Queen_, a Work of such an ingenious
composure as will last as long as time endures.

Now as you have heard what esteem Sir _Philip_ _Sidney_ had of his
Book, so you shall hear what esteem Mr. _Spenser_ had of Sir _Philip
Sidney_, writing thus in his _Ruins of Time_.

Yet will I sing, but who can better sing
Than thou thy self, thine own selfs valiance?
That while thou livedst thou madest the Forests ring,
And Fields resound, and Flocks to leap and dance,
And Shepherds leave their Lambs unto mischance,
To run thy shrill _Arcadian_ Pipe to hear,
O happy were those days, thrice happy were.

In the same his Poem of the _Ruins of Time_, you may see what account
he makes of the World, and of the immortal Fame gotten by Poesie.

In vain do earthly Princes then, in vain,
Seek with Pyramids to Heaven aspir'd;
Or huge Collosses, built with costly pain;
Or brazen Pillars never to be fir'd,
Or Shrines, made of the metal most desir'd,
To make their Memories for ever live,
For how can mortal immortality give?
For deeds do die, however nobly done,
And thoughts of men do in themselves decay,
But wise words taught in numbers for to run,
Recorded by the Muses, live for aye;
Ne may with storming showers be wash'd away,
Ne bitter breathing with harmful blast,
Nor age, nor envy, shall them ever wast.

There passeth a story commonly told and believed, that Mr. _Spenser_
presenting his Poems to Queen _Elizabeth_, she highly affected
therewith, commanded the Lord _Cecil_, her Treasurer, to give him an
Hundred Pound; and when the Treasurer (a good Steward of the Queen's
Money) alledged, that Sum was too much for such a matter; then give
him, quoth the Queen, _what is reason_; but was so busied, or seemed to
be so, about matters of higher concernment, that Mr. _Spenser_ received
no reward: whereupon he presented this Petition in a small piece of
Paper to the Queen in her progress.

I was promis'd on a time,
To have reason for my rime,
From that time unto this season,
I receiv'd nor rime nor reason.

This tart reflect so wrought upon the Queen, that she gave strict order
(not without some check to her Treasurer) for the present payment of
the hundred pounds she first intended him.

He afterwards went over into _Ireland_, Secretary to the Lord _Gray_,
Lord Deputy thereof; and though that his Office under his Lord was
lucrative, yet got he no Estate; _Peculiari Poetis fato