Is the late ruine of proud Marinell,

And suddein parture of faire Florimell

To find him forth and after her are gone

All the brave knightes that doen in armes excell
To savegard her ywandred all alone :

Emongst the rest my lott (unworthy) is to be one.'

Sir Satyrane gave reason for his belief that Florimell had been slain by a monstrous beast, and told how he had found

"her golden girdle cast astray,

Distained with dirt and blood, as relic of the prey.'

Sir Paridel, dismayed at this, yet resolved that he would not turn from his quest. Then Satyrane and Paridel, with the Squire of Dames, came to a castle of which the gate, which ought ever to be open to errant knights, was shut against them.

The ninth canto tells that this is the castle of old Malbecco, jealous of his young wife Hellenore, and keeping her from sight of men. The adventurers, who are now joined by another knight (and this is Britomart), force entrance, and sup with Malbecco, who has one eye blind. Paridel and Hellenore, on the blind side of him, play Paris and Helen. In the tenth canto Britomart and Sir Satyrane ride away betimes in the morning, but Paridel makes excuse to stay behind, and carries Hellenore away. He is pursued by the wretched Malbecco, who has ruined his own home by the curse of jealousy. Malbecco meeting Braggadochio and Trompart, quails even before them, believes their boasting, and is plundered by their fraud. Hellenore, deserted by Paridel, and cast to the wide world to fly alone, falls among satyrs of the wood, and is found by Malbecco content in such loathsome society, which she disdains to change for a return to his. He had lost his wife, and Trompart had purloined his wealth. Then driven to despair, Malbecco fled to the top of a rock that overhung the sea, threw himself down, but was so wasted that he fell lightly, where he crept into a cave and lived thenceforth

"In drery darkenes and continuall feare

Of that rocks fall, which ever and anon
Threats with huge ruine him to fall upon,
That he dare never sleepe, but that one eye
Still ope he keepes for that occasion."

He lived on toads and frogs, that in his cold complexion bred a filthy blood that doth with ceaseless care consume the heart.

"Yet can he never dye, but dying lives,
And doth himselfe with sorrow new sustaine,
That death and life att once unto him gives,

And painefull pleasure turns to pleasing paine.
There dwels he ever, miserable swaine,
Hatefull both to him selfe and every wight;

Where he, through privy griefe and horrour vaine,
Is woxen so deform'd that he has quight

Forgot he was a man, and Gelosy is hight."

In the eleventh canto Britomart chases the giant Ollyphant, as Palladine had pursued the giant's sister Argante. Satyrane follows the giant too. Ollyphant was seen in pursuit of a young man; but when Britomart approached he fled in fear from her.

"Fayre Britomart so long him followed,
That she at last came to a fountaine sheare,
By which there lay a knight all wallowed
Upon the grassy ground, and by him neare
His haberjeon, his helmet, and his speare:
A little off his shield was rudely throwne,
On which the wingéd boy in colours cleare
Depeincted was, full easie to be knowne,

And he thereby, where ever it in field was showne."

This was Sir Scudamour, mourning the captivity of Amoret, who had for seven months been imprisoned in the house of Busirane. Busirane is named from Busiris, an old King of Egypt, who in time of famine sacrificed all strangers to the shade of Osiris, the god of fertility, that the earth might again be fertile. The third book of "The Faerie Queen" ends with the embodiment of Chastity, freeing the grace of womanhood from perils of thraldom to animal life. Britomart alone is able to pass unhurt through the fire (of lust) at the entrance to the house of Busirane. Scudamour, scorched and burnt by it, had retired, and awaited outside the issue of the other knight's adventure, not knowing the other knight to be a maid. The pictured tapestries within told tales of the power of love to the eyes of Britomart.

"And as she lookt about, she did behold
How over that same dore was likewise writ,
Be bolde, be bolde, and every where, Be bold;
That much she muz'd, yet could not construe it
By any ridling skill, or commune wit.

At last she spyde at that rowmes upper end
Another yron dore, on which was writ,

Be not too bold; whereto though she did bend

Her earnest minde, yet wist not what it might intend."

The last canto, the twelfth, tells how at night there came terrors of thunder, lightning, earthquake, storm, and stench of smoke and sulphur. Then a whirlwind blew through all the house, doors clapped, and that iron wicket was burst open. Then came forth, as at a theatre,

"a grave personage,

That in his hand a braunch of laurel bore,

With comely haveour and count'nance sage,

Yclad in costly garments fit for tragicke stage."

He went into the midst of the room, and beckoning with his hand, as if to an audience, for silence, told by action "some argument of matter passionéd." When he retired, his name was seen on his robe in golden letters-Ease. In the "Roman de la Rose," it may be remembered, Idleness opened the door to the garden of love.

Then passed before Britomart the allegorical forms of the Masque of Cupid, which went round the room three times and disappeared where it had entered, the door being closed after it by a storm-blast. Britomart watched steadfastly till the next night, and when again the brazen door flew open she went boldly in.

What saw she there? A woful lady, bound by the waist with iron bands upon a brazen pillar. The vile enchanter sat before her figuring strange characters, with blood dropping from her heart transfixed with a cruel dart, but all his charms failed in their aim of winning her to love him :

"Soone as that virgin knight he saw in place,

His wicked bookes in hast he overthrew,
Not caring his long labours to deface;
And, fiercely running to that Lady trew,
A murdrous knife out of his pocket drew,
The which he thought, for villeinous despight,
In her tormented bodie to embrew:

But the stout Damzell, to him leaping light,

His cursed hand withheld, and maisteréd his might.

By the might of Britomart, Busirane was compelled to unweave his spells, heal Amoret's bleeding breast, and cause her chain to fall.

So

Britomart led Amoret forth.

The flame at the entrance was vanished quite. In the edition of 1590 Scudamour so recovered Amoret, and they were happy in each other. In the edition of 1596, the. long absence of Britomart had caused despair, and Scudamour with Glaucè had gone in search of further aid.

So end the three books of "The Faerie Queene" first published. The date of the explanatory letter to Sir Walter Raleigh was the twenty-third of January, 1589 (Old Style, 1590 New Style). The volume was dedicated "To the most Mightie and Magnificent Empresse Elizabeth; by the Grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. Her most humble Seruant Ed. Spenser." When the first three books were reprinted, together with the second three, in 1596, the dedication appeared thus enlarged: "To the most High, Mightie, and Magnificent Empresse, renowned for Pietie, Vertve, and all gratious Government, Elizabeth by the Grace of God Queene of England, Fraunce and Ireland, and of Virginia. Defender of the Faith, &c. Her most humble Servavnt Edmund Spenser doth, in all hvmilitie, Dedicate, Present, and Consecrate these his Labovrs, to Live with the Eternitie of her Fame."

In the first edition of the first three Books of "The Faerie Queene," the letter to Raleigh follows the text of the poem, and is followed by six pieces of commendatory verse-two sonnets by Raleigh, one by Gabriel Harvey, the other three by R. S., H. B., W. L. After these come seventeen sonnets addressed by Spenser to persons of high mark to whom he would present copies of his poem. These were Lord Burghley and Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir John Norris (then Lord President of Munster), Lord Grey of Wilton, the Countess of Pembroke, and eleven more-namely, the Earls of Essex, Oxford, Northumberland, Ormond, Cumberland; the Lord Charles Howard, Lord High Admiral; Lord Hunsdon, the

Queen's High Chamberlain; Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, author of the Induction in "The Mirror for Magistrates," and of the last two acts of our first tragedy—

"Whose learned Muse hath writ her own record

In golden verse, worthy immortal fame."

Of the two last sonnets, one is "To the most vertuous and beautifull Lady, the Lady Carew," wife of Sir George Carew, then President of Munster; the other "To all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the Court." All fairest dames have to be seen before the semblance can be drawn of the true Queen of Beauty :

"If all the world to seeke I over went,

A fairer crew yet nowhere could I see

Than that brave Court doth to mine eie present,

That the worldes pride seemes gathered there to bee.

Of each a part I stole by cunning thefte;

Spenser in London, 1590-91.

Forgive it me, faire Dames, sith lesse ye have not lefte."

In London at this time-housed for a while, probably, with Raleigh, as his guest and friend-Spenser must have been well liked at Court, and often bidden to a great man's feast. Spenser had brought with him to London earlier poems of his, from which William Ponsonby-the publisher of "The Faerie Queene"-formed a volume of "Complaints," entered at Stationer's Hall on the twenty-ninth of December, 1590. Three days later the dedication of “Daphnaida” to Helena, Dowager Marchioness of Northampton, was dated on the first of January, 1591-the latest date that can be found to indicate for how many months more than a year Spenser remained in London. Men did not then willingly cross the seas or travel far in January. Spenser's well-being in many ways might be advanced by staying long enough in London to make many friends at Court. While in London in 1590 Spenser found Raleigh and the Earl of Essex and the Earl