CANTO XII.

Guyon, by Palmers governaunce,

Passing through perilles great,
Doth overthrow the Bowre of Blis,
And Acrasy defeat.

I.

Now ginnes that goodly frame of Temperaunce
Fayrely to rise, and her adorned hed

To pricke 2 of highest prayse forth to advaunce,
Formerly grounded and fast setteled

On firme foundation of true bountyhed 3:

And this brave Knight, that for this vertue fightes,
Now comes to point of that same perilous sted,4
Where Pleasure dwelles in sensuall delights,

Mongst thousand dangers and ten thousand magick mights.

II.

Two dayes now in that sea he sayled has,

Ne ever land beheld, ne living wight,

Ne ought save perill, still as he did pas:

1 Ginnes, begins.

2 Pricke, pitch, point.

3 Bountyhed, goodness, virtue.
4 Sted, place.

I. 4.- Formerly grounded.] Being, first of all, grounded, or established.

1. 6. — And this brave Knight,] i. e. Sir Guyon, whose adventures are resumed from the beginning of the preceding canto.

I. 8.- Where Pleasure, &c.] This is Acrasia

Tho,1 when appeared the third Morrow bright
Upon the waves to spred her trembling light,
An hideous roring far away they heard,
That all their sences filled with affright;

And streight they saw the raging surges reard
Up to the skyes, that them of drowning made affeard.

III.

Said then the Boteman, "Palmer, stere aright,

And keepe an even course; for yonder way
We needes must pas (God doe us well acquight!)
That is the Gulfe of Greedinesse, they say,
That deepe engorgeth2 all this worldës pray;
Which having swallowd up excessively,
He soone in vomit up againe doth lay,3
And belcheth forth his superfluity,

That all the seas for feare doe seeme away to fly.

IV.

5

"On th' other syde an hideous Rock is pight 4
Of mightie magnes stone, whose craggie clift
Depending from on high, dreadfull to sight,
Over the waves his rugged armes doth lift,
And threatneth downe to throw his ragged rift
On whoso cometh nigh; yet nigh it drawes

All

passengers, that none from it can shift:

For, whiles they fly that Gulfe's devouring iawes, They on the rock are rent, and sunck in helples wawes.6"

1 Tho, then.

2 Engorgeth, swallows.
3 Lay, spread, throw.

4 Pight, placed.

5 Magnes-stone, magnet.

6 Wawes, waves.

III. 3.- God doe us well acquight.] May God bring us safely through.'

IV. 5.-Ragged rift.] Uneven or broken fragments. - Rift means, literally, a rent, or chasm.

V.

Forward they passe, and strongly he them rowes,
Untill they nigh unto that Gulfe arryve,
Where streame more violent and greedy growes:
Then he with all his puisaunce doth stryve
To strike his oares, and mightily doth dryve
The hollow vessell through the threatfull wave;
Which, gaping wide to swallow them alyve
In th' huge abysse of his engulfing grave,

Doth rore at them in vaine, and with great terrour rave.

VI.

They, passing by, that grisely mouth did see Sucking the seas into his entralles deepe, That seemd more horrible than hell to bee, Or that darke dreadfull hole of Tartare steepe Through which the damned ghosts doen often creep Backe to the world, bad livers to torment: But nought that falles into this direfull deepe, Ne that approcheth nigh the wyde descent, May backe retourne, but is condemned to be drent.2

VII.

On th' other side they saw that perilous Rocke,
Threatning itselfe on them to ruinate,3

On whose sharp cliftes the ribs of vessels broke;
And shivered ships, which had beene wrecked late,
Yet stuck with carcases exanimate 4

Of such, as having all their substance spent

In wanton ioyes and lustes intemperate,

Did afterwardes make shipwrack violent

Both of their life and fame for ever fowly blent.5

1 Grisely, grisly, terrible.

2 Drent, drenched, drowned.
3 Ruinate, fall.

Exanimate, lifeless.

Blent, polluted, disgraced.

VIII.

Forthy1 this hight 2 the Rock of vile Reproch,
A daungerous and détestable place,

To which nor fish nor fowle did once approch,
But yelling meawes,3 with seagulles hoars and bace,
And cormoyraunts, with birds of ravenous race,
Which still sat wayting on that wastfull clift
For spoile of wretches, whose unhappy cace,
After lost credit and consumed thrift,

At last them driven hath to this despairefull drift.

IX.

The Palmer, seeing them in safetie past,

Thus saide; "Behold th' ensamples in our sightes
Of lustfull luxurie and thriftlesse wast!
What now is left of miserable wightes

Which spent their looser daies in leud delightes,
But shame and sad reproch, here to be red

By these rent reliques speaking their ill plightes!
Let all that live hereby be counselled

To shunne Rock of Reproch, and it as death to dread!"

X.

So forth they rowed; and that Ferryman

With his stiffe oares did brush the sea so strong,

That the hoare 4 waters from his frigot ran,

And the light bubles daunced all along,

Whiles the salt brine out of the billowes sprong.
At last far off they many Islandes spy

On every side floting the floodes emong:

VIII. 9.-This despairefull drift.] This miserable course or direction.

Then said the Knight: "Lo! I the land descry; Therefore, old Syre, thy course doe thereunto apply."

XI.

"That may not bee," said then the Ferryman, "Least wee unweeting1 hap to be fordonne 2: For those same Islands, seeming now and than, Are not firme land, nor any certein wonne,3 But stragling plots, which to and fro doe ronne In the wide waters: therefore are they hight 5 The Wandring Islands: Therefore doe them shonne; For they have oft drawn many a wandring wight Into most deadly daunger and distressed plight.

XII.

"Yet well they seeme to him, that farre doth vew, Both faire and fruitfull, and the grownd dispred With grassy greene of délectable hew;

And the tall trees with leaves appareled

Are deckt with blossoms dyde in white and red,
That mote the passengers thereto allure;
But whosoever once hath fastened

His foot thereon, may never it recure,6
But wandreth evermore uncertein and unsure.

XIII.

"As th' isle of Delos whylome," men report,

XIII. 1. As th' isle of Delos, &c.] This island is represented by the ancients as having been floating under water until it was made to appear and remain fixed, in order that Latona might give birth there tc Apollo and Diana, the earth having been bound by an oath imposed