que gentes,
Sancto dicite carmine.

[a]Seu te saeva fames, levitas sive improba fecit,
Musca, meae comitem, participemque dapis,
Pone metum, rostrum fidens immitte culullo,
Nam licet, et toto prolue laeta mero.
Tu, quamcunque tibi velox indulserit annus,
Carpe diem; fugit, heu, non revocanda dies!
Quae nos blanda comes, quae nos perducat eodem,
Volvitur hora mihi, volvitur hora tibi!
Una quidem, sic fata volunt, tibi vivitur aestas,
Eheu, quid decies plus mihi sexta dedit!
Olim praeteritae numeranti tempora vitae,
Sexaginta annis non minor unus erit.

[a] The above is a version of the song, "Busy, curious, thirsty fly."

[b]Habeo, dedi quod alteri;
Habuique, quod dedi mihi;
Sed quod reliqui, perdidi.

[b] These lines are a version of three sentences that are said, in the
manuscript, to be "On the monument of John of Doncaster;" and which
are as follow:

What I gave, that I have;
What I spent, that I had;
What I left, that I lost.

[a]E WALTONI PISCATORE PERFECTO EXCERPTUM.

Nunc, per gramina fusi,
Densa fronde salicti,
Dum defenditur imber,
Molles ducimus horas.
Hic, dum debita morti
Paulum vita moratur,
Nunc rescire priora,
Nunc instare futuris,
Nunc summi prece sancta
Patris numen adire est.
Quicquid quraeitur ultra,
Caeco ducit amore,
Vel spe ludit inani,
Luctus mox pariturum.

[a] These lines are a translation of part of a song in the Complete
Angler of Isaac Walton, written by John Chalkhill, a friend of
Spenser, and a good poet in his time. They are but part of the last
stanza, which, that the reader may have it entire, is here given at
length:

If the sun's excessive heat
Make our bodies swelter,
To an osier hedge we get
For a friendly shelter!
Where in a dike,
Perch or pike,
Roach or dace,
We do chase,
Bleak or gudgeon,
Without grudging,
We are still contented.
Or we sometimes pass an hour
Under a green willow,
That defends us from a shower,
Making earth our pillow;
Where we may
Think and pray,
Before death
Stops our breath:
Other joys
Are but toys,
And to be lamented.

[a]Quisquis iter tendis, vitreas qua lucidus undas
Speluncae late Thamesis praetendit opacae;
Marmorea trepidant qua lentae in fornice guttae,
Crystallisque latex fractus scintillat acutis;
Gemmaque, luxuriae nondum famulata nitenti
Splendit, et incoquitur tectum sine fraude meta