The Works of Edmund Spenser Author:Edmund Spenser Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: And every one did make exceeding monc, 205 With inward anguifh and great griefe oppreft: And every one did weep and waile, and mone, And meanes deviz'd to fhew h... more »is forrow beft. That from that houre, fince firft on graflie greene Shepheards kept fheep, was not like mourning feen. 210 But firft his fifter that Clorinda hight, The gentleft fhepheardefle that lives this day, And moft refembling both in fhape and fpright Her brother deare, began this dolefull lay. Which, leaft I marre the fweetnefle of the vearfe, In fort as fhe it fung I will rehearfe. 216 Ver. 215. Which, leajl I marre the fuieetne/e of the verfe, In fort asjhc it fung I will rehearfe.] From this avowal I conclude thut the following poem was not written by Spenfer, but by the fifter of Sir Philip, the accompliihed Mary Countefs of Pembroke, here poetically called Clarinda. We have already feen that lhe was particularly fldlled in poetry. See The Ruines of Time, ver. 316, and the note there. All the fubfequei;t poems on the death of Sir Philip are evidently a collection broiight together by Spenfer. Todd. DOLEFULL LAY OF CLORINDA. A.Y me, to whom mail I my cafe complaine, That may compaffion my impatient griefe ! Or where fhall I unfold my inward paine, That my enriven heart may find reliefe ! Shall 1 unto the heavenly powres it fhow ? $ Or unto earthly men that dwell below ? To heavens ? ah ! they alas ! the authors were, And workers of my unrem6died wo : For they forefee what to us happens here, And they forefaw, yet fuffred this be fo. 10 From them comes good, from them comes alfo il, That which they made, who can them warne to fpill! To men ? ah ! they alas like wretched bee, And fubiect to the heavens ordinance: Bound to abide what ever they decree, 15 Their beft redrefle, ...« less