<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=374514" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Virgils Gnat</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Wrong'd, yet not daring to expresse my paine,<br>To you (great Lord) the causer of my care,<br>In clowdie teares my case I thus complaine<br>Vnto yourselfe, that onely priuie are:<br>But if that any Oedipus vnware<br>Shall chaunce, through power of some diuining spright,<br>To reade the secrete of this riddle rare,<br>And know the purporte of my euill plight,<br>Let him rest pleased with his owne insight,<br>Ne further seeke to glose vpon the text:<br>For griefe enough it is to grieued wight<br>To feele his fault, and not be further vext.<br>But what so by my selfe may not be showen,<br>May by this Gnatts complaint be easily knowen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>We now haue playde (Augustus) wantonly,<br>Tuning our song vnto a tender Muse,<br>And like a cobweb weauing slenderly,<br>Haue onely playde: let thus much then excuse<br>This Gnats small Poeme, that th' whole history<br>Is but a jest, though envie it abuse:<br>But who such sports and sweet delights doth blame,<br>Shall lighter seeme than this Gnats idle name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hereafter, when as season more secure<br>Shall bring forth fruit, this Muse shall speak to thee<br>In bigger notes, that may thy sense allure,<br>And for thy worth frame some fit Poesie,<br>The golden offspring of Latona pure,<br>And ornament of great Ioues progenie,<br>Phoebus shall be the author of my song,<br>Playing on iuorie harp with siluer strong.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He shall inspire my verse with gentle mood<br>Of Poets Prince, whether he woon beside<br>Faire Xanthus sprincled with Chimæras blood;<br>Or in the woods of Astery abide;<br>Or whereas mount Parnasse, the Muses brood,<br>Doth his broad forhead like two hornes diuide,<br>And the sweete waues of sounding Castaly<br>With liquid foote doth slide downe easily.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Wherefore ye Sisters which the glorie bee<br>Of the Pierian streames, fayre Naiades,<br>Go too, and dauncing all in companie,<br>Adorne that God: and thou holie Pales,<br>To whome the honest care of husbandrie <br>Returneth by continuall successe,<br>Haue care for to pursue his footing light;<br>Throgh the wide woods, & groues, with green leaues dight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Professing thee I lifted am aloft<br>Betwixt the forrest wide and starrie sky:<br>And thou most dread (Octauius) which oft<br>To learned wits giuest courage worthily,<br>O come (thou sacred childe) come sliding soft,<br>And fauour my beginnings graciously:<br>For not these leaues do sing that dreadfull stound,<br>When Giants bloud did staine Phlegræan ground.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Nor how th' halfe horsy people, Centaures hight,<br>Fought with the bloudie Lapithaes at bord,<br>Nor how the East with tyranous despight<br>Burnt th Attick towres, and people slew with sword;<br>Was digged downe, nor yron bands abord<br>The Pontick sea by their huge Nauy cast,<br>My volume shall renowne, so long since past.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Nor Hellespont trampled with horses feete,<br>When flocking Persians did the Greeks affray;<br>But my soft Muse, as for her power more meete,<br>Delights (with Phoebus friendly leaue) to play<br>An easie running verse with tender feete.<br>And thou (dread sacred child) to thee alway,<br>Let euerlasting lightsome glory striue,<br>Through the worlds endles ages to suruiue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And let an happie roome remaine for thee<br>Mongst heauenly ranks, where blessed soules do rest;<br>And let long lasting life with ioyous glee, <br>As thy due meede that thou deseruest best,<br>Hereafter many yeares remembred be<br>Amongst good men, of whom thou oft are blest;<br>Liue thou for euer in all happinesse:<br>But let us turne to our first businesse.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The fiery sun was mounted now on hight<br>Vp to the heauenly towers, and shot each where<br>Out of his golden Charet glistering light;<br>And fayre Aurora with her rosie heare,<br>The hatefull darknes now had put to flight,<br>When as the shepheard seeing day appeare,<br>His little Goats gan driue out of their stalls,<br>To feede abroad, where pasture best befalls.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To an high mountaines top he with them went,<br>Where thickest grasse did cloath the open hills:<br>They now amongst the woods and thickets ment,<br>Now in the valleies wandring at their wills,<br>Spread themselues farre abroad through each descent;<br>Some on the soft greene grasse feeding their fills;<br>Some clambring through the hollow cliffes on hy,<br>Nibble the bushie shrubs, which growe thereby.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Others the vtmost boughs of trees doe crop,<br>And brouze the woodbine twigges, that freshly bud<br>This with full bit doth catch the vtmost top<br>Of some soft Willow, or new growen stud;<br>This with sharpe teeth the brambles leaues doth lop,<br>And chaw the tender prickles in her Cud;<br>The whiles another high doth ouerlooke<br>Her owne like image in christall brooke.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O the great happines, which shepheards haue, <br>Who so loathes not too much the poor estate,<br>With minde that ill vse doth before depraue,<br>Ne measures all things by the costly rate<br>Of riotise, and semblants outward braue;<br>No such sad cares, as wont to macerate<br>And rend the greedie mindes of couetous men,<br>Do euer creepe into the shepheards den.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ne cares he if the fleece, which him arayes,<br>Be not twice steeped in Assyrian dye,<br>Ne glistering of golde, which vnderlayes <br>The summer beames, doe blinde his gazing eye.<br>Ne pictures beautie, nor the glauncing rayes<br>Of precious stones, whence no good commeth by;<br>Of Bætus or of Alcons vanity.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ne ought the whelky pearles esteemeth hee,<br>Which are from Indian seas brought far away:<br>But with pure brest from carefull sorrow free,<br>On the soft grasse his limbs doth oft display,<br>In sweete spring time, when flowres varietie <br>With sundrie colours paints the sprincled lay;<br>There lyin all at ease, from guile or spight,<br>With pype of fennie reedes doth him delight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There he, Lord of himselfe, with palme bedight,<br>His looser locks doth wrap in wreath of vine:<br>There his milk dropping Goats be his delight,<br>And fruitful Pales, and the forrest greene,<br>And darkesome caues in pleasaunt vallies pight,<br>Whereas continuall shade is to be seene,<br>And where fresh sprining wells, as christall neate,<br>Do alwayes flow, to quench his thirstie heate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O who can lead them to a more happie life,<br>Than he, that with cleane minde and heart sincere,<br>No greedy riches knowes nor bloudie strife,<br>No deadly fight of warlick fleete doth feare,<br>Ne runs in perill of foes cruell knife,<br>That in the sacred temples he may reare,<br>A trophee of his glittering spoyels and treasure,<br>Or may abound in riches aboue measure.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Of him his God is worshipt with his sythe,<br>And not with skill of craftsman polished:<br>He ioyes in groues, and makes himselfe full blythe,<br>With sundrie flowers in wilde fieldes gathered;<br>Ne frankincens he from Panchæa buyth,<br>Sweete quiet harbours in his harmeles head,<br>And perfect pleasure builds her iouyous bowre,<br>Free from sad cares, that rich mens hearts deuowre.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This all his care, this all his whole indeuour,<br>To this his minde and senses he doth bend,<br>How he may flow in quiets matchles treasour,<br>Content with any food that God doth send;<br>And how his limbs, resolu'd through idle leisour,<br>Vnto sweete sleepe he may securely lend,<br>In some coole shadow from the scorching heate,<br>The whiles his flock their chawed cuds do eate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O flocks, O Faunes, and O ye pleasaunt springs<br>Of Tempe, where the countrey Nymphs are rife,<br>Through whose not costly care each shepheard sings<br>As merrie notes vpon his rusticke Fife,<br>As that Ascræan bard, whose fame now rings<br>Through the wide world, and leads as ioyfull life.<br>Free from all troubles and from worldly toyle,<br>In which fond men doe all their dayes turmoyle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In such delights whilst thus his carelesse time<br>This shepheard driues, vpleaning on his batt,<br>And on shrill reedes chaunting his rustick rime,<br>Hyperion throwing foorth his beames full hott,<br>Into the highest top of heauen gan clime,<br>And the world parting by an equall lott,<br>Did shed his whirling flames on either side,<br>As the great Ocean doth himselfe diuide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then gan the shepheard gather into one<br>His stragling Goates, and draue them to a foord,<br>Whose cærule streame, rombling in Pible stone,<br>Crept vnder mosse as greene as any goord.<br>Now had the Sun halfe heauen ouergone,<br>When he heard back from that water foord,<br>Draue from the force of Phoebus boyling ray,<br>Into thick shadowes, there themselues to lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Soone as he them plac'd in thy sacred wood<br>(O Delian Goddesse) saw, to which of yore<br>Came the bad daughter of old Cadmus brood,<br>Cruell Agaue, flying vengeance sore<br>Of king Nictilus for the guiltie blood,<br>Which she with cursed hands had shed before;<br>There she halfe frantick hauing slaine her sonne,<br>Did shrowd her selfe like punishment to shonne.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Here also playing on the grassy greene,<br>Woodgods, and Satyres, and swift Dryades,<br>With many Fairies oft were dauncing seene.<br>Not so much did Dan Orpheus represse,<br>The streames of Hebrus with his songs I weene,<br>As that faire troupe of woodie Goddesses<br>Staied thee, (O Peneus) powring foorth to thee,<br>From cheereful lookes great mirth & gladsome glee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The verie nature of the place, resounding<br>With gentle murmure of the breathing ayre,<br>A pleasant bowre with all delight abounding<br>In the fresh shadowe did for them prepayre,<br>To rest their limbs with wearines redounding.<br>For first the high Plaine trees with braunches faire,<br>Out of the lowly vallies did arise,<br>And high shoote vp their heads into the skyes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And them amongst the wicked Lotos grew,<br>Wicked, for holding guilefully away<br>Vlysses men, whom rapt with sweetnes new,<br>Taking to hoste, it quite from him did stay,<br>And eke those trees, in whose transformed hew<br>The Sunnes sad daughters waylde the rash decay<br>Of Phaeton, whose limbs with lightning rent,<br>They gathering vp, with sweete teares did lament.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And that same tree, in which Demophoon,<br>By his disloyalty lamented sore,<br>Eternall hurte left vnto many one:<br>Whom als accompanied the Oke, of yore<br>Through fatall charmes transformd to such an one:<br>The Oke, whose Acornes were our foode, before<br>That Ceres seede of mortall men were knowne,<br>Which first Triptoleme taught how to be sowne.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Here also grew the rougher rinded Pine,<br>The great Argoan ships braue ornament<br>Whom golden Fleece did make an heauenly signe;<br>Which coueting, with his high tops extent,<br>To make the mountaines touch the starres diuine,<br>Decks all the forrest with embellishment,<br>And the blacke Holme that loues the watrie vale,<br>And the sweete Cypresse signe of deadly bale.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Emongst the rest the clambring Yuie grew,<br>Knitting his wanton armes with grasping hold,<br>Least that the Poplar happely should rew <br>Her brothers strokes, whose boughes she doth enfold<br>With her lythe twigs, till they the top survew,<br>And paint with pallid greene her buds of gold.<br>Next did the Myrtle tree to her approach,<br>Not yet vnmindfull of her olde reproach.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the small Birds in their wide boughs embowring,<br>Chaunted their sundrie tunes with sweete consent,<br>And vnder them a siluer Spring forth powring<br>His trickling streames, a gentle murmure sent;<br>Thereto the frogs, bred in the slimie scowring<br>Of the moist moores, their iarring voyces bent;<br>And shrill grashoppers chirped them around:<br>All which the ayrie Echo did resound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In this so pleasant place this Shepheards flocke<br>Lay euerie where, their wearie limbs to rest,<br>On euerie bush, and euerie hollow rocke<br>Where breathe on them the whistling wind mote best;<br>The whiles the Shepheard self tending his stocke,<br>Sate by the fountaine side, in shade to rest,<br>Where gentle slumbring sleep opressed him,<br>Displaid on ground, and seized euerie lim.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Of trecherie or traines nought tooke he keep,<br>But looslie on the grassie greene dispredd,<br>His dearest life did trust to careles sleep;<br>Which weighing down his drouping drowsie hedd,<br>In quiet rest his molten heart did steep,<br>Deuoid of care, and feare of all falsehedd:<br>Had not inconstant fortune, bent to ill,<br>Bid strange mischance his quietnes to spill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For at his wonted time in that same place <br>An huge great Serpent all with speckles pide,<br>To drench himselfe in moorish slime did trace,<br>There from the boyling heate himselfe to hide:<br>He passing by with rolling wreathed pace,<br>With brandisht tongue the emptie aire did gride,<br>And wrapt his scalie boughts with fell despight,<br>That all things seem'd appalled at his sight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now more and more hauing himself enrolde,<br>His glittering breast he lifteth vp on hie,<br>And with proud vaunt his head aloft doth holde;<br>His creste aboue spotted with purple die,<br>On euerie side did shine like scalie golde,<br>And his bright eyes glauncing full dreadfullie,<br>Did seeme to flame out flakes of flashing fyre,<br>And with sterne lookes to threaten kindled yre.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus wise long time he did himselfe dispace<br>There round about, when as at last he spide<br>Lying along before him in that place,<br>That flocks grand Captaine, and most trustie guide:<br>Eftsoones more fierce in visage, and in pace,<br>Throwing his firie eyes on euerie side,<br>He commeth on, and all things in his way<br>Full stearnly rends, that might his passage stay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Much he disdaines, that anie one should dare<br>To come vnto his haunt; for which intent<br>He inly burns, and gins straight to prepare<br>The weapons, which Nature to him hath lent:<br>Fellie he hisseth, and doth fiercely stare,<br>And hath his iawes with angrie spirits rent,<br>That all his tract with bloudie drops is stained, <br>And all his foldes are now in length outstrained.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whom thus at point prepared, to preuent,<br>A little noursling of the humid ayre,<br>A Gnat vnto the sleepie Shepheard went,<br>And marking where his ey-lids twinckling rare,<br>Shewd the two pearles, which sight vnto him lent,<br>Through their thin couerings appearing fayre,<br>His little needle there infixing deep,<br>Warnd him awake, from death himselfe to keep.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Wherewith enrag'd, he fiecely gan vpstart, <br>And with his hand him rashly bruzing, slewe<br>As in auengement of his heedles smart,<br>That streight the sprite out of his senses flew,<br>And life out of his members did depart:<br>When suddenly casting aside his vew,<br>He spide his foe with felonous intent,<br>And feruent eyes to his destruction bent.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All suddenly dismaid, and hartles quight,<br>He fled abacke, and catching hastie holde<br>Of a yong alder hard beside him pight, <br>It rent, and streight about him gan beholde,<br>What God or Fortune would assist his might.<br>But whether God or Fortune made him bold<br>Its hard to read: yet hardie will he had<br>To ouercome, that made him lesse adrad.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The scalie backe of that most hideous snake<br>Enwrapped round, oft faining to retire,<br>And oft him to assaile, he fiercely strake<br>Whereas his temples did his creast front tyre;<br>And for he was but slowe, did slowth off shake, <br>And gazing ghastly on (for feare and yre<br>Had blent so much his sense, that lesse he feard <br>Yet when he saw him slaine, himself he cheard.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By this the night forth from the darksome bowre<br>Of Herebus her teemed steedes gan call,<br>And laesie Vesper in his timelie howre<br>From golden Oeta gan proceede withall;<br>Whenas the Shepheard after this sharpe stowre,<br>Seeing the doubled shadowes low to fall,<br>Gathering his straying flocke, does homeward fare, <br>And vnto rest his wearie ioynts prepare.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Into whose sense so soone as lighter sleepe<br>Was entered, and now loosing euerie lim,<br>Sweete slumbring deaw in carelessenesse did steepe,<br>The Image of that Gnat appeard to him,<br>And in sad tearmes gan sorrowfully weepe,<br>With greislie countenaunce and visage grim,<br>Wailing the wrong which he had done of late,<br>In steed of good hastning his cruell fate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Said he, what haue I wretch deseru'd, that thus<br>Into this bitter bale I am outcast,<br>Whilest that thy life more deare and precious<br>Was than mine owne, so long as it did last?<br>I now in lieu of paines so gracious,<br>am tost in th' ayre with euerie windie blast:<br>Thou safe deliuered from sad decay,<br>Thy careles limbs in loose sleep dost display.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So liuest thou, but my poore wretched ghost<br>Is forst to ferrie ouer Lethes Riuer,<br>And spoyld of Charon too and fro am tost.<br>Seest thou, how all places quake and quiuer<br>Lightned with deadly lamps on euerie post?<br>Tisiphone each where doth shake and shiuer<br>Her flaming fire brond, encountring me,<br>Whose lockes vncombed cruell adders be.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And Cerberus, whose many mouthes doo bay,<br>And barke out flames, as if on fire he fed;<br>Adowne whose necke in terrible array,<br>Ten thousand snakes cralling about his hed<br>Doo hang in heapes, that horribly affray, <br>And bloodie eyes do glister firie red;<br>He oftentimes me dreadfullie doth threaten,<br>With painfull torments to be sorely beaten.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ay me, that thankes so much should faile of meed,<br>For that I thee restor'd to life againe,<br>Euen from the doore of death and deadlie dreed.<br>Where then is now the guerdon of my paine?<br>Where the reward of my so piteous deed?<br>The praise of pitie vanisht is in vaine,<br>And th' antique faith of Iustice long agone<br>Out of the land is fled away and gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I saw anothers fate approaching fast,<br>And left mine owne his safetie to tender;<br>Into the same mishap I now am cast,<br>And shun'd destruction doth destruction render;<br>Not vnto him that neuer hath trespast,<br>But punishment is due to the offender.<br>Yet long destruction be the punishment,<br>So long as thankfull will may it relent.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I carried am into waste wildernesse,<br>Waste wildernes, amongst Cymerian shades,<br>Where endles paines and hideous heauinesse<br>Is round about me heapt in darksome glades.<br>For there huge Othos sits in sad distresse,<br>Fast bound with serpents that him oft inuades;<br>Far of beholding Ephialtes tide,<br>Which once assai'd to burne this world so wide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And there is mournfull Tityus mindefull yet<br>Of thy displeasure, O Latona faire;<br>Displeasure too implacable was it,<br>That made him meat for wild foules of the ayre:<br>Much do I feare among such fiends to sit;<br>Much do I feare back to them to repayre,<br>To the black shadowes of the Stygian shore,<br>Where wretched ghosts sit wailing euermore.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There next the vtmost brinck doth he abide,<br>That did the bankets of the Gods bewray,<br>Whose throat through thirst to nought nigh being dride<br>His sense to seeke for ease turnes euery way:<br>And he that in auengement of his pride,<br>For scorning to the sacred Gods to pray,<br>Against a mountaine rolls a mighty stone,<br>Calling in vaine for rest, and can haue none.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Go ye with them, go cursed damosells,<br>Whose bridale torches foule Erynnis tynde,<br>And Hymen at your Spousalls sad, foretells<br>Tydings of death and massacre vnkinde:<br>With them that cruell Colchid mother dwells,<br>The which conceiu'd in her reuengefull minde,<br>With bitter woundes her owne deere babes to slay,<br>And murdred troupes vpon great heapes to lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There also those two Pandionian maides,<br>Calling on Itis, Itis euermore,<br>Whom wretched boy they slew with guiltie blades;<br>For whome the Thracian king lamenting sore,<br>Turn'd to a Lapwing, fowlie them vpbraydes,<br>And fluttering round about them still does sore;<br>There now they all eternally complaine<br>Of others wrong, and suffer endles paine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the two brethren borne of Cadmus blood,<br>Whilst each does for the Soueraignty contend,<br>Blinde through ambition, and with vengeance wood<br>Each doth against the others bodie bend<br>His cursed steele, of neither well withstood,<br>And with wide wounds their carcases doth rend;<br>That yet they both doe mortall foes remaine,<br>Sith each with brothers bloudie hands was slaine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah (waladay) there is no end of paine,<br>Nor chaunge of labour may intreated bee:<br>Yet I beyond all these am carried faine,<br>Where others powers farre different I see,<br>And must passe ouer to th' Elisian plaine:<br>There grim Persephone encountring mee,<br>Doth vrge her fellowFuries earnestly,<br>With their bright firebronds me to terrifie.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There chast Alceste liues inuiolate,<br>Free from all care, for that her husbands daies<br>She did prolong by changing fate for fate,<br>Lo there liues also the immortall praise <br>Of womankinde, most faithfull to her mate,<br>Penelope: and from her farre awayes<br>A rulesse rout of yongmen, which her woo'd<br>All slaine with darts, lie wallowed in their blood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And sad Eurydice thence now no more<br>Must turne to life, but there detained bee,<br>For looking back, being forbid before:<br>Yet was the guilt thereof, Orpheus, in thee.<br>Bold sure he was, and worthie spirite bore,<br>That durst those lowest shadowes goe to see,<br>And could beleeue that anie thing could please <br>Fell Cerberus, or Stygian powres appease.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ne feard the burning waues of Phlegeton,<br>Nor those same mournfull kingdomes compassed<br>With rustie horrour and fowle fashion,<br>And deep digd vawtes, and Tartar couered<br>With bloodie night, and darke confusion,<br>And iudgement seates, whose Iudge is deadlie dred,<br>A iudge, that after death doth punish sore<br>The faults, which life hath trespassed before.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But valiant fortune made Dan Orpheus bolde:<br>For the swift running riuers still did stand,<br>And the wilde beasts their furie did withhold,<br>To follow Orpheus musicke through the land:<br>And th' Okes deep grounded in the earthly molde<br>Did moue, as if they could him vnderstand;<br>And the shrill woods, which were of sense bereau'd,<br>Through their hard barke his siluer sound receau'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And eke the Moone her hastie steedes did stay,<br>Drawing in teemes along the starrie skie,<br>And didst (ô monthly Virgin) thou delay<br>Thy nightly course, to heare his melodie?<br>The same was able with like louely lay<br>The Queene of hell to moue as easily,<br>To yeeld Eurydice vnto her fere,<br>Backe to be borne, though it vnlawfull were.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She (Ladie) hauing well before approoued,<br>The feends to be too cruell and seuere,<br>Obseru'd th' appointed way, as her behooued,<br>Ne euer did her ey-sight turne arere,<br>Ne euer spake, ne cause of speaking mooued:<br>But cruell Orpheus thou much crueller,<br>Seeking to kisse her, brok'st the Gods decree,<br>And thereby mad'st her euer damn'd to be.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah but sweete loue of pardon worthie is,<br>And doth deserue to haue small faults remitted;<br>If Hell at least things lightly done amis<br>Knew how to pardon, when ought is omitted:<br>Yet are ye both receiued into blis,<br>And to the seates of happie soules admitted.<br>And you, beside the honourable band <br>Of great heroës doo in order stand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There be the two stout sonnes of Aeacus,<br>Fierce Peleus, and the hardie Telamon.<br>Both seeming now full glad and ioyeous<br>Through their Syres dreadfull iurisdiction,<br>Being the Iudge of all that horrid hous:<br>And both of them by strange occasion,<br>Renown'd in choyce of happie marriage<br>Through Venus grace, and vertues cariage.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For th'one was rauisht of his owne bondmaide,<br>The faire Ixione captiu'd from Troy:<br>But th' other was with Thetis loue assaid,<br>Great Nereus his daughter, and his ioy.<br>On this side them there is a yongman layd,<br>Their match in glorie, mightie, fierce and coy;<br>That from th' Argolick ships, with furious yre,<br>Bett back the furie of the Troian fyre.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O who would not recount the strong diuorces<br>Of that great warre, which Troianes oft behelde,<br>And oft beheld the warlike Greekish forces,<br>When Teucrian soyle with bloodie riuers swelde,<br>And wide Sigæan shores were spred with corses,<br>And Simois and Xanthus blood out welde,<br>Whilst Hector raged with outragious minde,<br>Flames, weapons, wounds, in Greeks fleete to haue tynde.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For Ida selfe, in ayde of that fierce fight,<br>Out of her mountaines ministred supplies,<br>And like a kindly nourse, did yeeld (for spight)<br>Store of firebronds out of her nourseries,<br>Vnto her foster children that they might<br>Inflame the Nauie of their enemies,<br>And all the Rhætean shore to ashes turne,<br>Where lay the ships, which they did seeke to burne.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Gainst which the noble sonne of Telamon<br>Opposd' himselfe, and thwarting his huge shield,<br>Them battell bad, gainst whom appeard anon<br>Hector, the glorie of the Troian field:<br>Both fierce and furious in contention<br>Encountred, that their mightie strokes so shrild,<br>As the great clap of thunder, which doth ryue <br>The ratling heauens, and cloudes asunder dryue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So th' one with fire and weapons did contend<br>To cut the ships, from turning home againe<br>To Argos, th' other stroue for to defend<br>The force of Vulcane with his might and maine.<br>Thus th'one Aecide did his fame extend:<br>But th' other ioy'd, that on the Phrygian playne<br>Hauing the blood of vanquisht Hector shedd,<br>He compast Troy thrice with his bodie dedd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Againe great dole on either partie grewe,<br>That him to death vnfaithfull Paris sent,<br>And also him that false Vlysses slewe,<br>Drawne into danger through close ambushment:<br>Therefore from him Laërtes sonne his vewe<br>Doth turne aside, and boasts his good euent<br>In working of Strymonian Rhæsus fall,<br>And efte in Dolonsslye surprysall.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Againe the dreadfull Cycones him dismay,<br>And blacke Læstrigones, a people stout:<br>Then greedie Scilla, vnder whom there bay<br>Manie great bandogs, which her gird about:<br>Then doo the Aetnean Cyclops him affray,<br>And deep Charybdis gulphing in and out:<br>Lastly the squalid lakes of Tartarie,<br>And griesly Feends of hell him terrifie.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There also goodly Agamemnon bosts,<br>The glorie of the stock of Tantalus,<br>And famous light of all the Greekish hosts,<br>Vnder whose conduct most victorious,<br>The Dorick flames consum'd the Iliack posts. <br>Ah but the Greekes themselues more dolorous,<br>To thee, ô Troy, paid penaunce for thy fall,<br>In th' Hellespont being nigh drowned all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Well may appeare by proofe of their mischaunce,<br>The chaungefull turning of mens slipperie state,<br>That none, whom fortune freely doth aduaunce,<br>Himselfe therefore to heauen should eleuate:<br>For loftie type of honour through the glaunce<br>Of enuies dart, is downe in dust prostrate;<br>And all that vaunts in worldly vanitie,<br>Shall fall through fortunes mutabilitie.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Th' Argolicke power returning home againe,<br>Enricht with spoyes of th' Ericthonian towre,<br>Did happie winde and weather entertaine,<br>And with good speed the fomie billowes scowre:<br>No signe of storme, no feare of future paine,<br>Which soone ensued them with heauie stowre.<br>Nereïs to the Seas a token gaue,<br>The whiles their crooked keeles the surges claue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Suddenly, whether through the Gods decree, <br>Or haplesse rising of some froward starre,<br>The heauens on euerie side enclowded bee:<br>Black stormes and fogs are blowen vp from farre,<br>That now the Pylote can no loadstarre see,<br>But skies and seas doo make most dreadfull warre;<br>The billowes striuing to the heauens to reach,<br>And th' heauens striuing them for to impeach.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And in auengement of their bold attempt,<br>Both Sun and starres and all the heauenly powres<br>Conspire in one to wreake their rash contempt,<br>And downe on them to fall from highest towres:<br>The skie in pieces seeming to be rent,<br>Throwes lightning forth, & haile, & harmful showres<br>That death on euerie side to them appeares<br>In thousand formes, to worke more ghastly feares.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some in the greedie flouds are sunke and drent,<br>Some on the rocks of Caphareus are throwne;<br>Some on th' Euboick Cliffs in pieces rent;<br>Some scattred on the Hercæan shores vnknowne;<br>And manie lost, of whom no moniment<br>Remaines, <br>nor memorie is to be showne:<br>Whilst all the purchase of the Phrigian pray<br>Tost on salt billowes, round about doth stray.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Here manie other like Heroës bee,<br>Equall in honour to the former crue,<br>Whom ye in goodly seates may placed see,<br>Descended all from Rome by linage due,<br>From Rome, that holds the world in souereigntie,<br>And doth all Nations vnto her subdue:<br>Here Fabij and Decij doo dwell,<br>Horatij that in vertue did excell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And here the antique fame of stout Camill<br>Doth euer liue, and constant Curtius,<br>Who stifly bent his vowed life to spill<br>For Countreyes health, a gulph most hideous<br>Amidst the Towne with his owne corps did fill,<br>T' appease the powers; and prudent Mutius,<br>Who in his flesh endur'd the scorching flame,<br>To daunt his foe by ensample of the same.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And here wise Curius, companion <br>Of noble vertues, liues in endles rest;<br>And stout Flaminius, whose deuotion<br>Taught him the fires scorn'd furie to detest;<br>And here the praise of either Scipion<br>Abides in highest place aboue the best,<br>To whom the ruin'd walls of Carthage vow'd,<br>Trembling their forces, sound their praises lowd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Liue they for euer through their lasting praise:<br>But I poore wretch am forced to retourne<br>To the sad lakes, that Phoebus sunnie rayes<br>Doo neuer see, where soules doo alwaies mourne,<br>And by the wayling shores to waste my dayes,<br>Where Phlegeton with quenchles flames doth burne;<br>By which iust Minos righteous soules doth seuer<br>From wicked ones, to liue in blisse for euer.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Me therefore thus the cruell fiends of hell<br>Girt with long snakes, and thousand yron chaynes,<br>Through doome of that their cruell Iudge, compell<br>With bitter torture and impatient paines,<br>Cause of my death, and iust complaint to tell.<br>For thou art he, whom my poore ghost complaines<br>To be the author of her ill vnwares,<br>That careles hear'st my intollerable cares.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Them therefore as bequeathing to the winde,<br>I now depart, returning to thee neuer,<br>And leaue this lamentable plaint behinde.<br>But doo thou haunt the soft downe rolling riuer,<br>And wilde greene woods, and fruitful pastures minde,<br>And let the flitting aire my vaine words seuer.<br>Thus hauing said, he heauily departed<br>With piteous crie, that anie would haue smarted.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now, when the sloathful fit of lifes sweete rest<br>Had left the heauie Shepheard, wondrous cares<br>His inly grieued minde full sore opprest;<br>That balefull sorrow he no longer beares,<br>For that Gnats death, which deeply was imprest:<br>But bends what euer power his aged yeares<br>Him lent, yet being such, as through their might<br>He lately slue his dreadfull foe in fight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By that same Riuer lurking vnder greene,<br>Eftsoones he gins to fashion forth a place,<br>And squaring it in compasse well beseene,<br>There plotteth out a tombe by measured space:<br>His yron headed spade tho making cleene,<br>To dig vp sods out of the flowrie grasse,<br>His worke he shortly to good purpose brought,<br>Like as he had conceiu'd it in his thought.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An heape of earth he hoorded vp on hie,<br>Enclosing it with banks on euerie side,<br>And thereupon did raise full busily<br>A little mount, of greene turffs edifide;<br>And on the top of all, that passers by<br>Might it behold, the toomb he did provide<br>Of smoothest marble stone in order set,<br>That neuer might his luckie scape forget.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And round about he taught sweete flowres to growe,<br>The Rose engrained in pure scarlet die,<br>The Lilly fresh, and Violet belowe,<br>The Marigolde, and cherefull Rosemarie,<br>The Spartan Mirtle, whence sweet gumb does flowe,<br>The purple Hyacinthe, and fresh Costmarie,<br>And Saffron sought for in Cilician soyle,<br>And Lawrell th' ornament of Phoebus toyle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fresh Rhododaphne, and the Sabine flowre<br>Matching the wealth of th' auncient Frankincence,<br>And pallid Yuie, building of his owne bowre,<br>And Box yet mindfull of his olde offence,<br>Red Amaranthus, lucklesse Paramour,<br>Oxeye still greene, and bitter Patience;<br>Ne wants there pale Narcisse, that in a well<br>Seeing his beautie, in loue with it fell,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And whatsoeuer other flowre of worth,<br>And whatso other hearb of louely hew<br>The iouyous Spring out of the ground brings forth,<br>To cloath her selfe in colours fresh and new;<br>He planted there, and reard a mount of earth,<br>In whose high front was writ as doth ensue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To thee, small Gnat, in lieu of his life saued,<br>The Shepheard hath thy deaths record engraued.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Edmund+Spenser">Edmund Spenser</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=374514" data-title="Virgils Gnat de Edmund Spenser" data-description="Wrong'd, yet not daring to expresse my paine, To you (great Lord) the causer of my care, In clowdie teares my case I thus complaine Vnto yourselfe, that onely priuie are: But if that any Oedipus vnware Shall chaunce, through power of some diuining..."></div> </div> </div>

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