He had
evidently learned to scan his master's verses better when he wrote
his "Mother Hubberd's Tale."
[285] Drummond, it will be remarked, speaking from memory, takes
Cuddy to be Colin. In Milton's "Lycidas" there are reminiscences of
this eclogue as well as of that for May. The latter are the more
evident, but I think that Spenser's
"Cuddie, the praise is better than the price,"
suggested Milton's
"But not the praise,
Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears."
Shakespeare had read and remembered this pastoral. Compare
"But, ah, Mecaenas is yclad in clay,
And great Augustus long ago is dead,
And all the worthies liggen wrapt in lead,"
with
"King Pandion, he is dead;
All thy friends are lapt in lead."
It is odd that Shakespeare, in his "lapt in lead," is more Spenserian
than Spenser himself, from whom he caught this "hunting of the
letter."
[286] "Ruins of Time." It is perhaps not considering too nicely to
remark how often this image of _wings_ recurred to Spenser's mind. A
certain aerial latitude was essential to the large circlings of his
style.
[287] Perhaps his most striking single epithet is the
"sea-shouldering whales," B.
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