To the most vertuous and beautifull Lady, the Lady

Carew.

NE may I, without blot of endless blame,
You, fairest Lady, leave out of this place;
But, with remembraunce of your gracious Name,
(Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace
And deck the world,) adorne these verses base:
Not that these few lines can in them comprise
Those glorious ornaments of hevenly grace,
Wherewith ye triumph over feeble eyes
And in subdued harts do tyranyse;

(For thereunto doth need a golden quill
And silver leaves, them rightly to devise ;)
But to make humble present of good will:
Which, whenas timely meanes it purchase may,
In ampler wise itselfe will forth display.

E. S.

To all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the Court.

THE Chian Peincter, when he was requir'd
To pourtraict Venus in her perfect hew;
To make his worke more absolute, desir'd
Of all the fairest Maides to have the vew.
Much more me needs, (to draw the semblant trew,
Of Beauties Queene, the worlds sole wonderment,)
To sharpe my sence with sundry Beauties vew,
And steale from each some part of ornament.

If all the world to seeke I overwent,

A fairer crew yet no where could I see

Then that brave Court doth to mine eie present;

That the world's pride seemes gathered there to bee. Of each a part I stole by cunning thefte:

Forgive it me, faire Dames, sith1 lesse ye have not lefte.

1 Sith, since.

E. S.

THE FIRST BOOK

OF

THE FAERIE QUEENE

CONTAYNING

THE LEGEND OF THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSSE, OR

OF HOLINESSE.

I.

Lo!

O! I, the man whose Muse whylome did maske,
As time her taught, in lowly shepheards weeds, 1
Am now enforst, a farre unfitter taske,

For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose praises having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds 2
To blazon broade emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize
my song.

II.

3

Help then, O holy virgin, chiefe of nyne,
Thy weaker novice to perform thy will;
Lay forth out of thine everlasting scryne
The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still,
Of Faerie Knights, and fayrest Tanaquill *

1 Weeds, clothes.

2 Areeds, teaches.

3 Scryne, (scrinium, Lat.,) a cabinet in which papers were kept.

*

Tanaquill is another name for Gloriana, the Faerie Queene,

Whom that most noble Briton Prince so long

Sought through the world, and suffered so much ill,
That I must rue his undeserved wrong:

O, helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull tong!

III.

And thou, most dreaded impe1 of highest Iove,
Faire Venus sonne, that with thy cruell dart
At that good Knight so cunningly didst rove,2
That glorious fire it kindled in his hart;

3

Lay now thy deadly heben 3 bowe apart,

And, with thy mother mylde, come to mine ayde;
Come, both; and with you bring triumphant Mart,
In loves and gentle iollities arraid,

After his murdrous spoyles and bloudie rage allayd.

IV.

And with them eke, O Goddesse heavenly bright,
Mirrour of grace and majestie divine,

Great Ladie of the greatest isle, whose light

Like Phoebus lampe throughout the world doth shine,
Shed thy faire beames into my feeble eyne,

And raise my thoughtes, too humble and too vile,
To thinke of that true glorious type of thine,

The Argument of mine afflicted 4 stile :

The which to heare vouchsafe, O dearest Dread,5 a while.

1

Impe, descendant.

3 Heben, ebony.

Rove, shoot with a rover, a sort of arrow.

4 Afflicted, low, or humble.

5 Dread, object of reverence.

CANTO I.

The Patron of true Holinesse
Foule Errour doth defeate;
Hypocrisie, him to entrappe,

Doth to his home entreate.

I.

A GENTLE Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd1 in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine,
The cruel markes of many' a bloody fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full iolly 2 knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

3

II.

And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore,

The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,

For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living ever, him ador❜d:

2

1 Ycladd, clad. Iolly, handsome. 3 Giusts, tournaments.

I.1.-A gentle Knight.] Spenser comes at once to the action of the poem, and describes the Red-cross knight as having already entered upon the adventure assigned him by the Faerie Queene, which was to slay the dragon which laid waste the kingdom of Una's father. The Red-cross knight is St. George, the patron saint of England, and represents holiness or Christian purity, and is clothed in the "whole armor of God," described by St. Paul in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians.