the Parke: I founde her, in her Chamber, readinge Phædon Platonis in Greeke, and that with as moch delite, as som jentleman wold read a merie tale in Bocase. After salutation, and dewtie done, with som other taulke, I asked hir, whie she wold leese 3 soch pastime in the Parke? smiling she answered me: I wisse, all their sporte in the Parke is but a shadoe to that pleasure, that I find in Plato: Alas good folke, they never felt, what trewe pleasure ment. And howe came you Madame, quoth I, to this deepe knowledge of pleasure, and what did chieflie allure you unto it: seinge, not many women, but verie fewe men have atteined thereunto? I will tell you, quoth she, and tell you a troth, which perchance ye will marvell at. One of the greatest benefites, that ever God gave me, is, that he sent me so sharpe and severe Parentes, and so jentle a scholemaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speake, kepe silence, sit, stand, or go, eate, drinke, be merie, or sad, be sowyng, plaiyng, dauncing, or doing anie thing els, I must do it, as it were, in soch weight, mesure, and number, even so perfitelie,5 as God made the world, or else I am so sharplie taunted, so cruellie threatened, yea presentlie some tymes, with pinches, nippes, and bobbes,7 and other waies, which I will not name, for the honor I beare them, so without measure misordered, that I thinke my selfe in hell, till tyme cum, that I must go to M. Elmer, who teacheth me so jentlie, so pleasantlie, with soch faire allurementes to learning, that I thinke all the tymé nothing, wiriles I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because, what soever I do els, but learning, is ful of grief, trouble, feare, and whole misliking unto me: And thus my booke, hath bene so moch my pleasure, and bringeth dayly

2. Bocase, Boccaccio.

8

3. Leese, lose, fr. O. E. (be-for-) leosan, of which forlorn is the participle.

4. I wisse, certainly, surely, Ger. gewiss. The separation of the i or y from the second syllable caused the common blunder of taking this word for a verb; but the i, as in i-pinched, i-go in Chaucer, is a mere contraction of the reduplication ge-.

5. Perfitelie, perfectly. The older forms parfit, perfight were taken immediately from Fr. parfait; but the

6

to me more pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all other pleasures, in very deede, be but trifles and troubles unto me. I remember this talke gladly, both bicause it is so worthy of memorie, and bicause also, it was the last talke that ever I had, and the last tyme, that ever I saw that noble and worthie Ladie.

26. Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst. 1536-1608. (History, p. 52.) ALLEGORICAL PERSONAGES IN HELL.

(From the Induction to the Mirrour for Magistrates.)

And first within the porch and jaws of Hell
Sat deep Remorse of Conscience, all besprent
With tears; and to herself oft would she tell
Her wretchedness, and cursing never stent
5 To sob and sigh; but ever thus lament
With thoughtful care, as she that all in vain.
Would wear and waste continually in pain.

Her eyes unstedfast, rolling here and there,
Whirl'd on each place, as place that vengeance brought,
10 So was her mind continually in fear,

Toss'd and tormented by the tedious thought

Of those detested crimes which she had wrought:
With dreadful cheer and looks thrown to the sky,
Wishing for death, and yet she could not die.

15 Next saw we Dread, all trembling how he shook,
With foot uncertain proffer'd here and there;
Benumm'd of speech, and with a ghastly look,

2. Besprent; i-spreined (Chaucer), past part. of sprengan, to sprinkle. See note 1 to last extract.

4. Stent, strong pret. of stint, to stop. 6. Thoughtful, full of thought or anxiety-a common meaning of thought at this time.

had countenance as its first meaning, and the modern use to be an ellipse of "bonne chère," like cheap explained above.

17. Benummed, deprived of, fr. O. E. beniman, to take away, deprive; th. fr. niman, explained before. Chaucer in R. R. speaks of

"His heet, and of his werynesse

That had his breeth almost bynomen."

Search'd every place, all pale and dead for fear;
His cap upborn with staring of his hair,

20 Stoyn'd and amazed at his shade for dread,
And fearing greater dangers than was need.

And next within the entry of this lake

Sat fell Revenge, gnashing her teeth for ire, Devising means how she may vengeance take, 25 Never in rest till she have her desire;

But frets within so far forth with the fire
Of wreaking flames, that now determines she
To die by death, or veng'd by death to be.

And next in order sad Old Age we found,
30 His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind;

With drooping cheer still poring on the ground,
As on the place where Nature him assign'd
To rest, when that the sisters had entwin'd
His vital thread, and ended with their knife
35 The fleeting course of fast declining life.

Crook'd-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-ey'd,
Went on three feet, and sometime crept on four;
With old lame bones that rattled by his side,
His scalp all pill'd, and he with eld forlore,
40 His wither'd fist still knocking at Death's door;
Trembling and driv`ling as he draws his breath,
For brief, the shape and messenger of Death.

19. Staring of his hair, the growing rigid of his hair, Ger. starr, stiff. Stare still means "to look with rigid eyes." Stark would seem to have come from the same root.

20. Stoyn'd, astonied, astonished, thunder-struck (attonitus). 28. Wreaking. extract 1.

See note to line 9,

29. Sad, serious, grave, without any necessary notion of melancholy; O. E. sæd, solid, firm, though by some it is thought to be a mere shortened form of sedate.

39. Pilled, stript of hair. extract 24. Forlore, past. leosan, to lose.

See note 10, part. of for

27. Edmund Spenser. 1553-1599. (History, p. 52.)

From the FAERY QUEEN.

THE KNIGHT AND THE LADY.

A GENTLE Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many a bloudy fielde;

5 Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

10 And on his brest a bloudie crosse he bore,

The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,

For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead as living ever him ador'd:

Upon his shield the like was also scor'd,

15 For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had :
Right faithfull true he was in deede and word,
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.

1. A gentle knight. "The Red Cross Knight" is St. George, the patron saint of England, and is the allegorical representation of Holiness. He is equipped in the armour which his mistress Una (who represents Truth or true Religion) had brought him. This is "the whole armour of God" described by St. Paul, Ephes. c. vi., and though new to the knight bears traces of many an old combat" wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine." Thus equipped he goes forth to slay the dragon which laid waste the kingdom of Una's father. 2. Ycladd; i. e. clad.

The y is the

old sign of the past part. answering to the O. E. and German prefix ge-.

8. Jolly; handsome. Fr. joli.

9. Giusts (jousts); tilts in the lists. Fr. jouster, It. giostrare, "to tilt;" whence our jostle.

13. And dead, &c.; i. e. and adored him (who was) dead as ever living.

17. Cheere; countenance, air, or mien; i. e. he seemed too solemnly grave in countenance or mien.

18. Ydrad; i. e. dreaded, p. p. of to dread. The y is the same as explained in note 2 above.

Upon a great adventure he was bond,
That greatest Gloriana to him gave,

That greatest glorious Queene of Faerie lond,
To winne him worship, and her grace to have,
Which of all earthly things he most did crave;
And ever as he rode, his hart did earne
To prove his puissance in battell brave
Upon his foe, and his new force to learne;
Upon his foe, a dragon horrible and stearne.

A lovely ladie rode him faire beside,
Upon a lowly asse more white then snow,
Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide
Under a vele, that wimpled was full low,
And over all a blacke stole she did throw,
As one that inly mournd: so was she sad,
And heavie sat upon her palfrey slow :

Seemed in heart some hidden care she had,
And by her in a line a milke white lambe she lad.

So pure and innocent, as that same lambe,
She was in life and every vertuous lore,

And by descent from royall lynage came

Of ancient Kings and Queenes, that had of yore

Their scepters stretcht from east to westerne shore,
And all the world in their subjection held;
Till that infernall feend with foule uprore

Forwasted all their land, and them expeld;

45 Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far compeld.

Behind her farre away a dwarfe did lag,
That lasie seemd in being ever last,

20. Gloriana; that is "Queen Elizabeth."

24. Earne; i. e. "yearned." See note 8, extract 12.

28. Rode him faire beside; i. e. "rode fairly beside him;" "faire" is an adverb. 31. Wimpled; plaited or folded. Her veil was plaited in folds, so as to cover her face.

35. Seemed; impers. "it seemed."

36. Lad led.

43. Uprore: uproar is not a compound of up and roar; it is the same word as the Ger. aufruhr, though it seems to have passed through the Dan. oprör, a stirring up.

The

44. Forwasted; utterly wasted. prefix for is same as O. E. and German

ver-.

46. Dwarfe: probably represents common sense, or the common prudence of life.