_Iambicum Trimetrum._ Unhappie Verse, the witnesse of my unhappie state, Make thy selfe fluttring wings of thy fast flying Thought, and fly forth unto my Love wheresoever she be: Whether lying reastlesse in heavy bedde, or else Sitting so cheerlesse at the cheerfull boorde, or else Playing alone carelesse on hir heavenlie Virginals. If in Bed, tell hir, that my eyes can take no reste: If at Boorde, tell hir that my mouth can eate no meate: If at hir Virginals, tell hir, I can heare no mirth. Asked why? say: Waking Love suffereth no sleepe: Say, that raging Love dothe appall the weake stomacke: Say, that lamenting Love marreth the Musicall. Tell hir, that hir pleasures were wonte to lull me asleepe: Tell hir, that hir beautie was wonte to feede mine eyes: Tell hir, that hir sweete Tongue was wonte to make me mirth. Nowe doe I nightly waste, wanting my kindely reste: Nowe doe I dayly starve, wanting my lively foode: Nowe doe I alwayes dye, wanting thy timely mirth. And if I waste, who will bewaile my heavy chaunce? And if I starve, who will record my cursed end? And if I dye, who will saye: _this was Immerito_? FOOTNOTES: [4:1] ----Since the winged god his planet clear Began in me to move, one year is spent: The which doth longer unto me appear Than _all those forty_ which my life outwent. _Sonnet_ LX., probably written in 1593 or 1594. [5:2] Leicester House, then Essex House, in the Strand. [5:3] Earl of Essex. [5:4] At Cadiz, June 21, 1596. [6:5] _Sonnet_ LXXIV. [6:6] _Colin Clout's come Home again_, l. 536. Craik, _Spenser_, i. 9. 10. [7:7] See _The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell_, 1568-1580: from the MSS. at Towneley Hall. Edited by Rev. A. B. Grosart, 1877. [9:8] H. B. Wilson, _Hist. of Merchant Taylors' School_, p. 23. [13:9] Comp. _Sheph. Cal._ April l. 36. June l. 8. F. Q. 6. 10. 7. [22:1] Published in June, 1580. Reprinted incompletely in Haslewood, _Ancient Critical Essays_ (1815), ii. 255. Extracts given in editions of Spenser by Hughes, Todd, and Morris. The letters are of April, 1579, and October, 1580. CHAPTER II. THE NEW POET--THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR. [1579.]