Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

354 XXVIII. EDMUND SPENSER.60. Venus') the goddesse of beauty or pleasure. Also a signe inhcaucn, as it is here taken. So he meaneth that beautie, whichhath ahvayes aspect to Venus, was the cause of all his vnquietnesin loue.67. Where I auaj) a fine discription of the chaunge of hys lyfeand liking; for all things nowe seemed to hym to haue alteredtheir kindly course.70. Lording) Spoken after the manner of Paddocks and Froggessitting, which is indeed Lordly, not rcmouing nor looking oncea-side, vnlesse they be sturred.73. Then as) The second part. That is. his manhoode^.77. Cotes) sheepecotes : for such be the exercises of shepheards.81. Safe) or Salow, a kinde of woodde like Wyllow, fit towreath and bynde in leapes to catch fish withall.84. Ph(ebe fayles) The Eclipse of the Moone, which is alwayesin Cauda, or Capite Draconis, signes in heauen.Venus) s[cilicet,] Venus starre, otherwise called Hesperasand Vesper and Lucifer, both because he seemeth to be one ofthe brightest starres, and also first ryseth and setteth last. Allwhich skill in starres being conuenient for shepheardes to knowe,as Theocritus and the rest vse.86. Raging seaes) The cause of the swelling and ebbing of thesea commeth of the course of the Moone, sometime encreasing,sometime wayning and decreasing.87. Sooth of byrdes) A kind of sooth-saying vsed in elder tymes,which they gathered by the flying of byrds ; First (as is sayd)inuented by the Thuscanes, and ixom them deriued to the Romanes,who (as is sayd in Liuie) were so supersticiously rootedin the same, that they agreed that euery Noble man should puthis Sonne to the Thuscanes, by them to be brought vp in thatknowledge.88. Of herhes) That wonderous thinges be wrought by herbes,as well appeareth by the common working of them in our bodies,as also by the wonderful enchauntments and sorceries that hauebene wrought by them ; insomuch that it is sayde that Circe, afamous sorceresse, turned me;z into sondry kinds of beastes &Monsters, and onely by herbes: as the Poete sayth—Dea saeuapotentibus herbis, &c.92. K'tdst) knewcst.99. Eare) of come.100. Scathe) losse, hinderaunce.109. Theflagraunt fo'dcres) sundry studies and laudable partesof learning, wherein our Poete is scene, be they witnesse whichare priuie to this study.' The second part really begins at 1.55.