Among the written productions of the shepherd-poet, is an account of his own experiences in sheep-tending, called "The Shepherd's Calender."

(King), "The Third Calender" (Arabian Nights' Entertainments).

Tale of the First Calender.

This calender was the son of a king, and nephew of another king.

So the hapless young prince assumed the garb of a calender, wandered to Baghdad, and being received into the house of "the three sisters," told his tale in the hearing of the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid.

Tale of the Second Calender.

This calender, like the first, was the son of a king.

So he assumed the garb of a calender, and being received into the hospitable house of "the three sisters," told his tale in the hearing of the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid.

Tale of the Third Calender.

As an imitation of the Shepherd's Calender, without its uncouthness whether of subject or language, and equally without its originality or higher poetic value, the work is not wanting in merit, but it is most decidedly wanting in all power to arrest the reader's attention.

Poliziano's Latin translation of Moschus was commended by E. K. in his notes to the Shepherd's Calender, and the same original supplied Tasso with the subject of his Amore fuggitivo, which served as epilogue to the Aminta.

These lines correspond to the plain stanzaic frames in which Spenser set his lyrics in the Shepherd's Calender:

Traces of the tendency may even be noticed where revival or acclimatization, rather than original invention, is the aim; we find it in the Shepherd's Calender, nor was it absent in the days of the romantic revival, either from the German Lenores or the English Otrantos.

The names are obviously borrowed from the Shepherd's Calender, but while Colin is still the type of the hopeless lover, there is no necessity to suspect any personal identification.

To my mind it would need external proof of an unusually cogent description to render plausible the theory that the year, say, of the Shepherd's Calender saw the appearance of such lines as: What lack I now but an imperiall throne, And Ariadnaes star-lyght Diadem? (II. i.) or:

The former of these positions is that assumed by Spenser in the Shepherd's Calender, however much he may have failed in logical consistency; the second is that which, in spite of much incidental matter of a topical nature, underlies Tasso's masterpiece in the kind.

Shepheards Calender, edited with introduction and notes.

In the present case there can be little doubt that the title of Spenser's work was suggested by the Calender of Shepherds.

On the other hand, I think it is likewise clear that the poet, in adopting it, was thinking particularly of Colin Cloutthat he intended, that is, to call his poems 'the calender of the shepherd' (see first line of postscript), rather than 'the calender for shepherds.'

On the other hand, I think it is likewise clear that the poet, in adopting it, was thinking particularly of Colin Cloutthat he intended, that is, to call his poems 'the calender of the shepherd' (see first line of postscript), rather than 'the calender for shepherds.'

'Calender' is, I think, a defensible spelling.

At the end of the Calender Spenser placed as his motto 'Merce non mercede'as merchandise, not for reward.

On all questions relating to the Shepherd's Calender see C. H. Herford's edition, to which I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness.

p. lii.), put forward the truly astounding theory that the discussions on the evils of the clergy and similar subjects, put into the mouths of shepherds in the Calender and elsewhere, are 'in nicest keeping with character.'

Spenser duly celebrates, in his "Shepheard's Calender," Thilke mery moneth of May When love-lads masken in fresh aray, when "all is yclad with pleasaunce, the ground with grasse, the woods with greene leaves, and the bushes with bloosming buds.