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Uppon two ftubborne oakes, which stand so neare That way betwixt them none appeares in fight; The Engin, fiercely flying forth, doth teare

Th' one from the earth, and through the aire doth beare;

The other it with force doth overthrow

Uppon one fide, and from his rootes doth reare: So did the Championeffe those two there ftrow, And to their fire their carcaffes left to bestow.

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OUGHT is on earth more facred or divine,
That Gods and men doe equally adore,
Then this fame vertue that doth right
define:

For th' hevens themselves, whence

mortal men implore

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Right in their wrongs, are rul'd by righteous lore
Of highest Jove, who doth true juftice deale
To his inferiour Gods, and evermore

Therewith containes his heavenly Common-weale:
The skill whereof to Princes hearts he doth reveale.

2.

Well therefore did the antique world invent
That Juftice was a God of foveraine grace,
And altars unto him and temples lent,
And heavenly honours in the highest place;
Calling him great Ofyris, of the race

Of th' old Ægyptian Kings that whylome were:
With fayned colours fhading a true case;
For that Ofyris, whileft he lived here,

The jufteft man alive and trueft did appeare.

3.

His wife was Ifis; whom they likewise made
A Goddeffe of great powre and foverainty,
And in her person cunningly did fhade
That part of Justice which is Equity,
Whereof I have to treat here presently:
Unto whofe temple when as Britomart
Arrived, fhee with great humility

Did enter in, ne would that night depart;
But Talus mote not be admitted to her part.

4.

There she received was in goodly wize

Of many Priefts, which duely did attend
Uppon the rites and daily facrifize,

All clad in linnen robes with filver hemd;

And on their heads, with long locks' comely kemd,
They wore rich Mitres fhaped like the Moone,
To fhew that Ifis doth the Moone portend;
Like as Ofyris fignifies the Sunne :

For that they both like race in equall justice runne.

5.

The Championesse them greeting, as she could,
Was thence by them into the Temple led;

All clad in linnen robes with filver bemd;

And on their beads, with long locks, &c.] Spenfer never thinks himself tied down to exactness in minute defcriptions: he has an allegory and a mythology of his own, and takes from others juft as fuits his fcheme. It is very well known that the Egyptian priests wore linen robes, and were bald, quite contrary to what Spenfer fays. See Juven. Sat. vi. 533. "Qui grege linigere circumdatus, et grege CALVO." But Spenfer does not carry you to Egypt; you ftand upon allegorical and fairy ground. He will drefs therefore the priests of Juftice, like the priests of Him, the affeffors of whose throne Justice and Judgment are. See Pfalm lxxxix. 14; xcvii. 2. In the prophet Ezekiel, though it is faid, "the priests fhall be clothed with linen garments:" yet it is ordered, "they fhall not have their beads." The original command feems to intend that a diftinction fhould be kept up between the Jewish and Egyptian priests, even in their drefs. See Levit. xxi. 5. UPTON.

Whofe goodly building when she did behould,
Borne uppon stately pillours, all difpred
With fhining gold, and arched over hed,
She wondred at the workmans paffing skill,
Whofe like before she never faw nor red;
And thereuppon long while stood gazing still,
But thought that she thereon could never gaze her fill.
6.

Thence forth unto the Idoll they her brought;
The which was framed all of filver fine,

So well as could with cunning hand be wrought,
And clothed all in garments made of line,
Hemd all about with fringe of filver twine:
Uppon her head she wore a Crowne of gold;
To fhew that she had powre in things divine:
And at her feete a Crocodile was rold,

That with her wreathed taile her middle did enfold.

7.

One foote was fet uppon the Crocodile,

And on the ground the other faft did ftand;
So meaning to fuppreffe both forged guile
And open force: and in her other hand
She stretched forth a long white fclender wand.
Such was the Goddeffe; whom when Britomart
Had long beheld, her felfe uppon the land
She did proftrate, and with right humble hart
Unto her felfe her filent prayers did impart.

8.

To which the Idoll, as it were inclining,
Her wand did move with amiable looke,

b That with her wreathed taile, &c.] So all the editions. It fhould be" his wreathed," &c. See Sts. 15, 16. CHURCH. We leave the text unaltered, with the obfervation only, that "her" and his were frequently confounded by old printers, owing to the fact that "her" was then often spelt bir. C.

By outward fhew her inward fence defining:
Who well perceiving how her wand the fhooke,
It as a token of good fortune tooke.

By this the day with dampe was overcast,

And joyous light the house of Jove forfooke; Which when she saw her helmet she unlaste, And by the altars fide her felfe to flumber plafte.

9.

For other beds the Priefts there ufed none,

But on their mother Earths deare lap did lie,
And bake their fides uppon the cold hard stone,
T'enure them felves to fufferaunce thereby,
And proud rebellious flesh to mortify :
For by the vow of their religion,
They tied were to stedfast chastity

And continence of life; that, all forgon,
They mote the better tend to their devotion.

IO.

Therefore they mote not taste of fleshly food,

Ne feed on ought the which doth bloud containe, Ne drinke of wine; for wine, they fay, is blood, Even the bloud of Gyants, which were flaine By thundring Jove in the Phlegrean plaine: For which the earth (as they the story tell) Wroth with the Gods, which to perpetuall paine Had damn'd her fonnes which gainst them did rebell, With inward griefe and malice did against them fwell:

II.

And of their vitall bloud, the which was fhed
Into her pregnant bofome, forth fhe brought
The fruitfull vine; whofe liquor blouddy red,
Having the mindes of men with fury fraught,

e inward fence defining.] Spenfer here uses the word in the Latin fenfe, fignifying, from defigno, as Mr. Church has obferved. Some editions read defining. TODD. No old impreffion has defining. C.

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