Upon the death of the most noble and valorous knight,
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
Dedicated to the most beautifull and vertuous ladie,
SHEPHEARDS! that wont on pipes of oaten reed
Oft times to plaine your loves concealed smart;
And with your piteous layes have learnd to breed
Compassion in a countrey lasses hart:
Hearken, ye gentle Shepheards! to my song,
And place my dolefull plaint your plaints emong.
To you alone I sing this mournfull verse,
The mournfulst verse that ever man heard tell:
To you whose softned hearts it may empierse
With Dolour's dart for death of Astrophe.
To you I sing, and to none other wight,
For well I wot my rymes bene rudely dight.
Yet as they been, if any nycer wit
Shall hap to heare, or covet them to read:
Thinke he that such are for such ones most fit,
Made not to please the living but the dead.
And if in him found pity ever place,
Let him be moov'd to pity such a case.
GENTLE shepheard, born in Arcady,
Of gentlest race that ever shepheard bore,
About the grassie bancks of Hæmony
Did keepe his sheep, his little stock and store:
Full carefully he kept them day and night
In fairest fields; and Astrophel he hight.
Young Astrophel, the pride of shepheards praise,
Young Astrophel, the rusticke lasses love:
Far passing all the pastors of his daies,
In all that seemly shepheard might behove; 10
In one thing only fayling of the best,
That he was not so happie as the rest.
For from the time that first the nymph his mother
Him forth did bring, and taught her lambs to feed;
A sclender swaine, excelling far each other
In comely shape, like her that did him breed,
He grew up fast in goodnesse and in grace,
And doubly faire woxe both in mynd and face.
Which daily more and more he did augment,
With gentle usage and demeanure myld:
That all mens hearts with secret ravishment
He stole away, and weetingly beguyld.
Ne Spight it selfe, that all good things doth spill, Found ought in him that she could say was ill.
His sports was faire, his ioyance innocent,
Sweet without sowre, and honny without gall:
And he himselfe seemd made for meriment,
Merily masking both in bowre and hall:
There was no pleasure nor delightfull play,
When Astrophel soever was away.
For he could pipe and daunce, and caroll sweet, Emongst the shepheards in their shearing feast;
As somers larke, that with her song doth greet The dawning day, forth comming from the east: And layes of love he also could compose: 35 Thrise happie she whom he to praise did chose.
Full many maydens often did him woo
Them to vouchsafe emongst his rimes to name,
Or make for them, as he was wont to doo
For her that did his beart with love inflame. 40
For which they promised to dight for him
Gay chapelets of flowers and gyrlonds trim.
And many a nymph, both of the wood and brooke,
Soone as his oaten pipe began to shrill,
Both christall wells and shadie groves forsooke, 45
To hear the charmes of his enchanting skill,
And brought him presents, flowers if it were prime,
Or mellow fruit, if it were harvest-time.
But he for none of them did care a whit,
Yet woodgods for them often sighed sore:
Ne for their gifts, unworthie of his wit,
Yet not unworthie of the countries store.
For one alone he cared, for one he sigh't,
His lifes desire, and his dear loves delight.
Stella the faire, the fairest star in skie, As faire as Venus, or the fairest faire, (A fairer star saw never living eie,)
Shot her sharp-pointed beames through purest aire.
Her he did love, her he alone did honor,
His thoughts, his rimes, his songs, were all upon her.
To her he vowd the service of his daies,
On her he spent the riches of his wit:
For her he made hymnes of immortall praise,
Of onely her he sung, he thought, he writ.
Her, and but her, of love he worthie deemed ; 65
For all the rest but little he esteemed.
Ne her with ydle words alone he wowed,
And verses vaine, (yet verses are not vaine,)
But with brave deeds to her sole service vowed,
And bold atchievements her did entertaine. 70
For both in deeds and words he nourtred was,
Both wise and hardie, (too hardie alas!)
In wrestling nimble, and in running swift;
In shooting steddie, and in swimming strong:
Well made to strike, to throw, to leape, to lift, 75
And all the sports that shepheards are emong.
In every one he vanquisht every one,
He vanquisht all, and vanquisht was of none.
Besides, in hunting such felicitie,
Or rather infelicite, he found,
That every field and forest far away
He sought, where salvage beasts do most abound.
No beast so salvage but he could' it kill,
No chace so hard, but he therein had skill.
Such skill, matcht with such courage as he had, 85
Did prick him foorth with proud desire of praise
To seek abroad, of dauger nought ydrad,
His mistresse name, and his own fame, to raise.
What needeth perill to be sought abroad,
Since, round about us, it doth make aboad! 90
It fortuned as he that perilous game
In foreine soy pursued far away;
Into a forest wide and waste he came,
Where store he heard to be of salvage pray.
So wide a forest, ad so waste as this,
Nor famous Ardeyn, nnor fowie Arlo, is.
There his welwoven toyles and subtil traines
He laid, the brutish nation to enwrap:
So well he wrought with practise and with paines,
That he of them great troups did soone entrap. 100
Full happie man (misweening much) was hee,
So rich a spoile within his power to see.
Eftsoones, all heedlesse of his dearest hale,
Full greedily into the heard he thrust,
To slaughter them, and work their finall bale, 105
Least that his toyle should of their troups be brust.
Wide wounds emongst them many one be made,
Now with his sharp bore-spear, now with his blade.
His care was all how he them all might kill, That none might scape, (so partiall unto none :) | 10
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