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The verse around which we designed
this sampler was written after 1596 by the English poet Edmund
Spenser, as an introduction to his Cantos of Mutabilitie, and
part of his most famous work The Faery Queene,
written for Queen Elizabeth I. In these poems he personifies
the powers of change and decay by the character of Mutability,
whose pride, omnipotence, and omnipresence govern all mortall
things beneath the Moone . . .
Proud change
(not pleas'd,
in Mortall things,
beneath the Moone, to raigne)
Pretends, as well of Gods, as Men,
to be the Soveraine.
The lettering style comes from an
early 17th century sampler. The figure of the Queen with her
sword, ready to chop and change, was inspired by similar figures
on 17th century samplers. The arcaded pansy border across the
top is an amalgam of styles, spanning 17th century England to
early 19th century Pennsylvania. Hungarian Point flamestitch
across the bottom creates a dramatic sense of treetops in the
light of the moon. |