• Winter is come that blows the bitter blast, And after winter dreerie death does hast.

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• Gather together ye my little flocke! 'My little flocke, that was to me so liefe; Let me, ah! let me in your foldes ye lock, Ere the breme winter breede you greater griefe. Winter is come, that blows the balefull

breath,

And after winter commeth timely death. 150

Adieu, Delightes! that lulled me asleepe;
Adieu, my Deare! whose love I bought so deare;
Adieu, my little Lambes and loved Sheepe!
Adieu, ye Woodes! that oft my witnesse were:
Adieu, good Hobbinoll! that was so true, 155
'Tell Rosalind, Colin bids her adieu.'

COLINS EMBLEME.

Vivitur ingenio: cætera mortis erunt.

GLOSSE.

Fytirus, Chaucer, as hath beene oft said.
Lambkins, yong lambes.

Als of their, seemely to expresse Virgils verse,
Pan curat oves oviumque magistros.'

Deigne, vauchsafe.

Cabinet, Colinet, diminutives.

Mazie. For they be like to a maze whence it is hard to get out againg.

Peers, fellowes and companions.

Musick, that is Poetrie, as Terence saith, Qui artem tractant musicam,' speaking of Poets.

Derring do, aforesaid.

Lions house. He imagineth simply that Cupid, which is love, had his abode in the hot signe Leo, which is in midst of Sommer: a pretie allegory; whereof the meaning is, that love in him wrought an extraordinarie heat of lust.

His ray, which is Cupids beame of flames of love. A comet, a blasing starre, meant of beautie, which was the cause of his hot love.

Venus, the goddesse of beautie or pleasure. Also a signe in heaven, as it is here taken. So he meaneth that beautie, which hath alway aspect to Venus, was the cause of his unquietnesse in love.

Where I was: a fine description of the change of his life and liking, for all things now seemed to him to have altered their kindly course.

Lording. Spoken after the manner of Paddocks and Frogs sitting, which is indeed lordly, not mooving or looking once aside, unlesse they be stirred.

Then as. The second part, that is, his manhood. Cotes, shepcotes, for such be exercises of shepheards.

Sale or sallow, a kinde of wood like willow, fitte to wreathe and binde in heapes to catch fish withall.

Phabe failes. The Eclipse of the Moone, which is alwayes in Cauda, or Capite Draconis, signes in hea

ven.

Venus, 8. Venus starre, otherwise called Hesperus, and Vesper, and Lucifer, both because he seemeth to be one of the brightest stars, and also first riseth, and setteth last. All which skill in starres being convenient for shepheards to know, Theocritus and the rest use.

Raging seas. The cause of the swelling and ebbing

of the sea commeth of the course of the Moone, sometime increasing, sometime waining and decreasing.

Sooth of birds, a kind of soothsaying used in the elder times, which they gathered by the flying of birds: First (as is said) invented by the Tuscans, and from them derived to the Romanes, who, as it is said in Livy, were so superstitiously rooted in the same, that they agreed that every noble man should put his sonne to the Tuscanes, by them to be brought up in that knowledge.

Of herbs. That wondrous things be wrought by herbs, as wel appeareth by the common working of them in our bodyes, as also by the wonderfull enchauntments and sorceries that have beene wrought by them, insomuch that it is said, that Circe, a famous sorceresse, turned men into sundry kinds of beasts and monsters, and only by herbes: as the Poet saith,

Dea sava potentibus herbis, &c.'

Kidst, knowest.

Eare, of corne.

Scathe, losse, hindrance.

Ever among, ever and anone.

And thus. The third part, wherein is set forth his ripe yeares as an untimely harvest that bringeth little fruit.

The fragrant flowers, sundry studies and laudable parts of learning, wherein our poet is seene: be they witnesse which are privie to this study.

So now my yeere. The last part, wherein is described his age, by comparison of wintrie stormes.

Carefull cold, for care is said to coole the bloud.
Glee, mirth.

Hoarte frost, a metaphor of hoarie haires scattered like a gray frost.

Breeme, sharpe and bitter.

Adieu delights, is a conclusion of all. Where in sixe verses he comprehendeth all that was touched in this booke. In the first verse his delights of youth generally: In the second, the love of Rosalinde: In the third, the keeping of sheep, which is the argument of al the glogues: In the fourth, his complaints: And in the last two, his professed friendship and good will to his good friend Hobbinoll.

EMBLEME.

The meaning whereof is, that all things perish and come to their last end, but works of learned wits and monuments abide for ever. And therefore Horace of his Odes, a worke though full indeed of great wit and learning, yet of no so great weight and importance, boldly saith,

Exegi monimentum ære perennius,

"Quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens, c.' Therefore let not be envied, that this Poet in his Epilogue saith, he made a Calender that shall endure as long as time, &c. following the example of Horace and Ovid in the like.

Grande opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira, nec ignis,
Nec ferrum poterit nec edax abolere vetustas, c.

EPILOGUE.

LOE! I have made a Calender for every yeare, That steele in strength, and time in durance, shall outweare;

And, if I marked well the starres revolution,
It shall continue till the worldes dissolution,
To teach the ruder shepheard how to feede his
sheepe,

And from the falsers fraude his folded flocke to keepe.

Goe, little Calender! thou hast a free passe

porte;

Goe but a lowly gate amongst the meaner sorte: Dare not to match thy pype with Tityrus his stile, Nor with the Pilgrim that the plough-man playd a while;

But follow them farre off, and their high steps adore;

The better please, the worse despise; I aske no

more.

Merce non mercede.