ry in his cruell clawes.
I saw a Wasp, that fiercely him defide,
And bad him battaile even to his iawes;
Sore he him stong, that it the blood forth drawes,
And his proude heart is fild with fretting ire:
In vaine he threats his teeth, his tayle, his pawes,
And from his bloodie eyes doth sparkle fire;
That dead himselfe he wisheth for despight.
So weakest may anoy the most of might!

XI.

What time the Romaine Empire bore the raine
Of all the world, and florisht most in might,
The nations gan their soveraigntie disdaine,
And cast to quitt them from their bondage quight.
So, when all shrouded were in silent night,
The Galles were, by corrupting of a mayde,
Possest nigh of the Capitol through slight,
Had not a Goose the treachery bewrayde.
If then a goose great Rome from ruine stayde,
And Iove himselfe, the patron of the place,
Preservd from being to his foes betrayde,
Why do vaine men mean things so much deface*,
And in their might repose their most assurance,
Sith nought on earth can chalenge long endurance?

[* _Deface,_ disparage, despise.]

XII.

When these sad sights were overpast and gone,
My spright was greatly moved in her rest,
With inward ruth and deare affection,
To see so great things by so small distrest.
Thenceforth I gan in my engrieved brest
To scorne all difference of great and small,
Sith that the greatest often are opprest,
And unawares doe into daunger fall.
And ye, that read these ruines tragicall,
Learne, by their losse, to love the low degree;
And if that Fortune chaunce you up to call
To honours seat, forget not what you be:
For he that of himselfe is most secure
Shall finde his state most fickle and unsure.

* * * * *

THE

VISIONS OF BELLAY.*

[* Eleven of these Visions of Bellay (all except the 6th, 8th,
13th, and 14th) differ only by a few changes necessary for rhyme from
blank-verse translations found in Van der Noodt's _Theatre of
Worldlings_, printed in 1569; and the six first of the Visions of
Petrarch (here said to have been "formerly translated") occur almost
word for word in the same publication, where the authorship appears to
be claimed by one Theodore Roest. The Complaints were collected, not by
Spenser, but by Ponsonby, his bookseller, and he may have erred in
ascribing these Visions to our poet. C.]

I.

It was the time when rest, soft sliding downe
From heavens hight into mens heavy eyes,
In the for