Darke is the day when Phoebus face is shrowded, And weaker sights may wander soone astray; But when they see his glorious raies unclowded, With steddy steps they keepe the perfect way: So, while this Muse in forraine land doth stay, Invention weepes, and pennes are cast aside; The time, like night, deprivd of chearfull day; And few doe write, but ah! too soone may slide. Then hie thee home, that art our perfect guide, And with thy wit illustrate Englands fame, Daunting therby our neighbors ancient pride, That do for Poesie challenge chiefest name: So we that live, and ages that succeed, With great applause thy learned works shall reed. Ah! Colin, whether on the lowly plaine, Piping to shepheards thy sweet roundelayes, Or whether singing, in some loftie vaine, Heroicke deeds of past or present dayes, Or whether in thy lovely mistresse praise Thou list to exercise thy learned quill, Thy Muse hath got such grace and power to please, With rare invention, beautified by skill, As who therin can ever ioy their fill! O, therefore let that happy Muse proceed To clime the height of Vertues sacred hill, Where endlesse honour shal be made thy meed: Because no malice of succeeding daies Can rase those records of thy lasting praise. G. W. I[unior]. AMORETTI.[*] [* These Sonnets furnish us with a circumstantial and very interesting history of Spenser’s second courtship, which, after many repulses, was successfully terminated by the marriage celebrated in the _Epithalamion_. As these poems were entered in the Stationers’ Registers on the 19th of November, 1594, we may infer that they cover a period of time extending from the end of 1592 to the summer of 1594. It is possible, however, that these last dates may be a year too late, and that Spenser was married in 1593. We cannot be sure of the year, but we know, from the 266th verse of the Epithalamion, that the day was the feast of St. Barnabas, June 11 of the Old Style. In the 74th sonnet we are directly told that the lady’s name was Elizabeth. In the 61st, she is said to be of the “Brood of Angels, heavenly born.” From this and many similar expressions, interpreted by the laws of Anagram, and taken in conjunction with various circumstances which do not require to be stated here, it may be inferred that her surname was Nagle. C.] I. Happy, ye leaves! when as those lilly hands Which hold my life in their dead-doing might Shall handle you, and hold in loves soft bands, Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight. And happy lines! on which, with starry light, Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look, And reade the sorrowes of my dying spright, And happy rymes! bath’d in the sacred brooke Of Helicon, whence she derived is, When ye behold that Angels blessed looke, My soules long-lacked food, my heavens blis, Leaves, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone, Whom if ye please, I care for other none! II.