19 Her name was Atè, mother of debate
And all dissention which doth dayly grow
Amongst fraile men, that
many a publike state
And many a private oft doth overthrow.
Her false Duessa, who full well did know
To be most fit to trouble noble knights
Which hunt for honor, raised from below
Out of the dwellings of the damned sprights,
Where she in darknes wastes her cursed daies and
20 Hard by the gates of hell her dwelling is;
There, whereas all the plagues and harmes abound
Which punish wicked men that walke amisse :
It is a darksome delve1 farre under ground,
With thornes and barren brakes environd round,
That none the same may easily out-win 2;
Yet many waies to enter may be found,
But none to issue forth when one is in:
For discord harder is to end then to begin.
21 And all within, the riven walls were hung
With ragged monuments of times forepast,
All which the sad effects of discord sung:
There were rent robes and broken scepters plast;
Altars defyl'd, and holy things defast;
Disshivered speares and shields ytorne in twaine ;
Great cities ransackt, and strong castles rast;
Nations captíved, and huge armies slaine:
Of all which ruines there some relicks did remaine.
2 Out-win, find the way out of.
22 There was the signe1 of antique Babylon;
Of fatall Thebes; of Rome that raigned long;
Of sacred Salem; and sad Ilion,
For memorie of which on high there hong
The Golden Apple, cause of all their wrong,
For which the three faire goddesses did strive :
There also was the name of Nimrod strong;
Of Alexander, and his princes five
Which shar'd to them the spoiles that he had got alive:
23 And there the relicks of the drunken fray,
The which amongst the Lapithees befell;
And of the bloodie feast, which sent away
So
many Centaures drunken soules to hell, That under great Alcides furie fell :
And of the dreadfull discord, which did drive
The noble Argonauts to outrage fell,
That each of life sought others to deprive,
All mindlesse of the Golden Fleece, which made them strive.
1 Signe, memorial, relic.
XXII. 8. His princes five.] Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigonus. UPTON.
XXIII. 1.- The drunken fray.] The well-known quarrel at the marriage of Pirithous. 3. The bloodie feast, &c.] Hercules, while in pursuit of the Erymanthian boar, was entertained by Pholus, who had a cask of excellent wine. This being opened, the fragrance attracted a great crowd of the Centaurs, and Hercules drove them off with firebrands and arrows.- 6. The dreadfull discord, &c.] Some vague allusions to quarrels among the Argonauts seem to be the only foundation for this account.
24 And eke of private persons many moe,
That were too long a worke to count them all;
Some, of sworne friends that did their faith forgoe;
Some, of borne brethren prov'd unnaturall;
Some, of deare lovers foes perpetuall:
Witnesse their broken bandes there to be seene,
Their girlonds rent, their bowres despoyled all;
The moniments whereof there byding beene,
As plaine as at the first, when they were fresh and
greene.
25 Such was her house within; but all without,
The barren ground was full of wicked weedes,
Which she herselfe had sowen all about,
Now growen great, at first of little seedes,
The seedes of evill wordes and factious deedes;
Which, when to ripenesse due they growen arre,
Bring foorth an infinite increase that breedes
Tumultuous trouble, and contentious iarre,
The which most often end in bloudshed and in warre.
26 And those same cursed seedes doe also serve
To her for bread, and yeeld her living food:
For life it is to her, when others sterve1
Through mischievous debate and deadly feood,"
That she may sucke their life and drinke their blood,
With which she from her childhood had bene fed :
For she at first was borne of hellish brood,
And by infernall furies nourished;
That by her monstrous shape might easily be red.
8 Red, perceived.
27 Her face most fowle and filthy was to see,
With squinted eyes contrárie wayes intended,1
And loathly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee,
That nought but gall and venim comprehended,
And wicked wordes that God and man offended:
Her lying tongue was in two parts divided,
And both the parts did speake, and both contended;
And as her tongue so was her hart discided,2
That never thoght one thing, but doubly stil was
guided.
28 Als as she double spake, so heard she double,
With matchlesse eares deformed and distort,
Fild with false rumors and seditious trouble,
Bred in assemblies of the vulgar sort,
That still are led with every light report:
And as her eares, so eke her feet were odde,
And much unlike; th' one long, the other short, And both misplast; that, when th' one forward
The other backe retired and contrárie trode.
29 Likewise unequall were her handës twaine;
That one did reach, the other pusht away;
That one did make, the other mard againe,
And sought to bring all things unto decay;
Whereby great riches, gathered manie a day,
She in short space did often bring to nought,
And their possessours often did dismay :
1 Intended, directed.
8 Discided, cleft in two
8 Matchlesse, not matched
4 Yode, went.
For all her studie was and all her thought
How she might overthrow the things that Concord
30 So much her malice did her might surpas,
That even th' Almightie selfe she did maligne,
Because to man so mercifull he was,
And unto all his creatures so benigne,
Sith she herselfe was of his grace indigne1:
For all this worlds faire workmanship she tride
Unto his last confusion to bring,
And that great golden chaine quite to divide, With which it blessed Concord hath together tide.
1 Such was that hag which with Duessa roade, And, serving her in her malitious use 2
To hurt good knights, was, as it were, her baude To sell her borrowed beautie to abuse:
For though, like withered tree that wanteth iuyce, She old and crooked were, yet now of late As fresh and fragrant as the floure-de-luce She was become, by chaunge of her estate, And made full goodly ioyance to her new-found mate:
32 Her mate, he was a iollie youthfull knight,
That bore great sway in armes and chivalrie,
And was indeed a man of mickle might;
His name was Blandamour, that did descrie
2 Use, practice. 8 Descrie, denote.
XXXII. 4.-Blandamour.] Upton conjectures that Blandanour represents the Earl of Northumberland, who was associated
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