Here may thy storme-bett vessell safely ryde;
This is the Port of rest from troublous toyle,

The worldes sweet In1 from paine and wearisome turmoyle."

XXXIII.

With that the rolling sea, resounding soft,
In his big base them fitly answered;
And on the rocke the waves breaking aloft
A solemne meane 2 unto them measured ;
The whiles sweet zephyrus lowd whisteled
His treble, a straunge kinde of harmony;
Which Guyons senses softly tickeled,
That he the Boteman bad row easily,

And let him heare some part of their rare melody.

XXXIV.

But him the Palmer from that vanity

With temperate advice discounselled,

That they it past, and shortly gan descry

The land to which their course they levelled 3;
When suddeinly a grosse fog over spred
With his dull vapour all that desert has,
And heavens chearefull face enveloped,
That all things one, and one as nothing was,
And this great universe seemd one confused mas.

XXXV.

Thereat they greatly were dismayd, ne wist 4
How to direct theyr way in darkenes wide,
But feard to wander in that wastefull mist,
For tombling into mischiefe unespyde:
Worse is the daunger hidden then 5 descride.

1 In, resting-place.

4 Wist, knew.

2 Meane, tenor. 3 Levelled, aimed.
5 Then, than.

- For tombling.] Lest they should tumble or fall.

Suddeinly an innumerable flight

Of harmefull fowles about them fluttering cride, And with their wicked wings them ofte did smight, And sore annoyed, groping in that griesly night.

XXXVI.

Even all the nation of unfortunate

And fatall birds about them flocked were,
Such as by nature men abhorre and hate;
The ill-faste1owle, deaths dreadfull messengere;
The hoars night-raven, trump of dolefull drere2;
The lether-winged batt, dayes enimy;

The ruefull strich,3 still waiting on the bere 4;
The whistler shrill, that whoso heares doth dy;
The hellish harpyes, prophets of sad destiny:

XXXVII.

5

All those, and all that els does horror breed, About them flew, and fild their sayles with feare; Yet stayd they not, but forward did proceed, Whiles th' one did row, and th' other stifly steare, Till that at last the weather gan to cleare, And the faire land itselfe did playnly show. Said then the Palmer; "Lo! where does appeare The sacred soile where all our perills grow! Therefore, Sir Knight, your ready arms about you throw."

XXXVIII.

He hearkned, and his armes about him tooke,
The whiles the nimble bote so well her sped,
That with her crooked keele the land she strooke:

1 Ill-faste, ill-faced.

2 Drere, sorrow.

3 Strich, the screech-owl.

4 Bere, bier.

5 Stifly, resolutely.

Sacred, cursed, or, perhaps, enchanted.

XXXVII. 2.- Fild their sayles with feare.] A bold metaphor, like Milton's

"Built in th' eclipse and rigged with curses dark.",

Then forth the noble Guyon sallied,
And his sage Palmer that him governed;

But th' other by his bote behind did stay.
They marched fayrly forth, of nought ydred,1
Both firmely armd for every hard assay,

With constancy and care, gainst daunger and dismay.

XXXIX.

Ere long they heard an hideous bellowing
Of many beasts, that roard outrageously,
As if that hungers poynt or Venus sting
Had them enraged with fell surquedry 2;
Yet nought they feard, but past on hardily,
Untill they came in vew of those wilde beasts,
Who all attonce, gaping full greedily,

And rearing fercely their upstaring 3 crests,
Ran towards to devoure those unexpected guests.

XL.

But, soone as they approcht with deadly threat,
The Paliner over them his staffe upheld,
His mighty staffe, that could all charmes defeat:
Eftesoones their stubborne corages were queld,
And high advaunced crests downe meekely feld 5;
Instead of fraying they themselves did feare,
And trembled, as them passing they beheld:

1 Ydred, afraid.

6

2 Surquedry, insolence.

3 Upstaring, high-advanced.

4 Eftesoones, instantly.

5 Feld, were felled,
6 Fraying, terrifying.

XL. 2.-His staffe upheld.] In the fifteenth book of the Jerusalem Delivered, (from which Spenser has drawn some of the incidents and descriptions of this canto,) the knights Charles and Ubaldo encounter various wild beasts on their way to the Gardens of Armida, which are rendered harmless by holding a charmed rod over them. The virtues of this staff express that power over the inferior appetites, which springs from habits of temperance and self-control.

Such wondrous powre did in that staffe appeare, All monsters to subdew to him that did it beare.

XLI.

Of that same wood it fram'd was cunningly,
Of which Caduceus whilome1 was made,
Caduceus, the rod of Mercury,

With which he wonts the Stygian realmes invade
Through ghastly horror and eternall shade;
Th' infernall feends with it he can asswage,
And Orcus tame, whome nothing can persuade,
And rule the Furyes when they most doe rage:
Such vertue in his staffe had eke this Palmer sage.

XLII.

Thence passing forth, they shortly doe arryve
Whereas the Bowre of Blisse was situate;
A place pickt out by choyce of best alyve,
That natures worke by art can imitate :
In which whatever in this worldly state
Is sweete and pleasing unto living sense,
Or that may dayntest 2 fantasy aggrate, 3
Was poured forth with plentifull dispence,*
And made there to abound with lavish affluence.
XLIII.

Goodly it was enclosed rownd about,

As well their entred guestes to keep within,
As those unruly beasts to hold without;

Yet was the fence thereof but weake and thin;
Nought feard their force that fortilage 5 to win,

1 Whilome, formerly.

2 Dayntest, daintiest, most delicate.
3 Aggrate, delight.

4 Dispence, expense.

5 Fortilage, fortress.

XLIII. 5.-Nought feard, &c.] Their forces did not apprehend danger from the assault of any power, except the power of wisdom and the might of temperance.

But Wisedomes powre, and Temperaunces might,
By which the mightiest things efforced bin 1:

And eke the gate was wrought of substaunce light,
Rather for pleasure then for battery or fight.

XLIV.

Yt framed was of precious yvory,

That seemd a worke of admirable witt;
And therein all the famous history

Of Iason and Medea was ywritt; Her mighty charmes, her furious loving fitt; His goodly conquest of the golden fleece, His falsed fayth, and love too lightly flitt2; The wondred Argo, which in venturous peece First through the Euxine seas bore all the flowr of Greece.

XLV.

Ye might have seene the frothy billowes fry 4
Under the ship as thorough them she went,
That seemd the waves were into yvory,

Or yvory into the waves were sent ;

And otherwhere 5 the snowy substaunce sprent 6
With vermell, like the boyes blood therein shed,

1 Bin, been, are.

2 Flitt, departed.

3 Wondred, wondered at or admired.

4 Fry, foam.

• Otherwhere, in another place.

6 Sprent, sprinkled.

7 Vermell, vermilion.

Tasso describes the gates of the

XLIV. 1.— Yt framed was, &c.] palace of Armida as being of silver, on which were wrought the stories of Hercules and Iole, and of Antony and Cleopatra. — JER. DEL., canto XVI.

XLIV. 8.- In venturous peece.] Peece was formerly used to designate a castle, or any large structure. Hence it is here applied to a ship.

XLV. 6. The boyes blood.] Medea put to death the children she had by Jason, and presented Creusa, the destined wife of Jason, with an enchanted garment, which consumed her to ashes.