PREFACE. 



xxi 



" Fresh shadows, fit to shroud from sunny ray ; 



Fair lawnds, to take the sun in season due ; 



Sweet springs in which a thousand nymphs did play ; 



Soft rumbling brooks that gentle slumber drew ; 



High-reared mounts, the lands about to view ; 



Low-looking dales, disloigned from common gaze ; 



Delightful bowers, to solace lovers true ; 



False labyrinths fond runners' eyes to daze : 

 All which by Nature made, did Nature's self amaze. 



And all without were ^valks and alleys dight 

 With divers trees, enranged in even ranks ; 

 And here and there were pleasant arbors pight. 

 And shady seats, and sundiy flow'ring banks. 

 To sit and rest the walker's weary shanks." 



If the reader feel at all fatigued, we will leave 

 him here to rest his " weary shanks," while we 

 proceed a little further with the poet. 



How beautiful is that passage beginning — 



" There the most dainty paradise on ground 

 Itself doth offer to his sober eye. 

 In which all pleasures plenteously abound. 

 And none does other's happiness envy : 

 The 23ainted flowers, the trees upshooting high, 

 The dales for shade, the hills for breathing space, 

 The trembling groves, the crystal running by ; 

 And that which all fair works doth most aggrace. 



The art which all that wrought appeared in no place." 



