CANTO II.

Babes bloody handes may not be clensd.

The Face of Golden Meane:

Her sisters, Two Extremities,

Stuive her to banish cleane.

I.

THUS when Sir Guyon with his faithfull Guyde
Had with dew rites and dolorous lament

The end of their sad tragedie uptyde,1

The litle Babe up in his armes he hent 2;

Who with sweet pleasaunce, and bold blandishment,
Gan smyle on them, that rather ought to weepe,

As carelesse of his woe, or innocent

Of that was doen; that ruth3 emperced deepe [steepe: In that Knightes hart, and wordes with bitter teares did

II.

"Ah! lucklesse Babe, borne under cruell starre,

And in dead parents balefull ashes bred,
Full little weenest thou what sorrowes are
Left thee for porcion of thy livelyhed;
Poore Orphane! in the wide world scattered,
As budding braunch rent from the native tree,
And throwen forth, till it be withered!
Such is the state of men! Thus enter we
Into this life with woe, and end with miseree!"

1 Uptide, accomplished. 2 Hent, took.

3 Ruth, pity.

III.

Then, soft himselfe inclyning on his knee
Downe to that well, did in the water weene1
(So love does loath disdainefull nicitee)

His guiltie handes from bloody gore to cleene:
He washt them oft and oft, yet nought they beene
For all his washing cleaner: Still he strove;
Yet still the litle hands were bloody seene:
The which him into great amaz'ment drove,
And into diverse doubt his wavering wonder clove.

IV.

He wist not whether blott of fowle offence
Might not be purgd with water nor with bath;
Or that High God, in lieu of innocence,
Imprinted had that token of His wrath,

To shew how sore blood guiltinesse He hat'th;
Or that the charme and veneme, which they dronck,
Their blood with secret filth infected hath,

Being diffused through the senceless tronck
That, through the great contagion, direful deadly stonck.

V.

2

Whom thus at gaze the Palmer gan to bord With goodly reason, and thus fayre bespake; "Ye bene right hard amated,3 gratious Lord,

1 Weene, propose or attempt.

* Bord, address.

"Entire affection hateth nicer hands."

Book I. canto VIII. stanza XL.

III. 4.— His guiltie handes, &c.] Guiltie is perhaps a mistake for guiltlesse; or it may mean "guilty," as wearing the stain or hue of guilt.

IV. 3.—In lieu of innocence.] Church conjectures that Spenser wrote love, instead of lieu.

And of your ignorance great merveill make,
Whiles cause not well conceived ye mistake.
But know, that secret vertues are infusd
In every fountaine, and in everie lake,

Which, who hath skill them rightly to have chusd,
To proofe of passing wonders hath full often usd :

VI.

"Of those, some were so from their sourse indewd
By great dame Nature, from whose fruitfull pap
Their welheads spring, and are with moisture deawd;
Which feeds each living plant with liquid sap,
And filles with flowres fayre Floraes painted lap:
But other some, by guifte of later grace,

Or by good prayers, or by other hap,

Had vertue pourd into their waters bace,

And thenceforth were renowmd, and sought from place to place.

VII.

"Such is this well, wrought by occasion straunge,
Which to her nymph befell. Upon a day,

As she the woodes with bow and shaftes did raunge,
The hartlesse hynd and roebucke to dismay,
Dan Faunus chaunst to meet her by the way,
And, kindling fire at her faire-burning eye,
Inflamed was to follow beauties chace,
And chaced her, that fast from him did fly;
As hynd from her, so she fled from her enimy.

VIII.

"At last, when fayling breath began to faint,

1 Hartlesse, timid.

VII. 2. Her nymph.] As Diana has not been mentioned as yet, "her" must mean "Nature's."

VII. 7.- Chace.] This rhyme requires a different word, and this is probably a mistake. Ray has been suggested as its substitute.

And saw no meanes to scape; of shame affrayd,
She set her downe to weepe for sore constraint1;
And, to Diana calling lowd for ayde,

Her deare besought to let her die a mayd.

The goddesse heard; and suddeine, where she sate Welling out streames of teares, and quite dismayd With stony feare of that rude rustick mate, Transformd her to a stone from stedfast Virgins state.

IX.

"Lo! now she is that Stone; from whose two heads,
As from two weeping eyes, fresh streames do flow,
Yet colde through feare and old conceived dreads:
And
yet the Stone her semblance seemes to show,
Shapt like a Maide, that such ye may her know;
And yet her vertues in her water byde:
For it is chaste and pure as purest snow,
Ne lets her waves with any filth be dyde ;

But ever, like herselfe, unstayned hath bene tryde.2

X.

"From thence it comes, that this Babes bloody hand May not be clensd with water of this well: Ne certes, Sir, strive you it to withstand, But let them still be bloody, as befell, That they his mothers innocence may tell, As she bequeathd in her last testament; That, as a sacred symbole, it may dwell In her sonnes flesh, to mind reveng "ment, And be for all chaste Dames an endlesse moniment."

XI.

He hearkned to his reason; and the childe
Uptaking, to the Palmer gave to beare ;

1 Constraint, distress.

2 Tryde, found or experienced.

But his sad fathers armes with blood defilde,
An heavie load, himselfe did lightly reare;
And turning to that place, in which whyleare1
He left his loftie steed with golden sell 2

And goodly gorgeous barbes,3 him found not theare:
By other accident, that earst befell,

He is convaide; but how, or where, here fits not tell.

XII.

Which when Sir Guyon saw, all

were

he wroth,

Yet algates mote he soft himselfe appease,
And fairely fare on foot, however loth:
His double burden did him sore disease.7
So, long they traveiled with litle ease,
Till that at last they to a Castle came,
Built on a rocke adioyning to the seas:

It was an auncient worke of antique fame,
And wondrous strong by nature and by skilfull frame.

XIII.

Therein three Sisters dwelt of sundry sort,
The children of one syre by mothers three;
Who, dying whylome, did divide this fort
To them by equall shares in equall fee:

XI. 7. — Him found not theare.] The cause of his horse's disappearance is explained in the next canto.

XIII. 1.-Therein three Sisters, &c.] These three Sisters are named Medina, Perissa, and Elissa, whose names express that of which they are respectively typical. Medina is Moderation, or the golden mean; Perissa is Excess, and Elissa, Deficiency.