly fung to call forth paramours;
And in his hand a iavelin he did beare,
And on his head (as fit for warlike ftoures)
A guilt engraven morion he did weare ;
That as fome did him love, so others did him feare.
XXIX.
Then came the iolly Sommer, being dight
In a thin filken caffock coloured greene,
That was unlyned all, to be more light;
And on his head a girlond well befeene
He wore, from which as he had chauffed been
The sweat did drop; and in his hand he bore
A boawe and shaftes, as he in forrest greene
Had hunted late the libbard or the bore,
And now would bathe his limbes, with labor heated fore.
Then came the Autumne, all in yellow clad,
As though he ioyed in his plentious store,
Laden with fruits that made him laugh, full glad
That he had banisht hunger, which to-fore
Had by the belly oft him pinched fore;
Upon his head a wreath, that was enrold
With ears of corne of every fort, he bore;
And in his hand a fickle he did holde,
To reape
the ripened fruits the which the earth had yold.
Laftly came Winter, cloathed all in frize,
Chattering his teeth for cold that did him chill;
Whil'ft on his hoary beard his breath did freefe,
And the dull drops, that from his purpled bill
As from a limbeck did adown distill :
In his right hand a tipped staffe he held,
With which his feeble steps he stayed still
For he was faint with cold and weak with eld; That scarfe his loofed limbes he hable was to weld. XXXII.
These, marching foftly, thus in order went,
And after them the Monthes all riding came:
First sturdy March with brows full sternly bent,
And armed strongly, rode upon a ram,
The fame which over Hellefpontus swam;
Yet in his hand a spade he also hent,
And in a bag all forts of feeds yfame,
Which on the earth he ftrowed as he went,
And fild her womb with fruitfull hope of nourishment.
XXXIII.
Next came fresh Aprill full of luftyhed,
And wanton as a kid whose horne new buds ;
Upon a bull he rode, the fame which led
Europa floting through th' Argolick fluds;
His hornes were gilden all with golden ftuds,
And garnished with garlonds goodly dight
Of all the faireft flowres and freshest buds
Which th' earth brings forth, and wet he seem'd in fight
With waves, through which he waded for his loves delight.
XXXIV.
Then came faire May, the fayrest mayd on ground,
Deckt all with dainties of her seasons pryde,
And throwing flowres out of her lap around;
Upon two brethrens fhoulders fhe did ride,
The twinnes of Leda; which on eyther fide
Supported her like to their foveraine queene:
Lord! how all creatures laught when her they spide,
And leapt and daunc't as they had ravisht beene!
And Cupid felfe about her fluttred all in
VOL. II.
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