Come, nimphs and faunes, that haunt those shady groves,

Whiles I report my fortunes or my loves.
Or whether list me sing so personate,
My striving selfe to conquer with my verse,
Speake, ye attentive swaynes that heard me late,
Needs me give grasse unto the conquerers.

At Colin's feet I throw my yeelding reed",

But let the rest win homage by their deed.
But now, ye Muses, sith your sacred hests
Profaned are by each presuming tongue;
In scornfull

rage I vow this silent rest,
That never field nor grove shall heare my song.

Only these refuse rymes I here mispend,
To chide the world, that did my thoughts offend.

11 At Colin's feet I throw my yeelding reed. Expressive of his reluctance and inability to write Pastorals after Spenser.

DE SUIS SATIRIS.

Dum Satyræ dixi, videor dixisse Sat iræ

Corripio; aut istæc non satis est Satyra.
Ira facit Satyram, reliquum Sat temperat iram;

Pinge tuo Satyram sanguine, tum Satyra est.
Ecce novam Satyram : Satyrum sine cornibus ! Euge

Monstra novi monstri hæc; et Satyri et Satyræ.

VIRGIDEMIARUM.·

LIB. I.

PROLOGUE.

I

FIRST adventure', with fool-hardy might,
To tread the steps of perilous despight:
I first adventure, follow me who list,
And be the second English Satyrist.
Envy wayts on my backe, Truth on my side:
Envy will be my page, and truth my guide.
Envy the margent bolds, and truth the line:
Truth doth approve, but envy doth repine.
For in this smoothing age who durst indite
Hath made his pen a hyred parasite,
To claw the back of him that beastly lives,
And pranck base men in proud superlatives.
Whence damned vice is shrouded quite from shame
And crown'd with virtue's meed, immortal name!
Infamy dispossest of native due,
Ordaind of old on looser life to sue :
The world's eye bleared with those shameless lyes,
Mask'd in the shew of meal-mouth'd poesies.
Go, daring Muse, on with thy thanklesse taske,
And do the ugly face of vice unmaske:
And if thou canst not thine high flight remit,
So as it mought a lowly Satyre fit,
Let lowly Satyres rise aloft to thee:
Truth be thy speed, and truth thy patrou bee.

"I first adventure-Book ii. Sat. 7, our author implies the previous existence of other Satirists.

Thou brain-sick tale
Of old astrology: where didst thou sallo
Thy cursed head thus long, that so it mist

The black bronds of somE SHARPER SATYRIST ? That he introduced Genuine Satire among us, may be readily granted ; but not that he was the First Satirist. E. It appears, however, from his Post script, that he had seen no English Satires; and only those of Ariosto and “ one base French Satire," of modern writers.

· Pranck-Dress out.

SATIRES.

BOOK I.

SATIRE IL

Nor ladie's wanton love, nor wand'ring knight,
Legend' I out in rymes all richly dight.
Nor fright the reader with the pagan vaunt
Of mightie Mahound, and great Termagaunt'.
Nor list I sonnet of my mistresse face,
To paint some Blowesse with a borrow'd grace;
Nor can I bide to pen some hungrie Scene
For thick-skin eares, and undiscerning eyne.
Nor ever could my scornfull Muse abide
With tragick shooes her ankles for to hide.
Nor can I crouch, and writhe my fauning tayle
To some great patron, for my best avayle.
Such hunger-starven, trencher-poetry",
Or, let it never live, or timely dye :

i From this Satire we learn what kind of pieces were then most in fashion, and in what manner they were written. They seem to have been Tales of Love and Chivalry, Amatorial Sonnets, Tragedies, Comedies, and Pastorals. W.

* Legend-To write fabulously.

• Of mightie Mahound, and great Termagaunt. Warton, in his commentary on the Fairy Queen, was persuaded that our author had here a passage of that poem in view

The whiles the carle did fret
And fume in his disdainful mind the more,
And oftentimes by TERMAGAUNT and MAHOUND swore.

F. Q. B. vi. C. 7. St. 47. These were, however, common Saracen oaths; and introduced in many parts of the Fairy Queen. E. See Todd's Spenser, vol. vii. p. 27.

* To paint some Blowesse with a bor row'd grace. In modern ballads, Blousilinda, or Blousibella. Johnson interprets Blowze, a ruddy fat-faced wench. W.

Hungrie—Perhaps the true reading is angrie : that is, impassioned. W.

Avayle-Adrantage. 7 Such hunger-starven, trencher.poetry. Poetry written by hirelings for bread. W.

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