for what reason we know not, he was received
into favour. The poet, who accompanied him, was brought to the presence
of the lady, who saw herself in "various mirrors,"--Cynthia, Gloriana,
Belphoebe, as she heard him read portions of the great poem which was
to add a new glory to her reign.

"The Shepheard of the Ocean (quoth he)
Unto that Goddesse grace me first enhanced,
And to mine oaten pipe enclin'd her eare,
That she thenceforth therein gan take delight;
And it desir'd at timely houres to heare,
All were my notes but rude and roughly dight;
For not by measure of her owne great mynde,
And wondrous worth, she mott my simple song,
But joyd that country shepheard ought could fynd
Worth harkening to, emongst the learned throng."

He had already too well caught the trick of flattery--flattery in a
degree almost inconceivable to us--which the fashions of the time, and
the Queen's strange self-deceit, exacted from the loyalty and enthusiasm
of Englishmen. In that art Ralegh was only too apt a teacher. Colin
Clout, in his story of his recollections of the Court, lets us see how
he was taught to think and to speak there:--

But if I her like ought on earth might read,
I would her lyken to a crowne of lillies,
Upon a virgin brydes adorned head,
With Roses dight and Goolds and Daffadillies;
Or like the circlet of a Turtle true,
In which all colours of the rainbow bee;
Or like faire Phebes garlond shining new,
In which all pure perfection one may see.
But vaine it is to thinke, by paragone
Of earthly things, to judge of things divine:
Her power, her mercy, her wisdome, none
Can deeme, but who the Godhead can define.
Why then do I, base shepheard, bold and blind,
Presume the things so sacred to prophane?
More fit it is t' adore, with humble mind,
The image of the heavens in shape humane.

The Queen, who heard herself thus celebrated, celebrated not only as a
semi-divine person, but as herself unrivalled in the art of "making" or
poetry,--"her peerless skill in making well,"--granted Spenser a pension
of 50_l._ a year, which, it is said, the prosaic and frugal Lord
Treasurer, always hard-driven for money and not caring much for poets,
made difficulties about paying. But the new poem was not for the
Queen's ear only. In the registers of the Stationers' Company occurs the
following entry:--