^;lss'?R^3Sg Book KALS r«p\#iN° i*50fe COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. EDMUND SPENSER From a photograph BRITOMART SELECTIONS FROM SPENSER'S FAERY QUEENE BOOKS II L It' AND V Edited With Introduction and Notes BY MARY E. LITCHFIELD GINN & COMPANY boston • new YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Codes Received iy«AR 1 1906 ^^CoMrichi Entry CLASS JZ.^'XXC. Ne. / ^ f /^ 7 COPY B. '^ ■f}^ Copyright, i8g6, iqo6 By MARY E. LITCHFIELD ALL RIGHTS RESEkVEI) 66.3 Witt ^tbtn'stum $res« GINN & COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS . BOSTON • U.S.A. f ' PREFACE i- ■im'i< Except to the special student of literature, Britomart, the most charming of Spenser's heroines, is almost unknown. Indeed, she has for long years been wan- dering in the mazes of the poet's fairy-land, well-nigh lost to view. And yet no story in the Faery Qnceiie is so romantic and none has such a strong human inter- est as that which tells of the " lady knight." As we read of her adventures we are reminded of Rosalind in the forest of Arden. In this little book the scattered portions of Spenser's interesting narrative have been taken out and re-united. It has been necessary to omit stanzas and occasionally lines from the parts selected, but the language of the poet has in no instance been tampered with. In the case of writers like Dante and Milton, the attempt to take out and re-unite scattered portions would be an evident impertinence. With Spenser, however, a genius whose constructive ability did not enable him to make of a long poem an artistic whole, the proceeding seems justifiable. The text is that of the best editions, but the spelling has been modernized except where the modern spelling would iv PREFACE. change the sound of the word. In the elucidation of difficult passages the highest authorities have been con- sulted. The notes, however, contain only such infor- mation as is necessary to the intelligent study of the poem. In order that this study may prove a delight rather than a task, the notes have been placed at the bottom of the page, and have been so arranged that any portion of the narrative can be read by itself. Except for a few suggestions, there has been no attempt at tracing the allegory. INTRODUCTION ^31+- Since every piece of literature is in a way the prod- uct of the age in which it is written, we must, if we would rightly estimate the poetry of Spenser, consider the circumstances amid which the poet lived and the events and movements that left their irqpress upon his character. And since Spenser's poetry has an important — though not the most important — place in the literature of the i6th century in England, it is well, before studying his works, to seek to know the causes that led to the unparalleled literary activity of the Elizabethan Age. During the century that preceded the birth of Spen- ser, great events followed one another in quick succes- sion : in 1453 Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and through the Greek scholars that fled to Italy the culture of Greece was carried into Western Europe ; about 1475 Caxton set up his printing-press in Eng- land ; Columbus discovered the New World in 1492 ; in 1 5 17 Luther attacked the doctrine of indulgences ; in 1534 Henry VIII declared himself head of the Eng- lish church. However, not until the reign of Elizabeth, with its long years of internal peace, did the conditions resulting from these events find adequate expression in English literature. Caxton fortunately set up his VI INTRODUCTION. printing-press just as the New Learning was making its way, bringing from Italy an enthusiasm for the classics and awakening among English scholars an interest in the study of the Bible in the original tongues. In the religious disturbances that darkened the reigns of Edward VI and Mary, the light of the New Learning seemed in danger of being quenched ; but, with the coming of Elizabeth, herself a lover of Greek and Latin literature, the classics regained their supremacy, and the grammar schools, recently established, spread the love of learning among the people. A spirit of inquiry in regard to natural phenomena was abroad in Elizabeth's time. The Copernican sys- tem was revolutionizing men's ideas in regard to the relations of the heavenly bodies, and, before many years, Francis Bacon was to give to the study of natural science an impulse such as it had never before received in England. In the province of religion old barriers were swept aside and new forces were given full play. When Henry VIII threw off his allegiance to Rome and declared himself head of the English church, the national consciousness was no doubt quickened ; but the event that did most during his reign toward devel- oping the moral and religious sentiment of the nation was the translation of the Bible into English. In a few years the Bible, known already through the teachings of the clergy, became the one book of the mass of the people ; the images of the Hebrew writers were in every mind, their phrases on every tongue. More than Homer to the Greek was the Bible to the Englishman; INTRODUCTION. vii for from it he gained that moral strength, that realiza- tion of his individual worth as the child of God, which made him battle with a stout heart against the dreaded power of Catholic Spain, and which, later, enabled him to resist successfully the tyranny of his own rulers. The translation of the Bible exercised an influence upon the development of English literature ; and the influence was in part owing to the time at which the translation was made ; that is, it was made just when the language was ripe for it. Not until the i6th century were the various elements that go to make up the English tongue thoroughly assimilated. While to-day the language of Chaucer needs to be studied, the speech of the i6th century, freed from its peculiar- ities in spelling, may easily be read by a person of ordi- nary intelligence ; in fact, it is practically modern English. By the wide and rapid diffusion of the Bible, the people as a whole, even those speaking peculiar dialects, became familiar with a body of writings expressed in the literary medium of the period. Con- sequently the 16th-century writers when employing the current tongue could appeal to persons of vari- ous social conditions. This is one reason why the literature of the Elizabethan Age is the literature, not of a class, but of a nation. While the influences just mentioned quickened the moral perceptions and refined the literary instincts of the people, the discovery of the New World awoke in them a sudden consciousness of their own force, and led them to realize in a slight degree the part they were destined to play on the great stage of the world. Up to the viii INTRODUCTIOAL beginning of the i6th century Englishmen had been obhged to acknowledge that their small island had little weight in the affairs of Europe. She had heretofore looked to Rome for spiritual guidance and to Italy and France for inspiration and teaching in literary matters. Now at last she was to take her true place in the onward march of the nations. The discovery of America and the subsequent explorations of daring navigators sailing under English colors had given to England even more truly than to Castile and Leon a " New World." The spirit of the Vikings that had slumbered for centuries in their descendants awoke, and England felt her real power — the power of the conqueror and the colonizer; the power which was to make that " little body with a mighty heart" the greatest civilizing force of modern times. As we consider these facts we begin to see why the man of the Elizabethan Age differed in many respects both from his predecessors and from his descendants. We can now account for his unruly passions, his lively imagination, his religious intolerance, and his love of adventure. We do not wonder that the finer spirits of the time were inspired by lofty and generous ideals. Fortunate, indeed, was the genius whose lot was cast in this remarkable century; if not heir of all the ages that have stored up their wealth for the 19th-century man, he was the possessor of a rich inheritance. If the genius were a Spenser, he looked beyond the material universe, out upon vast realms of the imagina- tion peopled with those airy nothings to which the poet alone can give a local habitation and a name. INTR on UC TIOiV. ix And yet, the poet is, after all, born into the hard, actual world, — . . . the world Of all of us, — the place where in the end, We find our happiness, or not at all ; and he, like the commonest mortal, must grapple with facts, and gain strength and insight through experience. Edmund Spenser was born in London near the Tower, sometime between 1549 and 1554. 1552 is the date usually fixed upon, and this makes him six years old when Elizabeth came to the throne. He was evi- dently of good family, though his parents must have been in moderate circumstances. He was a pupil in the grammar school established by the Merchant Tay- lors' Company, and when sixteen or seventeen left school for the university of Cambridge. In 1573 he became B.A., and in 1576 left the university with the degree of M.A. His friendship with Gabriel Harvey, a fellow-student, had an important influence upon his future life, since Harvey introduced him to Sir Philip Sidney, who made him known to his uncle, the Earl of Leicester. After a short stay in the north of England, where he is supposed to have wooed unsuccessfully a certain fair Rosalind, the poet settled in London. In I 579 his first printed book, the " Shepherd's Calendar," was published. This production was dedicated to Sid- ney. In 1580 Spenser went to Ireland as secretary to Arthur, Lord Grey de Wilton. Since he was staying at Lord Leicester's house just before this event, it is probable that he obtained the position through Leices- ter's influence. After Lord Grey was recalled, in 1582, X INTR on UC TION. Spenser remained in Ireland as a state official. In 1586 a large estate at Kilcolman, not far from Cork, was granted him by the queen ; and it was in his new home that he composed the first three books of the Faery Qiiecne. Sir Walter Raleigh, whose friendship he had gained during his former visit to Ireland, thought so highly of the work that he persuaded Spenser to accompany him to England that he might present him to the queen. Pllizabeth received the poet with marked favor, and granted him a pension of fifty pounds a year. The three books were published in 1590 with an explanatory letter addressed to Raleigh. In 1591 a collection of Spenser's shorter poems appeared. In 1594 the poet married a lady named Elizabeth, and in honor of the occasion wrote his celebrated Epithalamion. A second edition of the first three books of the Faery Qiicene was printed in 1596, together with the next three books. Spenser was in London at this time. After his return to Ireland, in 1598, the Tyrone Rebellion broke out, the castle of Kilcolman was sacked and burnt, and the poet and his family barely escaped with their lives. Some authorities declare that one of the children perished in the flames. Spenser managed to reach England, but died three months later, in Janu- ary, 1599. His body lies beside that of Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. In the Prothalarnion, written when he was a little over forty, the poet speaks of his birthplace as . . . merry London, my most kindly nurse, That to me gave this life's first native source ; and in the same poem he alludes to INTRODUCriOX. xi . . . the shore of silver-streaming Thames ; Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems, Was painted all with variable flowers, And all the meads adorned with dainty gems Fit to deck maidens' bowers. It is interesting to picture Spenser as a boy in Lon- don — that strange London of the i6th century, with its filth and its splendor, its Puritanism and its license, its hatred of popery and its stanch loyalty to the queen, — above all, with its daring hopes and its world- wide interests. We see the schoolboy playing on the " rutty " banks of the river, or dodging as he runs from school to avoid the frequent holes and the heaps of filth that make the streets anything but ways of pleas- antness. Now he gazes at the stuffed monkeys and par- rots, the tomahawks and the Indian ornaments exposed to view in some shop. A live red man even may meet his gaze, for Indians were occasionally brought to Lon- don in those days. We see him listening breathless as some returned mariner tells the knot of boys gathered about him of Eldorados more wonderful than Mexico and Peru, of lands where the rivers run gold and the rocks are full of diamonds. At another time we see the future poet of fairy-land cheering on a street fight or following with the crowd that escorts an unfortunate victim to the stocks or to the gallows. Perhaps the boy's attention is arrested by a passing courtier, the willing cynosure of admiring eyes, fantastically arrayed as a Spanish grandee or as a French beau of the period. The plays given in the court-yards of the inns are sure to have aroused Spenser's enthusiasm ; and tucked in Xll INTRODUCTION. among his burly elders he doubtless watched with keen delight the crude performances of the early Elizabethan stage. After the play would come the walk home in the quick coming darkness of the winter afternoon, the flaring light of the linkboy's torch making well-known objects strangely unfamiliar. But, above all, the shows! — processions, pageants, masks, mummeries, morality plays ; every kind of spectacle that could delight the eyes of man might be seen in or near the London of Spenser's day. The queen never moved but in a show. The most trifling occasion was celebrated by allegorical representations. The vices and virtues became as familiar to the sight as they are in all ages to the inner consciousness of the people. The Mask of Ciipid that Britomart witnesses in Busirane's castle is only a court mask of Spenser's time that has found its way into fairy-land. If the imagination of the future poet was fed by the sights and sounds of the city, it must have been nour- ished by books as well. Stories from every land and every age found their way to the printing-presses of London: Italian poems, French romances, Spanish tales, and classical mythologies. Spenser read of the gods of Greece ; and in the early red of the morning he saw Aurora coming to rejoice the slumbering world. He pored over Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Morte d' ArtJinr till in the clouds of sunset he could dis- tinguish the shining spears and the crimson banners of the knights of the Round Table. With these romantic tales were mingled Scripture narratives ; and back of all, — a dark, deep undercurrent, — whispers INTR OD UC TIOiV. xiii of popish plots and stories of Spanish cruelty. It is no wonder that the Faery Queene is at the first glance a strange medley ; that Christian knights and fair ladies as they wander in Spenser's fairy-land meet with sor- cerers and dragons, with Saracens and Amazons; while the vices and virtues personified live on terms of inti- macy with the thinly disguised characters of the poet's own time. Little is known of Spenser's life at Cambridge. It is known, however, that the university was at that time represented to the authorities in London as being in a state of dangerous excitement. Religious controversies were rife, and the more subtle doctrines of the various Puritanical sects were eagerly discussed. Gabriel Har- vey, Spenser's college friend, in a letter written to the poet a short time after the latter had left Cambridge, says : " Every day spawns new opinions : heresy in divinity, in philosophy, in humanity, in manners, grounded upon hearsay ; doctors contemn'd ; the devil not so hated as t\\Q pope ; many invectives but no amend- ment." However, in spite of the prevailing interest in religious controversies, the poet must have found at the university much that would tend to develop the intel- lectual side of his nature ; and if he was, as some main- tain, the most learned of the English poets after Milton (Gray should come first, probably), he owed much of his knowledge to the opportunities enjoyed at Cambridge. Certainly he possessed more than a cursory knowledge of Plato and Aristotle, and his acquaintance with the literatures of Greece, Rome, and Italy was wide if not accurate. In the poets and chroniclers of his own tongue XIV INTRODUCTION. he was deeply read, and Chaucer was his master, beloved and imitated. In addition to his intellectual gains, Spenser, while at the university, made friends whose sympathy and interest were a constant encouragement and stimulus. A few years after leaving Cambridge the poet counted among his friends not only Edward Kirk and Gabriel Harvey, university men, but also Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Lord Grey; while Lord Leicester and Queen Elizabeth herself were among his patrons. It is important to consider his relations with the aris- tocracy, since these relations must have broadened his outlook and have added to his knowledge of men and of affairs; while the atmosphere of the court which sur- rounded him for short intervals several times during the course of his life doubtless quickened his perceptions and refined his tastes. In Sidney, Raleigh, and Grey he saw living examples of the knightly heroes whose valor and generosity had filled his boyish soul with admiration ; and in the brilliant spectacles at court and at Lord Leicester's house he witnessed scenes that needed only the transmuting touch of genius to become worthy of fairy-land itself. The rapid development of his powers was doubtless due in part to his association with these cultivated men of the court and to the knowl- edge that their warm appreciation was sure to greet his best efforts. But if Spenser saw and profited by the better side of court life, he was not blind to the baser elements that went to make up that brilliant society. The following lines are from his poem, Colm Clout's Come Home Again : INTR OD UC TION. XV For, sooth to say, it is no sort of life, For shepherd fit to lead in that same place, Where each one seeks with malice, and with strife, To thrust down other into foul disgrace. Himself to raise : and he doth soonest rise That best can handle his deceitful wit In subtle shifts, and finest sleights devise. In his satire, Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubbard's Tale, Spenser makes us aware that his experience at court was not altogether a happy one : Most miserable man, whom wicked fate Hath brought to Court, to sue for had ywist,^ That few have found, and many one hath missed ! Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried. What hell it is in suing long to bide : To lose good days, that might be better spent ; To waste long nights in pensive discontent ; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow ; To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; To have thy Princes' grace, yet want her Peers'; To have thy asking, yet wait many years ; To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares ; To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs ; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run. To spend, to give, to want, to be undone. Unhappy wight, born to disastrous end. That doth his life in so long tendance spend. The years spent in Ireland — except for short visits to London, the last eighteen years of his life — must have seemed to the poet a period of exile. Taking into con- sideration the difificulty of communication in his time, he was doubtless farther from London, for him the cen- 1 Had ywist, had I known ; that is, vain regret. xvi iNTR on uc riON. tre of the social and intellectual world, than is to-day the Englishman living in New Zealand. Ireland in the 1 6th century was peopled by barbarous, turbulent peo- ple — Catholics for the most part — who were, for suf- ficiently good reasons, bitterly opposed to English rule. Spenser speaks of the " good Lord Grey," whom he portrays in the Faery Qiieene as Artegall, the knight of Justice, as " most gentle, affable, loving, and temper- ate ; always known to be a most just, sincere, godly, and right noble man, far from sternness, far from unrighteousness"; and yet, he admits that the Lord- Deputy left a terrible name behind him in Ireland. Church ^ says of Spenser's patron : " He was certainly a man of severe and unshrinking sense of duty, and like many great Englishmen of the time, so resolute in carrying it out to the end, that it reached, when he thought it necessary, to the point of ferocity." Were Spenser merely the gentle dreamer that some critics conceive him to be, he would, while with Lord Grey, have shut his eyes so far as he could to the barbarous scenes of English rule (or misrule), and have taken refuge in the more attractive world of the imagination. Instead of this, we find him some years later writing his " View of the Present State of Ireland," in which he proposes a plan for the reformation of the rebellious island. Like our greatest English writers, — Shakes- peare, Milton, and Chaucer, — Spenser was, notwith- standing his poetic genius, a practical, clear-headed Eng- lishman, with enough of hardness to enable him to hold his own among the ruling spirits of a turbulent age. 1 Spenser, by R. W. Church, in the English Men of Letters Series. INTRODUCTION. xvii Kilcolman, Spenser's home, was near the hill of Aharlo, a great fastness in the Desmond Rebellion, and to the north stretched a wild country, half forest, half bog. Here, except for short visits to London, the poet lived in retirement. He did, it is true, make occa- sional trips to Dublin, where he had a small circle of English friends who sympathized to a certain degree with his literary tastes. Painful as this banishment may have been for the man Spenser, the poet could hardly have found a place better calculated to develop his peculiar genius. A painter of contemporary man- ners like Pope would have suffered intellectual starva- tion amid these hills and bogs ; but the man who was to create the fairy-land of Gloriana and then lose him- self in its interminable mazes needed to be where out- ward things would not distract his mind. Bunyan wrote his allegory in Bedford jail; Milton saw the wonders of heaven and hell after his eyes were closed to the actual world; and Spenser, forgetting the loneliness of his position, could transform the scenes of violence and dis- order, whose echoes reached him, into glorious knightly achievements, and could people the wild solitudes of Kilcolman with the varied creations of his fertile imag- ination. Speaking of the Faeiy Qtieene, Church says : " The realities of the Irish wars and of Irish social and political life gave a real subject, gave body and form to the allegory. . . . There in visible fact were the vices and falsehoods which Arthur and his companions were to quell and punish. . . . The allegory bodies forth the life of man in all conditions and at all times. But Spenser could never have seen in England such a strong xviii INTRODUCTION. and perfect image of the allegory itself — with the wild wanderings of its personages, its daily chances of battle and danger, its hairbreadth escapes, its strange encoun- ters, its prevailing anarchy and violence, its normal absence of law and order — as he had continually and customarily before him in Ireland." While we learn from the biographies of Spenser a good deal about the circumstances of the poet's life, we find in them little regarding his personal character. We know that he had the artist's feeling for beauty and that he was a seeker after the ideal. We know, too, that he loved his country and admired his queen, — for we cannot consider his extravagant expressions in regard to Elizabeth as mere adulation, — and that he felt the most cordial hatred for the pope, the Spaniard, and all whom he looked upon as England's enemies. From the Epithalamion we infer that he was able to invest those dearest to him with something of that ideal beauty which was always seeking expression in his writings. Perhaps, however, the most admirable trait that has been preserved for us is his chivalric constancy in friendship. Living as he did in an age of patronage, an age in which the struggling genius must look to those high in rank for the means that should enable him to prosecute his work, Spenser might easily, in the struggle for existence, have forgotten to be grateful. Eager for his own advancement, he might have sought always the favor of those whose smiles would insure success. This was not the case with the poet. Although his friend and patron, Lord Grey de Wilton, was recalled from Ireland to England and censured by the home gov- INTRODUCTION. xix ernment for his unsuccessful though strenuous efforts at ruHng the turbulent island that had been placed under his control, Spenser, in his Vieiv of the Present State of Ireland, heartily commended the administration of the Lord-Deputy. Besides, he introduced him into the Faery Qiieene as Artegall, the knight of Justice. Earlier in his career, when writing the Shepherd's Cal- endar, the poet chose as the pattern of a true Christian pastor his former patron, Archbishop Grindal, — whom he denominated Algrind, — although at that very time the bishop was suffering under the displeasure of the court. One familiar with the jealousies and intrigues of Elizabeth's court will realize that the course pursued by Spenser in the instances referred to gives evidence not only of constancy in friendship but of high moral courage as well. Besides the Faery Queene, Spenser wrote : the Shep- herd's Calejtdar, a collection of pastoral poems, one for each month in the year; Prosopopoia, or Mother Hub- bai'd's Tale, a satirical fable; Coli7i Clout's Come Home Again, a fanciful account of the poet's trip to England with Raleigh and of his presentation to the queen ; AstropJiel, a Pastoral Elegy npon the Death of the most Noble and Valorous KnigJit, Sir Philip Sidney ; Pro- thalamion, or a Spoiisal Verse ; EpitJialamion, a poem celebrating the poet's own marriage ; four Hymns in honor of Love, Beanty, Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty ; and numerous other poems, among them a large number of sonnets. In addition to these poetical works, he left behind him the prose treatise, Vieiv of the Present State of Ireland ^ and several letters. XX INTR OD UC TION. The poet who can write interesting narratives, keen satires, fanciful allegories, and lyrics of marvellous beauty is certainly not a one-sided genius. At the same time Spenser has, with the exception of Britomart, created no living character; and on occasions Britomart, even, becomes shadowy, unsubstantial. The author of the Faery Qtieene lacks dramatic power and is wanting also in the constructive ability that goes to the making of great epics. He is, too, devoid of passion, unless an absorbing love for the good and the beautiful may be counted as passion. Not once in all his poems does he, like Shakespeare, touch those chords that awaken an echo in the deepest recesses of the human heart ; nor does he, like Wordsworth, find a new and hidden beauty in the " meanest flower that blows." And yet Milton calls him "a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas," and Wordsworth in his Prelude says : And that gentle Bard, Chosen by the muses for their page of State, Sweet Spenser, moving through his clouded heaven With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace, I called him Brother, Englishman, and Friend. Brother and friend he has in truth been to his fellow- craftsmen from his own time to ours, — and master as well. His title, "the poets' poet," is no empty phrase. When he began to write England had for a hundred and fifty years been without a great poet. Chaucer with his archaic forms could no longer serve as teacher and inspirer, and the verse-makers, lacking an English model, looked to Italy for instruction in INTRODUCTION. xxi their art. Spenser revealed to his contemporaries the capacities of the English tongue. A master of poetic form, and sensitive to the subtlest harmonies of lan- guage, he taught the writers of the i6th century how to use the resources at their command ; and echoes of his melodious phrases may be detected in some of the latest productions of English literature. (The Spenserian stanza — the stanza of the Faery Queene — still remains one of the chief forms of English verserx However, it is not simply because of his artistic qualities that Spenser has exercised an important influence upon the development of English poetry. His characteristic charm lies in the fact that better than any other poet of his nation he knows how to communicate to his readers the joy that comes from the contemplation of ideal beauty. His poetry, it is true, does not cause that ecstatic thrill which is akin to pain; rather it gives a calm and serene happiness, the result of long com- panionship with what is pure and high. "The noblest mind the best contentment has," Spenser tells us. In the Faery Qiieene life is represented as a conflict in which the good are often hard pressed. Still, we are not troubled; for the eternal forces are at work and the victory is sure. As we read, the sense of earthly limi- tations passes away, and we find ourselves in a new world where we gladly linger, charmed and detained by the long swell of the Spenserian stanza. Lowell has called this world, "the land of pure heart's ease, where no ache or sorrow of spirit can enter." Spenser is, as we have seen, peculiarly the represent- ative of his own age in its higher aspects. As in the xxii INTR on UC TION. more realistic of the Elizabethan dramatists we see pictured the actual life of the time, so in Spenser we find the beliefs, the dreams, the ideals of his contempo- raries. The cultivated men of his day read Plato and Aristotle, and enjoyed Homer, Virgil, Boccaccio, and Ariosto ; and we find reproduced in Spenser's poems the thoughts and images of these writers. Their own past had likewise its charm for the men of Elizabeth's court ; and Spenser, an avowed disciple of Chaucer, steeped himself in old chronicles and romances, and found an irresistible attraction in the forms of a rapidly decaying feudalism. Spenser is the poet of the Renais- sance with its love of learning, its feeling for the artistic in form and color, its new delight in life, its faith in the possibilities of human achievement. At the same time he never forgets that life is a struggle ; and under- neath his most glowing pictures may be found the noble aims and the high ideals of the Puritan. As we read his poetry, the past, touched with a glory not its own, lives once more in our imagination ; and we gain the culture that comes through sympathy with interests remote from those of to-day. Our ears, trained by a skilled musician, learn to trace with delight the hitherto unsuspected harmonies of the great masters of verse. But more than this is won if the poet accomplishes his purpose ; for in his letter to Raleigh he says, speaking of the Faery Qiieene : " The generall end, therefore, of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline"; and surely we must gain in virtue and in magnanimity if we associate with the generous and noble spirit of Spenser. INTRODUCTION. xxiii In his letter to Sir Walter Raleigh (which follows this chapter), Spenser tells the purpose and the plan of the Faery Qiiecne. The plan, however, was never car- ried out ; for but six of the twelve books proposed, and fragments of a seventh, were given to the world. Of these books, the first "containing the Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross, or of Holiness," is the most perfect in form, and as a narrative the most complete. The interest, however, depends largely upon the alle- gory underlying the poem. The second book, which contains "The Legend of Sir Guyon, or of Temperance," though less artistic than the first, has passages of sur- passing beauty and possesses some interest as a narra- tive. In both these books, however, the characters are abstractions. The third book, " containing the Legend of Britomartis, or of Chastity," introduces a clearly defined character; for Britomart, while she represents an abstract quality, is herself a woman with the graces and the failings of her sex. Indeed, as he sees her searching for her unknown lover, accompanied by the gentle Amoret, the reader cannot fail to be reminded of Shakespeare's Rosalind and her faithful cousin, Celia. The story of Britomart's adventures is continued through the fourth book, containing the " Legend of Cambel and Triamond, or of Friendship," and the fifth which contains the "Legend of Artegall, or of Justice." In reading the three books, however, it is difficult to keep Britomart in view, so numerous are the characters introduced and so confusing the account of their adven- tures. Of course the careful student of Spenser will read the entire Faery Qtieene, will trace the underlying xxiv INTRODUCTION. allegories, will seek the sources from which the poet derived many of his ideas and images, and will look up allusions to the events and the personages of the time. The general student of English literature, however, may find in the narrative here presented a production especially calculated to arouse his interest and to stim- ulate him to the further study of the poet. The poem has a peculiar value in connection with the study of the institutions of Chivalry; and on this account it may be classed with Chaucer's KnigJites Tale, with Scott's romantic poems, and with Tennyson's Idylls of the King. The stanza employed in the Faery Qiieene should be carefully examined. While it is said to be a modifica- tion of the Italian "ottava rima," it differs sufficiently from the Italian stanza to be considered Spenser's own creation. It will be noticed that the first eight lines consist each of five, and the ninth line of six iambic feet ; and it will be observed that irregularities in metre are occasionally introduced for the sake of emphasis, or to break the monotony of the rythm. Mr. Corson in his Primer of English Verse has an excellent article on the Spenserian stanza. Some attention should be paid to Spenser's peculiar use of language. He was for some reason attracted by the older rather than the newer forms of his day. Such old forms as ydrad for dreaded, yclad for clad, and yold for yielded occur frequently; he uses ne with not — the double negative ; while old words not to be found in Shakespeare and other writers only a few years younger than himself, are at times employed by him. INTR on UC TIOiV. XXV It is said that his vocabulary, notwithstanding his occa- sional use of foreign idioms, is more Germanic than that of any other great English poet. It must be con- fessed that he sometimes uses language arbitrarily, twisting the meaning of a word, or altering the form or the accent to suit his artistic purposes. For this reason the philologist looks a little askance at his productions. The student will do well to consult Mr. Frederic I. Carpenter's Outline Guide to the Study of Spensei% where he will find lists of books that may be used with advantage. The following works will be found useful : complete works of Spenser edited by Grosart ; the Globe edition of Spenser edited by Morris, with a memoir by Hales; Professor Child's edition of Spenser's poems ; The Faerie Quecne edited by Kate M. Warren ; Books I and II of the Faery Queene edited by Kitchin ; Book I of the Faery Queene edited by Percival ; Selec- tions from Spenser by Professor Gummere, in the Athenaeum Press series (announced); Spenserhy R. W. Church, in the English Men of Letters series ; Green's History of the English People ; Taine's History of English Literature ; Brooke's Primer of English Liter- ature; Corson's Primer of English Verse ; Dowden's Transcripts and Studies ; Craik's Spenser a7id His Poetry ; Lowell's Among My Books, 2d series (Vol. IV of the Riverside edition of his writings); and Sawtelle's Sources of Spenser s Classical Mythology. xxvi INTR on UC TION. A LETTER of the Authors expounding his whole inten- tion in the course of this worke ^ ; which, for that it giveth great light to the reader, for the better under- standing is hereunto annexed. To THE Right Noble and Valorous SIR WALTER RALEIGH, KNIGHT, Lo : Wardein of the Sta?ineries,'^ and her majesties lieuienaunt of the countie of Cornewayll. Sir, Knowing how doubtfully all Allegories may be construed, and this booke of mine, which I have entituled The Faery Queefie, being a continued AUegorie, or darke conceit,^ I have thought good, as well for avoyding of jealous* opinions and misconstructions, as also for your better light in read- ing thereof, (being so, by you commanded) to discover unto you the generall intention and meaning, which in the whole course thereof I have fashioned, without expressing of any particular purposes, or by-accidents therein occasioned. The generall end therefore of all the booke, is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline. Which for that I conceived shoulde be most plausible and pleasing, beeing coloured with an historicall fiction, the 1 This worke. The letter served as an introduction to the first three books of the Faery Qi/eene. - Stanneries, stannaries, tin mines or tin works. ^ Darke conceit, mysterious or obscure conception or design. 4 Jealous, suspicious. INTRODUCTION. xxvii which the most part of men delight to read, rather for vari- etie of matter than for profit of the ensample : I chose the historic of king Arthure, as most fit for the excellencie of his person, beeing made famous by many mens former workes, and also furthest from the danger of envie,^ and suspicion of present time. In which I have followed all the antique poets historicall: first Homer, who in the persons of Agamemnon and Ulysses hath ensampled^ a good governour and a vertuous man, the one in his Ilias, the other in his Odysseis : then Virgil, whose like intention was to doe in the person of ^neas: after him Ariosto comprised them both in his Orlando : and lately Tasso dissevered them againe, and formed both parts in two persons, namely, that part which they in philosophy call Et/iice, or vertues of a private man, coloured in his Rinaldo : the other named Politice^ in his Godfredo. By ensample of which excellent Poets, I laboure to pourtraict in Arthure, before he was king, the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private morall vertues, as Aristotle hath devised : which if I find to be well accepted, I may be perhaps encoraged to frame the other part of pollitike vertues in his person, after he came to bee king. To some I know this Methode will seem displeasant, which had rather have good discipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large, as they use, then^ thus clowdily enwrapped in Allegoricall devises. But such, mee seeme, should be satisfied with the use of these dayes, seeing all things accounted by their showes, and nothing esteemed of, that is not delightfuU and pleasing to common sense. For this cause is Xenophon preferred before Plato, for that the one, in the exquisite depth of his judgement, 1 Envie, ill will, hatred. 2 Ensampled, given an example of. 8 Then, than. xxviii INTRODUCTION. formed a Commune-wealth, such as it should be ; but the other, in the person of Cyrus and the Persians, fashioned a government, such as might best be: So much more profitable and gracious is doctrine by ensample then by rule. So have I laboured to do in the person of Arthure : whom I conceive, after his long education by Timon (to whom he was by Mer- lin delivered to be brought up, so soone as he was borne of the Lady Igrayne) to have seen in a dreame or vision the Faerie Queene, with whose excellent beautie ravished, hee awaking, resolved to seek her out : and so, being by Merlin armed, and by Timon throughly instructed, he went to seeke her forth in Faery land. In that Faery Queene I mean Glory in my generall intention : but in my particular I con- ceive the most excellent and glorious person of our sover- aine the Queene, and her kingdome in Faery land. And yet, in some places else, I doe otherwise shadow ^ her. For considering shee beareth two persons, the one of a most royall Queene or Empresse, the other of a most vertuous and beautifull lady, this latter part in some places I doe expresse in Belphoebe, fashioning her name according to your owne excellent conceipt of Cynthia,^ (Phoebe and Cyn- thia being both names of Diana.) So in the person of Prince Arthure I sette forth magnificence in particular, which ver- tue, for that (according to Aristotle and the rest) it is the perfection of all the rest, and containeth in it them all, there- fore in the whole course I mention the deeds of Arthure appliable to the vertue, which I write of in that booke. But of the twelve other vertues I make XII other knights the patrons, for the more varietie of the historic : Of which these three bookes containe three. The first, of the Knight of the Red crosse, in whom I expresse Holinesse : the sec- ond of Sir Guyon, in whome I set foorth Temperance : the ^ Shadow, represent typically. 2 Cynthia, an allusion to Sir Walter Raleigh's poem " Cynthia." INTRODUCTION. xxix third of Britomartis, a Lady knight, in whom I picture Chas- titie. But because the beginning of the whole worke seem- eth abrupt and as depending upon other antecedents, it needs that yee know the occasion of these three knights severall adventures. For the Methode of a Poet historical! is not such as of an Historiographer. For an Historiographer dis- courseth of affaires orderly as they were done, accounting as well the times as the actions ; but a Poet thrusteth into the middest, even where it most concerneth him, and there recoursing to the things forepast, and divining of things to come, maketh a pleasing analysis of all. The beginning therefore of my historic, if it were to be told by an Histori- ographer, should be the twelfth booke, which is the last ; where I devise that the Faery Queene kept her annuall feast twelve dales ; uppon which twelve severall dayes, the occa- sions of the twelve severall adventures hapned, which being undertaken by XH severall knights, are in these twelve books severally handled and discoursed. The first was this. In the beginning of the feast, there presented him selfe a tall clownish younge man, who falling before the Queene of Faeries desired a boone (as the man- ner then was) which during that feast she might not refuse : which was that hee might have the atchievement of any adventure, which during that feast should happen ; that being granted, he rested him selfe on the floore, unfit through his rusticitie for a better place. Soone after entred a faire Ladie in mourning weedes,^ riding on a white Asse, with a dwarfe behind her leading a warlike steed, that bore the Armes of a knight, and his speare in the dwarf es hand. She falling before the Queene of Faeries, complayned that her father and mother, an ancient King and Queene, had bene by an huge dragon many yeers shut up in a brazen Castle, who thence suffered them not to issew : and therefore 1 Weedes, srarments. XXX INTRODUCTION. besought the Faery Queene to assigne her some one of her knights to take on him that exployt. Presently ^ that clown- ish person upstarting, desired that adventure ; whereat the Queene much wondering, and the Lady much gaine-saying, yet he earnestly importuned his desire. In the end the Lady told him, that unlesse that armour which she brought would serve him (that is, the armour of a Christian man specified by Saint Paul, V. Ephes.) that he could not suc- ceed in that enterprise : which being forth with put upon him with due furnitures thereunto, he seemed the goodliest man in al that company, and was well liked of the Lady. And eftesoones^ taking on him knighthood, and mounting on that straunge Courser, he went forth with her on that adventure : where beginneth the first booke, viz. A gentle knight was pricking on the playne, etc. The second day there came in a Palmer bearing an Infant with bloody hands, whose Parents he complained to have bene slaine by an enchauntresse called Acrasia : and there- fore craved of the Faery Queene, to appoint him some knight to performe that adventure, which being assigned to Sir Guyon, he presently went foorth with the same Palmer: which is the beginning of the second booke and the whole subject thereof. The third day there came in a Groome,^ who complained before the Faery Queene, that a vile Enchaunter, called Busirrme, had in hand a most faire Lady, called Amoretta, whom he kept in most grevious torment. Whereupon Sir Scudamour, the lover of that Lady, presently tooke on him that adventure. But beeing unable to per- forme it by reason of the hard Enchauntments, after long 1 Presently, immediately. 2 Eftesoones, immediately. 3 Groome, servant. INTRODUCTION. xxxi sorrow, in the end met with Britomartis, who succoured him, and reskewed his love. But by occasion hereof, many other adventures are inter- medled ; but rather as accidents then intendments. As the love of Britomart, the overthrow of Marinell, the miserie of Florimell, the vertuousness of Belphoebe ; and many the like. Thus much, Sir, I have briefly-over-run to direct your understanding to the wel-head of the History, that from thence gathering the whole intention of the conceit, ye may as in a handfull gripe all the discourse, which otherwise may happely seem tedious and confused. So humbly craving the continuance of your honourable favour towards me, and th' eternall establishment of your happines, I humbly take leave. Yours most humbly affectionate, Edm. Spenser. 23 Januarie, 1589. BRITOMART. 1 It falls me^ here to write of chastity, That fairest virtue far above the rest : For which what needs me fetch from Faery ^ Foreign ensamples it to have expressed ? Sith^ it is shrined in my sovereign's breast, And formed so lively in each perfect part. That to all ladies, which have it professed, Need but behold the portrait of her heart ; If portrayed it might be by any living art : 2 But living art may not least part express. Nor life-resembling pencil it can paint : All were it* Zeuxis^ or Praxiteles,^ His daedale^ hand would fail and greatly faint. And her perfections with his error taint : Note. — Britomart is the knight of chastity. The name denotes a martial Britoness, as Spenser uses it. It is really one of the names of Diana. ^ Falls me, falls to me, falls to painter who lived during the latter my lot. half of the 5th century B.C. 2 Faery, faeryland, fairyland. 6 Praxiteles, a famous Greek ^ Sith, since. sculptor who flourished about 350 * All were it, although it were. h.c. ^ Zeuxis, a celebrated Greek "• Dcedale, skilful. 2 THE FAERY QUEENE. Ne^ poet's wit, that passeth painter far In picturing the parts of beauty daint,^ So hard a workmanship adventure darre, For fear through want of words her excellence to mar. 3 How then shall I, apprentice of the skill That whilom^ in divinest wits did reign, Presume so high to stretch mine humble quill ? Yet now my luckless lot doth me constrain Hereto perforce: but, O dread sovereign. Thus far forth pardon, sith that choicest wit Cannot your glorious portrait figure plain, That I in colored shows may shadow it ; And antique praises unto present persons fit. 4 But if in living colours, and right hue. Thyself thou covet to see pictured, Who can it do more lively, or more true, Than that sweet verse, with nectar sprinkeled In which a gracious servant* pictured His Cynthia, his heaven's fairest light 1 That with his melting sweetness ravished, And with the wonder of her beames bright, My senses lullM are in slumber of delight. 5 But let that same delicious poet lend A little leave unto a rustic muse 1 Ne, nor. poem called " Cynthia," Queen 2 Daiiit, dainty. Elizabeth, being unmarried, was 3 Whilom, formerly. often called Cynthia, — another * A gracious servant, i.e. Sir name for the virgin goddess, Walter Raleigh who wrote a Diana. BRITOMART. 3 To sing his mistress' praise ; and let him mend, If ought amiss her liking may abuse: Ne let his fairest Cynthia refuse In mirrors more than one herself to see ; But either Gloriana^ let her choose, Or in Belphoebe^ fashioned to be ; In th' one her rule, in th' other her rare chastity. 1 Gloriana, the queen of Faery- ^ Belphoebe, a character in books land, beloved by Prince Arthur. Ill and IV of the " Faery Queene." I. Britomart encounters Prince Arthur and Sir Gtiyon. After sepa- rating from them, she passes on to Castle foyons where she falls in with the Redcross knight. 1 The famous Briton prince ^ and faery knight, ^ After long ways and perilous pains endured, Having their weary limbs to perfect plight Restored, and sorry wounds right well recured, Of the fair Alma ^ greatly were procured ^ To make there lenger sojourn and abode ; But, when thereto they might not be allured From seeking praise and deeds of arms abrode, They courteous conge ^ took, and forth together yode.^ 2 Long so they travelled through wasteful ways," Where dangers dwelt, and perils most did won,^ To hunt for glory and renowmed '^ praise : 1 The famous Briton prince, have been enjopng her hospitality Prince Arthur, the perfect knight, after a perilous adventure, who is in love with Gloriana, the * Procured, entreated, queen of Faeryland. ^ Conge, leave. * Faery knight. All Gloriana's ^ Yode, went, champions are called faery knights. ~' Wasteful ways, waste places, The one here mentioned is Guyon, desolate places, the knight of Temperance. ^ Won, dwell. ' Alma, the lady of the house ^ Renowmed. Spenser seems of Temperance. The two warriors to prefer the form renowm to the modem form. 6 THE FAERY QUEENE. Full many countries they did overrun, From the uprising to the setting sun, And many hard adventures did achieve ; Of all the which they honour ever won. Seeking the weak oppressed to relieve. And to recover right for such as wrong did grieve. 3 At last, as through an open plain they yode, They spied a knight that towards pricked ^ fair ; And him beside an aged squire there rode, That seemed to couch ^ under his shield three- square,^ As if that age bade him that burden spare. And yield it those that stouter* could it wield : He, them espying, gan himself prepare. And on his arm address his goodly shield That bore a lion passant ^ in a golden field.^ 4 Which seeing, good Sir Guyon dear besought The prince, of grace, to let him run that turn. He granted : then the Faery quickly raught " His poignant^ spear, and sharply gan to spurn ^ His foamy steed, whose fiery feet did burn The verdant grass as he thereon did tread ; Ne did the other back his foot return, 1 Pricked, sparred onward. ^ pidd, term in heraldry for the 2 Couch, bend. surface of a shield. Britomart 3 Three- square, having three bore the legendary arms of Brute, equal sides. her ancestor. ^ Stouter, more boldly. '^ Raught, reached. ^ Passant, walking. ^ Poignant, sharp. 9 Spurn, spur. BRITOMART. 7 But fiercely forward came withouten dread, And bent his dreadful spear against the other's head. 5 They been ymet, and both their points arrived ; But Guyon drove so furious and fell,^ That seemed both shield and plate it would have rived ^ ; Natheless ^ it bore his foe not from his sell,* But made him stagger, as he were not well : But Guyon self, ere well he was aware. Nigh a spear's length behind his crouper fell ; Yet in his fall so well himself he bare. That mischievous mischance his life and limbs did spare. 6 Great shame and sorrow of that fall he took ; For never yet, sith warlike arms he bore And shivering spear in bloody field first shook, He found himself dishonoured so sore. Ah ! gentlest knight that ever armour bore. Let not thee grieve dismounted to have been, And brought to ground, that never wast before ; For not thy fault, but secret pow'r unseen ; That spear enchanted was which laid thee on the green ! 7 But weenedst thou what wight ^ thee overthrew, Much greater grief and shamefuller regret For thy hard fortune then thou wouldst renew. That of a single^ damsel thou wert met 1 Fell, fiercely. ^ Sell, saddle. 2 Rived, torn apart. ^ Wight, person. 3 Natheless, nevertheless. ® Single, weak. 8 THE FAERY QUEENE. On equal plain, and there so hard beset : Even the famous Britomart it was, Whom strange adventure did from Britain f ett ^ To seek her lover, (love far sought, alas !) Whose image she had seen in Venus' looking-glass. 8 Full of disdainful wrath, he fierce uprose For to revenge that foul reproachful shame, And, snatching his bright sword, began to close With her on foot, and stoutly forward came ; Die rather would he then ^ endure that same. Which when his palmer ^ saw, he gan to fear His toward* peril, and untoward^ blame. Which by that new rencounter he should rear^ ; For death sat on the point of that enchanted spear : 9 And hasting towards him gan fair persuade Not to provoke misfortune, nor to ween^ His spear's default to mend with cruel blade ; For by his mighty science he had seen The secret virtue of that weapon keen. That mortal puissance mote^ not withstond : Nothing on earth mote always happy ^ been ! Great hazard were it, and adventure fond,^^ To lose long-gotten honour with one evil hond.^^ 1 Fett^ fetch. ^ Untoward^ troublesome, vexa- 2 Then, than ; this form occurs tious. frequently in the poem. 6 j^ear^ raise, bring upon him- ^ Palmer, a wandering religious self, votary. Palms were sometimes '' Ween, think, carried by a palmer, as a sign that ^ Mote, might, he had been to the Holy Land. ^ Happy, successful. 4 Toward, near at hand. i*^ Fond, foolish. 11 Hotid, act. BRirOMART. 10 By such good means he him discounselled ^ From prosecuting his revenging rage : And eke ^ the prince like treaty handeled,^ His wrathful will with reason to assuage ; And laid the blame, not to his carriage, But to his starting steed that swarved aside, And to the ill purveyance of his page. That had his furnitures ^ not firmly tied : So is his angry corage ^ fairly pacified. 1 1 Thus reconcilement was between them knit. Through goodly temperance and affection chaste ; And either vowed with all their power and wit To let not other's honour be defaced Of friend or foe, whoever it embaste,^ Ne arms to bear against the other's side : In which accord ^ the prince was also placed, And with that golden chain of concord tied : So goodly all agreed, they forth yfere ^ did ride. 12 O, goodly usage of those antique times. In which the sword was servant unto right ! When not for malice and contentious crimes. But all for praise, and proof of manly might, The martial brood accustomed to fight : Then honour was the meed of victory. And yet the vanquished had no despite^ : 1 Discounselled, dissuaded. ^ Corage, heart. 2 Eke, likewise. ^ Embaste, insulted. ^ Like treaty kajtdeled, used the ' Accord, agreement, same argument. ^ Yfere, together. * Furnitures, equipment. ^ Despite, malice, hatred. 10 THE FAERY QUEENE. Let later age that noble use envy,^ Vile rancour to avoid and cruel surquedry ! ^ 13 Long they thus travelled in friendly wise, Through countries waste, and eke well edified, ^ Seeking adventurers hard, to exercise Their puissance, whilom"* full dernly^ tried. f\t length they came into a forest wide. Whose hideous horror and sad trembling sound Full grisly^ seemed : therein they long did ride. Yet tract "* of living creature none they found. Save bears, lions, and bulls, which roamed them around. 14 All suddenly out of the thickest brush. Upon a milk-white palfrey all alone, A goodly lady did foreby^ them rush. Whose face did seem as clear as crystal stone, And eke, through fear, as white as whales bone : Her garments all were wrought of beaten gold,. And all her steed with tinsel trappings shone, Which fled so fast that nothing mote him hold, And scarce them leisure gave her passing to behold. I 5 Still as she fled her eye she backward threw. As fearing evil that pursued her fast ; And her fair yellow locks behind her flew. Loosely dispersed with puff of every blast : All as a blazing star doth far outcast 1 Envy, emulate. ^ Dernly, sadly, severely. 2 Surquedry, insolence. ^ Grisly, terrible. 3 Edified, built. "^ Tract, trace. * Whilom, formerly. ^ Foreby, by. BRITOMART. 11 His hairy beams, and flaming locks dispread, At sight whereof the people stand aghast ; But the sage wizard tells, as he has read, That it importunes 1 death and doleful dreryhed.^ 1 6 So as they gazed after her awhile, Lo ! where a grisly^ foster^ forth did rush, His tireling jade^ he fiercely forth did push Through thick and thin, both over bank and bush, In hope her to attain by hook or crook, That^ from his gory sides the blood did gush : Large were his limbs, and terrible his look, And in his clownish hand a sharp boar-spear he shook. 1 7 Which outrage when those gentle^ knights did see, Full of great envy and fell jealousy,^ They stayed not to avise^ who first should be. But all spurred after, fast as they mote fly. To rescue her from shameful villainy. The prince and Guyon equally bylive^^ Herself pursued, in hope to win thereby Most goodly meed, the fairest dame alive : But after the foul foster Timias did strive. ^ Importunes, portends. ^ Great etivy and fell jealousy. 2 Dreryhed, sorrow. Prof. Child remarks that both 3 Grisly, frightful, dreadful. envy and jealousy are here used 4 Foster, forester. in the sense of indignation. Fell 5 Tyreling jade, hackney .'' means fierce. ® That, so that. * Avise, consider. ■^ Gentle, high-born, noble. ^^ Bylive, quickly. 12 THE FAERY QUEENE. 1 8 The whiles fair Britomart, whose constant mind Would not so lightly follow beauty's chase, Ne recked of ladies' love, did stay behind ; And them awaited there a certain space. To weet^ if they would turn back to that place : But, when she saw them gone, she forward went. As lay her journey, through that perlous pace,^ With steadfast courage and stout hardiment^; Ne evil thing she feared, ne evil thing she meant. 19 At last, as nigh out of the wood she came, A stately castle far away she spied. To which her steps directly she did frame. That castle was most goodly edified,^ And placed for pleasure nigh that forest side : But fair before the gate a spacious plain. Mantled with green, itself did spreaden wide. On which she saw six knights, that did darrayne^ Fierce battle against one with cruel might and main. 20 Mainly^ they all attonce upon him laid, And sore beset on every side around, That nigh he breathless grew, yet nought dismayed, Ne ever to them yielded foot of ground, All had he^ lost much blood through many a wound ; But stoutly dealt his blows, and every way. To which he turned in his wrathful stound,^ 1 Weet, know, learn. ^ Darrayne, wage. 2 Perlous pace, perilous pass. ^ Mainly, strongly. 3 Hardiment, boldness. '^ All had he, although he had. * Edified, built. ^ Stoufid, moment, mood. BRirOMART. 13 Made them recoil, and fly from dread decay,^ That none of all the six before him durst assay ^i 2 1 Like dastard curs, that, having at a bay The salvage^ beast embossed^ in weary chase, Dare not adventure on the stubborn prey, Ne^ bite before, but roam from place to place To get a snatch when turned is his face. In such distress and doubtful jeopardy When Britomart him saw, she ran apace^ Unto his rescue, and with earnest cry Bade those same six forbear that single enemy. 22 But to her cry they list not" lenden ear, Ne aught the more their mighty strokes surcease^; But, gathering him round about more near, Their direful rancour rather did increase ; Till that she rushing through the thickest preasse^ Perforce disparted their compacted gyre,^^ And soon compelled to hearken unto peace : Tho^^ gan she mildly of them to inquire The cause of their dissention and outrageous ire. 23 Whereto that single knight did answer frame : "These six would me enforce, by odds of might, To change my liefe,^^ and love another dame ; ^ Decay, destruction, ^ Apace, quickly. - Before him durst assay, dared "^ List not, cared not to. attack him in front. ^ Surcease, cause to cease. ^ Salvage, wild. ^ Preasse, crowd. * Embossed, tired out. ^^ Gyre, circle. 5 Ne, nor. 11 Tho, then. 12 Liefe, love. 14 THK FAERY QUEENE. That death me liefer ^ were then such despite,^ So unto wrong to yield my wrested right : For I love one, the truest one on ground, Ne list me^ change ; she th' Errant Damsel* hight^; For whose dear sake full many a bitter stound^ I have endured, and tasted many a bloody wound." 24 "Certes,"'' said she, " then been ye six to blame. To ween^ your wrong by force to justify : For knight to leave his lady were great shame That faithful is ; and better were to die. All loss is less, and less the infamy, Than loss of love to him that loves but one : Ne may love be compelled by maistery ^; For, soon as maistery comes, sweet love anon Taketh his nimble wings, and soon away is gone." 25 Then spake one of those six : " There dwelleth here Within this castle wall a lady fair, Whose sovereign beauty hath no living pere^*^; Thereto so bounteous and so debonaire,^^ That never any mote ^^ with her compare : 1 Liefer, preferable. " • • • o" his breast a bloody cross he 2 That death me liefer were then bore, such despite, i.e. I would rather die "^'^^ '^^^'" remembrance of his dying than do what I should so scorn to do. ^ Hight, is called. 3 Ne list me, nor do I desire to. ^ Stound, peril. * Errant Damsel, i.e. Una, the '^ Certes, certainly, heroine of the first book of the ^ Ween, think. "Faery Queene." This "single '^ J/a/j/ifrj/, superior power, knight " is her champion, and he ^^ Pere, peer, is called the Redcross knight be- ^^ Debonaire, gracious, cause : ^^ Mote, may. BRirOMART. • 15 She hath ordained this law, which we approve, That every knight which doth this way repair, In case he have no lady nor no love. Shall do unto her service, never to remove : 26 "But if he have a lady or a love. Then must he her forego with foul defame,^ Or else with us by dint^ of sword approve^ That she is fairer than our fairest dame ; As did this knight, before ye hither came." "Perdy,"* said Britomart, "the choice is hard ! But what reward had he that overcame?" "He should advanced be to high regard," Said they, ''and have our lady's love for his reward. 2^ "Therefore aread,^ sir, if thou have a love." "Love have I sure," quoth she, "but lady none ; Yet will I not fro mine own love remove, Ne to your lady will I service done,^ But wreak your wrongs wrought to this knight alone, And prove his cause." With that, her mortal^ spear She mightily aventred^ towards one. And down him smote ere well aware he weare^ ; Then to the next she rode, and down the next did bear. 28 Ne did she stay till three on ground she laid, That^*' none of them himself could rear again : 1 Defame, dishonor. ^ Done, do. 2 Dint, stroke. "^ Alortal, death-giving. 3 Approve, prove. ^ Aventred, aimed. * Perdy, truly. ^ Weare, were. 5 Aread, declare. 10 That, so that. 16 THE FAERY QUEENE. The fourth was by that other knight dismayed, All were he^ weary of his former pain ; That now there do but two of six remain ; Which two did yield before she did them smite. "Ah !" said she then, "now may ye all see plain. That truth is strong, and true love most of might, That for his trusty servants doth so strongly fight." 29 "Too well we see," said they, "and prove too well Our faulty weakness, and your matchless might : Forthy,2 fair sir, yours be the damosel. Which by her own law to your lot doth light. And we your liegemen faith unto you plight." So underneath her feet their swords they mard,^ And, after, her besought, well as they might. To enter in and reap the due reward : She granted ; and then in they all together far'd.^ 30 Long were it to describe the goodly frame And stately port of Castle Joyeous,^ (For so that castle hight^ by common name), Where they were entertained with courteous And comely glee of many gracious Fair ladies, and of many a gentle knight ; Who, through a chamber long and spacious, Eftsoones'^ them brought unto their lady's sight. That of them cleeped^ was the Lady of Delight. 1 All were he, although he was; pronounced as two syllables. The 2 Forthy, therefore. same is true of gracious and ^ Mard, debased. spacious. * Fared, went. ^ Hight, was called. ^ Joyeous ; the final syllable is '^ Eftsoones, speedily. 8 Cleeped, called. BRITOMART. 17 31 But, for to tell the sumptuous array Of that great chamber, should be labour lost ; For living wit, I ween, cannot display The royal riches and exceeding cost Of every pillar and of every post, Which all of purest bullion framed were, And with great pearls and precious stones embossed^ ; That the bright glister of their beames clear Did sparkle forth great light, and glorious did appear. 32 These stranger knights, through passing, forth were led Into an inner room, whose royalty And rich purveyance^ might uneath^ be read*; Mote^ prince's place beseem so decked to be. Which stately manner whenas they did see, The image of superfluous riotize,^ Exceeding much the state of mean' degree. They greatly wond'red whence so sumptuous guise Might be maintained, and each gan diversely devise.^ 33 The walls were round about apparellM With costly cloths of Arras and of Toure^; In which with cunning hand was portrayed The love of Venus and her paramour, ^^ 1 Embossed, ornamented with ^ Riotize, extravagance, raised work. ' Mean, moderate. 2 Purveyance, furniture. ^ Devise, imagine. 2 Uneath, with difficulty. ^ Cloths of Arras and of Toure * i?esy, moist, foggy. II. Britomart and the Redcross knight journey on together. Going back in his narrative, the poet tells how the maiden sees in a tnagic looking- glass the image of Arthegall, and how she falls in love with the unknown knight. 1 Here have I cause in men just blame to find, That in their proper praise^ too partial be, And not indifferent ^ to woman kind, To whom no share in arms and chivalry They do impart, ne maken memory Of their brave gests ^ and prowess martial : Scarce do they spare to one, or two, or three. Room in their writtes^; yet the same writing small Does all their deeds deface, and dims their glories all. 2 But by record of antique times I find That women wont in wars to bear most sway, And to all great exploits themselves inclined, Of which they still the girlond ^ bore away ; Till envious men, fearing their rule's decay,^ Gan coin strait'' laws to curb their liberty : Yet, sith^ they warlike arms have laid away, 1 In their proper praise, i.e. in ^ Girlond, garland. praising themselves. ® Their rule's decay, i.e. the 2 Indifferent, impartial. decline of their own authority. ' Gests, deeds. "^ Strait, strict, rigorous. * IVrittes, writings. ^ Sith, since. 26 THE FAERY QUEENE. They have excelled in arts and policy, That 1 now we foolish men that praise gin ^ eke t' envy.^ 3 Of warlike puissance in ages spent/ Be thoii,^ fair Britomart, whose praise I write ; But of all wisdom be thou precedent, sovereign Queen,^ whose praise I would endite,'^ Endite I would as duty doth excite ; But ah ! my rhymes too rude and rugged are, When in^ so high an object they do light. And, striving fit to make, I fear do mar : Thyself thy praises tell, and make them knowen far. 4 She, travelling with Guyon,^ by the way Of sundry things fair purpose ^^ gan to find,^^ T' abridge their journey long and ling'ring day : Mongst which it fell into that Faery's ^^ mind To ask this Briton maid what uncouth ^^ wind Brought her into those parts, and what inquest ^^ Made her dissemble her disguised kind^^ : Fair lady she him seemed, like lady dressed. But fairest knight alive, when armed was her breast. 1 That, so that. 9 Guyon ; this is a mistake ; it 2 Gin, begin. should be the Redcross knight. 3 Envy, begrudge. i*^ Purpose, discourse. * Spent, passed. n Gan to find, i.e. did find. ^ Be than, i.e. be thou precedent ^^ Pae^^s, i.e. Faery knight's ; or example. Faery because he served the Faery 6 O sovereign Queen ; Elizabeth, Queen, of course, is here referred to. ^^ Uncouth, strange. ■^ Endite, indite. i* Inquest, quest or adventure. ^ /;/, i.e. on. i^ Kind, sex. BRITOMART. 27 5 Thereat she sighing softly had no pow'f To speak awhile, ne ready answer make ; But with heart-thrilling throbs and bitter stour,i As if she had a fever fit, did quake. And every dainty limb with horror shake ; And ever and anon the rosy red Flashed through her face, as it had been a flake ^ Of lightning through bright heaven fulmined^ : At last, the passion past, she thus him answered : 6 " Fair sir, I let you weet,^ that from the hour I taken was from nurse's tender pap, I have been trained up in warlike stour,^ To tossen spear and shield, and to affrap^ The warlike rider to his most mishap ; Sithence ^ I loathed have my life to lead, As ladies wont, in pleasure's wanton lap. To finger the fine needle and nice ^ thread ; Me lever were ^ with point of foeman's spear be dead. 7 "All my delight on deeds of arms is set. To hunt out perils and adventures hard. By sea, by land, whereso they may be met. Only for honour and for high regard, Without respect of richesse or reward : For such intent into these parts I came, * Stour, struggles. ^ In warlike stour, amid the din 2 Flake, flash. of war, amid warlike scenes. ^ Fulmined, the same as ful- '^ Affrap, strike. niinated ; to fulminate is to thun- '' Sithence, since. der, or to hurl lightning. ** Nice, delicate. * Let you weet, inform you. ^ Ale lever zvere, I would rather. 28 THE FAERY QUEENE. Withouten compass or withouten card,^ Far fro my native soil, that is by name The Greater Britain,^ here to seek for praise and fame. 8 " Fame blazed hath, that here in Faery-lond Do many famous knights and ladies won,^ And many strange adventures to be fond,* Of which great worth and worship ^ may be won : Which to prove, I this voyage have begun. But mote I weet of you,^ right courteous knight. Tidings of one that hath unto me done Late foul dishonour and reproachful spite. The which I seek to wreak,*" and Arthegall ^ he hight.9" 9 The word gone out she back again would call. As her repenting so to have missaid,^*^ But that he, it uptaking ere the fall,^^ Her shortly answered : " Fair martial maid, Certes ^- ye misavised ^^ been t' upbraid A gentle ^^ knight with so unknightly blame : 1 Card, chart. '^ Wreak, revenge. 2 Greater Britain. Church says ^ Arthegall ; it has seemed best that this means Wales, and is so to follow the original and keep called to distinguish it from Lesser the two forms, Arthegall and Arte- Brittany in France. Fairy Land gall. is England proper. Hillard. ^ Hight, is called. 3 Won, dwell. i'^ Missaid, said wrongly. * Fond, found. ii Ere the fall, i.e. before the 5 IVorth and worship, distinc- words had fallen from her mouth. tion and honor. '^'^ Certes, certainly. ^ Mote I weet of you, may I learn ^^ Misavised, inconsiderate. of you. 1* Gentle, noble. BRITOMART. 29 For, weet^ ye well, of all that ever played At tilt or tourney, or like warlike game, The noble Arthegall hath ever borne the name.^ 10 "Forthy^ great wonder were it, if such shame Should ever enter in his bounteous* thought, Or ever do that mote deserven blame ^: The noble corage^ never weeneth ^ aught That may unworthy of itself be thought. Therefore, fair damsel, be ye well aware, Lest that too far ye have your sorrow sought^: You and your country both I wish welfare, And honour both ; for each of other worthy are." 1 1 The royal maid woxe^ inly wondrous glad. To hear her love so highly magnified ; And joyed that ever she affixed had Her heart on knight so goodly glorified, However finely ^^ she it feigned to hide. 1 2 But to occasion him to further talk, To feed her humour with his pleasing style, Her list ^^ in stryfull ^^ terms with him to balk,^^ 1 Weet, know. 8 j^^^f fj^at too far ye have your 2 A^aw^, ?.^. of "gentle knight." sorrow sought, i.e. lest you have 3 Forthy, therefore. cause to repent of your rashness * Bounteous, good, noble. in seeking to avenge an imaginary ^ Or ever do that mote deserven wrong. blame, i.e. or if he should ever do ^ IVoxe, became, that for which he might deserve ^^ Fifiely, skilfully, blame. ii Her list, it pleased her. 6 Corage, heart. 12 Stryfull, contentious. ^ JVeeneth, thinketh. "^^ Balk, deal in cross-purposes. 30 THE FAERY QUEENE. And thus replied : " However, sir, ye file Your courteous tongue his praises to compyle,^ It ill beseems a knight of gentle sort, Such as ye have him boasted, to beguile A simple maid, and work so heinous tort,^ In shame of knighthood, as I largely^ can report. 1 3 " Let be therefore my vengeance to dissuade, And read,* where I that faytour^ false may find." " Ah ! but if reason fair might you persuade To slake your wrath, and mollify your mind," Said he, " perhaps ye should it better find : For hardy thing it is, to ween by might That man to hard conditions^ to bind ; Or ever hope to match in equal fight. Whose prowess' paragon " saw never living wight. 14 "Ne^ soothlich^ is it easy for to read ^^ Where now on earth, or how, he may be found ; For he ne wonneth ^^ in one certain stead,^^ But restless walketh all the world around. Aye doing things that to his fame redound, Defending ladies' cause and orphans' right, Whereso he hears that any doth confound Them comfortless, through tyranny or might ; So is his sovereign honour raised to heaven's height." 1 Cojupyle, heap up. '^ Whose prowess' paragon, i.e. 2 Tort, wrong. the like of whose prowess. 3 Largely, i.e. with full particu- ^ Ne, nor. lars. ^ SootJilich, truly. * Read, declare. ^° Read, declare, say. s Fay tour, deceiver. ^^ Ne wonneth, dwells not. ^ Conditions ; pronounce con-di- ^^ Stead, place. BRITOMART. 31 15 His feeling words her feeble sense much pleased, And softly sunk into her molten heart : Heart that is inly hurt is greatly eased With hope of thing that may allegge ^ his smart ; For pleasing words are like to magic art, That doth the charmed snake in slumber lay : Such secret ease felt gentle Britomart, Yet list the same efforce with feigned gainsay ^i — So discord oft in music makes the sweeter lay : — 16 And said : "Sir knight, these idle terms ^ forbear; And, sith* it is uneath ^ to find his haunt. Tell me some marks by which he may appear, If chance I him encounter paravaunt^; For perdy," one shall other slay, or daunt : What shape, what shield, what arms, what steed, what stead,^ And whatso else his person most may vaunt." All which the Redcross knight to point aread,^ And him in every part before her fashioned. 17 Yet him in every part before she knew. However list her now her knowledge feign, ^^ Sith him whilom ^^ in Britain she did view, 1 Allegge, allay. 6 Pai-avaimt, peradventure. 2 Yet list the same efforce zvith "^ Perdy, truly. feigned gainsay, i.e. yet it pleased ^ stead, place. her to restrain this feeling and ^ To point aread, exactly de- assume, instead, an air of opposi- scribed. tion. 1'^ Ho7vever list her now her ^ Idle terms, foolish remarks. Joiotoledge feign, i.e. notvvithstand- * Sith, since. ing the fact that now she chose to ^ Uneath, hard. conceal her knowledge. 11 Whilom, formerly. 32 THE FAERY QUEENE. To her revealed in a mirror plain ; Whereof did grow her first engraffed ^ pain, Whose root and stalk so bitter yet did taste, That, but the fruit more sweetness did ^ contain. Her wretched days in dolour^ she mote^ waste. And yield, the prey of love, to loathsome death at last. 1 8 By strange occasion she did him behold. And much more strangely gan^ to love his sight. As it in books hath written been of old. In Deheubarth, that now South- Wales is hight.^ What time King Ryence reigned and dealed right, The great magician Merlin had devised. By his deep science and hell-dreaded might, A looking-glass, right wondrously aguised,^ Whose virtues through the wide world soon were solemnized.^ 19 It virtue^ had to show in perfect sight Whatever thing was in the world contained. Betwixt the lowest earth and heaven's height, So that ^^ it to the looker appertained : Whatever foe had wrought, or friend had feigned, Therein discovered ^^ was, ne aught mote pass,^^ Ne aught in secret from the same remained ; ^ Engraffed, deeply fixed. ^ Solemnized, celebrated. 2 Did, i.e. should. ^ Virtue, power. * Dolour, grief. i*^ So that, provided that. ^ Mote, must. 11 Discovered, revealed, dis- ° Gan, began. played. 6 Hight, called. 12 X\fe aught mote pass, i.e. nothing ' Aguised, fashioned. could escape notice. BRITOMART. 33 Forthy^ it round and hollow shaped was, Like to the world itself, and seemed a world of glass. 20 Who wonders not, that reads ^ so wondrous work ? But who does wonder, that has read the tow'r Wherein th' Egyptian Phao ^ long did lurk From all men's view, that none might her discoure,^ Yet she might all men view out of her bow'r ? Great Ptolomaee^ it for his leman's^ sake Ybuilded all of glass, by magic pow'r. And also it impregnable did make ; Yet, when his love was false, he with a peaze '' it brake. 21 Such was the glassy globe that Merlin made, And gave unto King Ryence for his guard,^ That never foes his kingdom might invade, But he it knew at home before he hard^ Tidings thereof, and so them still ^^ debarred : It was a famous present for a prince, And worthy work of infinite reward, That treasons could bewray, ^^ and foes convince ^^i Happy this realm, had it remained ever since ! 1 Forthy, therefore. * Discoure, discover. 2 Reads, reads of. ^ Ptolo7n(Ee, Ptolemy. ^ The tow'' r whereiji th' Egyptian ® Leman''s, love's. Phao, etc. The tower alluded to is '^ Peaze, blow, probably the Pharos of Ptolemy ^ Guard, protection. Philadelphus. Spenser had evi- ^ Hard, heard, dently read some mediaeval legend '^^ Still, always, that confused matters. (From ^i Bewray, reveal. Prof. Child's note.) ^^ Convifice, conquer. 54 THE FAERY QUEENE. 22 One day it fortuned fair Britomart Into her father's closet ^ to repair ; For nothing he from her reserved apart, Being his only daughter and his heir ; Where when she had espied that mirror fair, Herself awhile therein she viewed in vain : Tho,2 her avising ^ of the virtues rare Which thereof spoken were, she gan again Her to bethink of that mote* to herself pertain. 23 But as it falleth,^ in the gentlest hearts Imperious Love hath highest set his throne, And tyrannizeth in the bitter smarts Of them, that to him buxom ^ are and prone : So thought this maid (as maidens use to done''') Whom fortune for her husband would allot ; 24 Eftsoones^ there was presented to her eye A comely knight, all armed in complete wise, Through whose bright ventail,^ lifted up on high, His manly face, that did his foes agrise ^^ And friends to terms of gentle truce entize,^^ Looked forth, as Phoebus' ^2 f^c^ Qut of the east 1 Closet, small room for retire- "^ Use to done, i.e. are in the ment. habit of doing. - Tho, then. * Eftsoones, immediately. 8 Avising, bethinking. ^ Ventail, the part of the helmet * Of that mote, of that which which could be lifted up, — the might. beaver. ^ Falleth, happeneth. i'* Agrise, terrify. 6 Buxofn, yielding. i^ Entize, entice. ^■^ Phahiis, Apollo, the sun god. BRITOMART. 35 Betwixt two shady mountains doth arise : Portly ^ his person was, and much increased Through his heroic grace and honorable gest.^ 25 His crest was covered with a couchant'^ hound, And all his armour seemed of antique mould. But wondrous massy and assured sound, And round about yf retted * all with gold, In which there written was, with cyphers^ old, Achilles arms^ which ArthegalP did win : And on his shield enveloped sevenfold He bore a crowned little ermilin,^ That decked the azure field ^ with her fair pouldred ^^ skin. 26 The damsel well did view his personage. And liked well ; ne further fast'ned not,^^ But went her way ; ne her unguilty age Did ween, unwares, that her unlucky lot Lay hidden in the bottom of the pot : Of hurt unwist ^^ most danger doth redound : But the false archer, which that arrow shot 1 Portly, stately. "^ Arthegall (Arthur's peer) is 2 Gest, carriage. meant for Arthur, Lord Grey of ^ Couchant, lying down with the Wilton, and the arms seem to be head raised. devised in allusion to his name. ^ Yfretted, ornamented with Upton, raised work. ^ Ermilin, ermine. 5 Cyphers, characters. ^ Field, surface of the escutch. ^ Achilles^ arms. Achilles is the eon. hero of Homer's " Iliad." His ^^ Pouldred, spotted, arms were forged by the god ^'^ Ne further fasfned not, i.e. '\\gx Hephaestus or Vulcan. thoughts dwelt no more upon it. 12 C/nwist, unknown. 36 THE FAERY QUEENE. So slyly that she did not feel the wound, Did smile full smoothly at her weetless ^ woful stound.^ 27 Thenceforth the feather in her lofty crest, Ruffed ^ of love, gan lowly to availe ^ ; And her proud portance ^ and her princely gest,^ With which she erst '^ triumphed, now did quail : Sad, solemn, sour,^ and full of fancies frail. She woxe^ ; yet wist ^^ she nether how, nor why ; She wist not, silly maid, what she did ail, Yet wist she was not well at ease, perdy ^^ ; Yet thought it was not love, but some melancholy. 28 So soon as night had with her pallid hue Defaced the beauty of the shining sky, And reft ^^ from men the world's desired view. She with her nurse adown to sleep did lie ; But sleep full far away from her did fly : Instead thereof sad sighs and sorrows deep Kept watch and ward about her warily. That nought she did but wail, and often steep Her dainty couch with tears which closely ^^ she did weep. 1 Weetless, unconscious. '' Erst, formerly. 2 Stound, plight. ^ Sotir, peevish. 3 Rttffed, ruffled. ® Woxe, grew. * Availe, sink. "^^ Wist, knew. ^ Portance, port, carriage. ^^ Perdy, truly. 6 Cest, bearing. 12 j^^y^^ taken away. 13 Closely, secretly. BRITOMART. 37 29 And if that any drop of slumb'ring rest Did chance to still ^ into her weary sprite,^ When feeble nature felt herself oppressed, Straightway with dreams, and with fantastic sight Of dreadful things, the same was put to flight ; That oft out of her bed she did astart. As one with view of ghastly fiends affright : Tho gan^ she to renew her former smart. And think of that fair visage written in her heart. 30 One night, when she was tossed with such unrest. Her aged nurse, whose name was Glauce hight,* Feeling her leap out of her loathed nest. Betwixt her feeble arms her quickly keight,^ And down again her in her warm bed dight ^ : "Ah ! my dear daughter, ah ! my dearest dread,^ What uncouth^ fit," said she, "what evil plight, Hath thee oppressed, and with sad drearyhead^ Changed thy lively cheer, ^^ and living made thee dead ? 3 1 " For not of nought these sudden ghastly fears All night afflict thy natural repose ; And all the day, whenas thine equal peers Their fit disports with fair delight do chose, ^^ Thou in dull corners dost thyself inclose ; 1 Still, drop. 6 Dight, placed. 2 Sprite, spirit, mind. ' Dread, one highly revered. 3 Tho gan, then began. 8 Uncouth, strange. * Hight, called. ^ Drearyhead, sorrow. ^ Keight, caught. 10 cheer, countenance. 11 Chose, choose. 38 THE FAERY QUEENE. Ne tastest prince's pleasures, ne dost spread Abroad thy fresh youth's fairest flow'r, but lose Both leaf and fruit, both too untimely shed, As one in wilful bale^ forever buried. 32 ''The time that mortal men their weary cares Do lay away, and all wild beasts do rest, And every river eke^ his course forbears, Then doth this wicked evil thee infest. And rive ^ with thousand throbs thy thrilled * breast : Like an huge ^tn' ^ of deep engulfed grief. Sorrow is heaped in thy hollow chest. Whence forth it breaks in sighs and anguish rife. As smoke and sulphur mingled with confused strife. 33 "Ay me ! how much I fear lest love it be ! But if that love it be, as sure I read ^ By knowen signs and passions which I see, Be it worthy of thy race and royal seed,^ Then I avow, by this most sacred head Of my dear foster child, to ease thy grief And win thy will. Therefore away do dread ^ ; For death nor danger from thy due relief Shall me debar ; tell me, therefore, my liefest lief ^!" 34 So having said, her twixt her armes twain She straitly^*^ strained, and colled ^^ tenderly; 1 Bale, sorrow. ^ Read, declare. 2 Eke, likewise. "^ Seed, race. 3 Rive, rend. ^ Away do dread, i.e. fear not. * Thrilled, pierced. ^ Liefest lief, dearest dear. ^ ALtna, a volcano in Sicily. ^^ Straitly, closely. 11 Colled, clasped about the neck. BRITOMART. 39 And every trembling joint and every vein She softly felt, and rubbed busily, To do ^ the frozen cold away to fly ; And her fair dewy eyes with kisses dear She oft did bathe, and oft again did dry : And ever her importuned not to fear To let the secret of her heart to her appear. 35 The damsel paused ; and then thus fearfully : "Ah ! nurse, what needeth thee to eke^ my pain? Is not enough that I alone do die, But it must doubled be with death of twain? For nought for me but death there doth remain !" "Oh daughter dear," said she, "despair no whit : For never sore but might a salve obtain : That blinded god, which hath ye blindly smit. Another arrow hath your lover's heart to hit." 36 " But mine is not," quoth she, "like other wound ; For which ^ no reason can find remedy." "Was never such, but mote* the like be found," Said she ^ ; " and though no reason may apply Salve to your sore, yet love can higher stye^ Then" reason's reach, and oft hath wonders done." " But neither god of love nor god of sky Can do," said she, "that which cannot be done." "Things oft impossible," quoth she, "seem, ere begun." 1 Do, make. * Mote, might. 2 Eke, increase. 5 ^^^^ jg Glauce. ^ For which, i.e. my wound is ^ Stye, mount. one for which, etc. "^ Then, than. 40 THE FAERY QUEENE. 37 "These idle words," said she, "do not assuage My stubborn smart, but more annoyance breed : For no, no usual fire, no usual rage It is, O nurse, which on my life doth feed, And sucks the blood which from my heart doth bleed. But since thy faithful zeal lets me not hide My crime, (if crime it be,) I will it read.^ Nor prince nor peer it is, whose love hath gryde ^ My feeble breast of late, and launched ^ this wound wide : 38 Nor man it is, nor other living wight ; For then some hope I might unto me draw ; But th' only shade and semblant * of a knight. Whose shape or person yet I never saw, Hath me subjected to love's cruel law : The same one day, as me misfortune led, I in my father's wondrous mirror saw, And, pleased with that seeming goodlihead,^ Unwares the hidden hook with bait I swallowM. 39 " Sithens ^ it hath infixed faster hold Within my bleeding bowels, and so sore Now rankleth in this same frail fleshly mould, That all mine entrails flow with pois'nous gore, And th' ulcer groweth daily more and more ; Ne can my running sore find remedy. Other then my hard fortune to deplore, 1 Read, declare. * Semblant, appearance. 2 Gryde, pierced. ^ Goodlihead, goodliness. 3 Launched, pierced as with a ^ Sithens, since that time, lance. K7 BRITOMAKT. 41 And languish as the leaf fall'n from the tree, Till death make one end of my days and misery ! " 40 " Daughter," said she, "what need ye be dismayed ? Or why make ye such monster of your mind ? Of much more uncouth ^ thing I was afraid ; But this affection nothing strange I find ; For who with reason can you aye reprove To love the semblant pleasing most your mind. And yield your heart whence ye cannot remove ? No guilt in you, but in the tyranny of love. The nurse mentioned some who had loved wrongly, and then said : — 41 " But thine, my dear, (well fare thy heart, my dear !) Though strange beginning had, yet fixed Is On one that worthy may perhaps appear ; And certes seems bestowed not amiss : Joy thereof have thou and eternal bliss ! " With that, upleaning on her elbow weak, Her alabaster breast she soft did kiss. Which all that while she felt to pant and quake, As it an earthquake were : at last she^ thus bespake : The maiden declared that she had less comfort than those who loved wrongly ; for, — 42 " Short end of sorrows they thereby did find ; So was their fortune good, though wicked were their mind. 1 Uncouth^ strange. 2 sfig^ ^.^. Britomart. 42 THE FAERY QUEENE. 43 " But wicked fortune mine, though mind be good, Can have no end nor hope of my desire, But feed on shadows whiles I die for food, And like a shadow wex,^ whiles with entire Affection I do languish and expire. I, fonder then Cephisus' foolish child,^ Who, having viewed in a fountain shere ^ His face, was with the love thereof beguiled ; I, fonder, love a shade, the body far exiled." 44 " Nought like," quoth she ; "for that same wretched boy Was of himself the idle paramour, Both love and lover, without hope of joy ; For which he faded to a wat'ry flower. But better fortune thine, and better hour,* Which lov'st the shadow of a warlike knight ; No shadow, but a body hath in pow'r^ : That body, wheresoever that it light. May learned be by cyphers,^ or by magic might. 45 " But if thou may with reason yet repress The growing evil, ere it strength have got. And thee abandoned wholly do possess ; Against it strongly strive, and yield thee not Till thou in open field adown be smott : 1 Wex^ wax, become. ^ Shere, clear. 2 Cephisus'' foolish child, i.e. Nar- * Hour, i.e. lot. cissus, who fell in love with his ^ No shadow, but a body hath in own image reflected in a pool, and powW, i.e. there is no shadow that pined away till he was changed has not a body belonging to it. into the flower that bears his ^ Cyphers, characters ; here name. magic characters BRITOMART. 43 But if the passion mayster^ thy frail might, So that needs love or death must be thy lot, Then I avow to thee, by wrong or right. To compass thy desire, and find that loved knight." 46 Her cheerful words much cheered the feeble sprite 2 Of the sick virgin, that her down she laid In her warm bed to sleep, if that she might ; And the old woman carefully displayed ^ The clothes about her round with busy aid ; So that at last a little creeping sleep Surprised her sense. She,* therewith well apayed,^ The drunken lamp down in the oil did steep. And sate her by to watch, and sate her by to weep. 47 Early, the morrow next, before that day His joyous face did to the world reveal, They both uprose and took their ready way Unto the church, their prayers to appele,^ With great devotion, and with little zeal : For the fair damsel from the holy herse'' Her love-sick heart to other thoughts did steal ; And that old dame said many an idle verse Out of her daughter's heart fond^ fancies to reverse.^ 1 Mayster, master. ® Appele, i.e. to prefer, to make. 2 Sprite, spirit. ' Herse, rehearsal (of the ser- 3 Displayed, spread. vice). * She, i.e. Glauce. ^ Fond, foolish. ^ Apayed, satisfied. ^ Reverse, cause to depart. 44 THE FAERY QUEENE. 48 Returned home, the royal infant ^ fell Into her former fit ; for why ? no pow'r Nor guidance of herself in her did dwell. But th' aged nurse,^ her calling to her bow'r,^ Had gathered rue, and savin, and the flow'r Of camphora,* and calamint,^ and dill ; All which she in an earthen pot did pour, And to the brim with coltwood*^ did it fill, And many drops of milk and blood through it did spill. 49 Then, taking thrice three hairs from off her head, Them trebly braided in a threefold lace, And round about the pot's mouth bound the thread ; And, after having whispered a space Certain sad" words with hollow voice and base,^ She to the virgin said, thrice said she it : " Come, daughter, come ; come, spit upon my face ; Spit thrice upon me, thrice upon me spit ,; Th* uneven number for this business is most fit." 50 That said, her round about she from her turned, She turned her contrary to the sun ; Thrice she her turned contrary, and returned ^ Infant, the same as infanta ; ^ Bower, chamber. a title given in Spain and Portugal * Camphora, camphor, to all the children of the king ^ Calamint, a book name for except the eldest. plants of the genus calamintha. 2 But th' aged nurse, etc. The ^ Coltzvood, an old name for classic poets, especially Theocritus dittany, a plant of the mint and Virgil, have suppHed Spenser family, with the various processes of " Sad, weighty, earnest. Glance's incantation. Hillard. ^ Base^ low. BRITOMART. 45 All contrary ; for she the right did shun ; And ever what she did was straight^ undone. So thought she to undo her daughter's love : But love, that is in gentle breast begun, No idle charms so lightly may remove ; That well can witness, who by trial it does prove. 5 r Ne aught it mote the noble maid avail, Ne slake the fury of her cruel flame. But that she still did waste, and still did wail. That, through long languor and heart-burning brame ^ She shortly like a pined ^ ghost became Which long hath waited by the Stygian strond.^ That when old Glauce saw, for fear lest blame Of her miscarriage ^ should in her be fond,^ She wist ' not how t' amend, nor how it to withstond. 1 Straight, immediately. ing to Greek mythology. Over 2 Brame, desire. this river the dead must go to 3 Pined, tormented. reach their final habitation. * Stygian Strojtd, the strand or ^ Miscarriage, i.e. sad condition, shore of the Styx, the principal ^ Fond, found, river of the lower world, accord- ''' Wist, knew. 46 III. Britovtart and her mtrse Glauce visit Merlin who tells them of Artegall and of the future. They set out for Faeryland in the hope of meeting Artegall. 1 Most sacred fire, that burnest mightily In living breasts, ykindled first above Amongst th' eternal spheres and lamping ^ sky, And thence poured into men, which men call love ; Not that same which doth base affections move, But that sweet fit ^ that doth true beauty love. And chooseth virtue for his dearest dame, Whence spring all noble deeds and never-dying fame : 2 Well did antiquity a god thee deem. That over mortal minds hast so great might,- To order them as best to thee doth seem, And all their actions to direct aright : The fatal ^ purpose of divine foresight Thou dost effect in destined descents. Through deep impression of thy secret might, And stirredst up th' heroes high intents. Which the late world "^ admires for wondrous moni- ments.^ * The late world, i.e. men in late 1 Lamping, shining. times. 2 Fit, passion. ^ Moniments, monuments, re- ^ Fatal, foreordained. minders. BRITOMART. 47 But thy dread darts in none do triumph more, Ne braver proof in any of thy pow'r Show'dst thou, than in this royal maid of yore. Making her seek an unknown paramour,^ From the world's end, through many a bitter stowre,^ 4 Begin then, O my dearest sacred dame, Daughter of Phoebus and of Memory, That dost ennoble with immortal name The warlike worthies, from antiquity. In thy great volume of eternity ; Begin, O Clio,^ and recount from hence My glorious sovereign's goodly ancestry. Till that by due degrees, and long protense^ Thou have it lastly brought unto her excellence. 5 Full many ways within her troubled mind Old Glauce cast^ to cure this lady's grief ; Full many ways she sought, but none could find. Nor herbs, nor charms, nor counsel that is chief And choicest med'cine for sick heart's relief: Forthy^ great care she took,^ and greater fear, Lest that it should her turn to foul repriefe ^ And sore reproach, whenso her father dear Should of his dearest daughter's hard misfortune hear. * Protense, extension. ^ Paramour, lover. ^ Cast, planned. 2 Stowre, peril. ^ Forthy, therefore. ^ Clio, the muse of history ; "^ Great care she took, i.e. she more commonly spoken of as the felt great concern, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. ^ Repriefe, reproof. 48 THE FAERY QUEENE. 6 At last she her avised,^ that he which made That mirror, wherein the sick damosel So strangely viewed her strange lover's shade, To weet, the learned Merlin, well could tell Under what coast of heaven the man did dwell. And by what means his love might best be wrought^: For, though beyond the Afric Ismael ^ Or th' Indian Peru he were, she thought Him forth through infinite endeavour to have sought. 7 Forthwith themselves disguising both in strange And base attire, that none might them bewray,* To Maridunum, that is now by change Of name Cayr-Merdin ^ called, they took their way : There the wise Merlin whilom^ wont (they say) To make his wonne,^ low underneath the ground In a deep delve,^ far from the view of day. That of no living wight he mote^ be found, Whenso he counselled with his sprites encompassed round. 8 And, if thou ever happen that same way To travel, go to see that dreadful place : It is an hideous hollow cave (they say) Under a rock that lies a little space 1 Avised, bethought. ■* Betvray, discover. 2 Wrought, produced, effected ; ^ Cayr-Merdin, i.e. the city of a peculiar use of the word. Merdin or Merlin, is Caermarthen, 3 Afric Ismael, i.e. the northern in South Wales. Prof. Child, part of Africa, inhabited by Moors ^ Whilom, formerly. and others, supposed to be the ^ Wonne, dwelling, descendants of Ishmael. ^ Delve, dell. 3 Mote, might. BRITOMART. 49 From the swift Barry, tumbling down apace Amongst the woody hills of Dynevowre : But dare thou not, I charge, in any case, To enter into that same baleful bow'r,^ For fear the cruel fiends should thee unwares devour : 9 But, standing high aloft, low lay thine ear, And there such ghastly noise of iron chains And brazen caudrons^ thou shalt rumbling hear, Which thousand sprites with long enduring pains Do toss, that it will stun thy feeble brains ; And oftentimes great groans, and grievous stownds,^ When too huge toil and labour them constrains ; And oftentimes loud strokes and ringing sounds From under that deep rock most horribly re- bounds. lo The cause, some say, is this: a little while Before that Merlin died, he did intend A brazen wall in compass to compile* About Cairmardin, and did it commend Unto these sprites to bring to perfect end : During which work the Lady of the Lake, Whom long he loved, for him in haste did send ; Who, thereby forced his workmen to forsake. Them bound, till his return, their labour not to slake. ^ ^ Stownds, times ; here may be i^, the Duke of Cornwall, sion. " Fayniins, pagans, infidels. 56 THE FAERY QUEENE. Merlin then told Britomart something of the mythical history of the Britons and of their unsuccessful struggle against the Saxons ; con- cluding as follows : — 27 "Then woe, and woe, and everlasting woe, Be to the Briton babe that shall be born To live in thraldom of his father's foe ! Late king, now captive ; late lord, now forlorn ; The world's reproach ; the cruel victor's scorn ; Banished from princely bow'r to wasteful wood ! O, who shall help me to lament and mourn The royal seed,^ the antique Trojan^ blood. Whose empire lenger here than ever any stood !" 28 The damsel was full deep empassioned Both for his grief and for her people's sake, Whose future woes so plain he fashioned ; And, sighing sore, at length him thus bespake : " Ah ! but will heaven's fury never slake. Nor vengeance huge relent itself at last ? Will not long misery late mercy make. But shall their name for ever be defaced. And quite from off the earth their memory be raste^? " 29 "Nay, but the term," said he, "is limited, That in this thraldom Britons shall abide ; And the just revolution measured That they as strangers shall be notified*: For twice four hundred years shall be supplied, 1 Seed, race. ^ Raste, erased. 2 Trojan, refers to Trojan set- *> Notified, marked, tlement of Britain. ^ Supplied, fulfilled. BRITOMART. 57 Ere they to former rule restored shall be, And their importune ^ fates all satisfied : Yet, during this their most obscurity. Their beams shall oft break forth, that men them fair may see. 30 " For .Rhodorick,^ whose surname shall be Great, Shall of himself a brave ensample show, That Saxon kings his friendship shall intreat ; And Howell Dha^ shall goodly well indew The salvage* minds with skill of just and true : Then Griffyth Conan^ also shall uprear His dreaded head, and the old sparks renew Of native courage, that his foes shall fear Lest back again the kingdom he from them should bear. 31 "Ne shall the Saxons selves all peaceably Enjoy the crown, which they from Britons won First ill, and after ruled wickedly : For, ere two hundred years be full outrun, There shall a raven,^ far from rising sun. With his wide wings upon them fiercely fly, And bid his faithless chickens''' overrun The fruitful plains, and with fell cruelty In their avenge tread down the victor's surquedry.^ ^ l77iportune, troublesome. ^ G^-iffyth Conan died in 11 36. 2 Roderick the Great began to ^ Raven, i.e. the leader of the reign in Wales in 843. Danes. 3 Howell Dha died about 948. '^ Faithless chickens, i.e. his hea- * Salvage, wild, woodland. then brood. 8 Stcrqtiedry, insolence. 58 THE FAERY QUEENE. 32 " Yet shall a third both these and thine subdue : There shall a lion^ from the sea-board wood Of Neustria^ come roaring, with a crew Of hungry whelps, his battailous^ bold brood. Whose claws were newly dipped in cruddy^ blood, That from the Daniske^ tyrant's head shall rend Th' usurped crown, as if that he were wood,^ And the spoil of the country conquered Amongst his young ones shall divide with bounty- head." 33 " Tho,^ when the term is full accomplishid, There shall a spark of fire, which hath longwhile Been in his ashes raked up and hid. Be freshly kindled in the fruitful isle Of Mona,^ where it lurked in exile ^^; Which shall break forth into bright burning flame, And reach into the house that bears the style Of royal majesty and sovereign name : So shall the Briton blood their crown again reclaim. ^^ 1 There shall a lion, etc. This ^'^ There shall a spark, etc. is William of Normandy. Llewellyn, the last of the native 2 N^eustria was the ancient name Welsh princes, made an unsuc- of the northwest part of France. cessful resistance to Edward I., Plillard. and was defeated and slain. Ed- ^ Battailous, eager for battle. ward soon after created his own * Crudely, curdled. infant son Prince of Wales. Hil- ^ Daniske, Danish. lard. ^ Wood, mad. 11 So shall the Briton blood their ' Bounty head, generosity. crown again reclaim. By the ac- ^ llio, then.- cession of Henry of Richmond to ^ Afona, the island now called the crown. Henry, descended from Anglesey. the Tudors, was born in Mona, now called Anglesey. Upton. B A' /TO MART. 59 34 "Thenceforth eternal union shall be made Between the nations different afore, And sacred peace shall lovingly persuade The warlike minds to learn her goodly lore, And civil arms to exercise no more : Then shall a royal virgin reign, which shall Stretch her white rod over the Belgic shore. And the great Castle smite so sore withal, That it shall make him shake, and shortly learn tofalP: 35 "But yet the end is not — " There Merlin stayed, As overcomen of the spirit's pow'r. Or other ghastly spectacle dismayed. That secretly he saw, yet note discoure^ : Which sudden fit and half ecstatic stoure^ When the two fearful women saw, they grew Greatly confused in behaviour : At last, the fury past, to former hue He turned again, and cheerful looks as erst* did show. 36 Then, when themselves they well instructed had Of all that needed them to be inquired, They both, conceiving hope of comfort glad, With lighter hearts unto their home retired ; 1 Then shall a royal vij-gm ^ j^ote discoure, might not dis- reign, etc. This is Queen Eliza- close, beth, who assisted the Belgian ^ Stoiire, paroxysm, provinces, and shook the power of ^ E^st, at first, the king of Castile. Prof. Child. 60 THE FAERY QUEENE. Where they in secret counsel close ^ conspired, How to effect so hard an enterprize, And to possess the purpose they desired : Now this, now that, twixt them they did devise. And diverse plots did frame to mask in strange disguise. 37 At last the nurse in her fool-hardy wit Conceived a bold device, and thus bespake : " Daughter, I deem that counsel aye most fit, That of the time doth due advantage take : Ye see that good King Uther^ now doth make Strong war upon the paynim brethren, hight^ Octa and Oza, whom he lately brake Beside Cayr Verolame^ in victorious fight. That now all Brittany doth burn in amies bright. 38 "That therefore nought our passage may impeach,^ Let us in feigned arms ourselves disguise. And ourweak hands (need makes good scholars) teach The dreadful spear and shield to exercise : Ne certes,^ daughter, that same warlike wise, I ween,^ would you mis-seem^; for ye been tall And large of limb t' achieve an hard emprise^; Ne ought ye want but skill, which practice small Will bring, and shortly make you a maid martial. 1 Close, secretly. ^ Impeach, prevent. 2 Uther, a Welsh king who ^ ^^ certes, nor certainly, lived just before Arthur. '^ Ween, think. 3 Night, called. ® Mis-seem, misbecome. * Cayr Verolame, i.e. the city of ^ Emprise, undertaking. Verulam. BKITOMART. 61 39 " And, sooth, 1 it ought your courage much inflame To hear so often, in that royal house, From whence to none inferior ye came, Bards tell of many women valorous. Which have full many feats adventurous Performed, in paragon ^ of proudest men : The bold Bunduca,^ whose victorious Exploits made Rome to quake ; stout Guendolen ^ ; Renowmed Martia^ ; and redoubted Emmilen^; — 40 ''And, that which more then all the rest may sway, Late days' ensample, which these eyes beheld : In this last field before Menevia,^ Which Uther with those foreign Pagans held, I saw a Saxon virgin,^ the which felled Great Ulfin^ thrice upon the bloody plain ; And, had not Carados^^ her hand withheld From rash revenge, she had him surely slain ; Yet Carados himself from her escaped with pain." 41 "Ah! read,"^^ quoth Britomart, "how is she highti2?" "Fair Angela," quoth she, **men do her call, ^ Sooth, truly. ® Emniilen. Who Emmilen is, 2 Paragon, rivalry. is uncertain. Prof. Child. 3 Bundicca, B o a d i c e a, who ' Menevia, St. David's, a very headed a revolt against the Ro- old episcopal city in Wales, mans. She died 62 a.d. ^ A Saxon virgin. This Saxon ^ Guendolen, wife of Locrine, virgin is, I believe, entirely of a fabulous king of ancient Britain. Spenser's own feigning. Upton. ^ Martia, the lawgiver men- ^ Ulfin, \ names taken from tioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ^'^ Carados, S old Welsh stories, history. " Read, tell. 12 Hight, called. 62 THE FAERY QUEENE. No whit less fair then terrible in fight : She hath the leading of a martial And mighty people, dreaded more then all The other Saxons, which do, for her sake And love, themselves of her name Angles call. Therefore, fair infant, her ensample make Unto thyself, and equal courage to thee take." 42 Her hearty words so deep into the mind Of the young damsel sunk, that great desire Of warlike arms in her forthwith they tined,^ And generous stout courage did inspire. That she resolved, unweeting^ to her sire, Advent'rous knighthood on herself to don ; And counselled with her nurse her maid's attire To turn into a massy habergeon 2; And bade her all things put in readiness anon. 43 Th' old woman nought that needed did omit ; But all things did conveniently purvey. It fortuned (so time their turn did fit) A band of Britons, riding on forray Few days before, had gotten a great prey Of Saxon goods ; amongst the which was seen A goodly armour, and full rich array. Which longed to Angela, the Saxon queen, All fretted round with gold, and goodly well beseen.* 44 The same, with all the other ornaments, King Ryence caused to be hanged high 1 Tilted, kindled. ^ Habergeo)i, coat of mail. 2 Umveeting, unknown. * Beseen, appearing. BRIIVMART. 63 In his chief church, for endless moniments ^ Of his success and gladful victory : Of which herself avising^ readily, In th' evening late old Glauce thether led Fair Britomart, and, that same armoury Down taking, her therein apparelled Well as she might, and with brave ^ baldric* gar- nished. 45 Beside those arms there stood a mighty spear, Which Bladud^ made by magic art of yore. And used the same in battle aye to bear ; Sith^ which it had been here preserved in store, For his great virtues" proved long afore : For never wight so fast in sell^ could sit, But him perforce unto the ground it bore : Both spear she took and shield which hung by it ; Both spear and shield of great pow'r, for her pur- pose fit. 46 Thus when she had the virgin all arrayed, Another harness which did hang thereby About herself she dight,^ that the young maid She might in equal arms accompany, 1 Mojtimejits, monuments, re- ^ Sith, since. minders. "^ His great virtues, its great '^ A%nsing, bethinking. powers, properties. Since Brito- 3 Brave, handsome. mart is the knight of Chastity, the * Baldric, a broad belt worn sword must represent the power over one shoulder. of maidenly purity. '^ Bladnd, a legendary king of ^ SeU, saddle. England who was said to have ^ J^iglit, disposed. built the city of Bath. 64 THE FAERY QUEENE. And as her squire attend her carefully : Tho^ to their ready steeds they clomb^ full light ; And through back ways, that none might them espy, Covered with secret cloud of silent night, Themselves they forth conveyed, and passed for- ward right. 47 Ne rested they, till that to Faery-lond They came, as Merlin them directed late : Where, meeting with this Redcross knight, she fond^ Of diverse things discourses to dilate, But most of Arthegall and his estate. At last their ways so fell that they mote part : Then each to other, well affectionate, Friendship professed with unfeigned heart : The Redcross knight diverst^; but forth rode Britomart. 1 77/^, then. . ^ FottdAonw^. 2 Clomb, climbed. * Z>/zvrj/, turned off. IV. Britomart encotmters MarittelL After his defeat, Marinell is ca7'ried by his mother to her chamber in the bottom of the sea. 1 Where is the antique glory now becjome, That whilom wont in women to appear ? Where be the brave achievements done by some ? Where be the battles, where the shield and spear, And all the conquests which them high did rear. That matter made for famous poets' verse. And boastful men so oft abashed to hear ? Been they all dead, and laid in doleful hearse ^ ? Or doen ^ they only sleep, and shall again reverse ^ ? 2 If they be dead, then woe is me therefore ; But if they sleep, O let them soon awake ! For all too long I burn with envy ^ sore To hear the warlike feats which Homer spake Of bold Penthesilee,^ which made a lake Of Greekish blood so oft in Trojan plain ; But when I read, how stout Deborah strake 1 Hearse, tomb. ^^ Fenthesiiee, Penthesilea, a 2 Doen, do. queen of the Amazons who came ^ Reverse, return. to fight for Troy and was slain by * Envy, emulation. Achilles. She is not mentioned by Homer. 66 THE FAERY QUEENE. Proud Sisera,^ and how Camill'^ hath slain The huge Orsilochus, I swell with great disdain.^ 3 Yet these, and all that else hath puissance, Cannot with noble Britomart compare, As well for glory of great valiance,^ As for pure chastity and virtue rare, That all her goodly deeds do well declare. Well worthy stock, from which the branches sprong That in late years so fair a blossom bare, As thee, O Queen, the matter of my song. Whose lignage from this lady I derive along ! 4 Who when, through speeches with the Redcross knight, She learned had th' estate of Arthegall, And in each point herself informed aright, A friendly league of love perpetual She with him bound, and conge ^ took withal. Then he forth on his journey did proceed. To seek adventures which mote him befall. And win him worship through his warlike deed. Which always of his pains he made the chiefest meed. 1 How stout Deborah strake ^ Camilla, in Virgil's ^neid ; a proud Sisera. Deborah prophe- virgin warrior who slew Orsilo- sied that Sisera, a leader against chus while fighting for Turnus the Israelites, should be slain by against the Trojans, a woman. He was, however, ^ Disdain, scorn for the deeds killed by Jael, the wife of Heber, of men (?). who drove a tent-peg into his ^ Valiance, valor, temple. ^ Conge, leave. BRITOMARr. 67 5 But Britomart kept on her former course, Ne ever doft her arms ; but all the way Grew pensive through that amorous discourse, By which the Redcross knight did erst^ display Her lover's shape and chivalrous array : A thousand thoughts she fashioned in her mind ; And in her feigning fancy did portray Him, such as fittest she for love could find, Wise, warlike, personable,^ courteous, and kind. 6 With such self-pleasing thoughts her wound she fed. And thought so to beguile her grievous smart ; But so her smart was much more grievous bred. And the deep wound more deep engored her heart, That nought but death her dolour^ mote depart.* So forth she rode, without repose or rest. Searching all lands and each remotest part. Following the guidance of her blinded guest,^ Till that to the sea-coast at length she her addressed. 7 There she alighted from her light-foot beast, And, sitting down upon the rocky shore, Bade her old squire unlace her lofty crest : Tho,^ having viewed a while the surges hoar That gainst the craggy clifts did loudly roar, And in their raging surquedry ' disdained^ That the fast earth affronted ^ them so sore, 1 Erst, first. 6 Tho, then. ^ Personable, handsome. '^ Surquedry, insolence. 3 Dolour, grief. 8 Disdained, felt contempt for * Depart, remove. the fact that the fast earth, etc. (?). ^ Blinded guest, i.e. love. ^Affronted, confronted. 68 THE FAERY QUEENE. And their devouring covetise^ restrained ; Thereat she sighed deep, and after thus complained : 8 " Huge sea of sorrow and tempestuous grief, Wherein my feeble bark is tossed long, Far from the hoped haven of relief. Why do thy cruel billows beat so strong. And thy moist mountains each on others throng, Threat'ning to swallow up my fearful life ? O, do thy cruel wrath and spiteful wrong At length allay, and stint ^ thy stormy strife. Which in these troubled bowels^ reigns and rageth rife ! 9 " For else my feeble vessel, crazed and cracked Through thy strong buffets and outrageous blows, Cannot endure, but needs it must be wracked On the rough rocks, or on the sandy shallows. The whiles that Love it steers, and Fortune rows : Love, my lewd^ pilot, hath a restless mind ; And Fortune, boatswain, no assurance^ knows ; But sail withouten stars gainst tide and wind : How can they other do, sith both are bold and blind ! 10 "Thou god of winds, that reignest in the seas, That reignest also in the continent,^ At last blow up some gentle gale of ease. The which may bring my ship, ere it be rent, 1 Covetise, covetousness. ^ Lewd, ignorant. 2 Stint, stop. ^ Assurance, steadiness. ^ Bowels, used sometimes as ^ /// the continent, i.e. on heart, i.e. the seat of feeling. land. BKITOMAKT. 69 Unto the gladsome port of her intent ! Then, when I shall myself in safety see, A table, for eternal moniment Of thy great grace and my great jeopardy. Great Neptune, I avow to hallow unto thee^! " 1 1 Then sighing softly sore, and inly deep. She shut up all her plaint in privy grief ; (For her great courage would not let her weep ;) Till that old Glauce gan with sharp repriefe^ Her to restrain, and give her good relief Through hope of those which Merlin had her told Should of her name and nation^ be chief, And fetch their being from the sacred mould Of her immortal womb, to be in heaven enrolled. 12 Thus as she her recomforted, she spied Where far away one, all in armour bright. With hasty gallop towards her did ride : Her dolour soon she ceased, and on her dight* Her helmet, to her courser mounting light: Her former sorrow into sudden wrath (Both cousin^ passions of distroubled sprite^) 1 A table, etc. It was the cus- ^ Repriefe, reproof, torn among the Romans for any ^ j^ation, pronounced as a word one who escaped shipwreck to of three syllables, express his gratitude by hanging * Bight, put. up, in the temple of Neptune, a ^ Cousin, kindred, tablet or picture representing the ^ Distroubled sprite, disturbed circumstances of his danger and mind, escape. Hillard. 70 THE FAERY QUEENE. Converting, forth she beats the dusty path : Love and despite ^ at once her courage kindled hath. 13 As when a foggy mist hath overcast The face of heaven and the clear air engroste,^ The world in darkness dwells ; till that at last The wat'ry southwind, from the seaboard coast Upblowing, doth disperse the vapour lo'ste,^ And pours itself forth in a stormy show'r ; So the fair Britomart, having disclos'te* Her cloudy care into a wrathful stowre,^ The mist of grief dissolved did into vengeance pour. 14 Eftsoones,^ her goodly shield addressing' fair, That mortal spear she in her hand did take, And unto battle did herself prepare. The knight, approaching, sternly her bespake: " Sir knight, that dost thy voyage rashly make By this forbidden way^ in my despite,^ Ne dost by others' death ensample take, I read^^ thee soon retire, whiles thou hast might. Lest afterwards it be too late to take thy flight." 1 Despite, contemptuous defi- ^ Eftsoo>ies, at once, ance. " Addressing, adjusting. 2 Engroste, made thick. ^ Forbidden zuay, forbidden be- ^ Ld'ste, dissolved. cause the knight allows no one to * Disclo'ste, developed, trans- pass. muted. ^ /;/ my despite, in defiance or ^ Stowre, fury. contempt of me. ^° Read, advise. BKITOMART. 71 15 Ythrilled with deep disdain of his proud threat, She shortly thus : " Ply they, that need to fly ; Words fearen^ babes: I mean not thee entreat To pass ; but maugre^ thee will pass or die:" Ne lenger stayed for th' other to reply, But with sharp spear the rest made dearly known. Strongly the strange knight ran, and sturdily Struck her full on the breast, that made her down Decline her head, and touch her crouper with her crown. 16 But she again him in the shield did smite With so fierce fury and great puissance, That, through his three-square scutcheon piercing quite And through his mailed hauberk, by mischance The wicked steel through his left side did glance: Him so transfixed she before her bore Beyond his croup, the length of all her lance ; Till, sadly soucing^ on the sandy shore. He tumbled on* an heap, and wallowed in his gore. 17 Like as the sacred ox that careless stands With gilden horns and flow'ry girlonds crowned. Proud of his dying honour and dear^ bands. Whiles th' altars fume with frankincense around. All suddenly with mortal stroke astound Doth grovelling fall, and with his streaming gore 1 Fearen, frighten. * q^^ /^, in. 2 Mattgre, in spite of. ^ Dear, i.e. bands that are to 8 Sadly soucing, falling heavily. cost him dear. 72 THE FAERY QUEENE. Distains^ the pillars and the holy ground, And the fair flow'rs that decked him afore : So fell proud Marinell upon the precious shore. 1 8 The martial maid stayed not him to lament, But forward rode, and kept her ready ^ way Along the strond ; which, as she over-went. She saw bestrowed all with rich array Of pearls and precious stones of great assay,^ And all the gravel mixed with golden ore: Whereat she wond'red much, but would not stay For gold, or pearls, or precious stones, an hour. But them despised all, for^ all was in her pow'r. 19 Whiles thus he lay in deadly 'stonishment, Tidings hereof came to his mother's ear ; His mother was the black-browed Cymoent, The daughter of great Nereus,^ which did bear This warlike son unto an earthly peer, The famous Dumarin ; . . . 20 She, of his father, Marinell did name ; And in a rocky cave as wight forlorn Long time she fost'red up, till he became A mighty man at arms, and mickle*^ fame Did get through great adventures by him done : 1 Disiains, stains. * For, notwithstanding. 2 Ready, speedy. ^ Nereus, an ancient sea-god. 3 Assay, value. , ® Miclde, much. BRITOMART. 73 For never man he suffered by that same Rich strond to travel, whereas he did wonne,^ But that he must do battle with the sea-nymph's son. 2 1 An hundred knights of honourable name He had subdued, and them his vassals made: That through all Faery-lond ^ his noble fame Now blazed was, and fear did all invade. That none durst passen through that perilous glade : And, to advance his name and glory more, Her sea-god sire she dearly ^ did persuade T' endow her son with treasure and rich store 'Bove all the sons that were of earthly wombs ybore. 22 The god did grant his daughter's dear demand, To doen his nephew* in all riches flow^: Eftsoones his heaped waves he did command Out of their hollow bosom forth to throw All the huge treasure, which the sea below Had in his greedy gulf devoured deep. And him enriched through the overthrow And wrecks of many wretches, which did weep And often wail their wealth which he from them did keep. 23 Shortly upon that shore there heaped was Exceeding riches and all precious things, 1 IVoHHe, dwell. * Nephew, grandson. 2 Loud, land, 5 7-^ doen, etc., to cause his ' Dearly, with earnestness. grandson to abound in riches. 74 THE FAERY QUEENE. The spoil of all the world ; that it did pass The wealth of th' East, and pomp of Persian kings : Gold, amber, ivory, pearls, owches,^ rings, And all that else was precious and dear, The sea unto him voluntary brings ; That shortly he a great lord did appear, As was in all the lond of Faery, or elsewhere. 24 Thereto^ he was a doughty dreaded knight, Tried often to the scath ^ of many dear,* That none in equal arms him matchen might: The which his mother seeing gan to fear Lest his too haughty hardiness might rear^ Some hard mishap in hazard of his life: Forthy^ she oft him counselled to forbear The bloody battle, and to stir up strife,'' But after all his war to rest his weary knife : 25 And, for his more assurance,^ she inquired One day of Proteus^ by his mighty spell (For Proteus was with prophesy inspired) Her dear son's destiny to her to tell. And the sad end of her sweet Marinell : Who, through foresight of his eternal skill, Bade her from womankind to keep him well ; ^ Owches, jewels. ' Ajid to stir up strife^ i.e. to 2 Thereto., besides. forbear stirring up strife. ^ Scath, harm. ^ Afore assurance, greater secu- * Dear, dearly. rity. ^ Rear, raise, i.e. cause. ^ Proteus, a sea-god who as- ^ Forth}', therefore. sumed different shapes at will. BRirOMART. 75 For of a woman he should have much ill ; A virgin strange and stout ^ him should dismay or kill. 26 Forthy she gave him warning every day The love of women not to entertain ; A lesson too too^ hard for living clay, From love in course of nature to refrain ! Yet he his mother's lore did well retain, And ever from fair ladies' love did fly ; Yet many ladies fair did oft complain, That they for love of him would algates^ die; Die whoso list for him, he was love's enemy. 27 But ah ! who can deceive his destiny, Or ween^ by warning to avoid his fate "i That, when he sleeps in most security And safest seems, him soonest doth amate,^ And findeth due effect or soon or late ; So feeble is the powV of fleshly arm ! His mother bade him women's love to hate, For she of woman's force did fear no harm ; So weening to have armed him, she did quite disarm, 28 This was that woman, this the deadly wound. That Proteus prophesied should him dismay; The which his mother vainly did expound To be heart-wounding love, which should assay '^ Stout, brave. * Ween, think, imagine. 2 Too too, exceedingly. ^ Amate, confound, ^ Algates, by all means, absolutely. 76 THE FAERY QUEENE. To bring her son unto his last decay.^ So tickle 2 be the terms of mortal state And full of subtile^ sophisms, which do play With double senses, and with false debate, T' approve^ the unknown purpose of eternal fate. 29 Too true the famous Marinell it found ; Who, through late trial, on that wealthy strond^ Inglorious now lies in senseless swownd,^ Through heavy stroke of Britomartis hond.^ Which when his mother dear did understond, And heavy tidings heard, whereas^ she played Amongst her wat'ry sisters by a pond. Gathering sweet daffadillies, to have made Gay girlonds from the sun their foreheads fair to shade, 30 Eftsoones both flow'rs and girlonds far away She flung, and her fair dewy locks yrent : To sorrow huge she turned her former play. And gamesome mirth to grievous dreriment ^ : She threw herself down on the continent, ^'^ Ne word did speak, but lay as in a swowne, Whiles all her sisters did for her lament With yelling outcries, and with shrieking sowne^^; And every one did tear her girlond from her crown. ^ Decay, ruin, destruction. ^ S%voiv)id, swoon. 2 Tickle unstable. '^ Hond, hand. ^ Subtile, subtle. ^ Whereas, where. ^ Appi'ove, prove. ^ Dreriment, sorrow. 5 St7'ond, strand. ^"^ Contifient, land. 11 Sowne, sound. BRITOMART. 77 31 Soon as she up out of her deadly fit Arose, she bade her charet to be brought ; And all her sisters, that with her did sit, Bade eke^ attonce^ their charets to be sought: Tho,^ full of bitter grief and pensive thought. She to her waggon clomb*; clomb all the rest, And forth together went, with sorrow fraught^: The waves obedient to their behest Them yielded ready passage, and their rage sur- ceased.^ 32 Great Neptune stood amazM at their sight. While on his broad round back they softly slid. And eke himself mourned at their mournful plight, Yet wist" not what their wailing meant, yet did, For great compassion of their sorrow, bid His mighty waters to them buxom^ be: Eftsoones^ the roaring billows still abid,^^ And all the grisly^^ monsters of the sea Stood gaping at their gate,^^ and wond'red them to see. 33 A team of dolphins raunged ^^ in array Drew the smooth charet of sad Cymoent: They were all taught by Triton to obey 1 Eke, likewise. ^ Buxom, yielding. 2 Attonce, at once. ^ Eftsoones, immediately. 3 Tho, then. 10 Abid, abode. * Clo7nb, climbed. ^^ Grisly, frightful. ^ Fraught, filled. ^2 Gate, procedure. ^ Surceased, ended. ^^ Raunged in array, arranged ' Wist, knew. in proper order. 78 THE FAERY QUEENE. To the long reins at her commandement : As swift as swallows on the waves they went, That their broad flaggy fins no foam did rear, Ne bubbling rowndell ^ they behind them sent ; The rest of other fishes drawen were, Which with their finny oars the swelling sea did shear. 34 Soon as they been arrived upon the brim Of the rich strond, their charets they forlore,^ And let their teamed^ fishes softly swim Along the margent^ of the foamy shore, Lest they their fins should bruise, and surbate ^ sore Their tender feet upon the stony ground : And coming to the place, where all in gore And cruddy^ blood enwallowed " they found The luckless Marinell lying in deadly swownd, 35 His mother swooned thrice, and the third time Could scarce recovered be out of her pain ; Had she not been devoid of mortal slime, She should not then have been re-lived^ again : But, soon as life recovered had the reign, She made so piteous moan and dear wayment,^ That the hard rocks could scarce from tears refrain : 1 Rowndell^ globule. ^ Criiddy, curdled. 2 Forlore, left. '^ Enwallowed, rolling in. 3 Teamed, yoked as in a team. ^ Re-lived, revived. ** Margeiit, margin. ^ Dear ivayment, heartfelt 1am- ^ Surbate, batter. entation. BRITOMART. 79 And all her sister nymphs with one consent Supplied her sobbing breaches ^ with sad com- plement. ^ 36 "Dear image of myself," she said, "that is The wretched son of wretched mother born, Is this thine high advancement ? O ! is this Th' immortal name, with which thee, yet unborn, Thy grandsire Nereus promised to adorn ? Now liest thou of life and honour reft^; Now liest thou a lump of earth forlorn ; Ne of thy late life memory is left ; Ne can thy irrevocable destiny be wefte* ! 37 " Fond^ Proteus, father of false prophecies ! And they more fond that credit to thee give ! Not this the work of woman's hand ywis,^ That so deep wound through these dear members drive. I feared love ; but they that love do live ; But they that die do neither love nor hate : Nathless to thee thy folly I forgive ; And to myself, and to accursed fate. The guilt I do ascribe : dear wisdom bought too late ! 38 "O ! what avails it of immortal seed" To be ybred and never born to die .'* ^ Sobbing breaches, i.e. the in- ^ Reft, bereft, tervals of her sobbmg. * Wefte, avoided. - Complement, accessory, sup- ^ Fond, foolish, plement. ^ Ywis, surely. ■^ Seed, race. 80 THE FAERY QUEENE. Far better I it deem to die with speed, Then ^ waste in woe and wailful ^ misery : Who dies, the utmost dolour doth abye^; But who that lives is left to wail his loss : So life is loss, and death felicity : Sad life worse than glad death ; and greater cross To see friend's grave, then dead the grave self to engross.* 39 " But if the heavens did his day envy,^ And my short bliss malign,^ yet mote they well Thus much afford me, ere that he did die, That the dim eyes of my dear Marinell I mote" have closed, and him bed^ farewell, Sith other offices for mother meet They would not grant Yet, maulgre ^ them, farewell, my sweetest sweet ! Farewell, my sweetest son, sith we no more shall meet ! " 40 Thus when they all had sorrowed their fill. They softly gan to search his grisly^^ wound : And, that they might him handle more at will. They him disarmed ; and, spreading on the ground Their watchet^^ mantles fringed with silver round. They softly wiped away the jelly blood 1 Then, than. ^ Malign, begrudge. 2 Wailful, mournful. "^ Mote, might. ^ Abye, endure. ^ Bed, bade. * Engross, occupy. ^ Matdgre, in spite of. ^ Envy, begrudge. ^^ Grisly, dreadful. 1^ Watchet, pale blue. BRITOMART. 81 From th' orifice ; which, having well upbound, They poured in sovereign balm and nectar good, Good both for earthly med'cine and for heavenly food. 41 Tho,^ when the lily-handed Liagore (This Liagore whilom ^ had learned skill In leech's^ craft, by great Apollo's lore,* Sith her whilom upon high Pindus hill^ He loved,) ....... Did feel his pulse, she knew there stayed still Some little life his feeble sprites^ among ; Which to his mother told, despair she from her flung. 42 Tho, up him taking in their tender hands, They easily unto her charett" bear: Her team at her commandment quiet stands, Whiles they the corse ^ into the waggon rear, And strow with flow'rs the lamentable beare^: Then all the rest into their coaches clim,^^ And through the brackish waves their passage shear ^^ ; Upon great Neptune's neck they softly swim, And to her wat'ry chamber swiftly carry him. 1 Tho, then. in Thessaly, the seat of the 2 Whilom, formerly. muses. 8 Leech's, physician's. ^ Sprites, spirits. * Apollo's lore ; Apollo and his " Charett, chariot, son ^sculapius were revered as ** Corse, body, the chief gods of healing. ^ Beare, bier. ^ Pindus hill, a lofty mountain 1*^ Clini, climb. 1^ Shear, cut. 82 THE FAERY QUEENE. 43 Deep in the bottom of the sea, her bow'r^ Is built of hollow billows heaped high, Like to thick clouds that threat a stormy show'r, And vauted^ all within like to the sky. In which the gods do dwell eternally: There they him laid in easy couch well dight,^ And sent in haste for Tryphon,^ to apply Salve to his wounds, and medicines of might : For Tryphon of sea-gods the sovereign leech is hight 44 The whiles the nymphs sit all about him round, Lamenting his mishap and heavy plight ; And oft his mother, viewing his wide wound, Cursed the hand that did so deadly smite Her dearest son, her dearest heart's delight : But none of all those curses overtook The warlike maid, th' ensample of that might ^ ; But fairly well she thrived, and well did brook Her noble deeds,^ ne her right course for ought forsook. 45 Yet did false Archimage^ her still pursue. To bring to pass his mischievous intent, ^ Bower, chamber, dwelling. had in the overthrow of Marinell 2 Vauted, vaulted. given a specimen of her power. ^ Dight, arranged. '^ And well did brook her noble * Tryphon. There is no leech deeds, i.e. she did not suffer in of the sea-gods in classical myth- consequence of her noble deeds. ology. Hillard. ^ Archimage, or Archi7nago, a ^ Night, called. wicked enchanter described in the ^ The wm-like maid, th'' ensample first book of the " Faery Queene," of that might, i.e. Britomart, who the chief enemy of the Redcross knight and Una. BRITOMART. 83 Now that he had her singled from the crew Of courteous knights, the prince and faery gent,^ Whom late in chase of beauty excellent She left, pursuing that same foster ^ strong ; Of whose foul outrage they impatient, And full of fiery zeal, him followed long, To rescue her^ from shame, and to revenge her rescue of the lady " upon a milk- 1 The prince and faery gent, white palfrey." i.e. Prince Arthur and the noble '^ Foster, forester, faery, or faery knight, Sir Guyon, 3 ^^^^ /^_ tj^g \^^^ pursued by who left Britomart to go to the the forester. The Night at Malbecco's Castle. Satyrane and Paridell, two of Gloriana's champions, found them- selves on a dark and stormy night outside the castle of a man known as Malbecco. As admittance was not readily granted, Paridell wished to force an entrance. 1 " Nay, let us first/' said Satyrane, " entreat The man, by gentle means, to let us in ; And afterwards affray ^ with cruel threat, Ere that we to efforce ^ it do begin : Then, if all fail, we will by force it win, And eke ^ reward the wretch for his mesprise,* As may be worthy of his heinous sin." That counsel pleased : then Paridell did rise. And to the castle-gate approached in quiet wise : 2 Whereat soft knocking, entrance he desired. The good man self, which then the porter played, Him answered, that all were now retired Unto their rest, and all the keys conveyed Unto their master who in bed was laid. That none him durst awake out of his dream; And therefore them of patience gently prayed. Then Paridell began to change his theme. And threat'ned him with force and punishment extreme. 1 Affray, frighten. ' Eke, also. 2 Efforce, force. * Mesprise, contempt. BRITOMART. 85 But all in vain ; for nought mote him relent^: And now so long before the wicket fast They waited, that the night was forward spent, And the fair welkin ^ foully overcast Gan blowen up a bitter stormy blast, With show'r and hail so horrible and dread. That this fair many^ were compelled at last To fly for succour to a little shed. The which beside the gate for swine was ordered. It fortuned,* soon after they were gone, Another knight, whom tempest thether brought. Came to that castle, and with earnest moan. Like as the rest, late entrance dear^ besought; But, like so as the rest, he prayed for nought ; For flatly he of entrance was refused : Sorely thereat he was displeased, and thought Plow to avenge himself so sore abused. And evermore the carle ^ of courtesy accused." But, to avoid th'. intolerable stowre,^ He was compelled to seek some refuge near. And to that shed, to shroud him from the show'r. He came, which full of guests he found whilere,^ So as he was not let ^^ to enter there : 1 Mote hifn relent, could soften ^ Carle, churl. him. "' Of courtesy accused, i.e. ac- 2 Welkin, sky. cused of lack of courtesy. * Many, company. 8 Stoxvre, storm. * Fortuned, happened. ^ Whilere, before (him). ^ Dear, earnestly. lo j^^f^ allowed. 86 THE FAERY QUEENE. Whereat he gan to wex ^ exceeding wroth, And swore that he would lodge with them yfere,^ Or them dislodge, all were they lief or loath ^; And so defied them each, and so defied them both. 6 Both were full loath to leave that needful tent,* And both full loath in darkness to debate; Yet both full lief him lodging to have lent, And both full lief his boasting to abate : But chiefly Paridell his heart did grate ^ To hear him threaten so despitefuUy, As if he did a dog in kennel rate That durst not bark ; and rather had he die Then, when he was defied, in coward corner lie. 7 Tho,^ hastily remounting to his steed. He forth issued ; like as a boistrous wind. Which in th' earth's hollow caves hath long been hid And shut up fast within her prisons blind. Makes the huge element," against her kind,^ To move and tremble as it were aghast, Until that it an issue forth may find ; Then forth it breaks, and with his ^ furious blast Confounds both land and seas, and skies doth over- cast. ^ Wex, wax, grow. ^ Tho, then. - Yfere, together. " The huge element, i.e. ihee^xth.. ^ All were they lief or loath, ^ Kind, nature. i.e. whether they were willing or ^ His. Its did not come into unwilling. general use until after Spenser's ^ Tent, shelter. time. Even Shakespeare uses his ^ Grate, fret. for its in many cases. BRITOMART. 87 8 Their steel-head spears they strongly couched, and met Together with impetuous rage and force, That with the terror of their fierce affret ^ They rudely drove to ground both man and horse. That each awhile lay like a senseless corse. But Paridell, sore bruised with the blow, Could not arise, the counterchange to scorse ^ ; Till that young squire him reared from below; Then drew he his bright sword, and gan about him throw. 9 But Satyrane, forth stepping, did them stay. And with fair treaty pacified their ire : Then, when they were accorded ^ from the fray, Against that castle's lord they gan conspire. To heap on him due vengeance for his hire. They been agreed, and to the gates they go To burn the same with unquenchable fire. And that uncourteous carle, their common foe. To do foul death to die,^ or wrap in grievous woe. o Malbecco seeing them resolved indeed To flame the gates, and hearing them to call For fire in earnest, ran with fearful speed. And, to them calling from the castle wall. Besought them humbly him to bear with all, As ignorant of servants' bad abuse And slack attendance unto strangers' call. 1 Affret. encounter. 4 f^ j^ j-^^i j^.^^fji f^ ^/^^ /^_ to 2 Scorse, exchange, give back. cause him to die a foul death. 3 Accorded, made to agree. 88 THE FAERY QUEENE. The knights were willing all things to excuse, Though nought believed, and entrance late did not refuse. 1 1 They been ybrought into a comely bow'r,i And served of all things that mote needful be ; Yet secretly their host did on them low'r, And welcomed more for fear than charitee ; But they dissembled what they did not see,^ And welcomed themselves. Each gan undight^ Their garments wet, and weary armour free, To dry themselves by Vulcan's ^ flaming light. And eke^ their lately bruised parts to bring in plight.^ 12 And eke that stranger knight amongst the rest Was for like need enforced to disarray : Tho,^ whenas vailed was her lofty crest, ^ Her golden locks, that were in trammels ^ gay Upbounden, did themselves adown display, And raught ^^ unto her heels ; like sunny beams. That in a cloud their light did long time stay. Their vapour vaded,^^ show their golden gleams, And through the persant ^^ ^ir shoot forth their azure streams. ^ Bower, room. ' Tho, then. 2 But they dissembled, etc., i.e. ^ Whenas vailed was hej- lofty they appeared as though they had crest, i.e. when her helmet was been hospitably received. doffed. ^Undight, to put off. ^ Trammels, braids. 4 Vulcan, the god of fire. lo Ranght, reached. s Eke, also. ii Vaded, dissipated. 6 Flight, order. 12 Persant, sharp, clear. BRITOMART. 89 1 3 She also doft her heavy haberieon,^ Which the fair feature of her limbs did hide ; And her well-plighted ^ frock, which she did won^ To tuck about her short when she did ride, She low let fall, that flowed from her lank side Down to her foot with careless modestee. Then of them all she plainly was espied To be a womanwight, unwist to be. The fairest womanwight that ever eye did see. 14 Like as Bellona,^ being late returned From slaughter of the giants conquered, — Where proud Encelade,^ whose wide nostrils burned With breathed flames like to a furnace red, Transfixed with her spear, down tumbled dead From top of Hemus^ by him heaped high, — Hath loosed her helmet from her lofty head, And her Gorgonian shield ^ gins to untie From her left arm, to rest in glorious victory. 1 5 Which whenas they beheld, they smitten were With great amazement at so wondrous sight ; And each on other, and they all on her, Stood gazing ; as if sudden great affright 1 Haberieon, habergeon, coat of ^ Encelade, Enceladus, the giant mail. buried under Mount Aetna. 2 Well-plighted, well-folded. ^ Hemus, Haemus ; ancient 3 Did won, did use. name of the Balkan mountains. * Bellona, the goddess of war ; "^ Gorgonian shield, Minerva's here stands for Minerva. shield which bore the fatal Gor- gon's head. 90 THE FAERY QUEENE. Had them surprised. At last avising ^ right Her goodly personage and glorious hue, Which they so much mistook, they took delight In their first error, and yet still anew With wonder of her beauty fed their hungry view : 1 6 Yet note 2 their hungry view be satisfied, But, seeing, still the more desired to see, And ever firmly fixed did abide In contemplation of divinitee : But most they marvelled at her chivalree And noble prowess, which they had approved,^ That much they fained^ to know who she mote ^ be; Yet none of all them her thereof amoved^ ; Yet every one her liked, and every one her loved. The lady of the castle soon appeared and kindly welcomed the warriors. 17 Now, when of meats and drinks they had their fill. Purpose was moved by that gentle dame Unto those knights adventurous, to tell Of deeds of arms which unto them became,^ And every one his kindred and his name. 18 So long these knights discoursed diversely Of strange affairs, and noble hardiment,^ 1 Avising, contemplating. ^ Mote, might. 2 N'ote, could not. ^ Amoved, i.e. questioned. 3 Approved, proved. "^ Became, happened. * Fained., desired. ^ Hardiment, bold deeds. BRITOMART. 91 Which they had passed with mickle jeopardy, That now the humid night was far forth spent, And heavenly lamps were halfendeale ^ ybrent^: Which th' old man ^ seeing well, who too long thought Every discourse, and every argument. Which by the hours he measured, besought Them go to rest. So all unto their bow'rs* were brought. 1 Halfendeale, the half part. ^ 77/' old vian, i.e. Malbecco, ^ Ybrent, burned. the host. * Bowers, chambers. VI. Amoret and the Garden of Venus. Scudamour, whom Kritomart was about to meet, was the husband of the beautiful Amoret. Amoret was the daughter of Chrysogonee and the twin sister of Belphcebe. Soon after the birth of these children, Chrysogonee fell asleep in a forest ; and the goddesses Venus and Diana happening along just then, took each a child from the sleeping mother. 1 Up they them took, each one a babe uptook, And with them carried to be fostered : Dame Phoebe^ to a nymph her babe betook To be upbrought in perfect maidenhead,^ And, of herself, her name Belphoebe reader But Venus hers thence far away conveyed. To be upbrought in goodly womanhead ; And, in her little Love's stead which was strayed,* Her Amoretta called, to comfort her dismayed.^ 2 She brought her to her joyous paradise Where most she wonnes,^ when she on earth does dwell : So fair a place as nature can devise : 1 Fha'be, Diana, the goddess of phcehe read, i.e. called her Bel- the moon ; the maiden goddess phcebe, after herself. devoted to the chase. * In her little Love's stead, etc., 2 Maidenhead, maidenhood. i.e. in the place of Cupid who had 3 Ajid, of herself, her najne Bel- run away from his mother. ^ Dismayed, dejected. ^ JVonnes, dwells. BR /TO MART. 93 Whether in Paphos,^ or Cytheron hill,^ Or it in Gnidus ^ be, I wote * not well ; But well I wote by trial, that this same All other pleasant places doth excel, And called is, by her lost lover's name, » The garden of Adonis,^ far renowmed by fame. 3 There is continual spring, and harvest there Continual, both meeting at one time : For both the boughs do laughing blossoms bear, And with fresh colors deck the wanton prime,^ And eke attonce*" the heavy trees they climb. Which seem to labour under their fruits' load : The whiles the joyous birds make their pastime Among the shady leaves, their sweet abode. And their true loves without suspicion tell abroad. 4 Right in the middest of that paradise There stood a stately mount, on whose round top A gloomy grove of myrtle trees did rise. Whose shady boughs sharp steel did never lop. Nor wicked beasts their tender buds did crop. But like a garland compassed the height. And from their fruitful sides sweet gum did drop, 1 Pap/ios, 2l city on the island celebrated for its statue of Venus, of Cyprus, which contained a cele- the work of Praxiteles. brated temple of Venus. "* Wote, know. 2 Cytheron hill, refers to the ^ Adonis, a youth of extraordin- town of Cythera in Crete, or to ary beauty beloved by Venus, and the island of Cythera, where Venus by her changed into an anemone, was said to have first landed. ^ IVanton prime, luxuriant 3 Gnidus, a Doric city in Caria spring. " Eke attonce, also together. 94 THE FAERY QUEENE. That all the ground, with precious dew bedight,^ Threw forth most dainty odours and most sweet delight. 5 And in the thickest covert of that shade There was a pleasant arbour, not by art But of the trees' own inclination made. Which knitting their rank'^ branches part to part, With wanton ivy-twine entrailed athwart,^ And eglantine * and caprifole ^ among, Fashioned above within their inmost part. That nether Phoebus'^ beams could through them throng, Nor Coins' " sharp blast could work them any wrong. 6 And all about grew every sort of flow'r, To which sad lovers were transformed of yore ; Fresh Hyacinthus,^ Phoebus' paramour And dearest love ; Foolish Narcisse,^ that likes the wat'ry shore ; Sad Amaranthus,^^ made a flow'r but late, Sad Amaranthus, in whose purple gore 1 Bedig/it, covered. by him. The hyacinth was fabled 2 Rank, luxuriant. to have sprung from his blood. 3 Entrailed atJnvart, twisted ^ Narcisse, Narcissus, a beauti- across. ful youth who fell in love with his * Eglantine, wild rose. own reflection as seen in a foun- '^ Caprifole, woodbine. tain. He was changed to the ^ Phcebus, Apollo, the sun-god. flower Narcissus. ■^ yEolus, the ruler of the winds. ^'^ AmarantJins, amaranth, ^ Hyacifit/uis, a youth beloved which signifies unfading. Among by Apollo and accidentally killed the ancients this flower was the symbol of immortality. BRITOMART. 95 Meseems I see Amintas' wretched fate/ To whom sweet poets' verse hath given endless date. Hether great Venus brought this infant fair, The younger daughter of Chrysogonee, And unto Psyche ^ with great trust and care Committed her, yfostered to be, And trained up in true feminitee^: Who no less carefully her tendered* Than her own daughter Pleasure, to whom she Made her companion, and her lessoned^ In all the lore of love and goodly womanhead. In which when she to perfect ripeness grew. Of grace and beauty noble paragon. She brought her forth into the worldes view, To be th' ensample of true love alone. And loadstar of all chaste affection ^ To all fair ladies that do live on ground. To Faery court she came ; where many one Admired her goodly 'haviour, and found His feeble heart wide launched" with love's cruel wound. ^ Amintas' 7vretcJied fate. This 3 /r^;;^/;;//^^^ ^Yomanhood. is supposed to allude to the un- * Tendered, cared for. timely fate of Sir Philip Sidney. ^ Lessoned, taught. Hillard. ^ Affection, pronounced as word 2 Psyche (breath or soul) ; a of four syllables, maiden beloved by Cupid and " Launched, pierced, made immortal by Jupiter. 96 THE FAERY QUEENE. 9 But she to none of them her love did cast, Save to the noble knight, Sir Scudamore, To whom her loving heart she linked fast In faithful love, t' abide for evermore ; And for his dearest sake endured sore. Sore trouble of an heinous enemy, Who her would forced have to have forlore ^ Her former love and steadfast loyalty, As ye may elsewhere read that rueful history. 1 Forlore, abandoned. VII. After separating from Satyrane, Britomart meets Sciidatnoiir, tJie Jiitsband of Amoret. Together they proceed to the house of the enchanter Biisyrane. 1 O HATEFUL hellish snake ! what fury first Brought thee from baleful house of Prosperine,^ Where in her bosom she thee long hath nurst, And fost'red up with bitter milk of tine^; P^oul Jealousy ! that turnest love divine To joyless dread, and mak'st the loving heart With hateful thoughts to languish and to pine, And feed itself with self-consuming smart. Of all the passions in the mind thou vilest art ! 2 O let him far be banished away. And in his stead let Love forever dwell ! Sweet Love, that doth his golden wings embay ^ In blessed nectar and pure pleasure's well, Untroubled of vile fear or bitter fell.'^ And ye, fair ladies, that your kingdoms make In th' hearts of men, them govern wisely well. And of fair Britomart ensample take, That was as true in love as turtle ^ to her make.^ 1 Proserpine, Proserpina, the 2 Xi)ie, woe. daughter of Ceres, who was car- » Embay, bathe, ried down to Hades by Pluto to * Fell, gall, be his bride. ^ Turtle, turtle-dove. * Make, mate. 98 THE FAERY QUEENE. 3 Who, with Sir Satyrane, as erst ^ ye read, Forth riding from Malbecco's hostless^ house, Far off espied a young man, the which fled From an huge giant, that with hideous And hateful outrage long him chased thus ; It was that Ollyphant,^ the brother dear Of that Argante vile and vicious,* From whom the Squire of Dames was reft ^ whilere^; This all as bad as she, and worse, if worse ought were. • 4 Whom when as Britomart beheld behind The fearful boy so greedily pursue. She was emmoved *" in her noble mind T' employ her puissance to his rescue. And pricked ^ fiercely forward where she did him view. 5 Ne^ was Sir Satyrane her far behind, But with like fierceness did ensue ^^ the chase ; Whom when the giant saw, he soon resigned His former suit,i^ and from them fled apace : ^ Erst, first, formerly. ^ W/iilere, formerly. 2 I/ostless, inhospitable. "' Emmo7