"There be the two stout sonnes of Eacus,
Fierce Peleus, and the hardie Telamon,
Both seeming now full glad and joyeous
Through their Syres dreadfull jurisdiction,
Being the Judge of all that horrid hous:
And both of them, by strange occasion,
Renown'd in choyce of happie marriage
Through Venus grace, and vertues cariage.
"For th' one was ravisht of his owne bondmaide
The faire Ixione captiv'd from Troy;
But th' other was with Thetis love assaid,
Great Nereus his daughter and his joy.
On this side them there is a yongman layd,
Their match in glorie, mightie, fierce, and coy;
That from th' Argolick ships, with furious yre,
Bett back the furie of the Trojan fyre.
"O! who would not recount the strong divorces
Of that great warre, which Trojanes oft behelde,
And oft beheld the warlike Greekish forces,
When Teucrian soyle with bloodie rivers swelde,
And wide Sigaan shores were spred with corses,
And Simois and Xanthus blood outwelde;
Whilst Hector raged, with outragious minde,
Flames, weapons, wounds, in Greeks fleete to have tynde.
"For Ida selfe, in ayde of that fierce fight,
Out of her mountaines ministred supplies;
And, like a kindly nourse, did yeeld (for spight)
Store of firebronds out of her nourseries
Unto her foster children, that they might
Inflame the Navie of their enemies,
And all the Rhétaan shore to ashes turne,
Where lay the ships, which they did seeke to burne.
"Gainst which the noble sonne of Telamon Oppos'd himselfe, and, thwarting his huge shield, Them battell bad, gainst whom appeard anon
Hector, the glorie of the Trojan field:
Both fierce and furious in contention
Encountred, that their mightie strokes so shrild,
As the great clap of thunder, which doth ryve
The ratling heavens, and cloudes asunder dryve.
"So th' one with fire and weapons did contend
To cut the ships from turning home againe
To Argos; th' other strove for to defend
The force of Vulcane with his might and maine.
Thus th' one acide did his fame extend:
But th' other joy'd, that, on the Phrygian playne
Having the blood of vanquisht Hector shedd,
He compast Troy thrice with his bodie dedd.
"Againe great dole on either partie grewe,
That him to death unfaithfull Paris sent;
And also him that false Ulysses slewe,
Drawne into danger through close ambushment;
Therefore from him Laërtes sonne his vewe
Doth turne aside, and boasts his good event
In working of Strymonian Rhasus fall,
And efte in Dolons subtile súrprysall.
"Againe the dreadfull Cycones him dismay,
And blacke Læstrigones, a people stout:
Then greedie Scilla, under whom there bay
Manie great bandogs, which her gird about:
Then doo the Etnean Cyclops him affray,
And deep Charybdis gulphing in and out:
Lastly the squalid lakes of Tartarie,
And griesly feends of hell him terrifie.
"There also goodly Agamemnon bosts,
The glorie of the stock of Tantalus,
And famous light of all the Greekish hosts;
Under whose conduct most victorious,
The Dorick flames consum'd the Iliack posts.
Ah! but the Greekes themselves, more dolorous,
To thee, O Troy, paid penaunce for thy fall;
In th' Hellespont being nigh drowned all.
"Well may appeare by proofe of their mischaunce,
The chaungfull turning of mens slipperie state,
That none, whom fortune freely doth advaunce,
Himselfe therefore to heaven should elevate:
For loftie type of honour, through the glaunce
Of envies dart, is downe in dust prostrate;
And all, that vaunts in worldly vanitie,
Shall fall through fortunes mutabilitie.
“Th' Argolicke Power returning home againe,
Enricht with spoyles of th' Ericthonian towre,
Did happie winde and weather entertaine,
And with good speed the fomie billowes scowre:
No signe of storme, no feare of future paine,
Which soone ensued them with heavie stowre.
Nereïs to the Seas a token gave,
The whiles their crooked keeles the surges clave.
"Suddenly, whether through the Gods decree,
Or haplesse rising of some froward starre,
The heavens on everie side enclowded bee:
Black stormes and fogs are blowen up from farre,
That now the Pylote can no loadstarre see,
But skies and seas doo make most dreadfull warre;
The billowes striving to the heavens to reach,
And th' heavens striving them for to impeach.
"And, in avengement of their bold attempt,
Both sun and starres and all the heavenly powres
Conspire in one to wreake their rash contempt,
And downe on them to fall from highest towres :
The skie, in pieces seeming to be rent,
Throwes lightning forth, and haile, and harmful showres, That death on everie side to them appeares,
In thousand formes, to worke more ghastly feares.
“Some in the greedie flouds are sunke and drent;
Some on the rocks of Caphareus are throwne ;
Some on th' Euboick Cliffs in pieces rent;
Some scattred on the Hercaan shores unknowne;
And manie lost, of whom no moniment
Remaines, nor memorie is to be showne:
Whilst all the purchase of the Phrigian pray,
Tost on salt billowes, round about doth stray.
"Here manie other like Heroës bee,
Equall in honour to the former crue,
Whom ye in goodly seates may placed see,
Descended all from Rome by linage due ;
From Rome, that holds the world in sovereigntie,
And doth all Nations unto her subdue:
Here Fabii and Decii doo dwell,
Horatii that in vertue did excell.
“And here the antique fame of stout Camill
Doth ever live; and constant Curtius,
Who, stifly bent his vowed life to spill
For Countreyes health, a gulph most hideous
Amidst the Towne with his owne corps did fill,
T' appease the Powers; and prudent Mutius,
Who in his flesh endur'd the scorching flame,
To daunt his foe by' ensample of the same.
"And here wise Curius, companion
Of noble vertues, lives in endles rest;
And stout Flaminius, whose devotion
Taught him the fires scorn'd furie to detest;
And here the praise of either Scipion
Abides in highest place above the best,
To whom the ruin'd walls of Carthage vow'd ;
Trembling, their forces sound their praises lowd.
"Live they for ever through their lasting praise!
But I, poore wretch, am forced to retourne
To the sad lakes that Phœbus sunnie rayes
Doo never see, where soules doo alwaies mourne ;
And by the wayling shores to waste my dayes,
Where Phlegeton with quenchles flames doth burne;
By which just Minos righteous soules doth sever
From wicked ones, to live in blisse for ever.
"Me therefore thus the cruell fiends of hell
Girt with long snakes, and thousand yron chaynes,
Through doome of that their cruell Judge, compell
With bitter torture, and impatient paines,
Cause of my death and just complaint to tell.
For thou art he, whom my poore ghost complaines
To be the Author of her ill unwares,
That careles hear'st my' intollerable cares.
"Them therefore as bequeathing to the winde,
I now depart, returning to thee never,
And leave this lamentable plaint behinde.
But doo thou haunt the soft downe-rolling river,
And wilde greene woods and fruitful pastures minde;
And let the flitting aire my vaine words sever."-
Thus having said, he heavily departed
With piteous crie, that anie would have smarted.
Now, when the sloathfull fit of lifes sweete rest
Had left the heavie Shepheard, wondrous cares
His inly grieved minde full sore opprest;
That balefull sorrow he no longer beares
For that Gnats death, which deeply was imprest;
But bends what ever power his aged yeares
Him lent, yet being such, as through their might
He lately slue his dreadfull foe in fight.
By that same River lurking under greene,
Eftsoones he gins to fashion forth a place;
And, squaring it in compasse well beseene,
There plotteth out a tombe by measured space :
His yron-headed spade tho making cleene,
To dig up sods out of the flowrie grasse.
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