Edmund Spenser - The Shepheardes Calendar X: October lyrics

PIERS. CUDDY. Cuddy, for shame hold up thy heavy Head, And let us cast with what delight to chace, And weary this long lingring Phoebus' Race. Whylom thou wont the Shepherd's Lads to lead, In Rimes, in Riddles, and in Bidding base: Now they in thee, and thou in sleep art dead. CUDDY. Piers, I have piped earst so long with pain, That all mine Oaten Reeds been rent and wore; And my poor Muse hath spent her spared Store, Yet little Good hath got, and much less Gain. Such Pleasance makes the Grashopper so poor, And lig so laid, when Winter doth her strain. The dapper Ditties thee I wont devise, To feed Youth's Fancy, and the flocking Fry, Delighten much: what I the bett for-thy? They han the Pleasure, I a slender Prize. I beat the Bush, the Birds to them do fly: What good thereof to Cuddy can arise? PIERS. Cuddy, the Praise is better than the Price, The Glory eke much greater than the Gain: O what an honour is it, to restrain The Lust of lawless Youth with good Advice? Or prick them forth with Pleasance of thy Vein, Whereto thou list their trained Wills entice. Soon as thou 'gins to set thy Notes in frame, O how the rural Routs to thee do cleave! Seemeth thou doost their Soul of Sense bereave, All as the Shepherd, that did fetch his Dame From Pluto's baleful Bower withouten leave: His Musick's Might the hellish Hound did tame. CUDDY. So praysen Babes the Peaco*k's spotted Train, And wondren at bright Argus' blazing Eye; But who rewards him ere the more for-thy? Or feeds him once the fuller by a grain? Sike Praise is Smoke, that sheddeth in the Sky; Sike Words been Wind, and wasten soon in vain. PIERS. Abandon then the base and viler Clown, Lift up thy self out of the lowly Dust; And sing of bloody Mars, of Wars, of Giusts; Turn thee to those that weld the aweful Crown, To doubted Knights, whose woundless Armour rusts, And Helms unbruzed, wexen daily brown. There may thy Muse display her fluttering Wing, And stretch her self at large from East to West; Whither thou list in fair Elisa rest, Or if thee please in bigger Notes to sing, Advance the Worthy whom she loveth best, That first the white Bear to the Stake did bring. And when the stubborn Stroke of stronger Stounds, Has somewhat slackt the Tenor of thy String; Of Love and Lustihead tho mayst thou sing, And carrol loud, and lead the Millers round; All were Elisa one of thilk same Ring, So mought our Cuddy's Name to Heaven sound. CUDDY. Indeed the Romish Tityrus, I hear, Through his Mecoenas left his Oaten Reed, Whereon he earst had taught his Flocks to feed; And laboured Lands to yield the timely Ear; And eft did sing of Wars and deadly Dreed, So as the Heavens did quake his Verse to hear. But ah! Mecoenas is yclad in Clay, And great Augustus long ygo is dead; And all the worthies liggen wrapt in Lead, That matter made for Poets on to play. For ever, who in Derring-do were dread, The lofty Verse of hem was loved aye. But after Vertue 'gan for Age to stoup, And mighty Manhood brought a bed of ease; The vaunting Poets found nought worth a Pease, To put in preace among the learned Troup: Tho 'gan the Streams of flowing Wits to cease, And sunbright Honour pen'd in shameful Coup. And if that any Budds of Poesy, Yet of the old Stock 'gan to shoot again: Or it Mens Follies mote so force to fain, And roll with rest in Rimes of Ribaudry; Or as it sprang, it wither must again: Tom Piper makes us better Melody. PIERS. O peerless Poesie, where is then thy place? If not in Princes Palace thou dost sit (And yet is Princes Palace the most fit) Ne Breast of baser Birth doth thee embrace; Then make thee Wings of thine aspiring Wit, And, whence thou cam'st, fly back to Heaven apace. CUDDY. Ah Percy, it is all too weak and wan, So high to sore and make so large a flight: Her peeced Pineons been not so in plight, For Colin fits such famous Flight to scan; He, were he not with Love so ill bedight, Would mount as high, and sing as soot as Swan. PIERS. Ah Fon, for Love does teach him climb so high And lifts him up out of the loathsom Mire: Such immortal Mirror, as he doth admire, Would raise one's Mind above the starry Sky, And cause a caitive Courage to aspire: For lofty Love doth loath a lowly Eye. CUDDY. All otherwise the state of Poet stands; For lordly Love is such a Tyrant fell, That where he rules, all Power he doth expell, The vaunted Verse a vacant Head demands, Ne wont with crabbed Care the Muses dwell: Unwisely weaves, that takes two Webs in hand. Who ever casts to compa** weighty Prize, And think to throw out thundering Words of Threat, Let pour in lavish Cups and thrifty Bits of Meat; For Bacchus' Fruit is friend to Phoebus' Wise: And when with Wine the Brain begins to sweat, The Numbers flow as fast as Spring doth rise. Thou kenst not, Percie, how the Rime should rage; O if my Temples were distain'd with Wine, And girt in Girlonds of wild Ivy Twine, How I could rear the Muse on stately Stage, And teach her tread aloft in Buskin line, With queint Bellona in her Equipage. But ah, my Corage cools ere it be warm, For-thy content us in this humble Shade: Where no such troublous Tides han us a**aid, Here we our slender Pipes may safely charm. PIERS. And when my Goats shall han their Bellies laid, Cuddy shall have a Kid to store his Farm. CUDDY'S EMBLEM. Agitante calescimus illo, &c.