# The Shepheardes Calender/Februarie

Februarie.
Ægloga Secunda.
ARGVMENT.
This Æglogue is rather morall and generall, then bent to any secrete or particular purpose. It specially conteyueth a discourse of old age, in the persone of Thenot an olde Shepheard, who for his crookednesse and vnlustinesse, is scorned of Cuddie an vnhappy Heardmans boye. The matter very well accordeth with the season of the moneth, the yeare now drouping, & as it were, drawing to his last age. For as in this time of yeare, so thē in our ​bodies there is a dry & withering cold, which congealeth the crudsed blood, and frieseth the wetherbeatē flesh, with stormes of Fortune, & hoare frosts of Care. To which purpose the olde man telleth a tale of the Oake and the Bryer, so liuely and so feelingly, as if the thing were set forth in some Picture before our eyes, more plainly could not appeare.
GLOSSE.
Kene) sharpe.
Gride) perced: an olde word much vsed of Lidgate, but not found (that I know of) in Chaucer.
Ronts) young bullockes.
Wracke) ruine or Violence, whence commeth shipwracke: and not wreake, that is vengeaunce or wrath.
Foeman) a foe.
Thenot) the name of a shepheard in Marot his Æglogues.
The soueraigne of Seas) is Neptune the God of the seas. The saying is borowed of Mimus Publianus, which vsed this prouerb in a verse.}} Improbè Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit.
Heardgromes.) Chaucers verse almost whole.
Fond Flyes) He compareth carelesse sluggardes or ill husbandmen to flyes, that so soone as the sunne shineth, or yt wexeth any thing warme, begin to flye abroade when sodeinly they be ouertaken with cold:
But eft when) A verye excellent and liuely description of Winter, so as may bee indifferently taken, eyther for old Age, or for Winter season.
Breme) chill, bitter.
Chamfred) chapt, or wrinckled.
Accoied) plucked downe and daunted.
Surque drie) pryde.
Elde) olde age.
Sicker) sure.
Tottie) wauering.
Corbe) crooked.
Herie) worshippe.
Phyllis) the name of some mayde vnknowen, whom Cuddie, whose person is secrete, loued. The name is vsuall in Theocritus, Virgile, and Mantuane.
Belte) a girdle or wast band.
A fon) a foole.
lythe) soft & gentile.
Venteth) snuffeth in the wind.
Thy flocks Father) the Ramme.
Crags) neckes
​Rather Lambes) that be ewed early in the beginning of the yeare.
Youth is) A verye moral and pitthy Allegorie of youth, and the lustes thereof, compared to a wearie wayfaring man.
Tityrus) I suppose he meane Chaucer, whose prayse for pleasaunt tales cannot dye, so long as the memorie of hys name shal liue, & the name of Poetrie shal endure.
Well thewed) that is, Bene moratæ, full of morall wisenesse.
There grew) This tale of the Oake and the Brere, he telleth as learned of Chaucer, but it is cleane in another kind, and rather like to Æsopes fables. It is very excellente for pleasaunt descriptions, being altogether a certaine Icon or Hypotyposis of disdainfull younkers.
Embellisht) beautified and adorned.
To wonne) to haunt or frequent.
Sneb) checke.
Why standst) The speach is scorneful & very presumptuous.
Engrained) dyed in grain.
Accloieth) encombreth.
Adawed) daunted & confounded.
Trees of state) taller trees fitte for timber wood.
Sterne strife) said Chaucer. s fell and sturdy.
O my liege) A maner of supplication, wherein is kindly coloured the affection and speache of Ambitious men.
Coronall) Garlande.
Flourets) young blossomes.
The Primrose) The chiefe and worthiest
Naked armes) metaphorically ment of the bare boughes, spoyled of leaues. This colourably he speaketh, as adiudging hym to the fyre.
The blood) spoken of a blocke, as it were of a liuing creature, figuratiuely, and (as they saye) κατ` ἐικασμόν.
Hoarie lockes) metaphorically for withered leaues.
Hent) caught.
Nould) for would not.
Ay) euermore.
Wounds) gashes.
Enaunter) least that.
The priestes crewe) holy water pott, wherewith the popishe priest vsed to sprinckle & hallowe the trees from mischaunce. Such blindnesse was in those times, which the Poete supposeth, to haue bene the finall decay of this auncient Oake.
The blocke oft groned) A liuelye figure, whiche geueth sence and feeling to vnsensible creatures, as Virgile also sayeth: Saxa gemunt grauido &c.
Boreas) The Northerne wynd, that bringeth the moste stormie weather.
Glee) chere and iollitie.
For scorning Eld) And minding (as shoulde seme) to haue made ryme to the former verse, he is conningly cutte of by Cuddye, as disdayning to here any more.
Galage) a startuppe or clownish shoe.
Embleme.
This embleme is spoken of Thenot, as a moral of his former tale: namelye, that God, which is himselfe most aged, being before al ages, and without beginninge, maketh those, whom he loueth like to himselfe, in heaping yeares vnto theyre dayes, and blessing them wyth longe lyfe. For the blessing of age is not giuen to all, but vnto those, whome God will so blesse: and albeit that many euil mē reache vnto such fulnesse of yeares, and some also wexe olde in myserie and thraldome, yet therefore is not age euer the lesse blessing. For euen to such euill men such number of yeares is added, that they may in their last dayes repent, and come to their first home. So the old man checketh the rashheaded boy, for despysing his gray and frostye heares.
Whom Cuddye doth counterbuff with a byting and bitter prouerbe, spoken indeede ​at the first in cōtempt of old age generally. for it was an old opinion, and yet is cōtinued in some mens conceipt, that mē of yeares haue no feare of god at al, or not so much as younger folke. For that being rypened with long experience, and hauing passed many bitter brunts and blastes of vengeaunce, they dread no stormes of Fortune, nor wrathe of Gods, not daunger of menne, as being eyther by longe and ripe wisedome armed against all mischaunces and aduersitie, or with much trouble hardened against all troublesome tydes: lyke vnto the Ape, of which is sayd in Æsops fables, that oftentimes meeting the Lyon, he was at first sore aghast & dismayed at the grimnes and austeritie of hys countenance, but at last being acquainted with his lookes, he was so furre from fearing him, that he would familiarly gybe and iest with him: Suche longe experience breedeth in some men securitie. Although it please Erasimus a great clerke and good old father, more fatherly and fauourablye to construe it in his Adages for his own behoofe, That by the prouerbe Nemo Senex metuit Iouem, is not meant, that old men haue no feare of God at al, but that they be furre from superstition and Idolatrous regard of false Gods, as is Iupiter. But his greate learning notwithstanding, it is to plaine, to be gainsayd, that olde men are muche more enclined to such fond fooleries, then younger heades.