XXXVIII.

To whom he thus; "O fairest under skie,

Trew be thy words, and worthy of thy praise,
That warlike feats doest highest glorifie.
Therein I have spent all my youthly daies,
And many battailes fought and many fraies
Throughout the world, wherso they might be found,
Endevoring my dreaded name to raise

Above the moone, that Fame may it resound
In her eternall tromp with laurell girlond cround.

XXXIX.

"But what art thou, O Lady, which doest raunge In this wilde forest, where no pleasure is, And doest not it for ioyous Court exchaunge, Emongst thine equall peres, where happy blis And all delight does raigne much more than this? There thou maist love, and dearly loved be, And swim in pleasure, which thou here doest mis; There maist thou best be seene, and best maist see: The wood is fit for beasts, the Court is fitt for Thee."

XL.

"Whoso in pompe of prowd estate," quoth she,
"Does swim, and bathes himselfe in courtly blis,
Does waste his daies in darke obscuritee,
And in oblivion ever buried is: :

Where ease abownds, yt's eath1 to doe amis:
But who his limbs with labours, and his mynd
Behaves 2 with cares, cannot so easy mis.3
Abroad in armes, at home in studious kynd,*
Who seekes with painfull toile, shall Honor soonest fynd:

1 Yt's eath, it is easy.

2 Behaves, occupies, or disciplines.

3 Mis, err.

4 Kynd, occupation.

XLI.

"In woods, in waves, in warres, she wonts to dwell,

And will be found with perill and with paine;

Ne can the man, that moulds in ydle cell,
Unto her happy mansion attaine:

Before her gate High God did Sweate ordaine,
And wakefull Watches ever to abide:

But easy is the way and passage plaine

To Pleasures pallace: it may soone be spide, And day and night her dores to all stand open wide.

XLII.

"In Princes Court"-The rest she would have sayd,
But that the foolish man (fild with delight
Of her sweete words that all his sence dismayd,
And with her wondrous beauty ravisht quight)
Gan burne in filthy lust; and, leaping light,

Thought in his bastard1 armes her to embrace.
With that she, swarving 2 backe, her iavelin bright
Against him bent, and fiercely did menáce:

So turned her about, and fled away apace.

XLIII.

Which when the Pesaunt saw, amazd he stood,
And grieved at her flight; yet durst he not
Pursew her steps through wild unknowen wood;
Besides he feard her wrath, and threatned shott,
Whiles in the bush he lay, not yet forgott:
Ne car'd he greatly for her presence vayne,

1 Bastard, base.

2 Swarving, retreating.

XLII. 9. So turned her about, &c.] In Belphobe, Spenser imbodies the idea of pure and dignified womanhood, which no poet understood better or reverenced more.

XLIII. 6. Her presence vayne.] Her presence useless to him.

But turning said to Trompart; "What fowle blott
Is this to Knight, that Lady should agayne

Depart to woods untoucht, and leave so proud disdayne!"

XLIV.

“Perdy,1” said Trompart, "lett her pas at will,
Least by her presence daunger mote befall.
For who can tell (and sure I feare it ill)
But that shee is some powre celestiall?

For, whiles she spake, her great words did appall
My feeble corage, and my heart oppresse,

That yet I quake and tremble over all."

"And I," said Braggadocchio, "thought no lesse, When first I heard her horn sound with such ghastlinesse.

XLV.

"For from my mothers wombe this grace I have

Me given by eternall destiny,

That earthly thing may not my corage brave

Dismay with feare, or cause one foote to flye,
But either hellish feends, or powres on hye:

Which was the cause, when earst 2 that horne I heard,
Weening it had beene thunder in the skye,

I hid my selfe from it, as one affeard;

But, when I other knew, my self I boldly reard.

XLVI.

"But now, for feare of worse that may betide, Let us soone hence depart." They soone agree: So to his steed he gott, and gan to ride

As one unfitt therefore, that all might see

XLIII. 9.— Leave so proud disdayne.] Leave us so proudly and disdainfully.

XLV. 9.- When I other knew.] When I knew that it was some other sound.

He had not trayned bene in chevalree.

Which well that valiaunt courser did discerne;
For he despisd to tread in dew degree,

But chaufd and fom'd with corage fiers and sterne, And to be easd of that base burden still did erne.1

1 Erne, yearn, or desire.

XLVI. 5. — He had not trayned, &c.] In the education of the knight, great attention was paid to horsemanship, and if a person did not ride well, it was a proof that he had not received a knightly training.

CANTO IV.

Guyon does Furor bind in chaines,
And stops Occasion:
Delivers Phaon, and therefore
By Strife is rayld uppon.

1.

IN brave poursuitt of honorable deed,
There is I know not what great difference
Betweene the vulgar and the noble seed,
Which unto things of valorous pretence
Seemes to be borne by native influence;
As feates of armes; and love to entertaine :
But chiefly skill to ride seemes a science
Proper to gentle blood: Some others faine
To menage steeds, as did this Vaunter; but in vaine.

II.

But he, the rightfull owner of that steede,
Who well could menage and subdew his pride,
The whiles on foot was forced for to yeed1
With that blacke Palmer, his most trusty guide,
Who suffred not his wandring feete to slide;
But when strong passion, or weake fleshlinesse,
Would from the right way seeke to draw him wide,

1 Yeed, go.

II. 1.-But he, &c.] The adventures of Sir Guyon are resumed from canto III. stanza III.