The Faerie Queene (67 page)

All looking on, and like astonisht staring,

Yet to lay hand on her, not one of all them daring.

57
She often prayd, and often me besought,

Sometime with tender teares to let her goe,

Sometime with witching smyles: but yet for nought,

That euer she to me could say or doe,

Could she her wished freedome fro me wooe;

But forth I led her through the Temple gate,

By which I hardly past with much adoe:

But that same Ladie which me friended late

In entrance, did me also friend in my retrate.

58
No lesse did daunger threaten me with dread,

When as he saw me, maugre all his powre,

That glorious spoyle of beautie with me lead,

Then
Cerberus,
when
Orpheus
did recoure

His Leman from the Stygian Princes boure.

But euermore my shield did me defend,

Against the storme of euery dreadfull stoure:

Thus safely with my loue I thence did wend.

So ended he his tale, where I this Canto end.

Marinells former wound is heald,
   he comes to Proteus hall,
Where Thames doth the Medway wedd,
   and feasts the Sea-gods all.

1
Bvt ah for pittie that I haue thus long

Left a fayre Ladie languishing in payne:

Now well away, that I haue doen such wrong,

To let faire
Florimell
in bands remayne,

In bands of loue, and in sad thraldomes chayne;

From which vnlesse some heauenly powre her free

By miracle, not yet appearing playne,

She lenger yet is like captiu'd to bee:

That euen to thinke thereof, it inly pitties mee.

2
Here neede you to remember, how erewhile

Vnlouely
Proteus,
missing to his mind

That Virgins loue to win by wit or wile,

Her threw into a dongeon deepe and blind,

And there in chaynes her cruelly did bind,

In hope thereby her to his bent to draw:

For when as neither gifts nor graces kind

Her constant mind could moue at all he saw,

He thought her to compell by crueltie and awe.

3
Deepe in the bottome of an huge great rocke

The dongeon was, in which her bound he left,

That neither yron barres, nor brasen locke

Did neede to gard from force, or secret theft

Of all her louers, which would her haue reft.

For wall'd it was with waues, which rag'd and ror'd

As they the cliffe in peeces would haue cleft;

Besides ten thousand monsters foule abhor'd

Did waite about it, gaping griesly all begor'd.

4
And in the midst thereof did horror dwell,

And darkenesse dredd, that neuer viewed day,

Like to the balefull house of lowest hell,

In which old
Styx
her aged bones alway,

Old
Styx
the Grandame of the Gods, doth lay.

There did this lucklesse mayd seuen months abide,

Ne euer euening saw, ne mornings ray,

Ne euer from the day the night descride,

But thought it all one night, that did no houres diuide.

5
And all this was for loue of
Marinell
,

Who her despysd (ah who would her despyse?)

And wemens loue did from his hart expell,

And all those ioyes that weake mankind entyse.

Nathlesse his pride full dearely he did pryse;

For of a womans hand it was ywroke,

That of the wound he yet in languor lyes,

Ne can be cured of that cruell stroke

Which
Britomart
him gaue, when he did her prouoke.

6
Yet farre and neare the Nymph his mother sought,

And many salues did to his sore applie,

And many herbes did vse. But when as nought

She saw could ease his rankling maladie,

At last to
Tryphon
she for helpe did hie,

(This
Tryphon
is the seagods surgeon bight)

Whom she besought to find some remedie:

And for his paines a whistle him behight

That of a fishes shell was wrought with rare delight.

7
So well that Leach did hearke to her request,

And did so well employ his carefull paine,

That in short space his hurts he had redrest,

And him restor'd to healthfull state againe:

In which he long time after did remaine

There with the Nymph his mother, like her thrall;

Who sore against his will did him retaine,

For feare of perill, which to him mote fall,

Through his too ventrous prowesse proued ouer all.

8
It fortun'd then, a solemne feast was there

To all the Sea-gods and their fruitfull seede,

In honour of the spousalls, which then were

Betwixt the
Medway
and the
Thames
agreed.

Long had the
Thames
(as we in records reed)

Before that day her wooed to his bed;

But the proud Nymph would for no worldly meed,

Nor no entreatie to his loue be led;

Till now at last relenting, she to him was wed.

9
So both agreed, that this their bridale feast

Should for the Gods in
Proteus
house be made;

To which they all repayr'd, both most and least,

Aswell which in the mightie Ocean trade,

As that in riuers swim, or brookes doe wade.

All which not if an hundred tongues to tell,

And hundred mouthes, and voice of brasse I had,

And endlesse memorie, that mote excell,

In order as they came, could I recount them well.

10
Helpe therefore, O thou sacred imp
of loue,

The noursling of Dame
Memorie
his deare,

To whom those rolles, layd vp in heauen aboue,

And records of antiquitie appeare,

To which no wit of man may comen neare;

Helpe me to tell the names of all those floods,

And all those Nymphes, which then assembled were

To that great banquet of the watry Gods,

And all their sundry kinds, and all their hid abodes.

11
First came great
Neptune
with his threeforkt mace,

That rules the Seas, and makes them rise or fall;

His dewy lockes did drop with brine apace,

Vnder his Diademe imperiall:

And by his side his Queene with coronall,

Faire
Amphitrite,
most diuinely faire,

Whose yuorie shoulders weren couered all,

As with a robe, with her owne siluer haire,

And deckt with pearles, which th'Indian seas for her prepaire.

12
These marched farre afore the other crew;

And all the way before them as they went,

Triton
his trompet shrill before them blew,

For goodly triumph and great iollyment,

That made the rockes to roare, as they were rent.

And after them the royall issue came,

Which of them sprung by lineall descent:

First the Sea-gods, which to themselues doe clame

The powre to rule the billowes, and the waues to tame.

13
Phorcys,
the father of that fatall brood,

By whom those old Heroes wonne such fame;

And
Glaucus,
that wise southsayes vnderstood;

And tragicke
lnoes
sonne, the which became

A God of seas through his mad mothers blame,

Now hight
Palemon,
and is saylers frend;

Great
Brontes
, and
Astrœus,
that did shame

Himselfe with incest of his kin vnkend;

And huge
Orion,
that doth tempests still portend.

14
The rich
Cteatus,
and
Eurytus
long;

Neleus
and
Pelias
louely brethren both;

Mightie
Chrysaor,
and
Cakus
strong;

Eurypulus,
that calmes the waters wroth;

And faire
Euphœmus,
that vpon them goth

As on the ground, without dismay or dread:

Fierce
Eryx,
and
Alebius
that know'th

The waters depth, and doth their bottome tread;

And sad
Asopus,
comely with his hoarie head.

15
There also some most famous founders were

Of puissant Nations, which the world possest;

Yet sonnes of
Neptune,
now assembled here:

Ancient
Ogyges,
euen th'auncientest,

And
Inachus
renowmd aboue the rest;

Phœnix,
and
Aon,
and
Pelasgus
old,

Great
Belus, Phœax,
and
Agenor
best;

And mightie
Albion,
father of the bold

And warlike people, which the
Britaine
Islands hold.

16
For
Albion
the sonne of
Neptune
was,

Who for the proofe of his great puissance,

Out of his
Albion
did on dry-foot pas

Into old
Gall,
that now is deeped
France,

To fight with
Hercules,
that did aduance

To vanquish all the world with matchlesse might,

And there his mortall part by great mischance

Was slaine: but that which is th'immortall spright

Iiues still: and to this feast with
Neptunes
seed was dight.

17
But what doe I their names seeke to reherse,

Which all the world haue with their issue fild?

How can they all in this so narrow verse

Contayned be, and in small compasse hild?

Let them record them, that are better skild,

And know the moniments of passed times:

Onely what needeth, shall be here fulfild,

T'expresse some part of that great equipage,

Which from great
Neptune
do deriue their parentage.

18
Next came the aged
Ocean,
and his Dame,

Old
Tethys,
th'oldest two of all the rest,

For all the rest of those two parents came,

Which afterward both sea and land possest:

Of all which
Nereus
th'eldest, and the best,

Did first proceed, then which none more vpright,

Ne more sincere in word and deed profest;

Most voide of guile, most free from fowle despight,

Doing him selfe, and teaching others to doe right.

19
Thereto he was expert in prophecies,

And could the ledden of the Gods vnfold,

Through which, when
Paris
brought his famous prise

The faire Tindarid lasse, he him fortold,

That her all
Greece
with many a champion bold

Should fetch againe, and finally destroy

Proud
Priams
towne. So wise is
Nereus
old,

And so well skild; nathlesse he takes great ioy

Oft-times amongst the wanton Nymphs to sport and toy.

20
And after him the famous riuers came,

Which doe the earth enrich and beautifie:

The fertile Nile, which creatures new doth frame;

Long Rhodanus, whose sourse springs from the sike;

Faire Ister, flowing from the mountaines hie;

Diuine Scamander, purpled yet with blood

Of Greekes and Troians, which therein did die;

Pactolus glistring with his golden flood,

And Tygris fierce, whose streames of none may be withstood.

21
Great Ganges, and immortall Euphrates,

Deepe Indus, and Mæander intricate,

Slow Peneus, and tempestuous Phasides,

Swift Rhene, and Alpheus still immaculate:

Ooraxes, feared for great
Cyrus fate;

Tybris, renowmed for the Romaines fame,

Rich Oranochy, though but knowen late;

And that huge Riuer, which doth beare his name

Of warlike Amazons, which doe possesse the same.

22
Ioy on those warlike women, which so long

Can from all men so rich a kingdome hold;

And shame on you, ô men, which boast your strong

And valiant hearts, in thoughts lesse hard and bold,

Yet quaile in conquest of that land of gold.

But this to you, ô Britons, most pertaines,

To whom the right hereof it selfe hath sold;

The which for sparing litle cost or paines,

Loose so immortall glory, and so endlesse gaines.

23
Then was there heard a most celestiall sound,

Of dainty musicke, which did next ensew

Before the spouse: that was
Arion
crownd;

Who playing on his harpe, vnto him drew

The eares and hearts of all that goodly crew,

That euen yet the Dolphin, which him bore

Through the
Æ
g
æ
an seas from Pirates vew,

Stood still by him astonisht at his lore,

And all the raging seas for ioy forgot to rore.

24
So went he playing on the watery plaine.

Soone after whom the louely Bridegroome came,

The noble Thamis, with all his goodly traine,

But him before there went, as best became,

His auncient parents, namely th'auncient Thame.

But much more aged was his wife then he,

The Ouze, whom men doe Isis rightly name;

Full weake and crooked creature seemed shee,

And almost blind through eld, that scarce her way could see.

25
Therefore on either side she was sustained

Of two smal grooms, which by their names were hight

The
Chume,
and
Charwell,
two small streames, which pained

Them selues her footing to direct aright,

Which fayled oft through faint and feeble plight:

But
Thame
was stronger, and of better stay;

Yet seem'd full aged by his outward sight,

With head all hoary, and his beard all gray,

Deawed with siluer drops, that trickled downe alway.

26
And eke he somewhat seem'd to stoupe afore

With bowed backe, by reason of the lode,

And auncient heauy burden, which he bore

Of that faire City, wherein make abode

So many learned impes, that shoote abrode,

And with their braunches spred all Britany,

No lesse then do her elder sisters broode.

Ioy to you both, ye double noursery,

Of Arts, but Oxford thine doth
Thame
most glorify.

27
But he their sonne full fresh and iolly was,

All decked in a robe of watchet hew,

On which the waues, glittering like Christall glas,