With sonnes own blade her fowle reproaches spoke:
Fayre Sthenoboa, that her selfe did choke

With wilfull chord, for wanting of her will;
High-minded Cleopatra, that with stroke

Of Asps sting her self did stoutly kill:

And thousands moe the like, that did that dongeon fill.

LI.

Besides the endlesse routes of wretched thralles,1
Which thether were assembled, day by day,
From all the world, after their wofull falles
Through wicked pride and wasted welthes decay.
But most, of all which in that dongeon lay,
Fell from high princes courtes, or ladies bowres;
Where they in ydle pomp, or wanton play,
Consumed had their goods and thriftlesse howres,
And lastly thrown themselves into these heavy stowres.2

LII.

Whose case whenas the careful Dwarfe had tould,
And made ensample of their mournfull sight
Unto his Maister; he no lenger would
There dwell in perill of like painefull plight,
But earely rose; and, ere that dawning light
Discovered had the world to heaven wyde,
He by a privy posterne tooke his flight,
That of no envious eyes he mote be spyde:
For, doubtlesse, death ensewd if any him descryde.

1 Thralles, slaves.

2 Stowres, calamities.

L. 5.-Fayre Sthenobaa.] Sthenoboa was the wife of Prœtus, king of Argos, and committed suicide in consequence of an unsuccessful passion for Bellerophon.

LIII.

Scarse could he footing find in that fowle way,
For many corses, like a great lay-stall 1

Of murdred men, which therein strowed lay
Without remorse or decent funerall;

Which, al through that great Princesse Pride, did fall,
And came to shamefull end: And them besyde,
Forth ryding underneath the castell wall,

A donghill of dead carcases he spyde;
The dreadfull spectacle of that sad House of Pryde.

1 Lay-stall, a place to put rubbish in.

As when a ship, that flyes fayre under sayle,
An hidden rocke escaped hath unwares,
That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile;
The mariner yet halfe amazed stares
At perill past, and yet in doubt ne dares
To ioy at his foolhappie1 oversight 2:
So doubly is distrest twixt ioy and cares
The dreadlesse corage of this Elfin Knight,
Having escapt so sad ensamples in his sight.

II.

Yet sad he was, that his too hastie speed
The fayre Duess' had forst him leave behind;
And yet more sad, that Una, his deare Dreed,3
Her truth had staynd with treason so unkind;
Yet cryme in her could never creature find:

1 Foolhappie, lucky without design.

2 Oversight, escape; literally, his being overlooked, and thus allowed 3 Dreed, object of reverence.

to escape.

I. 3. For to beroaile, &c.] Bewaile here means to choose or select; and the idea conveyed is that the rock lies in wait for the ship, or selects her for the purpose of wrecking her.

But for his love, and for her own selfe sake,
She wandred had from one to other Ynd,
Him for to seeke, ne ever would forsake;
Till her unwares the fiers Sansloy did overtake:

III.

Who, after Archimagoes fowle defeat, › Led her away into a forest wilde;

And, turning wrathfull fyre to lustfull heat,
With beastly sin thought her to have defilde,
And made the vassall of his pleasures vilde.
Yet first he cast by treatie, and by traynes,1
Her to persuade that stubborne fort to yielde:
For greater conquest of hard love he gaynes,
That workes it to his will, then he that it constraines.

IV.

With fawning wordes he courted her a while;
And, looking lovely 2 and oft sighing sore,

Her constant hart did tempt with diverse guile:
But wordes, and lookes, and sighes she did abhore;
As rock of diamond stedfast evermore.

Yet, for to feed his fyrie lustfull eye,

He snatcht the vele that hong her face before: Then gan her beautie shyne as brightest skye, And burnt his beastly hart t' enforce her chastitye.

V.

So when he saw his flatt'ring artes to fayle,
And subtile engines bett from batteree;
With greedy force he gan the fort assayle,
Whereof he weend possessed soone to bee,

1 Traynes, persuasion.

2 Lovely, lovingly.

II. 9. Till her unwares, &c.] The adventures of Una are now resumed from canto III.

And win rich spoile of ransackt chastitee.

Ah heavens! that doe this hideous act behold,
And heavenly Virgin thus outraged see,

How can ye vengeance iust so long withhold,

And hurle not flashing flames upon that Paynim bold?

VI.

The pitteous Mayden, carefull,' comfortlesse,

Does throw out thrilling shriekes, and shrieking cryes;
(The last vaine helpe of wemens greate distresse,)
And with loud plaintes impórtuneth the skyes;
That molten starres doe drop like weeping eyes;
And Phoebus, flying so most shameful sight,
His blushing face in foggy cloud implyes,2

And hydes for shame. What witt of mortall wight Can now devise to quitt a thrall 3 from such a plight?

VII.

Eternall Providence, exceeding thought,

Where none appeares can make her self a way A wondrous way it for this Lady wrought, From lyons clawes to pluck the gryped pray. Her shrill outcryes and shrieks so loud did bray, That all the woodes and forestes did resownd: A troupe of Faunes and satyres far away Within the wood were dauncing in a rownd, Whiles old Sylvanus slept in shady arber sownd:

VIII.

Who, when they heard that pitteous strained voice,
In haste forsooke their rural meriment,

1 Carefull, sorrowful.

2 Implycs, envelopes.

3 Thrall, a person subjected to the power of another.

VII. 9. Old Sylvanus.] Sylvanus was a rural deity, in figure resembling a satyr.