LXI FIDESSA's worth in time begetteth praise; Time, praise; praise, fame; fame, wonderment; Wonder, fame, praise, time, her worth do raise To highest pitch of dread astonishment. Yet time in time her hardened heart bewrayeth And praise itself her cruelty dispraiseth. So that through praise, alas, her praise decayeth, And that which makes it fall her honour raiseth! Most strange, yet true! So wonder, wonder still, And follow fast the wonder of these days; For well I know all wonder to fulfil Her will at length unto my will obeys. Meantime let others praise her constancy, And me attend upon her clemency. LXII Most true that I must fair Fidessa love. Most true that she contemns the god of love. Most true that though she hated, I would love. FINIS Talis apud tales, talis sub tempore tali: WILLIAM SMITH THE sub-title of Chloris arouses an expectation that is gratified in the pastoral modishness of the sonnets. Corin sits under the "lofty pines, co-partners of his woe," with oaten reed at his lips, and calls on sylvans, lambkins and all Parnassans to testify to the beauty and cruelty of Chloris. The attitude is a self-conscious one, yet the poem reveals little of the personality of the author beyond the facts of his youthfulness and of his devotion to "the most excellent and learned Shepheard, Colin Cloute." It was in 1595, but one year before the publication of Chloris, that Spenser had sung his own sonnets of true love, and it is perhaps on this account that William Smith finds him in a mood favourable to the defence of a young aspirant. At any |