And as her squire attend her carefully:

Tho' to their ready steeds they clomb2 full light ;
And through back ways, that none might them espy,
Covered with secret cloud of silent night,

Themselves they forth conveyed, and passèd for-
ward right.

47 Ne rested they, till that to Faery-lond They came, as Merlin them directed late: Where, meeting with this Redcross knight, she fond3

Of diverse things discourses to dilate,

But most of Arthegall and his estate.

At last their ways so fell that they mote part:
Then each to other, well affectionate,

Friendship professèd with unfeignèd heart:

The Redcross knight diverst1; but forth rode
Britomart.

1 Tho, then.

2 Clomb, climbed.

8 Fond, found.

4 Diverst, turned off.

IV.

Britomart encounters Marinell.

After his defeat, Marinell is carried

by his mother to her chamber in the bottom of the sea.

I WHERE is the antique glory now become,
That whilom wont in women to appear?

Where be the brave achievements done by some?
Where be the battles, where the shield and spear,
And all the conquests which them high did rear,
That matter made for famous poets' verse,
And boastful men so oft abashed to hear?

Been they all dead, and laid in doleful hearse 1?
Or doen 2 they only sleep, and shall again reverse 3 ?

2 If they be dead, then woe is me therefore;

But if they sleep, O let them soon awake!

4

For all too long I burn with envy1 sore

To hear the warlike feats which Homer spake
Of bold Penthesilee,5 which made a lake
Of Greekish blood so oft in Trojan plain;

But when I read, how stout Deborah strake

1 Hearse, tomb. 2 Doen, do.

3 Reverse, return.

4 Envy, emulation.

5 Penthesilee, Penthesilea, a queen of the Amazons who came to fight for Troy and was slain by Achilles. She is not mentioned by Homer.

Proud Sisera,1 and how Camill' 2 hath slain

The huge Orsilochus, I swell with great disdain.3

3 Yet these, and all that else hath puissance,
Cannot with noble Britomart compare,
As well for glory of great valiance,

As for pure chastity and virtue rare,
That all her goodly deeds do well declare.

Well worthy stock, from which the branches sprong
That in late years so fair a blossom bare,

As thee, O Queen, the matter of my song,
Whose lignage from this lady I derive along!

4 Who when, through speeches with the Redcross knight,

She learned had th' estate of Arthegall,

And in each point herself informed aright,
A friendly league of love perpetual

She with him bound, and congé 5 took withal.
Then he forth on his journey did proceed,
To seek adventures which mote him befall,
And win him worship through his warlike deed,
Which always of his pains he made the chiefest
meed.

1 How

stout Deborah strake

proud Sisera. Deborah prophesied that Sisera, a leader against the Israelites, should be slain by a woman. He was, however, killed by Jael, the wife of Heber, who drove a tent-peg into his temple.

2 Camilla, in Virgil's Æneid; a virgin warrior who slew Orsilochus while fighting for Turnus against the Trojans.

8 Disdain, scorn for the deeds of men (?).

4 Valiance, valor.
5 Congé, leave.

5 But Britomart kept on her former course,
Ne ever doft her arms; but all the way

Grew pensive through that amorous discourse,
By which the Redcross knight did erst1 display
Her lover's shape and chivalrous array:

A thousand thoughts she fashioned in her mind;
And in her feigning fancy did portray

Him, such as fittest she for love could find,
Wise, warlike, personable,2 courteous, and kind.

6 With such self-pleasing thoughts her wound she fed,
And thought so to beguile her grievous smart ;
But so her smart was much more grievous bred,
And the deep wound more deep engored her heart,
That nought but death her dolour3 mote depart.4
So forth she rode, without repose or rest,
Searching all lands and each remotest part,
Following the guidance of her blinded guest,5

Till that to the sea-coast at length she her addressed.

7 There she alighted from her light-foot beast,
And, sitting down upon the rocky shore,
Bade her old squire unlace her lofty crest:
Tho, having viewed a while the surges hoar
That gainst the craggy clifts did loudly roar,
And in their raging surquedry 7 disdained
That the fast earth affronted them so sore,

1 Erst, first.

2 Personable, handsome.

8 Dolour, grief.

4

Depart, remove.

Blinded guest, i.e. love.

6 Tho, then.

8

And their devouring covetise1 restrained ;

Thereat she sighèd deep, and after thus complained:

8 "Huge sea of sorrow and tempestuous grief,
Wherein my feeble bark is tossèd long,

Far from the hopèd haven of relief,
Why do thy cruel billows beat so strong,

And thy moist mountains each on others throng,
Threat'ning to swallow up my fearful life?
O, do thy cruel wrath and spiteful wrong

At length allay, and stint2 thy stormy strife,
Which in these troubled bowels3 reigns and rageth

rife!

9 "For else my feeble vessel, crazed and cracked
Through thy strong buffets and outrageous blows,
Cannot endure, but needs it must be wracked
On the rough rocks, or on the sandy shallóws,
The whiles that Love it steers, and Fortune rows:
Love, my lewd1 pilot, hath a restless mind;
And Fortune, boatswain, no assurance knows;
But sail withouten stars gainst tide and wind :
How can they other do, sith both are bold and blind!

ΙΟ

10 "Thou god of winds, that reignest in the seas, That reignest also in the continent,

6

At last blow up some gentle gale of ease,

The which may bring my ship, ere it be rent,

1 Covetise, covetousness.

2 Stint, stop.

3 Bowels, used sometimes as heart, i.e. the seat of feeling.

4 Lewd, ignorant.

5 Assurance, steadiness.

6 In the continent, i.e.

land.

on