Which him had sought through trouble and long strife,

Yet had refusde a god that her had sought to wife.

1

17 In this sad plight he walked here and there,
And romed round about the rocke in vaine,
As he had lost himselfe he wist not where;
Oft listening if he mote her heare againe,
And still bemoning her unworthy 1 paine:
Like as an hynde whose calfe is falne unwares
Into some pit, where she him heares complaine,
An hundred times about the pit side fares,
Right sorrowfully mourning her bereaved cares.2

18 And now by this the feast was throughly ended,
And every one gan homeward to resort:
Which seeing, Marinell was sore offended
That his departure thence should be so short,
And leave his love in that sea-walled fort:
Yet durst he not his mother disobay;

But, her attending in full seemly sort,

4

8

Did march amongst the many all the way; And all the way did inly mourne, like one astray.

19 Being returned to his mothers bowre,

In solitary silence far from wight

He record the lamentable stowre 6 gan

In which his wretched Love lay day and night,

Unworthy, undeserved.

2 I. e. object of her cares.
3 Short, quick.

4 Many, company.

5 Record, recall.

6 Stoure, distress.

For his deare sake, that ill deserv'd that plight: The thought whereof empierst his hart so deepe, That of no worldly thing he tooke delight;

Ne dayly food did take, ne nightly sleepe,

Put pyn'd, and mourn'd, and languisht, and alone did weepe;

20 That in short space his wonted chearefull hew
Gan fade, and lively spirits deaded1 quight:
His cheeke-bones raw, and eie-pits hollow grew,
And brawney armes had lost their knowen might,
That nothing like himselfe he seem'd in sight.
Ere long so weake of limbe, and sicke of love
He woxe, that lenger he note stand upright,
But to his bed was brought, and layd above,
Like ruefull ghost, unable once to stirre or move.

21 Which when his mother saw, she in her mind

Was troubled sore, ne wist well what to weene; Ne could by search nor any meanes out find The secret cause and nature of his teene,2 Whereby she might apply some medicine; But weeping day and night did him attend, And mourn'd to see her losse before her eyne, Which griev'd her more that she it could not mend: To see an helpelesse evill double griefe doth lend.

22 Nought could she read the roote of his disease, Ne weene what mister3 maladie it is,

1 Deaded, died away.

2 Teene, sorrow.

& Mister, kind of.

Whereby to seeke some meanes it to appease. Most did she thinke, but most she thought amis, That that same former fatall wound of his Whyleare by Tryphon was not throughly healed, But closely rankled under th' orifis :

Least did she thinke, that which he most con

cealed,

That love it was, which in his hart lay unrevealed.

23 Therefore to Tryphon she againe doth hast,

And him doth chyde as false and fraudulent,
That fayld1 the trust, which she in him had plast,
To cure her sonne, as he his faith had lent 2;
Who now was falne into new languishment
Of his old hurt, which was not throughly cured.
So backe he came unto her patient;

Where searching every part, her well assured That it was no old sore which his new paine procured;

24 But that it was some other maladie,

Or griefe unknowne, which he could not discerne :
So left he her withouten remedie.

Then gan her heart to faint, and quake, and earne,
And inly troubled was, the truth to learne.
Unto himselfe she came, and him besought,
Now with faire speches, now with threatnings
sterne,

If ought lay hidden in his grieved thought,

8

It to reveale: who still her answered, there was

nought.

1 Fayld, deceived.

2 Lent, pledged.

8 Earne, yearn.

25 Nathlesse she rested not so satisfide;

But leaving watry gods, as booting nought, Unto the shinie heaven in haste she hide, And thence Apollo, king of leaches, brought. Apollo came; who, soone as he had sought Through his disease, did by and by out find That he did languish of some inward thought, The which afflicted his engrieved mind; Which love he red to be, that leads each living kind.

26 Which when he had unto his mother told,

She gan thereat to fret and greatly grieve:
And, comming to her sonne, gan first to scold
And chyde at him that made her misbelieve:
But afterwards she gan him soft to shrieve,2
And wooe with faire intreatie, to disclose

Which of the nymphes his heart so sore did mieve3; For sure she weend it was some one of those, Which he had lately seene, that for his Love he chose.

27 Now lesse she feared that same fatall read,*
That warned him of womens love beware:
Which being ment of mortall creatures sead,
For love of nymphes she thought she need not care,
But promist him, whatever wight she weare,
That she her love to him would shortly gaine:
So he her told: but soone as she did heare
That Florimell it was which wrought his paine,
She gan afresh to chafe, and grieve in every vaine.

1 By and by, at once.

2 Shrieve, shrive, act the confessor to him,

3 Mieve, move.

4 Read, advice

28 Yet since she saw the streight extremitie,
In which his life unluckily was layd,
It was no time to scan the prophecie,
Whether old Proteus true or false had sayd,
That his decay should happen by a Mayd;
(It's late, in death, of daunger to advize1;
Or love forbid him, that is life denayd2;)
But rather gan in troubled mind devize
How she that ladies libertie might enterprize.

29 To Proteus selfe to sew she thought it vaine,
Who was the root and worker of her woe;
Nor unto any meaner to complaine;

But unto great King Neptune selfe did goe,
And, on her knee before him falling lowe,
Made humble suit unto his Maiestie

To graunt to her her sonnes life, which his foe,
A cruell tyrant, had presumpteouslie

By wicked doome condemn'd a wretched death to die

30 To whom God Neptune, softly smyling, thus:

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Daughter, me seemes of double wrong ye plaine, Gainst one that hath both wronged you and us : For death t' adward I ween'd did appertaine

To none but to the seas sole soveraine :
Read, therefore, who it is which this hath wrought,
And for what cause; the truth discover plaine:
For never wight so evill did or thought,

But would some rightfull cause pretend, though rightly nought."

1 Advize, consider.

2 Denayd, denied.

8 Enterprize, undertake, achieve.