* * * * *
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 forgetfulnes of sleepe doth drowne
The carefull thoughts of mortall miseries.
Then did a ghost before mine eyes appeare,
On that great rivers banck that runnes by Rome;
Which, calling me by name, bad me to reare
My lookes to heaven whence all good gifts do come,
And crying lowd, "Loe! now beholde," quoth hee,
"What under this great temple placed is:
Lo, all is nought but flying vanitee!"
So I, that know this worlds inconstancies,
Sith onely God surmounts all times decay,
In God alone my confidence do stay.
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