XXXV.

There was Ixion turned on a wheele,

For daring tempt the queene of heaven to sin;
And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reele
Against an hill, ne might from labour lin1;
There thristy Tantalus hong by the chin;
And Tityus fed a vultur on his maw;
Typhoeus ioynts were stretched on a gin2;
Theseus condemnd to endlesse slouth by law;
And fifty sisters water in leke vessels draw.

XXXVI.

They, all beholding worldly wights in place,
Leave off their worke, unmindfull of their smart,
To gaze on them; who forth by them doe pace,
Till they be come unto the furthest part ;
Where was a cave ywrought by wondrous art,
Deepe, darke, uneasy, dolefull, comfortlesse,
In which sad Aesculapius far apart
Emprisond was in chaines remédilesse;

For that Hippolytus rent corse he did redresse 3.

1 Lin, rest.

2 Gin, engine of punishment.

3 Redresse, reunite.

XXXV. 1.- · There was Ixion, &c.] The names of Ixion, Sisyphus, and Tantalus have become so commonplace in literature that they need no explanation. Tityus and Typhous were giants, and punished, the former for his rudeness to Latona, and the latter for making war on Jupiter. Theseus was doomed to sit constantly in one place, on account of his abetting his friend Pirithous in his plot to carry awɛy Proserpine. The fifty sisters were the daughters of Danaus, punished for murdering their husbands.

XXXVI. 7. — Sad Aesculapius.] Spenser departs from the received mythology in this account of Esculapius. He was killed by Jupiter, on account of the complaints of Pluto, for raising so many dead persons to life, and afterwards was admitted among the gods.

XXXVII.

Hippolytus a iolly huntsman was,

That wont in charett chace the foming bore:
He all his peeres in beauty did surpas;
But ladies love, as losse of time, forbore:
His wanton stepdame loved him the more ;
But, when she saw her offred sweets refusd,
Her love she turnd to hate, and him before
His father fierce of treason false accusd,
And with her gealous termes his open eares abusd.
XXXVIII.

Who, all in rage, his sea-god syre besought
Some cursed vengeaunce on his sonne to cast:
From surging gulf two monsters streight were brought;
With dread whereof his chacing steedes aghast
Both charett swifte and huntsman overcast.
His goodly corps on ragged cliffs yrent1,
Was quite dismembred, and his members chast
Scattered on every mountaine as he went,
That of Hippolytus was lefte no moniment.
XXXIX.

His cruell stepdame, seeing what was donne,
Her wicked daies with wretched knife did end,
In death avowing th' innocence of her sonne.
Which hearing, his rash syre began to rend
His heare, and hasty tong that did offend:
Tho, gathering up the reliques of his smart,
By Dianes meanes who was Hippolyts frend,

His wanton stepdame.]

2 Tho, then.

Her name was Phaedra,

whose unhappy passion has afforded a subject to the tragic genius of Sophocles, Euripides, and Racine.

Them brought to Aesculape, that by his art Did heal them all againe, and ioyned every part.

XL.

Such wondrous science in mans witt to rain
When love avizd,1 that could the dead revive,
And fates expired could renew again,

Of endlesse life he might him not deprive;
But unto hell did thrust him downe alive,
With flashing thunderbolt ywounded sore:
Where, long remaining, he did alwaies strive
Himselfe with salves to health for to restore,
And slake the heavenly fire that raged evermore.

XLI.

There auncient Night arriving, did alight From her nigh-weary wayne, and in her armes To Aesculapius brought the wounded Knight: Whom having softly disaraid of armes, Tho2 gan to him discover all his harmes, Beseeching him with prayer, and with praise, If either salves, or oyles, or herbes, or charmes, A fordonne 3 wight from dore of death mote raise, He would at her request prolong her Nephews daies.

XLII.

4

"Ah Dame," quoth he, "thou temptest me in vaine
To dare the thing, which daily yet I rew5;
And the old cause of my continued paine
With like attempt to like end to renew.
Is not enough, that, thrust from heaven dew,
Here endlesse penaunce for one fault I pay;
But that redoubled crime with vengeaunce new

1 Avizd, perceived.

2 Tho, then.

3 Fordonne, undone.

4 Nephews, descendant's

5 Rew,

repent.

Thou biddest me to eeke1? can Night defray 2 [Day?" The wrath of thundring love, that rules, both Night and

XLIII.

"Not so," quoth she; "but, sith 3 that heavens King
From hope of heaven hath thee excluded quight,
Why fearest thou, that canst not hope for thing;
And fearest not that more thee hurten might,
Now in the powre of everlasting Night?
Goe to then, O thou far renowmed sonne
Of great Apollo, shew thy famous might

In medicine, that els hath to thee wonne

Great pains, and greater praise, both never to be donne."

XLIV.

Her words prevaild: And then the learned leach
His cunning hand gan to his wounds to lay,
And all things els, the which his art did teach:
Which having seene, from thence arose away
The Mother of dredd darknesse, and let stay
Aveugles sonne there in the leaches cure ;
And, backe retourning, took her wonted way
To ronne her timely race, whilst Phœbus pure
In westerne waves his weary wagon did recure.5

XLV.

The false Duessa, leaving noyous 6 Night,

Returnd to stately pallace of Dame Pryde:

Where when she came, she found the Faery Knight

should receive some additional punishment from Night, if you refuse her request, since you are in her power?"

Departed thence; albee1 (his woundës wyde
Not throughly heald) unready were to ryde.
Good cause he had to hasten thence away;
For on a day his wary Dwarfe had spyde
Where, in a dungeon deepe, huge nombers lay

Of caytive wretched thralls, that wayled night and day;

XLVI.

(A ruefull sight as could be seene with eie ;)
Of whom he learned had in secret wise
The hidden cause of their captivitie;
How mortgaging their lives to Covetise,
Through wastfull pride and wanton riotise,
They were by law of that proud tyrannesse,
Provokt with Wrath and Envyes false surmise,
Condemned to that dongeon mercilesse,

Where they should live in wo, and dye in wretchednesse.

XLVII.

There was that great proud king of Babylon,

That would compell all nations to adore

And him, as onely God, to call upon;

Till, through celestiall doome thrown out of dore,
Into an oxe he was transformd of yore.

There also was king Croesus, that enhaunst

His hart too high through his great richesse store;
And proud Antiochus, the which advaunst

His cursed hand gainst God, and on his altares daunst.

1 Albee, although.

XLVII. 1.— Proud king of Babylon.] Nebuchadnezzar.

XLVII. 8. — Proud Antiochus.]

This was Antiochus, surnamed

Epiphanes, whose cruelties to the Jews and profanation of the temple are narrated in 2 Macc. chap. v. vi. and vii.