So were I out of prison, and kept sheep, Mr. Spenfer beautifully defcribes the hepberd's life, Fairy Queen, book 6. canto 9. in Melibee's answer to Sir Calidore, after his praifing it. XX. "Surely my fon, (then anfwer'd he again) "If happy, then it is in this intent, "That having small, yet do I not complain Of want, ne wifh for more it to augment, "But do myself with that I have content; "So taught of nature, which doth little need "Of foreign helps, to life's due nourishment, "The field's my food, my flock my rayment " feed; "No better do I wear, no better do I feed. XXI. "Therefore I do not any one envy, "Nor am envy'd of any one therefore; "They that have much, fear much to lose "thereby, "And store of cares do follow riches ftore. "The little that I have grows daily more "Without my care, but only to attend it : My lambs do every year increase their score, "And my flock's father daily doth amend it. "What have I but to praife th' Almighty that "doth fend it? XXII. "To them that lift, the world's "I leave, gay fhows " And "And to great ones fuch follies do forgive, "Which oft thro' pride do their own peril weave, "And thro' ambition down themfelves do drive "To fad decay, that might contented live. "Me no fuch cares, nor combrous thoughts "offend, "Ne once my mind's unmoved quiet grieve; "But all the night, in filver fleep I spend, And all the day to what I lift, I do attend. XXIII. "Sometime I hunt the fox, the vowed foe "Unto my lambs, and him diflodge away; "Sometimes the fawn I practice from the doe, "Or from the goat her kid how to convey; “An other while I baits and nets display, "The birds to catch, or fishes to beguile : "And when I weary am, I down do lay "My limbs in every fhade, to rest from toil, "And drink of every brook, when thirst my "throat doth boil. XXIV. "The time was once when my first prime of 66 years, "When pride of youth forth pricked my defire, "That I difdain'd among mine equal peers "To follow fheep, and fhepherds base attire; "For farther fortune then I would enquire; "And leaving home, to royal court I fought, Where I did fell myself for yearly hire, "And in the prince's garden daily wrought; "There I beheld fuch vainnefs, as I never "thought." U 2 XXV. XXV. "With fight whereof foon cloy'd, and long "deluded "With idle hopes, which them do entertain; "After I had ten years my felf excluded "From native home, and fpent my youth in “ vain, "I gan my follies to my felf to plain, "And this sweet peace, whofe lack did then 66 appear. "Tho' back returning to my fheep again, "I from thenceforth have learn'd to love more 66 dear, "This lowly quiet life which I inherit here. XXIX. "In vain, faid then old Melibee, do men "The heavens of their fortune's fault accufe; "Sith they know beft, what is the best for them; "For they to each fuch fortune do diffuse, "As they do know each can most aptly use. "For not that which men covet most is best, "Nor that thing worst, which men do most "refufe! "But fitteft is, that all contented reft "With that they hold, each hath his fortune "in his breast. XXX. "It is the mind that maketh good or ill, "That maketh wretch, or happy, rich or poor; "But fome that hath abundance at his will, "Hath not enough, but wants in greatest store; And other that hath little, afks no more, " But "But in that little is both rich and wife: "For wifdom is moft riches; fools therefore They are, which fortunes do by vows devize, "Sith each unto himself his life may fortunize." Sc. ib. p. 444. Arthur. No, in good footh, the fire is dead with grief, There is no malice in this burning coal, The breath of heav'n bath blown its spirit out, Hubert had threatned Arthur, in the fame scene, to put out his eyes by fire; Arthur intreats him rather to cut out his tongue, and tells him the inftrument, with which he intended to do it, was grown cold, and would not harm him: Hubert anfwers, I can beat it, boy. To which Arthur replies, in the words under confideration. So that one line, I think, should be read thus: "There is no malice burning in this coal." No malice in a burning coal is certainly abfurd. Speed obferves, in his Hiftory of Great Britain, edit. 1613. p. 419. "That the king was mov"ed to take the advice of his council, touching his troubled affairs, whofe sentence was, (if we'll credit the reporter) that Arthur should "lose his eyes: But the escaping of fuch tor"ture, is by fome afcribed to Lord Hubert, by "others, to the mediation of Queen Eleanor. Sc. ibid. Hubert. Well, fee to live; I will not touch thine eye, For all the treafure that thyne uncle owns; Yet am I fworn. Artb. O, now you look like Hubert, all this while You were difguis'd. Hubert. Peace, no more, adieu ; Your uncle must not know but you are dead; Mr. Echard obferves, [History of England, Vol. 1. p. 236.] "That the king's friends ad"vised him to deprive Arthur of his eyes, &c. "to render him incapable of government, or "procreation; to which cruel proposal he con"fented; but was disappointed by three per fons, designed to be agents in it. One of "whom, out of a publick experiment, fpread a report of his death, which, instead of ap"peasing, raised new, and great exasperations amongst the inhabitants of Bretaign and An"jou." Mr. Echard imputes this barbarous intention of the king's, to Prince Arthur's declaring his right to the crown of England; and adding with an oath, that he should never enjoy peace till he had restored it. To which Mr. Richard Niccols refers, in the Unfortunate Life, and Death of King John. [See his Winter's Nights Vifion, p. 685. publish'd 1610, with other tracts.] "The. |