XV.

To thee, therefore, of this same love I plaine, And of his fellow-gods that faine to be, [raign, 'That challenge to themselves the whole worlds Of which the greatest part is due to me, And heaven itselfe 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 doest esteeme: For even the gods to thee as men to gods do [seeme. Then weigh, O soveraigne Goddesse! by what

right

XVI.

'These gods do claime the worlds whole soverainty; And that is onely dew unto thy might 'Arrogate to themselves ambitiously: As for the gods owne principality, 'Which love usurps uniustly, that to be 'My heritage, Ioves self cannot deny,

From my great grandsire Titan unto mee 'Deriv'd by dew descent; as is well known to thee.

XVII.

Yet maugre Iove, and all his gods beside, 'I doe possesse the worlds most regiment; As if ye please it into parts divide, And every parts inholders to convent, 'Shall to your eyes appeare incontinent. And first, the Earth (great mother of us all) That only seems unmov'd and permanent,

• And unto Mutability not thrall,

Yet is she chang'd in part, and eeke in generall:

XVIII.

For all that from her springs and is ybredde, 'However fayre it flourish for a time, 'Yet see we soone decay; and, being dead, To turne againe unto their earthly slime: Yet, out of their decay and mortall crime, We daily see new creatures to arize,

And of their Winter spring another Prime, • Unlike in forme, and chang'd by strange disguize: So turne they still about, and change in restlesse

As for her tenants, that is man and beasts,
The beasts we daily see massacred dy,
As thralls and vassals unto mens beheasts,
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 eeke their minds (which they immortall call) Still change and vary thoughts as new occasions

XX.

Ne is the water in more constant case,

[fall.

. Whether those same on high.or these belowe:
For th' ocean moveth still from place to place,
And every river still doth ebbe and flowe;
Ne any lake, that seems most still and slowe;
Ne poole so small, that can his smoothnesse holde,
When any winde doth under heaven blowe,
With which the clouds are also tost and roll'd,
Now like great hills, and streight like sluces,
them unfold.

XXI.

So likewise are all watry living wights Still tost and turned with continuall change, 'Never abyding in their stedfast plights: The fish, still floting, doe at randon range, And never rest, but evermore exchange Their dwelling places, as the streames them carrie: Ne have the watry foules a certaine grange 'Wherein to rest, ne in one stead do tarry, 'But flitting still doe flie,and still their places vary.

XXII.

Next is the ayre, which who feeles not by sense (For of all sense it is the middle meane)

To flit still, and with subtill influence

Of his thin spirit all creatures to maintaine "In state of life? O weake life! that does leane On thing so tickle as th' unsteady ayre,

Which every howre is chang'd, and altred cleane With every blast that bloweth fowle or faire: The faire doth it prolong, the fowle doth it im[paire.

XXIII.

"Therein the changes infinite beholde, Which to her creatures every minute chaunce, Now boyling hot, streight friezing deadly cold; "Nowfaire sun-shine, that makes allskip and daunce; 'Streight bitter storms and balefull countenance, That makes them all to shiver and to shake; Rayne,hayle, and snowe, do pay them sad penance, Anddreadfull thunder-claps (thatmakethemquake) With flames and flashing lights that thousand changes make.

XXIV.

Last is the fire; which though it live for ever, Ne can be quenched quite, yet every day We see his parts, so soone as they do sever, To lose their heat, and shortly to decay, So makes himself his owne consuming pray; Ne any living creatures doth he breed, But all that are of others bredd doth slay, And with their death his cruell life dooth feed, • Nought leaving but their barren ashes without

XXV.

[seed. Thus all these four (the which the ground-work Of all the world and of all living wights) [bee To thousand sorts of change we subject see, Yet are they chang'd by other wondrous slights Into themselves, and lose their native mights; The fire to aire, and th' ayre to water sheere, 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 these, that gods themselves do call,
Of them doe claime the rule and soverainty;

'As Vesta of the fire æthereall,

Vulcan, of this with us so usuall;

Ops, of the earth; and Iuno, of the ayre;

· Neptune, of seas; and Nymphes, of rivers all:

For all those rivers to me subiect are;

And all the rest, which they usurp, be all my

VOL. VI.

[share.

XXVII.

Which to approven true, as I have told,
Vouchsafe, O Goddesse! to thy presence call
The rest which doe the world in being hold;
As Times and Seasons of the year that fall:
Of all the which demand in generall,
'Or iudge thyselfe, by verdit of thine eye,
'Whether to me they are not subiect all.'
Nature did yeeld thereto; and by-and-by
Bade Order call them all before her Maiesty.

XXVIII.

So forth issew'd the Seasons of the year:
First lusty Spring, all dight in leaves of flowres
That freshly budded, and new blosmes did beare,
In which a thousand birds had built their bowres,
That sweetly sung to call forth paramoures;
And in his hand a iavelin he did beare,
And on his head (as fit for warlike stoures)
A guilt engraven morion he did weare,

That as some did him love, so others did him feare.

XXIX.

Then came the iolly Sommer, being dight
In a thin silken cassock coloured greene,
That was unlyned all, to be more light:
And on his head a girlond well beseene

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, [sore.
And now would bathe his limbes, with labor heated