76 He ceast; and then gan all the quire of birdes
Their diverse notes t'attune unto his lay,
As in approvance of his pleaŝing words.
The constant paire heard all that he did say,
Yet swarved not, but kept their forward way
Through many covert groves and thickets close,
In which they creeping did at last display
That wanton ladie, with her lover lose,

Whose sleepie head she in her lap did soft dispose.

79 The young man, sleeping by her, seemd to be
Some goodly swayne of honorable place;
That certes it great pittie was to see
Him his nobility so foule deface:
A sweet regard and amiable grace,
Mixed with manly sternesse did appeare,
Yet sleeping, in his well proportiond face;
And on his tender lips the downy heare

Did now but freshly spring, and silken blossomes beare.
80 His warlike armes, the idle instruments

Of sleeping praise, were hong upon a tree:
And his brave shield, full of old moniments,

Was fowly ras't, that none the signes might see;
Ne for them, ne for honour cared hee,

Ne ought that did to his advauncement tend;
But in lewd loves, and wastfull luxuree,

His dayes, his goods, his bodie he did spend: O horrible enchantment, that him so did blend. 81 The noble elfe and carefull palmer drew

So nigh them, minding nought but idle game,
That suddein forth they on them rusht, and threw
A subtile net, which only for that same

The skilfull palmer formally did frame:

So held them under fast; the whiles the rest
Fled all away for feare of fowler shame.

The faire enchauntresse, so unwares opprest,

Tryde all her arts, and all her sleights thence out to wrest;

82 And eke her lover strove; but all in vaine; For that same net so cunningly was wound,

That neither guile nor force might it distraine.
They tooke them both, and both them strongly bound
In captive bandes, which there they readie found:
But her in chaines of adamant he tyde;

For nothing else might keepe her safe and sound:
But Verdant (so he hight) he soone untyde,
And counsell sage in steed thereof to him applyde.

83 But all those pleasaunt bowres, and pallace brave,
Guyon broke downe with rigour pittilesse:
Ne ought their goodly workmanship might save
Them from the tempest of his wrathfulnesse,
But that their blisse he turn'd to balefulnesse,
Their groves he feld, their gardins did deface,
Their arbers spoyld, their cabinets suppresse,
Their banket houses burne, their buildings race,
And of the fairest late, now made the fowlest place.

84 Then led they her away, and eke that knight
They with them led, both sorrowful and sad:
The way they came, the same retourn'd they right,
Till they arrived, where they lately had

Charm'd those wild beasts, that rag'd with furie mad;
Which, now awaking, fierce at them gan fly,

As in their mistresse reskew, whom they lad;
But them the palmer soone did pacify.

[did ly.

Then Guyon askt, what meant those beastes, which there

85 Said he, These seeming beasts are men in deed,
Whom this enchauntresse hath transformed thus,
Whylome her lovers, which her lusts did feed,
Now turned into figures hideous,

According to their mindes like monstruous.
Sad end (quoth he) of life intemperate,
And mournefull meed of joyes delicious:
But palmer, if it mote thee so aggrate,
Let them returned be unto their former state.

86 Streightway he with his vertuous staffe them strooke,
And streight of beasts they comely men became ;
Yet being men they did unmanly looke,

And stared ghastly; some for inward shame,
And some for wrath, to see their captive dame :
But one above the rest in speciall,

That had an hog beene late, hight Grille by name,
Repined greatly, and did him miscall,

That had from hoggish forme him brought to naturall.

87 Said Guyon; See the mind of beastly man, That hath so soone forgot the excellence

Of his creation, when he life began,

That now he chooseth with vile difference
To be a beast, and lacke intelligence.

To whom the palmer thus; The donghill kind
Delights in filth and foule incontinence :

Let Grill be Grill, and have his hoggish mind:

But let us hence depart, whilest wether serves and wind.

NOTES.

INTRODUCTION.

1. The Introduction is addressed, courtier-fashion, to Queen Elizabeth. The Poet makes apology for his Faery-land. Truth is stranger than fiction: who could have foreseen the discovery of Peru and Virginia? may there not be worlds in the moon and stars? And, after all, Faery-land is not so far off the doubter, if he will search for it, may find it at home; for it is England, ruled by the fairest of Princesses. The Poet is fain thus to veil her glories under the misty shadows of Faery-land, lest men's eyes should be dazzled by them. He now prays the Queen to listen to the tale of Guyon, the Knight of Temperance.

2, 6. tb' Indian Peru;- Indian,' because men had believed that America was India taken from the other side. See canto xi. st. 21, and note there. Peru, discovered by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa about A. D. 1513, was conquered by Pizarro in 1532.

8. The Amazons buge river;—the Amazon, in South America, the greatest river on the globe, runs a course of about 3000 (some say 4000) miles from source to sea, and in the rainy season is said to be thirty miles broad at its mouth. Yanez Pinçon first discovered the mouth of the river, A.D. 1500: but a Spaniard, Francesco d'Orillana, was the first who sailed down any part of it, in 1540. He reported that there was a community of female warriors on its banks; and the river was named after them. The scattered accounts of the Amazons were collected by Sir W. Raleigh, and are to be found in his History of the World, Life of Alexander the Great.

9. fruitfullest Virginia ;-now one of the United States of America. When Sir W. Raleigh returned from his expedition in 1584 with a glowing report of the country discovered in North America, and laid the new lands at the feet of the Virgin Queen,' she was pleased to accept them, and to give them the name of Virginia. In 1589, after much outlay in unsuccessful attempts at colonisation, Sir Walter handed over his rights to a London Company, reserving to himself a royalty of one-fifth of all precious metals found there. The colony then prospered; and it is interesting to note that while the Dedication to the first edition of the Faery Queene (A.D. 1590) styles Elizabeth " Queene of England, Fraunce and Ireland," that of the

N

second edition (1596) adds the words "and of Virginia," shewing that the colony had risen to high credit in the interval.

3, 2. from wisest ages;-hidden from ages renowned for their wisdom: why then should our dull age think an undiscovered Faery-land impossible? 9. yet such to some appeare;-such worlds (in the moon, stars, &c.) seem to some persons to exist.

4, 2. in sondrie place;—either, as the Prayer-book phrase 'in sundry places' in many different spots; or in one distinct place separated off from all others. In the latter case the clause 'here sett in sondrie place' will come after 'find': in the former case 'sett' will agree with 'signes.'

5. no'te ... trace;-' knows not how to track out.' This Old English contraction is common in Spenser's writings.

9. thy great auncestry;-especially described in canto 10, where the two knights, Arthur and Guyon, find two books, 'Briton Moniments' and 'Antiquitee of Faery Lond,' and read in them their countreys auncestry.'

5, 1. The style of this high compliment is a kind of parody on things divine it is the veil on Moses' face transferred to the glory and majesty of the Queen.

4. beames;-notice the dissyllabic plural, a relic of the old Northern English dialects.

9. great rule of Temp'raunce;-thus Spenser states the subject of the Book. Guyon's part is to work out the triumph of moral virtue over the various temptations of vice.

CANTO I.

Archimago, having escaped out of Eden, sets himself to work fresh woe to the Red Cross Knight. He meets Sir Guyon attended by his Palmer, and with a false tale and the sight of the false grief of Duessa, pricks bim to attack the Red Cross Knight. But Sir Guyon, seeing the cross on the other's shield, forbears to fight; and they fall to friendly converse. Soon after they part in all good-will; the Red Cross Knight disappears from the scene; Archimago and Duessa flee discomfited. Sir Guyon presently finds the dying Amavia, by the side of her dead husband, with her little babe whose bands are bedabbled with her blood. He bears ber last words, the tale of excess in drink, and swears to avenge her on Acrasia (or Intemperance). Then be gives them decent burial, takes up the babe, and fares forth on bis way.

1, 1. That cunning architect, &c. ;-sc. Archimago: see Bk. I. xii. 24-36. In Milton (Par. Lost, 4. 121) we have a like phrase, "Artificer of fraud:" both drawn from the Latin "sceleris infandi artifex."-Cic. Or. 48. Archimago and the Red Cross Knight are introduced in order to link together the First and Second Books, and to form a natural introduction to the new 'gest' or pageant of Sir Guyon.

7. out of caytives bands;—what is meant by 'he frees himself out of caytives hands'? Probably Spenser means out of the hands of those who