seemed to hym to haue altered their kindly course.
Lording) Spoken after the maner of Paddocks and Frogges sitting which is indeed Lordly, not remouing nor looking once a side, vnlesse they be sturred.
Then as) The second part. That is his manhoode.
Cotes) sheepecotes. for such be the exercises of shepheards.
Sale) or Salow a kind of woodde like Wyllow, fit to wreath and bynde in leapes to catch fish withall.
Phæbe sayles) The Eclipse of the Moone, which is alwayes in Cauda or Capite Draconis, signes in heauen.
Venus) s. Venus starre otherwise called Hesperus and Vesper and Lucifer, both because he seemeth to be one of the brightest starres, and also first ryseth and setteth last. All which still in starres being conuenient for shepheardes to knowe as Theocritus and the rest vse.
Raging seaes) The cause of the swelling and ebbing of the sea commeth of the course of the Moone, sometime encreasing, sometime wayning and decreasing.
Sooth of byrdes) A kind of sooth saying vsed in elder tymes, which they gathered by the flying of byrds; First (as is sayd) niuented by the Thuscanes, and frō them deriued to the Romanes, who(as is sayd in Liuie) were so supersticiously rooted in the same, that they agreed that euery Noble man should put his sonne to the Thuscanes, by them to be brought vp in that knowledge.
Of herbes) That wonderous thinges be wrought by herbes, aswell appeareth by the common working of them in our bodies, as also by the wonderful enchauntments and sorceries that haue bene wrought by them; insomuch that it is sayde that Circe a famous sorceresse turned mē into sondry kinds of beastes & Monsters, and onely by herbes: as the Poete sayth Dea saeua potentibus heibis &c.
Kidst) knewest.
Eare) of corne.
Scathe) losse hinderaunce.
Euer among) Euer and anone.
This is my) The thyrde parte wherein is set sorth his ripe yeres as an vntimely haruest, that bringeth little fruite.
The flagraunt flowres) sundry studies and laudable partes of learning, wherein how our Poete is seene, be they witnesse which are priuie to his study.
So now my yeere) The last part, wherein is described his age by comparison of wyntrye stormes.
Carefull cold) for care is sayd to coole the blood.
Glee mirth)
Hoary frost) A metaphore of hoary heares scattred lyke to a gray frost.
Breeme) sharpe and bitter.
Adiew delights) is a conclusion of all. where in sixe verses he comprehendeth briefly all that was touched in this booke. In the first verse his delights of youth generally. in the second, the loue of Rosalind, in the thyrd, the keeping of sheepe, which is the argument of all Æglogues. In the fourth his complaints. And in the last two his professed frendship and good will to his good friend Hobbinoll.
Embleme.
The meaning wherof is that all thinges perish and come to theyr last end, but workes of learned wits and monuments of Poetry abide for euer. And therefore Horace of his Odes a work though ful indede of great wit & learning, yet of no so great
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