66.
Reading edition
¶ A sonet vpon the Authors first seuen yeeres seruice.
Chap. 55.
Seuen times hath Janus[E408] tane new yéere by hand, Seuen times hath blustring March blowne forth his powre: To driue out Aprils buds, by sea and land, For minion Maie, to deck most trim with flowre. Seuen times hath temperate Ver,[E409] like pageant plaide, And pleasant Æstas eke hir flowers told: Seuen times Autumnes heate hath béene delaide,[E410] With Hyems boistrous blasts, and bitter cold. Seuen times the thirtéene Moones[E411] haue changed hew, Seuen times the Sunne his course hath gone about: Seuen times ech bird hir nest hath built anew, Since first time you to serue, I choosed out. Still yours am I, though thus the time hath past, And trust to be, as[1] long as life shall last.
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · Janus, an old Italian deity, the god of the sun and the year, to whom the month of January was dedicated.Note 2 · Ver = Spring, Æstas = Summer, Hyems = Winter.Note 3 · "Delaide;" so in Spenser, Faery Queene, ix. 30. "But to delay the heat," and in Prothalamium 3: "Zephyrus did softly play A gentle spirit, tNote 4 · Alluding to the thirteen revolutions of the moon in the year.Note 5 · so. 1577.