XL.

Great joy was made that day of young and old,
And solemne feast proclaymd throughout the land,
That their exceeding merth may not be told:
Suffice it heare by signes to understand

The usuall ioyes at knitting of loves band.
Thrise happy man the Knight himselfe did hold,
Possessed of his Ladies hart and hand;

And ever, when his eie did her behold,

His heart did seeme to melt in pleasures manifold.

XLI.

Her ioyous presence, and sweet company,
In full content he there did long enioy;
Ne wicked envy, ne vile gealosy,
His deare delights were hable to annoy :

Yet swimming in that sea of blisfull ioy,
He nought forgott how he whilome had sworne,
In case he could that monstrous Beast destroy,
Unto his Faery Queene backe to retourne;
The which he shortly did; and Una left to mourne.

XLII.

Now, strike your sailes, yee iolly mariners,

For we be come unto a quiet rode,

Where we must land some of our passengers,

And light this weary vessell of her lode.
Here she a while may make her safe abode,
Till she repaired have her tackles spent,
And wants supplide; and then againe abroad
On the long voiage whereto she is bent:

Well may she speede, and fairely finish her intent!*

* The connection between this first book of the Faerie Queene and the remainder of the poem is so slight that Hughes conjectures it to be a separate work of itself. We do not learn the particular enterprises

in which the Red-cross Knight engaged after his marriage with Una. He appears occasionally in the subsequent books, but only incidentally, and not as taking any part in the main action. Warton considers it a defect in the Faerie Queene that the adventures, taken separately as the subject of each single book, have not always a mutual dependence upon each other, and consequently do not properly contribute to constitute one legitimate poem. Skill in the construction of the story is certainly not a prominent merit of the poem; but, as Campbell remarks, with as much of beauty as truth, "There is still a richness in his materials, even where their coherence is loose and their disposition confused. The clouds of his allegory may seem to spread into shapeless forms, but they are still the clouds of a glowing atmosphere. Though his story grows desultory, the sweetness and grace of his manner still abide by him."-ESSAY ON ENG. POETRY, p. 107.

THE SECOND BOOK

OF

THE FAERIE QUEENE

CONTAYNING

THE LEGEND OF SIR GUYON, OR OF TEMPERAUNCE.

I.

RIGHT well I wote,1 most mighty Soveraine,

That all this famous antique history
Of some th' aboundance of an ydle braine
Will iudged be, and painted forgery,
Rather then matter of iust memory;

Sith 2 none that breatheth living aire doth know
Where is that happy land of Faëry,

Which I so much doe vaunt, yet no where show; But vouch antiquities, which no body can know.

II.

But let that man with better sence advize 3
That of the world least part to us is red1;
And daily how through hardy enterprize
Many great regions are discovered,
Which to late age were never mentioned.

1 Wote, know.
• Sith, since.

3 Advize, bear in mind.

4 Red, made known.

Who ever heard of th' Indian Peru?

Or who in venturous vessell measured
The Amazon huge river, now found trew?
Or fruitfullest Virginia who did ever vew?

III.

Yet all these were, when no man did them know,
Yet have from wisest ages hidden beene;
And later times thinges more unknowne shall show.
Why then should witlesse man so much misweene,1
That nothing is, but that which he hath seene?
What, if within the moones fayre shining sphere,
What, if in every other starre unseene

Of other worldes he happily should heare?

He wonder would much more; yet such to some appeare.

IV.

Of Faery lond yet if he more inquyre,
By certein signes, here sett in sondrie place,
He may it fynd; ne let him then admyre,
But yield his sence to bee too blunt and bace,
That no❜te 2 without an hound fine footing trace.
And thou, O fayrest Princesse under sky,
In this fayre mirrhour maist behold thy face,
And thine owne realmes in lond of Faëry,
And in this antique ymage thy great auncestry.

V.

The which O! pardon me thus to enfold
In covert vele, and wrapt in shadowes light,
That feeble eyes your glory may behold,

1 Misweene, misjudge. 2 No'te, knows not, contracted from ne wote.

II. 6. Who ever heard, &c.] That is, until the present age.
IV. 6.-Fayrest Princesse.] Queen Elizabeth.

Which ells could not endure those beamës bright,
But would bee dazled with exceeding light.

O! pardon, and vouchsafe with patient eare
The brave adventures of this Faery Knight,
The good Sir Guyon, gratiously to heare;

In whom great rule of Temp'raunce goodly doth appeare.