Thenceforth she left; and, parting from the place,
Thereon an heavy haplesse curse did lay;

To weet, that wolves, where she was wont to space, Shou'd harbour'd be and all those woods deface, And thieves should rob and spoile that coast around. Since which, those woods, and all that goodly chase Doth to this day with wolves and thieves abound: Which too-too true that lands in-dwellers since have found!

AH! whither doost thou now, thou greater Muse,
Me from these woods and pleasing forrests bring?
And my fraile spirit, that dooth oft refuse

This too high flight unfit for her weake wing,
Lift up aloft, to tell of heavens king
(Thy Soveraine Sire) his fortunate successe;
And victory in bigger noates to sing,
Which he obtain'd against that Titanesse,

That him of heavens empire sought to dispossesse?

II.

Yet, sith 3 I needs must follow thy behest,
Doe thou my weaker wit with skill inspire,
Fit for this turne; and in my sable 4 brest
Kindle fresh sparks of that immortall fire
Which learned minds inflameth with desire
Of heavenly things: for who, but thou alone
That art yborne of heaven and heavenly Sire,

I. 1.

1 Pealing, appealing.

Arcads, declares.

Thou greater Muse.] Clio.

3 Sith, since.

4 Sable, dark, misty.

II. 3.- Sable brest.] Some editions have feeble, instead of sable.

Can tell things doen in heaven so long ygone,

So farre past memory of man that may be knowne?

III.

Now, at the time that was before agreed,
The gods assembled all on Arlo Hill;

As well those that are sprung of heavenly seed,
As those that all the other world doe fill,
And rule both sea and land unto their will:
Onely th' infernall powers might not appeare;
As well for horror of their count'nance ill,
As for th' unruly fiends which they did feare;
Yet Pluto and Prosérpina were present there.

IV.

And thither also came all other creatures,
Whatever life or motion doe retaine,
According to their sundry kinds of features;
That Arlo scarsly could them all containe;
So full they filled every hill and plaine:
And had not Natures Sergeant (that is Order)
Them well disposed by his busie paine,

And raunged farre abroad in every border,

They would have caused much confusion and disorder.

V.

Then forth issew'd (great Goddesse) great Dame Nature With goodly port and gracious maiesty,

Being far greater and more tall of stature

Then any of the gods or powers on hie;
Yet certes 2 by her face and physnomy,3
Whether she man or woman inly were,
That could not any creature well descry;

1 Then, than. 2 Certes, surely. 3 Physnomy, countenance.

For, with a veile that wimpled1 every where,

Her head and face was hid that mote to none appeare.

VI.

That, some doe say, was so by skill devized,

To hide the terror of her uncouth hew

From mortall eyes that should be sore agrized 2;
For that her face did like a lion shew,
That eye of wight could not indure to view:
But others tell that it so beautious was,

And round about such beames of splendor threw,
That it the sunne a thousand times did pass,
Ne could be seene but like an image in a glass.

VII.

That well may seemen true; for well I weene
That this same day, when she on Arlo sat,
Her garment was so bright and wondrous sheene,3
That my fraile wit cannot devize to what
It to compare, nor finde like stuffe to that:

As those three sacred saints, though else most wise,
Yet on Mount Thabor quite their wits forgat,
When they their glorious Lord in strange disguise
Transfigur'd sawe; his garments so did daze their eyes.

VIII.

In a fayre plaine upon an equall hill
She placed was in a pavilion;

Not such as craftesmen by their idle skill
Are wont for princes states to fashion;
But th' Earth herself, of her owne motion,
Out of her fruitfull bosome made to growe

3 Sheene, shining.

4 Daze, dazzle.

VI. 9. — Like an image in a glass.] By being reflected.

Most dainty trees, that, shooting up anon,

Did seeme to bow their bloosming heads full lowe For homage unto her, and like a throne did shew.

IX.

So hard it is for any living wight

All her array and vestiments to tell,

That old Dan Geffrey (in whose gentle spright,
The pure well-head of poesie did dwell)
In his Foules parley durst not with it mell,1
But it transferd to Alane, who he thought
Had in his Plaint of kindes describ'd it well:
Which who will read set forth so as it ought,
Go seek he out that Alane where he may be sought.

X.

And all the earth far underneath her feete

Was dight with flowers, that voluntary grew
Out of the ground, and sent forth odours sweet;
Tenne thousand mores 3 of sundry sent and hew,
That might delight the smell, or please the view,
The which the nymphes from all the brooks thereby
Had gathered, they at her foot-stoole threw ;

1 Mell, meddle.

2 Dight, adorned.

3 Mores, roots, plants.

4 Sent, scent.

IX. 3.- Dan Geffrey.] Chaucer, who, in his " Assembly of Fowles," has a description of Nature, to which Spenser has been under obligations in the present passage.

IX. 6.- To Alane.] The lines in Chaucer are,

"And right as Alaine, in the Plaint of Kinde,
Deviseth Nature of soch araie and face,

In soche aray, men might her there find."

Alanus, or Alain, was a poet and divine of the twelfth century, who wrote a work called "De Planctu Naturæ," which Chaucer translates the "Plaint of Kinde."