Eftsoones the gard, which on his state did wait,
Attacht that Faytor 2 false, and bound him strait:
Who seeming sorely chauffed at his band,

As chained beare whom cruell dogs doe bait, With ydle force did faine them to withstand; And often semblaunce made to scape out of their hand.

XXXVI.

But they him layd full low in dungeon deepe,
And bound him hand and foote with yron chains;
And with continual watch did warely keepe.
Who then would thinke, that by his subtile trains
He could escape fowle death or deadly pains?
Thus, when that Princes wrath was pacifide,
He gan renew the late forbidden bains,3

And to the Knight his Daughter dear he tyde
With sacred rites and vowes for ever to abyde.

XXXVII.

His owne two hands the holy knotts did knitt,
That none but death for ever can divide;
His owne two hands, for such a turne most fitt,
The housling fire did kindle and provide,
And holy water thereon sprinckled wide ;
At which the bushy teade 5 a groome did light,
And sacred lamp in secret chamber hide,
Where it should not be quenched day nor night,
For feare of evil fates, but burnen ever bright.

1 Eftsoones, immediately.

2 Faytor, evil-doer.

3 Bains,

bans.

4 Housling, sacramental.

5 Teade, torch.

XXXVII. 6.- Bushy.] The torches burned at the marriages of the ancients were made of bunches of thorns, or of splitted pine, tied together.

XXXVIII.

Then gan they sprinckle all the posts with wine,
And made great feast to solemnize that day:
They all perfumde with frankincense divine,
And precious odours fetcht from far away,
That all the house did sweat with great aray:
And all the while sweete musicke did apply
Her curious skill the warbling notes to play,
To drive away the dull melancholy;
The whiles one sung a song of love and iollity.

XXXIX.

During the which there was an heavenly noise
Heard sownd through all the pallace pleasantly,
Like as it had bene many an angels voice
Singing before th' Eternall Maiesty,

In their trinall triplicities on hye:

Yett wist no creature whence that hevenly sweet
Proceeded, yet each one felt secretly

Himselfe thereby refte of his sences meet,

And ravished with rare impression in his sprite.

XXXIX. 5. — Trinall triplicities.] Some of the Christian Fathers have considered that there were various ranks and degrees among the angels in heaven. One of them divides them into three hierarchies, with various orders in each hierarchy: in the first are seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; in the second, dominions, mights, and powers; in the third, principalities, archangels, and angels. Milton has an allusion to the same triple division

"the mighty regencies

Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones
In their triple degrees."

PAR. LOST, book v. 750.

Tasso also has

"A Battel round of Squadrons three, they shew,

And all by threes those Squadrons ranged were."

JER. DEL., canto xviii. stanza 96. — Fairfax's Trans.

XL.

Great ioy was made that day of young and old,
And solemne feast proclaymd throughout the land,
That their exceeding merth may not be told:
Suffice it heare by signes to understand

The usuall ioyes at knitting of loves band.
Thrise happy man the Knight himselfe did hold,
Possessed of his Ladies hart and hand;

And ever, when his eie did her behold,

His heart did seeme to melt in pleasures manifold.

XLI.

Her ioyous presence, and sweet company,
In full content he there did long enioy;
Ne wicked envy, ne vile gealosy,
His deare delights were hable to annoy :

Yet swimming in that sea of blisfull ioy,
He nought forgott how he whilome had sworne,
In case he could that monstrous Beast destroy,
Unto his Faery Queene backe to retourne;
The which he shortly did; and Una left to mourne.

XLII.

Now, strike your sailes, yee iolly mariners,

For we be come unto a quiet rode,

Where we must land some of our passengers,

And light this weary vessell of her lode.
Here she a while may make her safe abode,
Till she repaired have her tackles spent,
And wants supplide; and then againe abroad
On the long voiage whereto she is bent:

Well may she speede, and fairely finish her intent! *

The connection between this first book of the Faerie Queene and the remainder of the poem is so slight that Hughes conjectures it to be a separate work of itself. We do not learn the particular enterprises

in which the Red-cross Knight engaged after his marriage with Una. He appears occasionally in the subsequent books, but only incidentally, and not as taking any part in the main action. Warton considers it a defect in the Faerie Queene that the adventures, taken separately as the subject of each single book, have not always a mutual dependence upon each other, and consequently do not properly contribute to constitute one legitimate poem. Skill in the construction of the story is certainly not a prominent merit of the poem; but, as Campbell remarks, with as much of beauty as truth, "There is still a richness in his materials, even where their coherence is loose and their disposition confused. The clouds of his allegory may seem to spread into shapeless forms, but they are still the clouds of a glowing atmosphere. Though his story grows desultory, the sweetness and grace of his manner still abide by him."-ESSAY ON ENG. POETRY, p. 107.

THE SECOND BOOK

OF

THE FAERIE QUEENE

CONTAYNING

THE LEGEND OF SIR GUYON, OR OF TEMPERAUNCE.

I.

RIGHT well I wote,1 most mighty Soveraine,
That all this famous antique history
Of some th' aboundance of an ydle braine
Will iudged be, and painted forgery,
Rather then matter of iust memory;

Sith 2 none that breatheth living aire doth know
Where is that happy land of Faëry,

Which I so much doe vaunt, yet no where show; But vouch antiquities, which no body can know.

II.

But let that man with better sence advize 3
That of the world least part to us is red;
And daily how through hardy enterprize
Many great regions are discovered,
Which to late age were never mentioned.

1 Wote, know.
Sith, since.

3

Advize, bear in mind.

4 Red, made known.