Note 3 — LETTER XXXV.

For this squire is the, so called, ‘Divine’ Astrophel, ‘Astrophilos,’ or star lover,—the un-to-be-imitated Astrophel, the ‘ravishing sweetness of whose poesy,’ Sir Piercie Shafton, with his widowed voice,—“widowed in that it is no longer matched by my beloved viol-de-gambo,”—bestows on the unwilling ears of the Maid of Avenel.3 And the Stella, or star, whom he loved was the Lady Penelope Devereux, who was his first love, and to whom he was betrothed, and remained faithful in heart all his life, though she was married to Robert, Lord Rich, and he to the daughter of his old friend, Sir Francis Walsingham.