Thomas Lodge - Broadview Press Publisher's Blog

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Then see how pomp through wax and wane
declines
From high to low, from better to the bad.
Take moist from sea, take colour from his kind,
Before the world devoid of change thou find.”
[...]
Here gan he pause and shake his heavy head,
And fold his arms and then unfold them straight;
Fain 1 would he speak, but tongue was charmed
by dread,
Whilst I, that saw what woes did him aweight, 2
Comparing his mishaps and moan with mine,
Gan smile for joy and dry his drooping ey’n. 3
But lo, a wonder! From the channel’s glide
A sweet, melodious noise of music rose,
That made the stream to dance a pleasant tide;
The weeds and sallows 4 near the bank that grows
Gan sing, as when the calmest winds accord
To greet with balmy breath the fleeting ford.
Upon the silver bosom of the stream
First gan fair Themis 5 shake her amber locks,
Whom all the nymphs that wait on Neptune’s
realm
Attended from the hollow of the rocks.
1 Fain willingly.
2 aweight weigh down, oppress.
3 ey’n eyes.
4 sallow the willow, traditionally a symbol of grief for unrequited
love or the loss of a mate.
5 Themis Some of what Lodge says about Themis does not seem to
be correct. Themis was the goddess that Deudacalion and his wife—
the virtuous couple who survive the flood that destroys all
humankind—pray to when the waters have receded; she instructs
them to cast stones behind them, out of which is born a new race of
humans (Metamorphoses, pp. 37-40). She is the first god to whom
humans raised temples, but there is no explicit association between
her and the sea. Thetis (see p. 1, note 6) not Themis is perhaps meant
here.
T HOMAS L ODGE
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In brief, while these rare paragons assemble,
The wat’ry world to touch their teats 6 do tremble.
Footing it featly 7 on the grassy ground
These damsels, circling with their brightsome
fairs
The love-sick god and I, about us wound
Like stars that Ariadne’s crown repairs. 8
Who once hath seen or pride of morn or day
Would deem all pomp within their cheeks did play.
[...]
[Overcome with the pangs of unrequited love,
Glaucus faints. The nymphs revive him, and they
finally prevail upon him to tell his tragic tale.
Glaucus begins by describing both his youthful
indifference to the beautiful nymphs that once
flocked around him, and his sudden, overwhelming
desire for the lovely Scylla.]
“Her hair not trussed, but scattered on her brow,
Surpassing Hybla’s 9 honey for the view,
Or softened golden wires. I know not how
Love, with a radiant beauty, did pursue
My too judicial eyes in darting fire
That kindled straight in me my fond desire.
Within these snares first was my heart entrapped,
Till through those golden shrouds mine eyes did
see
An ivory-shadowed front wherein was wrapped
6 teats breasts.
7 Footing it featly dancing elegantly.
8 Ariadne’s crown repairs After Ariadne helped Theseus destroy the
Minotaur and flee its labyrinthine lair, he took her with him, only to
betray and abandon her on the isle of Dia. Discovered by the god
Dionysus (Bacchus), Ariadne became his wife and he gave her a
crown of seven stars which became a constellation after her death.
9 Hybla a place in Sicily famous for its bees and honey (Classical
Dict.).