¶ Hobbinolls Dittie in praise of Eliza Queene of the
Shepheards. +Eliza: Elizabeth I. This poem was printed as part of the ‘April’ eclogue in The Shepheardes Calender (1579-97), sigs. C3v-D2, Rollins points out this version follows the 1597 edition, Edmund Spenser, Shorter Poems , pp. 62-5; cited in Abraham Fraunce, The Lawiers Logike (1588), Chapter 7, ‘Of the Subiect’, fol. 38-v; William Webbe translated all but the last two lines into Sapphic verse, A Discourse of English Poetrie (1586), sigs. I2v-I4: ‘O ye Nymphes most fine who resort to this brooke,/For to bathe there your pretty breasts at all times:/…And the deluce flowre’. Author: Edmund Spenser. Structure (May/Ringler): 117: 13×9 ababcc10dd2*c8
Y E dainty Nimphs that in this blessed Brooke Doe bath your brest; Forsake your watry Bowers, and hether looke At my request. (5) And you faire Virgins that on Parnasse dwell, Whence floweth Helicon the learned well: Helpe me to blazeblazon, to describe emblematically, to set forth honourably in words Her worthy praise, Who in her sexe doth all excell.