ntered in the Stationers' Registers
on the 19th of November, 1594, we may infer that they cover a period of
time extending from the end of 1592 to the summer of 1594. It is
possible, however, that these last dates may be a year too late, and
that Spenser was married in 1593. We cannot be sure of the year, but we
know, from the 266th verse of the Epithalamion, that the day was the
feast of St. Barnabas, June 11 of the Old Style. In the 74th sonnet we
are directly told that the lady's name was Elizabeth. In the 61st, she
is said to be of the "Brood of Angels, heavenly born." From this and
many similar expressions, interpreted by the laws of Anagram, and taken
in conjunction with various circumstances which do not require to be
stated here, it may be inferred that her surname was Nagle. C.]

* * * * *

I.

Happy, ye leaves! when as those lilly hands
Which hold my life in their dead-doing might
Shall handle you, and hold in loves soft bands,
Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.
And happy lines! on which, with starry light.
Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look,
And reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,
And happy rymes! bath'd in the sacred brooke
Of Helicon, whence she derived is.
When ye behold that Angels blessed looke,
My soules long-lacked food, my heavens blis,
Leaves, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none!

II.

Unquiet thought! whom at the first I bred
Of th'inward bale of my love-pined hart,
And sithens have with sighes and sorrowes fed,
Till greater then my wombe thou woxen art,
Breake forth at length out of the inner part,
In which thou lurkest lyke to vipers brood,
And seeke some succour both to ease my smart,
And also to sustayne thy selfe with food.
But if in presence of that fayrest Proud
Thou chance to come, fall lowly at her feet;
And with meek humblesse and afflicted mood
Pardon for thee, and grace for me, intreat:
Which if she graunt, then live, and my love cherish:
If not, die soone, and I with thee will perish.

III.

The soverayne beauty which I doo admyre,
Witnesse the world how worthy to be prayzed!
The light wherof hath kindled heavenly fyre
In my fraile spirit, by her from basenesse raysed;
That being now with her huge brightnesse dazed,
Base thing I can no more endure to view:
But, looking still on her, I stand amazed
At wondrous sight of so celestiall hew.
So when