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TWO CANTOS

OF MUTABILITIE:

WHICH, BOTH FOR FORME AND MATTER, APPEARE TO BE PARCELL OF SOME FOLLOWING BOOKE OF

THE FAERIE QUEENE,

UNDER

THE LEGEND OF CONSTANCIE.

CANTO VI.

Proud Change (not pleasd in mortall things

Beneath the moone to raigne)

Pretends, as well of gods as men,

To be the soveraine.

I.

WHAT man that sees the ever-whirling wheele
Of Change, the which all mortall things doth sway,
But that thereby doth find, and plainly feele,

How Mutability in them doth play

I. 1. What man, &c.] These two cantos, and the fragment of the third, were not published during Spenser's life. They appeared for the first time in the folio edition of the Faerie Queene, published in 1609, which contains no preface or explanation.

Her cruell sports to many mens decay1?
Which that to all may better yet appeare,

I will rehearse, that whylome 2 I heard say,
How she at first herselfe began to reare3

Gainst all the gods, and th' empire sought from them to beare.

II.

But first, here falleth fittest to unfold
Her antique race and linage ancient,
As I have found it registred of old
In Faery Land mongst records permanent.
She was, to weet, a daughter by descent
Of those old Titans that did whylome 2 strive
With Saturnes sonne for heavens regiment 4;

Whom though high love of kingdome did deprive,
Yet many of their stemme 5 long after did survive:

III.

And many of them afterwards obtain'd
Great power of love, and high authority:
As Hecate, in whose almighty hand
He plac't all rule and principality,
To be by her disposed diversly

To gods and men, as she them list divide;

And drad Bellona, that doth sound on hie

Warres and allarums unto nations wide,

That makes both heaven and earth to tremble at her pride.

IV.

So likewise did this Titanesse aspire

Rule and dominion to herselfe to gaine;
That as a goddesse men might her admire,

1 Decay, ruin, destruction.
2 Whylome, formerly.

4 Regiment, government.
5 Stemme, race.

• Drad, dreaded.

19

3 Reare, raise, set up.
VOL. IV.

And heavenly honours yield, as to them twaine : And first, on earth she sought it to obtaine; Where she such proofe and sad examples shewed Of her great powre, to many ones great paine, That not men onely (whom she soone subdewed) But eke all other creatures her bad dooings rewed.1

V.

For she the face of earthly things so changed,
That all which Nature had establisht first

In good estate, and in meet order ranged,

She did pervert, and all their statutes burst:

And all the worlds faire frame (which none yet durst
Of gods or men to alter or misguide)

She alter'd quite; and made them all accurst
That God had blest, and did at first provide

In that still happy state for ever to abide.

VI.

Ne shee the lawes of Nature onely brake,

But eke of Justice, and of Policie ;

And wrong of right, and bad of good did make,

And death for life exchanged foolishlie :

Since which, all living wights have learn'd to die,

And all this world is woxen daily worse.

O pittious work of Mutabilitie,

By which we all are subiect to that curse,

And death, in stead of life, have sucked from our nurse!

VII.

And now, when all the earth she thus had brought

To her behest and thralled to her might,

She gan to cast in her ambitious thought
T'attempt the empire of the heavens hight,

Rewed, lamented.

And love himselfe to shoulder from his right.
And first, she past the region of the ayre
And of the fire, whose substance thin and slight
Made no resistance, ne could her contraire,1
But ready passage to her pleasure did prepaire.

VIII.

Thence to the circle of the Moone she clambe, Where Cynthia raignes in everlasting glory, To whose bright shining palace straight she came, All fairely deckt with heavens goodly story; Whose silver gates (by which there sat an hory Old aged Sire, with hower-glasse in hand, Hight 2 Tyme,) she entred, were he liefe or sory 3; Ne staide till she the highest stage had scand,4 Where Cynthia did sit, that never still did stand.

IX.

Her sitting on an ivory throne shee found,

Drawne of two steeds, th' one black, the other white,
Environd with tenne thousand starres around,

That duly her attended day and night;

And by her side there ran her Page, that hight Vesper, whom we the evening-starre intend 5; That with his torche, still twinkling like twylight, Her lightened all the way where she should wend,6 And ioy to weary wandring travailers did lend:

X.

That when the hardy Titanesse beheld

1 Contraire, withstand.

3 Liefe or sory, willing or unwilling.

5 Intend, understand to be.

2 Hight, called.

4 Scand, climbed up to. 6 Wend, go.

66

Alluding to the continual

VIII. 9. That never still did stand.] increase and decrease of the moon."-CHURCH.

The goodly building of her palace bright, Made of the heavens substance, and up-held With thousand crystall pillors of huge hight; Shee gan to burne in her ambitious spright, And t'envie her that in such glorie raigned. Eftsoones1 she cast by force and tortious 2 might Her to displace, and to herselfe t' have gained The kingdome of the Night, and waters by her wained.

XI.

Boldly she bid the goddesse downe descend,
And let herselfe into that ivory throne;
For she herselfe more worthy thereof wend,3
And better able it to guide alone;

Whether to men whose fall she did bemone,
Or unto gods whose state she did maligne,
Or to th' infernall powers her need give lone
Of her faire light and bounty most benigne,
Herselfe of all that rule shee deemed most condigne.4

XII.

But shee that had to her that soveraigne seat
By highest love assign'd, therein to beare
Nights burning lamp, regarded not her threat,
Ne yielded ought for favour or for feare;

But, with sterne countenaunce and disdainfull cheare
Bending her horned browes, did put her back;
And, boldly blaming her for coming there,
Bade her attonce from heavens coast to pack,5
Or at her perill bide the wrathfull thunders wrack.

1 Eftsoones, immediately.
2 Tortious, wrongful.

3 Wend, weened, supposed.

4 Condigne, (condignus, Lat.,) worthy.

5 Pack, depart.

X. 9. — Wained.] Diminished, decreased; alluding to the influence

of the moon in producing the tides.

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