53 Whom Alma having shewed to her guestes,
Thence brought them to the second roome, whose wals
Were painted faire with memorable gestes
of famous wisards, and with picturals
Of magistrates, of courts, of tribunals,
Of commen wealthes, of states, of pollicy,
Of lawes, of judgements, and of decretals;
All artes, all science, all philosophy,
And all that in the world was aye thought wittily.
54 Of those that rowme was full; and them among
There sate a man of ripe and perfect age,
Who did them meditate all his life long,
That through continuall practise and usage
He now was growne right wise, and wondrous sage:
Great pleasure had those stranger knights to see
His goodly reason and grave personage,
That his disciples both desir'd to bee:
But Alma thence them led to th' hindmost roome of three.
55 That chamber seemed ruinous and old,
And therefore was removed far behind,
Yet were the wals, that did the same uphold,
Right firme and strong, though somewhat they declind; And therein sat an old oldman, halfe blind,
And all decrepit in his feeble corse,
Yet lively vigour rested in his mind,
And recompenst them with a better scorse:
Weake body well is chang'd for minds redoubled forse.
56 This man of infinite remembrance was,
And things foregone through many ages held,
Which he recorded still, as they did pas,
Ne suffred them to perish through long eld,
As all things els, the which this world doth weld;
But laid them up in his immortall scrine,
Where they for ever incorrupted dweld:
The warres he well remembred of king Nine,
Of old Assaracus, and Inachus divine.
57 The yeares of Nestor nothing were to his,
Ne yet Mathusalem, though longest liv'd;
For he remembred both their infancies:
Ne wonder then if that he were depriv'd
Of native strength now that he them surviv'd.
His chamber all was hangd about with rolles
And old records from auncient times deriv'd,
Some made in books, some in long parchment scrolles, That were all worm-eaten and full of canker holes.
58 Amidst them all he in a chaire was set,
Tossing and turning them withouten end;
But for he was unhable them to fet,
A little boy did on him still attend,
To reach, whenever he for ought did send;
And oft when thinges were lost, or laid amis,
That boy them sought, and unto him did lend:
Therefore he Anamnestes cleped is;
And that old man Eumnestes, by their propertis.
59 The knights there entring did him reverence dew,
And wondred at his endlesse exercise.
Then as they gan his librarie to vew,
And antique registers for to avise,
There chaunced to the princes hand to rize
An auncient booke, hight Briton Moniments,
That of this lands first conquest did devize,
And old division into regiments,
Till it reduced was to one mans governments.
60 Sir Guyon chaunst eke on another booke,
That hight Antiquitie of Faerie lond:
In which when as he greedily did looke,
Th' off-spring of Elves and Faries there he fond,
As it delivered was from hond to hond:
Whereat they burning both with fervent fire
Their countries auncestry to understond,
Crav'd leave of Alma and that aged sire
To read those bookes; who gladly graunted their desire.
A chronicle of Briton kings,
From Brute to Uthers rayne;
And rolles of Elfin emperours,
Till time of Gloriane.
I WHO now shall give unto me words and sound
Equall unto this haughtie enterprise?
Or who shal lend me wings, with which from ground
My lowly verse may loftily arise,
And lift it selfe unto the highest skies?
More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount
Here needes me, whiles the famous auncestries
Of my most dreaded soveraigne I recount,
By which all earthly princes she doth farre surmount.
2 Ne under sunne, that shines so wide and faire,
Whence all that lives does borrow life and light,
Lives ought that to her linage may compaire ;
Which though from earth it be derived right,
Yet doth it selfe stretch forth to heavens hight,
And all the world with wonder overspred;
A labor huge, exceeding far my might:
How shall fraile pen, with feare disparaged,
Conceive such soveraine glory and great bountihed?
3 Argument worthy of Maeonian quill;
Or rather worthy of great Phoebus rote,
Whereon the ruines of great Ossa hill,
And triumphes of Phlegraean Jove, he wrote,
That all the gods admird his loftie note.
But if some relish of that heavenly lay
His learned daughters would to me report
To decke my song withall, I would assay
Thy name, O soveraine Queene, to blazon farre away.
4 Thy name, O soveraine Queene, thy realme and race, From this renowmed prince derived arre,
Who mightily upheld that royall mace
Which now thou bear'st, to thee descended farre
From mightie kings and conquerours in warre,
Thy fathers and great grandfathers of old,
Whose noble deedes above the northerne starre
Immortall Fame for ever hath enrold;
As in that old mans booke they were in order told.
5 The land, which warlike Britons now possesse,
And therein have their mightie empire raysd,
In antique times was salvage wildernesse,
Unpeopled, unmannurd, unprovd, unpraysd;
Ne was it island then, ne was it paysd
Amid the ocean waves, ne was it sought
Of merchants farre for profits therein praysd;
But was all desolate, and of some thought
By sea to have bene from the Celticke mayn-land brought.
6 Ne did it then deserve a name to have,
Till that the venturous mariner that way
Learning his ship from those white rocks to save,
Which all along the southerne sea-coast lay
Threatning unheedie wrecke and rash decay,
For safeties sake that same his sea-marke made,
And nam'd it Albion. But later day,
Finding in it fit ports for fishers trade,
Gan more the same frequent, and further to invade.
7 But farre in land a salvage nation dwelt
Of hideous giants, and halfe beastly men,
That never tasted grace, nor goodnesse felt,
But wild like beasts lurking in loathsome den,
And flying fast as roebucke through the fen,
All naked without shame, or care of cold,
By hunting and by spoiling lived then;
Of stature huge, and eke of courage bold,
That sonnes of men amazd their sternesse to behold.
8 But whence they sprong, or how they were begot, Uneath is to assure; uneath to wene
That monstrous error which doth some assot,
That Dioclesians fiftie daughters shene
Into this land by chaunce have driven bene,
Where companing with feends and filthy sprights
They brought forth giants, and such dreadfull wights
As farre exceeded men in their immeasurd mights.
9 They held this land, and with their filthinesse
Polluted this same gentle soyle long time;
That their owne mother loathd their beastlinesse,
And gan abhorre her broods unkindly crime.
All were they borne of her owne native slime;
Until that Brutus anciently deriv’d
From royall stocke of old Assaracs line,
Driven by fatall error, here arriv'd,
And them of their unjust possession depriv'd.
10 But ere he had established his throne,
And spred his empire to the utmost shore,
He fought great battels with his salvage fone;
In which he them defeated evermore,
And many giants left on groning flore:
That well can witness yet unto this day
The westerne Hogh, besprincled with the gore
Of mighty Goëmot, whom in stout fray
Corineus conquered, and cruelly did slay.
II And eke that ample pit, yet farre renownd
For the large leape, which Debon did compell
Coulin to make, being eight lugs of grownd,
Into the which returning backe he fell:
But those three monstrous stones doe most excell
Which that huge sonne of hideous Albion,
Whose father Hercules in Fraunce did quell,
Great Godmer threw, in fierce contention,
At bold Canutus; but of him was slaine anon.
|