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XXXI.

Lastly, came Winter, cloathed all in frize 2),
Chattering his teeth for cold that did him chill,
Whilst on his hoary beard his breath did freeze;
And the dull drops, that from his purpled bill,
As from a limbeck 53) did adown distill.

In his right hand a tipped staffe he held,
With which his feeble steps he stayed still:

For he was faint with cold, and weak with eld;
That scarce his loosed limbs he able was to weld 54).

XLIV.

And after these, there came the Day and Night,
Riding together both with equal pace,

Th' one on a palfrey *) blacke, the other white;
But Night had cover'd her uncomely face

With a black veil, and held in hand a mâce,
On top whereof the moon and stars were pight 56),
And sleepe and darknesse round about did trace:
But Day did beare, upon his scepter's hight,
The goodly sun, encompast all with beames bright.
XLV.

Then came the Hours, fair daughters of high Jove,
And timeley Night, the which were all endewed
With wondrous beauty fit to kindle love;

But they were virgins all, and love eschewe'd **),
That might forslack 5) the charge to them fore-shewd
By mighty Jove; who did them porters make
Of heaven's gate (whence all the gods issu'd)
Which they did daily watch, and nightly wake.
By even turns, ne ever did their charge forsake.
XLVI.

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And after all came Life, and lastly Death:
Death with most grim and griesly visage seen,
Yet is he nought but parting of the breath;
Ne ought 59) to see, but like a shade to ween,

52) frize, a warm kind of woollen cloathing. 53) limbeck, alembick. 5*) to weld, to move, to govern. Der Beschränktheit des Raums wegen müssen wir die Beschreibung der zwölf Mona the (St. XXXI - XLIII.) auslassen. 55) paifrey, a horse. 56) pight, pitched, fixt, placed. 57) eschew, avoid. 58) forslack, delay. 59) ought, owned.

Unbodied, unsoul'd, unheard, unseen.
But Life was like a fair young lusty boy,

Such as they feign Dan 60) Cupid to have been,
Full of delightful health and lively joy,.

Deckt all with flowers, and wings of gold fit to employ.

XLVII.

When these were past, thus gan 6) the Titanesse:
Lo! mighty Mother, now be judge and say,
Whether in all thy creatures more or less

Change doth not raign and bear the greatest sway;
For, who sees not, that Time on all doth pray?
But times do change and move continually;
So nothing here long standeth in one stay:
Wherefore, this lower world who can deny
But to be subject still to Mutability?

XLVIII.

Then thus gan Jove: Right true it is, that these
And all things else that under heaven dwell
Are chaung'd of Time, who doth them all desseize
Of being: but, who is it (to me tell)

That Time himself doth move and still compell
To keepe his course? Is not that namely wee
Which poure that vertue from our heavenly cell,
That moves them all, and makes them changed be?
So then we Gods do rule, and in them also thee.

XLIX.

To whom thus Mutability: The things

Which we see not how they are mov'd and sway'd,
Ye may attribute to yourselves as kings,

And say they by your secret power are made:
But what we see not, who shall us persuade?

But were they so, as ye them faine to be,
Mov'd by your might, and order'd by your aid;
Yet what if I can prove, that even ye

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Yourselves are likewise chang'd, and subject unto me 62).

60) dan, an old title, signifying master, like the Spanish Don. 1) gan, began. 62) In den drei folgenden Stanzen zeigt Göttin Mutability nun, dafs die Gestirne Jupiter, Saturn, Diana (der Mond) gleichfalls der Veränderung unterworfen sind, and fährt dann St. LIII. also fort:

LIII.

Then let me ask you this withouten blame,
Where were ye borne? some say in Crete by name,
Others in Thebes, and others other-where;
But wheresoever they comment the same,
They all consent that ye begotten were,
And born here in this world, ne other can appear.
LIV.

Then are ye mortal borne, and thrall to me,
Unless the kingdom of the sky ye make
Immortall, and unchangeable to be;

you

Besides, that power and vertue which ye spake,
That ye here work, doth many changes take,
And your own natures change: for,
each of
That vertue have, or this or that to make,
Is checkt and changed from his nature trew,
By other's opposition or obliquid view.

LV.

Besides, the sundry motions of your spheres,
So sundry waies and fashions as clerks faine,
Some in short space, and some in longer years;
What is the same but alteration plain?

Only the starry skie doth still remaine:

Yet do the starres and signes therein still move,
And even itself is mov'd, as wizards faine. ▾
But all that moveth, doth mutation love:
Therefore both you and them to me I subject prove.

LVI.

Then sin ce within this wide great universe Nothing doth firm and permanent appear, But all things tost and turned by transverse: What then should lett 63), but I aloft should rear My trophy, and from all the triumph bear? Now judge then (O thou greatest goddesse trew!) According as thyselfe dost see and heare, And unto me addoom that is my dew; That is the rule of all, all being rul'd by you.

3) lett, to hinder.

LVII.

So having ended, silence long ensu'd,
Ne Nature to or fro spake for a space,

But with firm eyes affixt, the ground still view'd,
Mean while, all creatures, looking in her face,
Expecting th' end of this so doubtful case,
Did hang in long suspence what would ensue,
To whether side should fall the sovereign place.
At length, she looking up with chearful view,
The silence brake, and gave her doom in speeches few.
LIIX.

I well consider all that ye have said,

And find that all things stedfastness do hate
And changed be: yet being rightly weigh'd,
They are not changed from their first estate,
But by their change their being doe dilate;
And turning to themselves at length again,'
Do work their own perfection so by fate:

Then over them Change doth not rule and reign;
But they reign over Change, and doe their states maintain.

LIX.

Cease therefore, daughter, further to aspire,

And thee content thus to be rul'd by me:

For thy decay thou seekst by thy desire;

But time shall come that all shall changed be,

And from thenceforth, none no more change shall see,
So was the Titaness put downe and whist 64),
And Jove confirm'd in his imperial see.

Then was that whole assembly quite dismist,
And Nature's selfe did vanish, whither no man wist 65).

64) whist, silent, still. 65) wist, thought, knew.

SHAKSPEARE.

Nature her pencil to his hands commits
And then in all her forms to this great master sits.

When learning's triumph o'er her barbarous foes
First rear'd the stage, immortal Shakspeare rose;
Each scene of many- colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new;
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain!

WILLIAM

Johnson.

ILLIAM SHAKSPEARE ) wurde den 23sten April 1564 zu Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire geboren. Sein Vater John Shakspeare war zwar ein wohlhabender Wollhändler, konnte indessen, da er zehn Kinder hatte, nicht viel an die Erziehung seines ältesten Sohnes William wenden. Nur eine kurze Zeit liefs er ihn die Freischule des Orts besuchen, wo derselbe, sich einige Kenntnisse in der Lateinischen Sprache erwarb; er musste ihn indessen, da er seiner Hülfe bei seinen häuslichen Geschäften brauchte, bald wieder von hier wegnehmen, und so den Lauf seiner Studien unterbrechen. William scheint sich nun einige Zeit mit dem Gewerbe seines Vaters beschäftigt zu haben. Er verheirathete sich darauf sehr früh, etwa zwischen dem 18ten und 19ten Jahre seines Lebens, (denn seine älteste Tochter Susanne wurde bereits 1583 geboren) mit einem nicht unbegüterten Frauenzimmeṛ, Namens Hathaway. Nachdem er einige Jahre in dieser Verbindung gelebt hatte, nöthigte ihn eine jugendliche Vergehung, seinen Wohnort zu verlassen. Er war nämlich in die Gesellschaft einiger liederlichen jungen Leute gerathen, und diese hatten ihn verleitet, an ihren Wilddiebereien Antheil zu nehmen. Der Eigenthümer des Parks, ein gewisser Thomas Lucy von Charlecot bei Stratford, den sie bestohlen hatten, verfolgte unsern Shakspeare

*) So wird der Name jetzt gewöhnlich geschrieben; nach Malone soll sich der Dichter Shakspere geschrieben haben, auch soll so der Name in den Kirchenbüchern zu Stratford stehn.

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