Complete Works of Edmund Spenser

To the right Honourable the Earle of
Örmond and Ossory.

Receive, most noble Lord, a simple taste

And roughly wrought in an unlearned Loome: The which vouchsafe, dear Lord, your favorable doome.

Of the wilde fruit which salvage soyl hath To the right noble and valorous knight,

[waste,

bred;
Which, being through long wars left almost
With brutish barbarisme is overspredd :
And, in so faire a land as may be redd,
Not one Parnassus nor one Helicone,
Left for sweete Muses to be harboured,
But where thy selfe hast thy brave man-
sione:

There, in deede, dwel faire Graces many one,
And gentle Nymphes, delights of learned
And in thy person, without paragone, [wits;
All goodly bountie and true honour sits.
Such, therefore, as that wasted soyl doth yield,
Receive, dear Lord, in worth, the fruit of bar-
ren field.

Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Wardein of the Stanneryes, and lieftenaunt of Cornewaile. To thee, that art the sommers Nightingale, Thy soveraine Goddesses most deare delight, Why doe I send this rusticke Madrigale, That may thy tunefull eare unseason quite? Thou onely fit this Argument to write,

In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her bowre,

And dainty love learnd sweetly to endite. My rimes I know unsavory and sowre, To tast the streames that, like a golden showre, Flow from thy fruitfull head, of thy love's praise;

Fitter, perhaps, to thonder Martiall stowre, To the right honourable the Lord Ch. Howard, When so thee list thy lofty Muse to raise : Lord high Admiral of England, knight of Yet, till that thou thy Poeme wilt make knowne, the noble order of the Garter, and one of Let thy faire Cinthias praises be thus rudely her Majesties privie Counsel, &c.

And ye, brave Lord, whose goodly personage And noble deeds, each other garnishing,

Take you ensample to the present age Of th' old Heroes, whose famous ofspring The antique Poets wont so much to sing; In this same Pageaunt have a worthy place, Sith those huge castles of Castilian King, That vainly threatned kingdomes to displace, Like flying doves ye did before you chace; And that proud people, woxen insolent Through many victories, didst first deface: Thy praises everlasting monument Is in this verse engraven semblably, That it may live to all posterity.

To the most renowmed and valiant Lord, the Lord Grey of Wilton, knight of the Noble order of the Garter, &c.

Most Noble Lord, the pillor of my life,
And Patrone of my Muses pupillage;

[rife

showne.

berland.

Through whose large bountie, poured on me To the right honourable the Earle of CumIn the first season of my feeble age, I now doe live, bound yours by vassalage; Sith nothing ever may redeeme, nor reave Out of your endlesse debt, so sure a gage, Vouchsafe in worth this small guift to receave,

Which in your noble hands for pledge I leave Of all the rest that I am tyde t' account: Rude rymes, the which a rustick Muse did

weave

Redoubted Lord, in whose corageous mind The flowre of chevalry, now bloosming faire, Doth promise fruite worthy the noble kind Which of their praises have left you the haire;

To you this humble present I prepare,

For love of vertue and of Martiall praise; To which though nobly ye inclined are,

In savadge soyle, far from Parnasso Mount, As goodlie well ye shew'd in late assaies,

Yet brave ensample of long passed daies,

In which trew honor yee may fashioned see, To like desire of honor may ye raise, And fill your mind with magnanimitee. Receive it, Lord, therefore, as it was ment, For honor of your name and high descent.

E. S.

To the right honourable the Lord of Huns-
don, high Chamberlaine to her Majesty.
Renowmed Lord, that, for your worthinesse
And noble deeds, have your deserved place
High in the favour of that Emperesse,
The worlds sole glory and her sexes grace:
Here eke of right have you a worthie place,
Both for your nearnes to that Faerie Queene
And for your owne high merit in like cace:
Of which, apparaunt proofe was to be seene,
When that tumultuous rage and fearfull deene
Of Northerne rebels ye did pacify,

And their disloiall powre defaced clene,
The record of enduring memory.
Live, Lord, for ever in this lasting verse,
That all posteritie thy honor may reherse.

E. S. To the right honourable the Lord of Buckhurst, one of her Majesties privie Counsell. In vain I thinke, right honourable Lord,

By this rude rime to memorize thy name, Whose learned Muse hath writ her owne re

To the right honourable and most vertuous Lady the Countesse of Penbroke. Remembraunce of that most Heroicke spirit, The bevens pride, the glory of our daies, Which now triumpheth, through immortall merit

Of his brave vertues, crownd with lasting Of hevenlie blis and everlasting praies; [ baies Who first my Muse did lift out of the flore, To sing his sweet delights in lowlie laies; Bids me, most noble Lady, to adore His goodly image, living evermore

In the divine resemblaunce of your face; Which with your vertues ye embellish more, And native beauty deck with bevenlie

grace:

To the right honourable Sir Fr. Walsingham, For his, and for your owne especial sake, knight, principall Secretary to her Ma- Vouchsafe from him this token in good worth jesty, and one of her honourable privy Counsell.

That Mantuane Poetes incompared spirit,
Whose girland now is set in highest place,
Had not Mecænas, for his worthy merit,
It first advaunst to great Augustus grace,
Might long perhaps have lien in silence bace,
Ne bene so much admir'd of later age. [trace,
This lowly Muse, that learns like steps to
Flies for like aide unto your Patronage,

to take.

E. S.

THE FIRST BOOK

THE FAERIE QUEENE

CONTAYNING THE LEGEND OF THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSSE, OR OF HOLINESSE.

Lo! I, the man whose Muse whylome did
maske,

As time her taught, in lowly Shephards weeds,
Am now enforst, a farre unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten
reeds,

And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose praises having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broade emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize
my song.

Helpe then, O holy virgin! chiefe of nyne,
Thy weaker Novice to performe thy will;
Lay forth out of thine everlasting scryne
The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still,
Of Faerie knights, and fayrest Tanaquill,
Whom that most noble Briton Prince so long
Sought through the world, and suffered so
much ill,

That I must rue his undeserved wrong:

III

And thou, most dreaded impe of highest
Jove,

Faire Venus sonne, that with thy cruell dart
At that good knight so cunningly didst rove,
That glorious fire it kindled in his hart;
Lay now thy deadly Heben bowe apart,
And with thy mother mylde come to mine
ayde;
[Mart,
Come, both; and with you bring triumphant
In loves and gentle jollities arraid, [allayd.
After his murdrous spoyles and bloudie rage

And with them eke, O Goddesse heavenly Mirrour of grace and Majestie divine, [bright! Great Ladie of the greatest Isle, whose light Like Phoebus lampe throughout the world doth shine,

Shed thy faire beames into my feeble eyne, And raise my thoughtes, too humble and too vile,

To thinke of that true glorious type of thine, The argument of mine afflicted stile: O, helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my The which to heare vouchsafe, O dearest dread, dull tong!

CANTO I.

a-while!

The Patrone of true Holinesse
Foule Errour doth defeate:
Hypocrisie, him to entrappe,
Doth to his home entreate.

A GENTLE Knight was pricking on the Yet armes till that time did he never wield. plaine,

Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine,

The cruell markes of many' a bloody fielde;

His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters

fitt.

Enforst to seeke some covert nigh at hand, A shadie grove not farr away they spide,

And on his brest a bloodie Crosse he bore,
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he That promist ayde the tempest to withstand;
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd: [wore,
Upon his shield the like was also scor'd,
For soveraine hope which in his helpe he had.
Right faithfull true he was in deede and word,
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.

Whose loftie trees, yclad with sommers pride,
Did spred so broad, that heavens light did hide,
Not perceable with power of any starr :
And all within were pathes and alleies wide,
With footing worne, and leading inward farr.
Faire harbour that them seems, so in they
entred ar.

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