"Behold, Sir, how your pitifull complaint
Hath fownd another partner of your payne:
For nothing may impresse so deare constraint
As Countries cause, and commune foes disdayne.
But, if it should not grieve you backe agayne
To turne your course, I would to heare desyre
What to Aeneas fell; sith that men sayne
He was not in the Cities wofull fyre
Consum❜d but did himselfe to safety retyre."
“Anchyses sonne begott of Venus fayre,”
Said he, "out of the flames for safegard fled,
And with a remnant did to sea repayre:
Where he, through fatall errour long was led
Full many yeares, and weetlesse wandered
From shore to shore emongst the Lybick sandes,
Ere rest he fownd: Much there he suffered,
And many perilles past in forreine landes,
To save his people sad from Victours vengefull handes:
"At last in Latium he did arryve,
Where he with cruell warre was entertaind
Of th' inland folke which sought him backe to drive, Till he with old Latinus was constraind
To contract wedlock, so the Fates ordaind; Wedlocke contract in blood, and eke in blood Accomplished; that many deare complaind: The rivall slaine, the Victour (through the flood Escaped hardly) hardly praisd his wedlock good.
"Yet, after all, he Victour did survive,
And with Latinus did the kingdom part:
But after, when both nations gan to strive
Into their names the title to convart,
His sonne Tulus did from thence depart
With all the warlike youth of Trojans bloud,
And in Long Alba plast his throne apart ;
Where faire it florished and long time stoud,
Till Romulus, renewing it, to Rome removd."
"There; there," said Britomart, "afresh appeard
The glory of the later world to spring,
And Troy againe out of her dust was reard
To sitt in second seat of soveraine king
Of all the world, under her governing.
But a third kingdom yet is to arise
Out of the Trojans scattered ofspring,
That, in all glory and great enterprise,
Both first and second Troy shall dare to equalise.
"It Troynovant is hight, that with the waves
Of wealthy Thamis washed is along,
Upon whose stubborne neck (whereat he raves
With roring rage, and sore himselfe does throng,
That all men feare to tempt his billowes strong,)
She fastned hath her foot; which stands so hy,
That it a wonder of the world is song
In forreine Landes; and all, which passen by,
Beholding it from farre doe think it threates the skye.
"The Trojan Brute did first that Citie fownd,
And Hygate made the meare thereof by West,
And Overt-gate by North: that is the bownd
Toward the land; two rivers bownd the rest.
So huge a scope at first him seemed best,
To be the compasse of his kingdomes seat:
So huge a mind could not in lesser `rest,
Ne in small meares containe his glory great,
That Albion had conquered first by warlike feat."
"Ah! fairest Lady-Knight," said Paridell,
"Pardon I pray my heedlesse oversight,
Who had forgot that whylome I heard tell
From aged Mnemon; for my wits beene light.
Indeed he said, if I remember right,
That of the antique Trojan stocke there grew
Another plant, that raught to wondrous hight,
And far abroad his mighty braunches threw
Into the utmost Angle of the world he knew.
"For that same Brute, whom much he did advaunce 48 In all his speach, was Sylvius his sonne,
Whom having slain through luckles arrowes glaunce, He fled for feare of that he had misdonne,
Or els for shame, so fowle reproch to shonne, And with him ledd to sea a youthly trayne; Where wearie wandring they long time did wonne, And many fortunes prov'd in th' Ocean mayne, And great adventures found, that now were long to sayne.
"At last by fatall course they driven were Into an Island spatious and brode,
The furthest North that did to them appeare: Which, after rest, they, seeking farre abrode, Found it the fittest soyle for their abode, Fruitfull of all thinges fitt for living foode, But wholy waste and void of peoples trode, Save an huge nation of the Geaunts broode That fed on living flesh, and dronck mens vitall blood.
"Whom he, through wearie wars and labours long, 50 Subdewd with losse of many Britons bold:
In which the great Goëmagot of strong
Corineus and Coulin of Debon old,
Were overthrowne and laide on th' earth full cold,
Which quaked under their so hideous masse:
A famous history to bee enrold
In everlasting moniments of brasse,
That all the antique Worthies merits far did passe.
"His worke great Troynovant, his worke is eke
Faire Lincolne, both renowmed far away;
That who from East to West will endlong seeke,
Cannot two fairer cities find this day,
Except Cleopolis; so heard I say
Old Mnemon: Therefore, Sir, I greet you well
Your countrey kin; and you entyrely pray
Of pardon for the strife, which late befell
Betwixt us both unknowne." So ended Paridell.
But all the while, that he these speeches spent,
Upon his lips hong faire Dame Hellenore
With vigilant regard and dew attent,
Fashioning worldes of fancies evermore
In her fraile witt, that now her quite forlore:
The whiles unwares away her wondring eye
And greedy eares her weake hart from her bore:
Which he perceiving, ever privily,
In speaking, many false belgardes at her let fly.
So long these Knightes discoursed diversly
Of straunge affaires, and noble hardiment,
Which they had past with mickle jeopardy,
That now the humid night was farforth spent,
And hevenly lampes were halfendeale ybrent :
Which th' old man seeing wel, who too long thought
Every discourse, and every argument,
Which by the houres he measured, besought
Them go to rest. So all unto their bowres were brought.
CANTO X.
Paridell rapeth Hellenore;
Malbecco her poursewes;
Fynds emongst Satyres, whence with him
To turne she doth refuse.
HE morrow next, so soone as Phœbus lamp
Bewrayed had the world with early light,
And fresh Aurora had the shady damp
Out of the goodly heven amoved quight,
Faire Britomart and that same Faery Knight
Uprose, forth on their journey for to wend:
But Paridell complaynd, that his late fight
With Britomart so sore did him offend,
That ryde he could not till his hurts he did amend.
So foorth they far'd; but he behind them stayd,
Maulgre his host, who grudged grivously
To house a guest that would be needes obayd,
And of his owne him lefte not liberty:
Might wanting measure moveth surquedry.
Two things he feared, but the third was death;
That fiers Youngmans unruly maystery;
His Money, which he lov'd as living breath;
And his faire Wife, whom honest long he kept uneath.
But patience perforce; he must abie
What fortune and his fate on him will lay:
Fond is the feare that findes no remedie.
Yet warily he watcheth every way,
By which he feareth evill happen may;
So th' evill thinkes by watching to prevent:
Ne doth he suffer her, nor night nor day,
Out of his sight herselfe once to absent:
So doth he punish her, and eke himself torment.
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