But the two brethren borne of Cadmus blood, Whilst each does for the Soueraignty contend, Blinde through ambition, and with vengeance wood, 411

Each doth against the others bodie bend
His cursed steele, of neither well withstood,
And with wide wounds their carcases doth rend;
That yet they both doe mortall foes remaine,
Sith each with brothers bloudie hand was slaine.
Ah (waladay) there is no end of paine,
Nor chaunge of labour may intreated bee:
Yet I beyond all these am carried faine,
Where other powers farre different I see,
And must passe ouer to th'Elisian plaine:
There grim Persephone encountring mee,
Doth vrge her fellow Furies earnest lie,
With their bright firebronds me to terrifie.
There chast Alceste liues inuiolate,

420

430

Free from all care, for that her husbands daies
She did prolong by changing fate for fate.
Lo there liues also the immortall praise
Of womankinde, most faithfull to her mate,
Penelope and from her farre awayes
A rulesse rout of yongmen, which her woo'd
All slaine with darts, lie wallowed in their blood.
And sad Eurydice thence now no more
Must turne to life, but there detained bee,
For looking back, being forbid before:
Yet was the guilt thereof, Orpheus, in thee.
Bold sure he was, and worthie spirite bore,
That durst those lowest shadowes goe to see,
And could beleeue that anie thing could please
Fell Cerberus, or Stygian powres appease. 440
Ne feard the burning waues of Phlegeton,
Nor those same mournfull kingdomes, com-
passed

With rustie horrour and fowle fashion,
And deep digd vawtes, and Tartar couered
With bloodie night, and darke confusion,
And judgement seates, whose Iudge is deadlie
dred.

A iudge, that after death doth punish sore The faults, which life hath trespassed before. But valiant fortune made Dan Orpheus bolde: For the swift running riuers still did stand, 450 And the wilde beasts their furie did withhold, To follow Orpheus musicke through the land: And th'Okes deep grounded in the earthly molde Did moue, as if they could him vnderstand; And the shrill woods, which were of sense bereau'd,

Through their hard barke his siluer sound receau'd.

And eke the Moone her hastie steedes did stay, Drawing in teemes along the starrie skie,

And didst (O monthly Virgin) thou delay
Thy nightly course, to heare his melodie? 460
The same was able with like louely lay
The Queene of hell to moue as easily,
To yeeld Eurydice vnto her fere,
Backe to be borne, though it vnlawfull were.
She (Ladie) hauing well before approoued,
The feends to be too cruell and seuere,
Obseru'd th'appointed way, as her behooued,
Ne euer did her ey-sight turne arere,
Ne euer spake, ne cause of speaking mooued:
But cruell Orpheus, thou much crueller, 470
Seeking to kisse her, brok'st the Gods decree,
And thereby mad'st her euer damn'd to be.
Ah but sweete loue of pardon worthie is,
And doth deserue to haue small faults remitted;
If Hell at least things lightly done amis
Knew how to pardon, when ought is omitted:
Yet are ye both receiued into blis,
And to the seates of happie soules admitted.
And you,
beside the honourable band
Of great Heroës, doo in order stand.
There be the two stout sonnes of Aeacus,
Fierce Peleus, and the hardie Telamon,
Both seeming now full glad and ioyeous
Through their Syres dreadfull iurisdiction,
Being the Iudge 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 rauisht of his owne bondmaide,
The faire Ixione captiu'd from Troy :
But th'other was with Thetis loue assaid,
Great Nereus his daughter, and his ioy.
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 Troian fyre.

480

490

O who would not recount the strong diuorces
Of that great warre, which Troianes oft behelde,
And oft beheld the warlike Greekish forces, 499
When Teucrian soyle with bloodie riuers 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
haue 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,
Vnto her foster children, that they might
Inflame the Nauie of their enemies,
And all the Rhetean shore to ashes turne,
Where lay the ships, which they did seeke to burne.

510

Gainst which the noble sonne of Telamon
Opposd' himselfe, and thwarting his huge shield,
Them battell bad, gainst whom appeard anon
Hector, the glorie of the Troian field:
Both fierce and furious in contention

Encountred, that their mightie strokes so shrild,
As the great clap of thunder, which doth ryue
The ratling heauens, and cloudes asunder dryue.
So th'one with fire and weapons did contend
To cut the ships, from turning home againe
To Argos, th'other stroue for to defend
The force of Vulcane with his might and maine.
Thus th'one Aeacide did his fame extend:
But th'other ioy'd, that on the Phrygian playne
Hauing 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 vnfaithfull Paris sent, 530
And also him that false Vlysses slewe,
Drawne into danger through close ambushment:
Therefore from him Laërtes sonne his vewe
Doth turne aside, and boasts his good euent
In working of Strymonian Rhesus fall,
And efte in Dolons subtile surprysall.
Againe the dreadfull Cycones him dismay,
And blacke Læstrigones, a people stout:
Then greedie Scilla, vnder whom there bay
Manie great bandogs, which her gird about:
Then doo the Aetnean Cyclops him affray, 541
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,
Vnder whose conduct most victorious,
The Dorick flames consum'd the Iliack posts.
Ah but the Greekes themselues more dolorous,
To thee, O Troy, paid penaunce for thy fall,
In th'Hellespont being nigh drowned all.
552
Well may appeare by proofe of their mischaunce,
The chaungfull turning of mens slipperie state,
That none, whom fortune freely doth aduaunce,
Himselfe therefore to heauen should eleuate:
For loftie type of honour through the glaunce
Of enuies 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 heauie stowre.

560

Nereïs to the Seas a token gaue,
The whiles their crooked keeles the surges claue.
Suddenly, whether through the Gods decree,
Or haplesse rising of some froward starre, 570
The heauens on euerie side enclowded bee:

Black stormes and fogs are blowen vp from farre,
That now the Pylote can no loadstarre see,
But skies and seas doo make most dreadfull

warre;

The billowes striuing to the heauens to reach, And th'heauens striuing them for to impeach. And in auengement of their bold attempt, Both Sun and starres and all the heauenly 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, 581 Throwes lightning forth, and haile, and harmful showres,

That death on euerie side to them appeares In thousand formes, to worke more ghastly feares.

бос

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 vnknowne;
And manie lost, of whom no moniment
Remaines, nor memorie is to be showne: 590
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 souereigntie,
And doth all Nations vnto her subdue:
Here Fabij and Decij doo dwell,
Horatij that in vertue did excell.
And here the antique fame of stout Camill
Doth euer liue, 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 n
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, liues in endles rest; 610
And stout Flaminius, whose deuotion
Taught him the fires scorn'd furie to detest;
And here the praise of either Scipion
Abides in highest place aboue the best,
To whom the ruin'd walls of Carthage vow'd,
Trembling their forces, sound their praises lowd.

Liue they for euer through their lasting praise:
But I poore wretch am forced to retourne
To the sad lakes, that Phoebus sunnie rayes
Doo neuer see, where soules doo alwaies mourne,
And by the wayling shores to waste my dayes,
Where Phlegeton with quenchles flames doth
burne;

622

By which iust Minos righteous soules doth seuer
From wicked ones, to liue in blisse for euer.
Me therefore thus the cruell fiends of hell
Girt with long snakes, and thousand yron
chaynes,

Through doome of that their cruell Iudge, compell

With bitter torture and impatient paines, Cause of my death, and iust complaint to tell. For thou art he, whom my poore ghost complaines 630

To be the author of her ill vnwares,
That careles hear'st my intollerable cares.

Them therefore as bequeathing to the winde,
I now depart, returning to thee neuer,
And leaue this lamentable plaint behinde.
But doo thou haunt the soft downe rolling riuer,
And wilde greene woods, and fruitful pastures
minde,

And let the flitting aire my vaine words seuer.
Thus hauing said, he heauily departed 639
With piteous crie, that anie would haue smarted.
Now, when the sloathfull fit of lifes sweete rest
Had left the heauie Shepheard, wondrous cares
His inly grieued minde full sore opprest;
That balefull sorrow he no longer beares,
For that Gnats death, which deeply was imprest:
But bends what euer power his aged yeares
Him lent, yet being such, as through their might
He lately slue his dreadfull foe in fight.

By that same Riuer lurking vnder greene,
Eftsoones he gins to fashion forth a place, 650
And squaring it in compasse well beseene,
There plotteth cut a tombe by measured space :

His yron headed spade tho making cleene,
To dig vp sods out of the flowrie grasse,
His worke he shortly to good purpose
brought,

660

Like as he had conceiu'd it in his thought.
An heape of earth he hoorded vp on hie,
And thereupon did raise full busily
Enclosing it with banks on euerie side,
A little mount, of greene turffs edifide;
And on the top of all, that passers by
Might it behold, the toomb he did prouide
Of smoothest marble stone in order set,
That neuer might his luckie scape forget.
And round about he taught sweete flowres to
The Rose engrained in pure scarlet die,
growe,
The Lilly fresh, and Violet belowe,
The Marigolde, and cherefull Rosemarie,
The Spartan Mirtle, whence sweet gumb does
flowe,

671

The purple Hyacinthe, and fresh Costmarie,
And Saffron sought for in Cilician soyle,
And Lawrell th'ornament of Phœbus toyle.
Fresh Rhododaphne, and the Sabine flowre
Matching the wealth of th'auncient Frankin-