THE VISIONS OF PETRARCH:

FORMERLY TRANSLATED.
[Footnote: The first six of these sonnets are translated (not directly,
but through the French of Clement Marot) from Petrarch's third Canzone
in Morte di Laura. The seventh is by the translator. The circumstance
that the version is made from Marot renders it probable that these
sonnets are really by Spenser. C.]


I.

Being one day at my window all alone,
So manie strange things happened me to see,
As much it grieveth me to thinke thereon.
At my right hand a hynde appear'd to mee.
So faire as mote the greatest god delite;
Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace,
Of which the one was blacke, the other white.
With deadly force so in their cruell race
They pincht the haunches of that gentle beast,
That at the last, and in short time, I spide,
Under a rocke, where she, alas! opprest,
Fell to the ground, and there untimely dide.
Cruell death vanquishing so noble beautie,
Oft makes me wayle so hard a destenie.


II.