The Shepherd’s Praise of his Sacred Diana; before 1593

PRAISED be Diana’s fair and harmless light;

Praised be the dews wherewith she moists the ground;

Praised be her beams, the glory of the night;

Praised be her power, by which all powers abound.

Praised be her nymphs, with whom she decks the woods;

Praised be her knights, in whom true honour lives;

Praised be that force, by which she moves the floods;

Let that Diana shine which all these gives.

In heaven queen she is among the spheres;

She mistress-like makes all things to be pure;

Eternity in her oft change she bears;

She beauty is; by her the fair endure.

Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide;

Mortality below her orb is placed;

By her the virtues of the stars down slide;

In her is virtue’s perfect image cast.

A knowledge pure it is her worth to know:

With Circes let them dwell that think not so.

[S. W. R.] IGNOTO.