318 THE STONES OF VENICE

painted upon his shield. In Northern work, however, I think March is commonly employed in pruning trees; or, at least, he is so when that occupation is left free for him by February’s being engaged with the ceremonies of Candlemas. Sometimes, also, he is reaping a low and scattered kind of grain; and by Spenser, who exactly marks the junction of mediæval and classical feeling, his military and agricultural functions are united, while also, in the Latin manner,¹ he is made the first of the months:

“First sturdy March, with brows full sternly bent,

And armëd strongly, rode upon a Ram,

The same which over Hellespontus swam;

Yet in his hand a spade he also hent,

And in a bag all sorts of seeds ysame,*

Which on the earth he strowed as he went.”

His sign, the Ram, is very superbly carved above him in the archivolt.

4. APRIL. Here, carrying a sheep upon his shoulder. A rare representation of him. In Northern work he is almost universally gathering flowers, or holding them triumphantly in each hand. The Spenserian mingling of this mediæval image with that of his being wet with showers, and wanton with love, by turning his zodiacal sign, Taurus, into the bull of Europa, is altogether exquisite:

“Upon a Bull he rode, the same which led

Europa floating through the Argolick fluds:

His horns were gilden all with golden studs,

And garnished with garlonds goodly dight

Of all the fairest flowers and freshest buds

Which th’ earth brings forth; and wet he seemed in sight

With waves, through which he waded for his love’s delight.”

5. MAY is seated, while two young maidens crown him with

* “Ysame,” collected together.

¹ [The Roman origin of our calendar is of course revealed by the names which the last four months still retain-September, October, November, and December being the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months, counting from March as the first. It was not till 1752 that January was made, by Act of Parliament of 1751, the first month of the year in the British Isles-a fact which is still sometimes forgotten in chronological reckonings.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]