The Damzel wakes: then all attonce upstart,
And round about her flock, like many flies,
Whooping, and hollowing on every part,
As if they would have rent the brafen skies.
Which when she fees with ghaftly griefful eyes,
Her heart does quake, and deadly pallid hue
Benumbs her cheeks: Then out aloud fhe cries,
Where none is nigh to hear, that will her rue,
And rends her golden locks, and snowy breasts embrue.
XLI.
But all boots not: they hands upon her lay;
And firft they spoil her of her jewels dear,
And afterwards of all her rich array;
The which amongst them they in pieces tear,
And of the prey each one a part doth bear.
Now being naked to their fordid eyes
The goodly treasures of nature appear:
Which as they view with luftful fantasies,
Each wifheth to himself, and to the rest envies.
XLII.
Her ivory neck, her alablafter breast,
Her paps, which like white filken pillows were,
For Love in foft delight thereon to reft;
Her tender fides, her belly white and clear,
Which like an altar did it felf uprear,
To offer facrifice divine thereon;
Her goodly thighs, whofe glory did appear
Like a triumphal arch, and thereupon
The spoils of Princes hang'd, which were in battle won:
XLIII.
Thofe dainty parts, the dearlings of delight,
Which mote not be prophan'd of common eyes,
Those villains view'd with loofe lafcivious fight,
And clofely tempted with their crafty fpies;
And fome of them 'gan 'mongst themselves devife,
Thereof by force to take their beaftly pleasure.
But them the Prieft rebuking did advise
To dare not to pollute fo facred treasure,
Vow'd to the Gods: religion held even thieves in measure
So being ftayd, they her from thence directed
Unto a little grove not far aside,
In which an altar fhortly they erected,
To flay her on. And now the eventide
His broad black wings had through the heavens wide
By this difpread, that was the time ordain'd
For fuch a dismal deed, their guilt to hide :
Of few green turfs an altar foon they fain'd,
And deckt it all with flowrs, which they nigh hand obtain'd.
XLV.
Tho whenas all things ready were aright,
The Damzel was before the altar fet,
Being already dead with fearful fright.
To whom the Prieft with naked arms full net
Approaching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet,
'Gan mutter close a certain fecret charm,
With other devilish ceremonies met:
Which done, he 'gan aloft t'advance his arm,
Whereat they shouted all, and made a loud alarm.
XLVI.
Then 'gan the bag-pipes and the horns to fhrill
And fhriek aloud, that with the peoples voice
Confufed, did the air with terrour fill,
And made the wood to tremble at the noife:
The whiles fhe waild, the more they did rejoice.
Now mote ye understand that to this grove
Sir Calepine by chance, more than by choice,
The felf-fame evening fortune hither drove,
As he to feek Serena through the woods did rove.
XLVII.
Long had he fought her, and through many a foil
Had travel'd still on foot in heavy arms,
Ne ought was tired with his endless toil,
Ne ought was feared of his certain harms:
And now all weetlefs of the wretched ftorms,
In which his Love was loft, he slept full faft,
Till being waked with these loud alarms,
He lightly started up like one aghaft,
And catching up his arms, ftraight to the noife forth past.
There by th❜uncertain glimpse of starry night,
And by the twinkling of their facred fire,
He mote perceive a little dawning fight
Of all, which there was doing in that quire:
'Mongst whom, a woman fpoild of all attire
He fpide lamenting her unlucky ftrife,
And groaning fore from grieved heart entire;
Eftfoons he faw one with a naked knife
Ready to launce her breaft, and let out loved life.
XLIX.
With that he thrufts into the thickest throng,
And ev❜n as his right hand adown defcends,
He him preventing, lays on earth along,
And facrififeth to th'infernal Fiends.
Then to the rest his wrathful hand he bends:
Of whom he makes fuch havock and fuch hew,
That fwarms of damned fouls to hell he fends:
The reft, that scape his fword and death efchew,
Fly like a flock of Doves before a Faulcons view.
L.
From them returning to that Lady back,
Whom by the altar he doth fitting find, Yet fearing death, and next to death, the lack Of clothes to cover what he ought by kind, He first her hands begineth to unbind; And then to queftion of her prefent woe; And afterwards to chear with fpeeches kind. But fhe, for nought that he could say or do, One word durft speak, or answer him awhit thereto. LI.
So inward fhame of her uncomely cafe
She did conceive, through care of womanhood, That though the night did cover her disgrace, Yet fhe in fo unwomanly a mood,
Would not bewray the ftate in which fhe ftood. So all that night to him unknown she past. But day that doth discover bad and good. Enfuing, made her known to him at last: The end whereof I'll keep until another caft.
Calidore bofts with Melibæ,
And loves fair Paftorell;
Coridon envies him, yet be
For ill rewards him well.
ow turn again my team thou jolly fwain,
Back to the furrow which I lately left;
I lately left a furrow, one or twain
Unplough'd, the which my coulter hath not cleft: Yet feem'd the foil both fair and fruitful eft, As I it paft; that were too great a fhame, That fo rich fruit fhould be from us bereft; Befides the great dishonour and defame, Which should befall to Calidore's immortal name. II.
Great travel hath the gentle Calidore
And toil endured, fith I left him last
'Sueing the Blatant Beaft; which I forbore
To finish then, for other prefent haste.
Full many paths, and perils he hath paft,
Throughhills, throughdales, throughforefts, and through
In that fame queft, which Fortune on him cast; Which he achieved to his own great gains, Reaping eternal glory of his reftlefs pains.
So fharply he the monfter did purfue,
That day nor night he suffer'd him to reft:
Ne refted he himself (but natures due)
For dread of danger, not to be redreft,
If he for floth forflackt fo famous quest.
Him first from court he to the cities cours'd,
And from the cities to the towns him preft,
And from the towns into the country forc'd,
And from the country back to private farms he fcors'd.
From thence into the open fields he fled,
Whereas the Herd's were keeping of their Neat,
And Shepherds finging to their flocks that fed,
Lays of fweet love and youths delightful heat:
Him thither eke (for all his fearful threat
He follow'd fast, and chased him fo nigh,
That to the folds, where fheep at night do feat,
And to the little cotes, where Shepherds lye,
In winters wrathful time, he forced him to flye.
V.
There on a day as he purfu'd the chace,
He chanc'd to fpy a fort of fhepherd grooms,
Playing on pipes, and caroling apace,
The whiles their beafts there in the budded brooms
Beside them fed, and nipt the tender blooms:
For other worldly wealth they cared nought.
To whom Sir Calidore yet fweating comes,
And them to tell him courteoufly befought,
If fuch a beast they faw, which he had thither brought.
VI.
They answer'd him, that no fuch beast they saw,
Nor any wicked Fiend that mote offend
Their happy flocks, nor danger to them draw :
But if that fuch there were (as none they kend)
They prayd high God him far from them to fend.
Then one of them him feeing fo to sweat,
After his ruftick wife (that well he weend)
Offred him drink, to quench his thirsty heat,
And if he hungry were, him offred eke to eat.
The Knight was nothing nice, where was no need,
And took their gentle offer: fo adown
They prayd him fit, and gave him for to feed
Such homely what, as ferves the fimple clown,
That doth defpife the dainties of the town.
Tho having fed his fill, he there befide
Saw a fair Damzel, which did wear a crown
Of fundry flowres, with filken ribbands ty'd,
Yclad in home-made green that her own hands had dy'd.
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