There she them found all sitting round about
The direfull Distaffe standing in the mid,
And with unwearied fingers drawing out
The lines of life, from living knowledge hid.
Sad Clotho held the rocke, the whiles the thrid
By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine,
That cruell Atropos eftsoones undid,
With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine:
Most wretched men, whose dayes depend on thrids so
She, them saluting there, by them sate still
Beholding how the thrids of life they span:
And when at last she had beheld her fill,
Trembling in heart, and looking pale and wan,
Her cause of comming she to tell began.
To whom fierce Atropos;
"Bold Fay, that durst Come see the secret of the life of man,
Well worthie thou to be of love accurst,
And eke thy childrens thrids to be asunder burst !”’`
Whereat she sore affrayd yet her besought
To graunt her boone, and rigour to abate,
That she might see her childrens thrids forth brought,
And know the measure of their utmost date
To them ordained by eternall Fate:
Which Clotho graunting shewed her the same.
That when she saw, it did her much amate
To see their thrids so thin, as spiders frame,
And eke so short, that seemd their ends out shortly came.
She then began them humbly to intreate
To draw them longer out, and better twine,
That so their lives might be prolonged late:
But Lachesis thereat gan to repine,
"Fond dame! that deem'st of things divine As of humáne, that they may altred bee,
And chaung'd at pleasure for those impes of thine: Not so; for what the Fates do once decree, Not all the gods can chaunge, nor love himself can
"Then since," quoth she," the terme of each mans life
For nought may lessened nor enlarged bee;
Graunt this; that when ye shred with fatall knife
His line, which is the eldest of the three,
Which is of them the shortest, as I see,
Eftsoones his life may passe into the next;
And, when the next shall likewise ended bee,
That both their lives may likewise be annext
Unto the third, that his may be so trebly wext."
They graunted it; and then that carefull Fay
Departed thence with full contented mynd;
And, comming home, in warlike fresh aray
Them found all three according to their kynd;
But unto them what destinie was assynd,
Or how their lives were eekt, she did not tell;
But evermore, when she fit time could fynd,
She warned them to tend their safeties well,
And love each other deare, whatever them befell.
So did they surely during all their dayes,
And never discord did amongst them fall;
Which much augmented all their other praise:
And now, t' increase affection naturall,
In love of Canacee they ioyned all:
Upon which ground this same great Battell grew, (Great matter growing of beginning small,) The which, for length, I will not here pursew, But rather will reserve it for a Canto new.
PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET.
The Legend of Cambel and Triamond, or of Friendship
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