[CANTO XII.]

LXXIV.

The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay: Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see, In springing flowre the image of thy day. Ah! see the Virgin Rose, how sweetly shee Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestee, That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may. Lo! see soone after how more bold and free Her baréd bosome she doth broad display; Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away.

LXXV.

So passeth, in the passing of a day,

Of mortall life the leafe, the bud, the flowre;

Ne more doth florish after first decay,

That earst was sought to deck both bed and bowre

Of many a lady, and many a Paramowre.

Gather therefore the Rose whilest yet is prime,

For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre;

Gather the Rose of love whilest yet is time,

Whilest loving thou mayst lovéd be with equall crime.

LXXVI.

He ceast; and then gan all the quire of birdes
Their diverse notes t'attune unto his lay,
As in approvaunce of his pleasing wordes.

The constant payre heard all that he did say,
Yet swarvéd not, but kept their forward way
Through many covert groves and thickets close,
In which they creeping did at last display
That wanton Lady with her lover lose,

Whose sleepie head she in her lap did soft dispose. The young man, Verdant, whom this singing lulled, lay with his warlike arms hung on a tree. Sir Guyon and the Palmer, drawing near suddenly, threw over the pair

A subtile net, which only for that same
The skilful Palmer formerly did frame;
So held them under fast, the whiles the rest
Fled all away for fear of fouler shame.

Escape was impossible for Acrasia, who was tied in chains of adamant, while Verdant was released and counselled.

LXXXIII.

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 spoyle; their Cabinets suppresse; Their banket houses burne; their buildings race; And, of the fayrest late, now made the fowlest place.

LXXXIV.

Then led they her away, and eke that knight
They with them led, both sorrowfull 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.

Then Guyon askt, what meant those beastes which there did ly?

The Third and Fourth Books of the "Faerie Queene" have for their theme Love in all its forms: Love seeking Marriage in the third book, the Legend of Britomartis, or of Chastity; Love in all other forms, as Friendship, in the fourth book, the Legend of Cambel and Triamond.

In the first canto of the Third Book, Britomart, its heroine, is met by Guyon and Prince Arthur, as they travel on from the House of Temperance. Guyon had sent Acrasia strongly guarded to the Faerie Queene. Against Britomart in knight's armour Guyon tilted and was laid on the ground a spear's length behind his crupper. The Palmer stayed his wrath at the unwonted fall.

[BOOK III. CANTO I.]

XII.

Thus reconcilement was betweene them knitt,
Through goodly temperaunce and affection chaste;
And either vowd with all their power and witt
To let not others honour be defaste

Of friend or foe, who ever it embaste;
Ne armes to beare against the others syde :
In which accord the Prince was also plaste,
And with that golden chaine of concord tyde.
So goodly all agreed they forth yfere did ryde.

Then there rushed by them on a milk-white palfrey a goodly lady, Florimell-who represents the complete charm of womanhood-pursued by a grisly Forester, a type of lust. The Prince and Guyon at once followed the Lady; and Timias, Prince Arthur's page, followed the Forester. Britomart waited a while for them, and as they did not return, rode on her way, with her own aged squire, who was her nurse, the companion of her adventure.

When Britomart had passed out of the wood, she came to a fair castle where there were six knights in fierce battle against one before the gates. The castle was the Castle Joyous, wherein dwelt Malecasta, the Lady of Delight, who required of all stranger knights that they should serve her thenceforth, and if they had another love forego her or prove her, in conflict, fairer than Malecasta. The six servants of the Lady of Delight were beating on the Red Cross Knight, who declared himself true to the Errant Damosel, to Una. Four of them fell

before the all-prevailing spear of Britomart, the other two submitted, and all entered the Castle Joyous, where everything ministered to sensual delight, and Malecasta, ignorant of the sex of Britomart, became vainly enamoured. At night Britomart and the Red Cross Knight, who joined her foot to foot and side to side, fought their way out of the toils of shamelessness, and in the early morning took their steeds and went forth upon their journey.

As they travelled on together, in the second canto, Britomart heard from the Red Cross Knight the praises of Sir Arthegall, the Knight of Justice (who is the hero of the Fifth Book). The name of Britomartis, given to this Virgin Knight, was that of a Cretan nymph who leapt into the sea to escape shame, and was a name given sometimes also to Diana. is derived from 8pirús, sweet, and μápris, a maiden. Spenser makes his Britomart a British maid who had desired to see in a magic mirror of Merlin's the image of the knight to whom her life was to be linked.

[CANTO II.]

XXIV.

Eftsoones there was presented to her eye A comely knight, all arm'd in complete wize, Through whose bright ventayle, lifted up on hye, His manly face, that did his foes agrize, And frends to termes of gentle truce entize, Lookt foorth, as Phoebus face out of the east Betwixt two shady mountaynes doth arize : Portly his person was, and much increast Through his Heroicke grace and honorable gest.

XXV.

His crest was covered with a couchant Hownd, And all his armour seemd of antique mould, But wondrous massy and assuréd sownd, And round about yfretted all with gold, In which there written was, with cyphres old, Achilles armes, which Arthegall did win: And on his shield enveloped sevenfold He bore a crownéd little Ermelin,

It

That deckt the azure field with her fayre pouldred skin.

Then sprang in the heart of Love the desire to be joined to Justice; Britomart yearned to be joined to

Arthegall. In the third canto is told how, with her loving nurse, old Glaucè, she visited Merlin who had made the mirror, and learnt from him that it was her destiny

"To love the prowest knight that ever was. Therefore submit thy ways unto his will, And do by all due means thy destiny fulfil."

Merlin set forth the British lineage of this elfin knight, with prophecy that touched the reign of Elizabeth, and added then, “But yet the end is not." Then Britomart and her old nurse resolved to arm themselves and go forth to seek Arthegall.

[CANTO III.]

LVIII.

Th' old woman nought that needed did omit,
But all thinges did conveniently purvay.
It fortunéd (so time their turne did fitt)

A band of Britons, ryding on forray

Few dayes before, had gotten a great pray

Of Saxon goods; emongst the which was seene
A goodly armour, and full rich aray,
Which long'd to Angela, the Saxon Queene,

All fretted round with gold, and goodly wel beseene.

LIX.

The same, with all the other ornaments, King Ryence causéd to be hangéd hy

In his chiefe Church, for endlesse moniments

Of his successe and gladfull victory :

Of which her selfe avising readily.

In th' evening late old Glaucè thither led
Faire Britomart, and, that same armory
Downe taking, her therein appareléd

Well as she might, and with brave bauldrick garnished.

LX.

Beside those armes there stood a mightie speare,
Which Bladud made by magick art of yore,
And usd the same in batteill aye to beare;
Sith which it had beene here preserv'd in store,
For his great virtues provéd long afore:
For never wight so fast in sell could sit,

But him perforce unto the ground it bore.
Both speare she tooke and shield which hong by it;
Both speare and shield of great powre, for her
purpose fit.

LXI.

Thus when she had the virgin all arayd, Another harnesse which did hang thereby About her selfe she dight, that the yong Mayd

She might in equall armes accompany,

And as her Squyre attend her carefully.
Tho to their ready steedes they clombe full light,
And through back waies, that none might them espy,
Covered with secret cloud of silent night,

Themselves they forth convaid, and passed forward right.

LXII.

Ne rested they, till that to Faery lond They came, as Merlin them directed late: Where, meeting with this Redcrosse Knight, she fond Of diverse thinges discourses to dilate,

But most of Arthegall and his estate,

At last their wayes so fell, that they mote part:

Then each to other, well affectionate,

Friendship professéd with unfainéd hart.

The Redcrosse Knight diverst, but forth rode

Britomart.

So ends the third canto. In the next, Britomart rides till she comes to a sea-coast, where she sits by the waves lamenting the restlessness within her heart. Presently she is attacked by a knight, Marinell, who keeps that shore strewn with all precious things. She overthrows him with her lance and journeys on. The sea with its prolific tribes stands here in Spenser's poem as it stood in the Greek myth that fabled the rise of Aphrodite from foam of the sea.

Marinell, son of the daughter of Nereus, the seanymph Cymoent, by an earthly father, Dumarin, was endowed by the sea-god with great treasure from the wreckage in the sea, and kept the rich shore against all comers. Proteus had prophesied that "a virgin strange and stout should him dismay or kill." He therefore fled from woman's love, but was laid low in tilting against Britomart on his rich strand, found by his mother the sad Cymoent, and carried by the sea-nymphs to his mother's watery chamber, deep in the bottom of the sea.

Britomart went on her way, and the song returns now to the Prince and Faery Knight who followed Florimell, while Timias, the Prince's squire, followed the grisly forester who pursued her. Florimell fled with as much fear from the Prince who followed her as from the forester. Nightfall parted them. So ends the fourth canto. In the fifth, Prince Arthur is met by the dwarf of Florimell, who is from Faerie court. Her dwarf tells of her:

[CANTO V.]

VIII.

"That Ladie is," (quoth he) "where so she bee, The bountiest virgin and most debonaire That ever living eye, I weene, did see. Lives none this day that may with her compare In stedfast chastitie and vertue rare,

The goodly ornaments of beautie bright;

And is yclepéd Florimell the fayre,
Faire Florimell belov'd of many a knight,

Yet she loves none but one, that Marinell is hight.

IX.

"A Sea-nymphes sonne, that Marinell is hight, Of my deare Dame is lovéd dearely well: In other none, but him, she sets delight; All her delight is set on Marinell, But he sets nought at all by Florimell; For Ladies love his mother long ygoe Did him, they say, forwarne through sacred spell : But fame now flies, that of a forreine foe

He is yslaine, which is the ground of all our woe.

Florimell, who is thus followed by the grace of God, is type of the whole beauty of womanhood, hereafter to be joined to Marinell under the prolific sea. The Squire of Arthur, he who blew lately the horn of the gospel at Orgoglio's gate, was now hasting to do battle against the evil principle embodied in the forester, who turned against him at a ford, and aided by two brothers made stout resistance. Timias slew them all, but was himself so sorely wounded that he fell in swoon from his steed, and was found by Belphoebe, the same Belphœbe whom Braggadochio had encountered in the wood. Belphoebe's heart was pierced with pity for the wounded squire.

Belphobe lightened the wounded squire of his armour, and felt the pulses of his frozen limbs. She sought healing herbs in the wood,

There, whether it divine tobacco were,

Or panachæa,1 or polygony,

She found, and brought it to her patient dear.

Belphoebe's attendant damsels found the squire's warlike courser, set him thereon, and led him far into the forest, where they laid him in a fair pavilion, and Belphobe daily dressed his wounds. Belphabe represents one part of the whole beauty of womanhood, combined in Florimell, who is of faerie birth. Belphœbe represents the purity, and Amoret, who afterwards appears, the grace and charm. Belphœbe, one of the types of chastity, heals in Timias the wounds made by the forester who typified her opposite, and as he is healed of such hurt, the love of purity grows stronger and stronger in Prince Arthur's noble squire.

The sixth canto tells how Belphobe and Amoret were twin daughters of the nymph Chrysogonee, who was of faerie race; their father being the warm sunlight that shone on the nymph while she slept after bathing. The twins, born in the wood, were found when Venus had lost Cupid and was looking for him, with Dian's help, among the nymphs of the chaste goddess. Diana took one infant-Belphabe -and trained her to womanhood; but Venus took the other, Amoret, and bred her in the gardens of Adonis, whence all the progeny of nature comes.

[CANTO VI.]

LI.

Hither great Venus brought this infant fayre,

The yonger daughter of Chrysogonee,
And unto Psyche with great trust and care
Committed her, yfosteréd to bee

And trainéd up in trew feminitee:

Who no lesse carefully her tenderéd

Then her owne daughter Pleasure, to whom shee

Made her companion, and her lessonéd

In all the lore of love, and goodly womanhead.

LII.

In which when she to perfect ripenes grew, Of grace and beautie noble paragone, She brought her forth into the worldés vew, To be th' ensample of true love alone, And lodestarre of all chaste affection To all fayre ladies that doe live on grownd. To Faery court she came; where many one Admyrd her goodly haveour, and fownd His feeble hart wide launched with loves cruel wownd.

LIII.

But she to none of them her love did cast, Save to the noble knight Sir Scudamore,

1 Panachæa, panacea, a remedy for all diseases, from the Greek panakeia, heal all: wav, all, and axéopat, to heal. The name was applied to many remedies, chiefly mineral, but Spenser means the plant still known in many parts of England as heal-all. Polygony is the plant known as Solomon's seal, which grows in English woods and copses, flowering about May, and of which the leaves, and especially the root, used to be considered "vulnerary and restringent; good to stop all kinds of fluxes and hæmorrhages; helps to consolidate wounds, fractures, and ruptures" (James's "Medicinal Dictionary"). The epithet here given to tobacco is noticeable. The line must have been written very soon after the introduction of the herb into this country, commonly ascribed to Spenser's friend, Sir Walter Raleigh.