See introduction to d2_RolH_008. Metre: elegiac couplets.
Strena retrograda, ad F. Valsingamium (c.1579-80)
[p384]
Strena retrograda, ad F. Valsingamium
Dent tibi Di, tua quae voti mens conscia poscit
munera, virtutes, robur, et imperium.
Invidia procul et vivas, nomen stet avarum
laudis, mors vitae sit tua conveniens.
Interea tuus hic vates fert munera egenus
(segnis quae patitur nunc dare pauperies),
versiculos sibi qui vertuntur munera Phœbo,
aptaque Vertumni commoda et auspiciis.
[p384]
A reverse new years gift, to Frances Walsingham
May the Gods give you the rewards, virtues, strength and dominion which your mind, sensible to prayer, demands. And may you live with envy far away from you, may your name stand eager for praise, may your death be fitting to your life. Meanwhile, here your needy poet brings rewards (which lingering poverty now suffers him to give), little verses which are turned by themselves into rewards fit for Phoebus, and well-suited to the good omens of Vertumnus.
