And, them long time before, great Nimrod was,
That first the world with sword and fire warrayd1;
And after him old Ninus far did pas
In princely pomp, of all the world obayd.
There also was that mightie monarch layd
Low under all, yet above all in pride,
That name of native syre did fowle upbrayd,
And would as Ammons sonne be magnifide;
Till, scornd of God and man, a shamefull death he dide.
All these together in one heape were throwne,
Like carkases of beastes in butchers stall.
And, in another corner, wide were strowne
The antique ruins of the Romanes fall:
Great Romulus, the grandsyre of them all;
Proud Tarquin; and too lordly Lentulus;
Stout Scipio; and stubborne Hanniball;
Ambitious Sylla; and sterne Marius ;
High Caesar; great Pompey; and fiers Antonius.
Amongst these mightie men were wemen mixt,
Proud wemen, vaine, forgetfull of their yoke:
The bold Semiramis, whose sides transfixt
1 Warrayd, made war upon.
That mightie monarch.] Alexander the Great. XLIX. 7. Stout Scipio.] Jortin censures Spenser for putting Scipio (probably Africanus) in such company.
L. 2.-Forgetfull of their yoke.] Forgetful of the restraints imposed upon their sex.
L. 3. — The bold Semiramis.] Semiramis is said to have been put to death by her son Ninyas, on account of an incestuous passion which she avowed for him.
With sonnes own blade her fowle reproaches spoke:
Fayre Sthenobœa, that her selfe did choke
With wilfull chord, for wanting of her will;
High-minded Cleopatra, that with stroke
Of Aspes sting her self did stoutly kill:
And thousands moe the like, that did that dongeon fill.
Besides the endlesse routes of wretched thralles,1
Which thether were assembled, day by day,
From all the world, after their wofull falles
Through wicked pride and wasted welthes decay.
But most, of all which in that dongeon lay,
Fell from high princes courtes, or ladies bowres;
Where they in ydle pomp, or wanton play,
Consumed had their goods and thriftlesse howres,
And lastly thrown themselves into these heavy stowres.2
Whose case whenas the careful Dwarfe had tould,
And made ensample of their mournfull sight
Unto his Maister; he no lenger would
There dwell in perill of like painefull plight,
But earely rose; and, ere that dawning light
Discovered had the world to heaven wyde,
He by a privy posterne tooke his flight,
That of no envious eyes he mote be spyde:
For, doubtlesse, death ensewd if any him descryde.
L. 5.- Fayre Sthenobaa.] Sthenoboa was the wife of Prœtus, king of Argos, and committed suicide in consequence of an unsuccessful passion for Bellerophon.
Scarse could he footing find in that fowle way,
For many corses, like a great lay-stall1
Of murdred men, which therein strowed lay
Without remorse or decent funerall;
Which, al through that great Princesse Pride, did fall,
And came to shamefull end: And them besyde,
Forth ryding underneath the castell wall,
A donghill of dead carcases he spyde;
The dreadfull spectacle of that sad House of Pryde.
1 Lay-stall, a place to put rubbish in.
From lawlesse lust by wondrous grace
Fayre Una is releast:
Whom salvage nation does adore,
And learnes her wise beheast.
As when a ship, that flyes fayre under sayle,
An hidden rocke escaped hath unwares,
That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile;
The mariner yet halfe amazed stares
At perill past, and yet in doubt ne dares
To ioy at his foolhappie1 oversight 2:
So doubly is distrest twixt ioy and cares
The dreadlesse corage of this Elfin Knight,
Having escapt so sad ensamples in his sight.
Yet sad he was, that his too hastie speed
The fayre Duess' had forst him leave behind;
And yet more sad, that Una, his deare Dreed,3
Her truth had staynd with treason so unkind;
Yet
cryme
in her could never creature find:
1 Foolhappie, lucky without design.
Oversight, escape; literally, his being overlooked, and thus allowed
3 Dreed, object of reverence.
I. 3. For to bercaile, &c.]
Bewaile here means to choose or select;
and the idea conveyed is that the rock lies in wait for the ship, or selects her for the purpose of wrecking her.
But for his love, and for her own selfe sake,
She wandred had from one to other Ynd,
Him for to seeke, ne ever would forsake;
Till her unwares the fiers Sansloy did overtake:
Who, after Archimagoes fowle defeat,
Led her away into a forest wilde;
And, turning wrathfull fyre to lustfull heat,
With beastly sin thought her to have defilde,
And made the vassall of his pleasures vilde.
Yet first he cast by treatie, and by traynes,1
Her to persuade that stubborne fort to yielde:
For greater conquest of hard love he gaynes,
That workes it to his will, then he that it constraines.
IV.
With fawning wordes he courted her a while;
And, looking lovely 2 and oft sighing sore,
Her constant hart did tempt with diverse guile:
But wordes, and lookes, and sighes she did abhore;
As rock of diamond stedfast evermore.
Yet, for to feed his fyrie lustfull eye,
He snatcht the vele that hong her face before: Then gan her beautie shyne as brightest skye, And burnt his beastly hart t' enforce her chastitye.
So when he saw his flatt'ring artes to fayle,
And subtile engines bett from batteree;
With greedy force he gan the fort assayle,
Whereof he weend possessed soone to bee,
II. 9. Till her unwares, &c.] The adventures of Una are now
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