Page:The Shepheardes Calender - Spenser (1579).djvu/75

 S. Michels mount) is a promontorie in the West part of England.

A hill) Parnassus afforesayd. Pan Christ.

Dan) One trybe is put for the whole nation per Synecdochen

Where Titan) the Sonne. Which story is to be redde in Diodorus Syc. of the hyl Ida; from whence he sayth, all night time is to bee seene a mightye fire, as if the skye burned, which toward morning beginneth to gather into a rownd forme, and thereof ryseth the sonne, whome the Poetes call Titan:

The Shepheard] is Endymion, whom the Poets fayne, to haue bene so beloued of Phoebe. s. the Moone, that he was by her kept a sleepe in a caue by the space of xxx. yeares, for to enioye his companye.

There) that is in Paradise, where through errour of shepheards vnderstanding, he sayth, that all shepheards did vse to feede theyr flocks, till one, (that is Adam by hys follye and disobedience, made all the rest of hys ofspring be debarred & shutoe out from thence.

Synah) a hill in Arabia, where God appeared.

Our Ladyes bowre) a place of pleasure so called.

Faunes or Syluanes] be of Poetes feigned to be Gods of the Woode.

Medway] the name of a Ryuer in Kent, which running by Rochester, meeteth with Thames; whom he calleth his elder brother, borh because he is greater, and also falleth sooner into the Sea.

Meynt] mingled.

Melampode and Terebinth] be hearbes good to cure diseased Gotes. of thone speaketh Mantuane, and of thother Theocritus.

Nigher heauen] Note the shepheards simplenesse, which supposeth that from the hylls is nearer waye to heauen.

Leuin] Lightning; which he taketh for an argument, to proue the nighnes to heauen, because the lightning doth comenly light on hygh mountaynes, according to the saying of the Poete. Feriuntque summos fulmina montes.

Lorrell] A losell.

A borrell.] a playne fellowe.

Narre] nearer.

Hale] for hole.

Yede] goe.

Frowye] mustye or mossie.

Of yore] long agoe.

Forewente] gone afore.

The firste shepheard] was Abell the righteous, who (as scripture sayth) bent hys mind to keeping of sheepe, as did hys brother Cain to tilling the grownde.

His keepe] hys charge s. his flocke.

Lowted] did honour and reuerence.

The brethren] the twelue sonnes of Iacob, whych were shepemaisters, and lyued one lye thereupon.

Whom Ida] Paris, which being the sonne of Priamus king of Troy, for his mother Hecubas dreame, which being with child of hym, dreamed shee broughte forth a firebrand, that set all the towre of Ilium on fire, was cast forth on the hyll Ida; where being fostered of shepheards, he eke in time be came a shepheard, and lastly came to knowledge of his parentage.

A lasse] Helena the wyfe of Menelaus king of Lacedemonia, was by Venus for the golden Aple to her geuen, then promised to Paris, who thereupon with a sorte of lustye Troyanes, stole her out of Lacedemonia, and kept her in Troye. which was the cause of the tenne yeares warre in Troye, and the moste famous citye