¶ Montanus Sonnet. +Printed in Thomas Lodge, Rosalind (1590), fols. 56v-57, prefaced by ‘When the King had read this Sonnet , hee highly commended the deuice of the Shepheard, that could so wittely wrap his passions in a shadow, and so couertly conceale that which bred his chiefest discontent: affirming, that as the least shrubs haue their tops, the smallest haires their shaddowes, so the meanest Swaines had their fancies, and in their kind were as charie of Loue as a King. Whetted on with this deuice, he tooke up the second and read it: the effects were these’. Author: Thomas Lodge, incorrectly attributed to ‘S. E. D’, Sir Edward Dyer. Structure (May/Ringler): 28: 1×6, 4×4, 1×6, a4troch.bba3troch.cc6, a4troch.bba3troch.
W Hen the doggeSirius, the dog star Full of rage With his irefullfull of anger, wrath eyes Frownes amidst the skies: (5) The Shepheard to asswageassuage, mitigate, moderate The furie of the heate, Himselfe doth safely seate By a Fount Full of faire, (10) Where a gentle breath Mounting from beneath, temperethmakes mild, moderates the ayre. There his flocks Drinke their fill,