And rash misweening doe thy hart remove: For unto Knight there is no greater fhame, Then lightneffe and inconftancie in love: That doth this Redcroffe Knights enfample plainly prove.

II.

Who, after that he had faire Una lorne,

Through light mifdeeming of her loialtie; And falfe Dueffa in her fted had borne, Calld Fidefs', and fo fuppofd to be ; Long with her traveild; till at last they see A goodly building, bravely garnished; The house of mightie prince it feemd to be; And towards it a broad high way that led, All bare through peoples feet, which thether traveiled.

III.

Great troupes of people traveild thetherward
Both day and night, of each degree and place;
But few returned, having fcaped hard,
With balefull beggery, or foule difgrace;
Which ever after in moft wretched cafe,
Like loathfome lazars, by the hedges lay.
Thether Dueffa badd him bend his pace;
For fhe is wearie of the toilfom way;
And alfo nigh confumed is the lingring day.

IV.

A ftately pallace built of fquared bricke,

Which cunningly was without morter laid,

Whose wals were high, but nothing strong nor

thick,

And golden foile all over them difplaid,
That pureft fkye with brightneffe they dismaid:
High lifted up were many loftie towres,
And goodly galleries far over laid,

Full of faire windowes and delightful bowres;
And on the top a diall told the timely howres.

V.

It was a goodly heape for to behould,

And spake the praifes of the workmans witt: But full great pittie, that so faire a mould Did on fo weake foundation ever fitt: For on a fandie hill, that still did flitt And fall away, it mounted was full hie: breath of heaven shaked itt: And all the hinder partes, that few could spie, Were ruinous and old, but painted cunningly.

That every

IV. 5. That pureft skye with brightnesse they dismaid:] So Statius, in the defcription of the houfe of Mars, Theb. vii. 45. "Læditur adverfum Phœbi jubar, ipfaque fedem "Lux timet, et dirus contriftat fidera fulgor."

Again, Theb. vi. 666.

"folemque refulgens

"Territat." UPTON.

V. 5. on a fandie hill,] In allufion to the fool, who built his house upon the fand, Matt. vii. 26. To this House of Pride there is a broad high way; for what path more frequented? befide the path of pride is the path of deftruction, and the Scripture tells us that broad is the way that leadeth thither. With the defcription of this Houfe of Pride, the reader at his leifure may compare the house of Alcina, in Orland. Fur. vi. 59. And the house of Fame in Chaucer.

UPTON.

VI.

Arrived there, they paffed in forth right;
For ftill to all the gates ftood open wide:
Yet charge of them was to a porter hight,
Cald Malvenú, who entrance none denide:
Thence to the hall, which was on every fide
With rich array and coftly arras dight:
Infinite fortes of people did abide

There waiting long, to win the wifhed fight Of her, that was the Lady of that pallace bright.

VII.

By them they paffe, all gazing on them round, And to the Prefence mount; whofe glorious

vew

Their frayle amazed fenfes did confound.

VI. 3. hight] Hight and behight may be found in Chaucer as fignifying to promife. See Tyrwhitt's Gloff. to Chaucer, V. Behighte and Highte. Behight often occurs alfo for promised in Gower. Poflibly from this ufage of the word, Spenfer, with a little latitude, here applied the fenfe of entrusted to it. So, in F. Q. i. x. 50. “The keies are to thy hand behight." TODD.

VI. 6. With rich array and coftly arras dight:] An allufion to the custom of furnishing ftate-apartments, prevalent in the age of Elizabeth, with tapestry hangings, or arras, fo called from Arras, a city in the Netherlands, famous for the manufacture of tapestry. See F. Q. iii. i. 34. Spenfer calls it "royall arras," F. Q. i. viii. 35. See alfo Skelton, Poems ed. 1736, p. 205. And Milton diftinguishes the "tapestry halls in courts of princes," Com. v. 324. We are told, in the Mem. of Ancient Chivalry, p. 275, that "the chambers of princes were hung with green filk at top, and at bottom with tapestry unto the door." " Harrison, the coadjutor of Holinfhed, informs the reader, that "the walles of our [rich men's] houfes on the inner fides be either hanged with tapestry, arras-work, or painted cloths, &c."

TODD.

In living princes court none ever knew Such endleffe richeffe, and fo fumpteous fhew; Ne Perfia felfe, the nourfe of pompous pride, Like ever faw: And there a noble crew Of Lords and Ladies ftood on every fide, Which, with their prefence fayre, the place much beautifide.

VIII.

High above all a cloth of ftate was fpred,
And a rich throne, as bright as funny day;
On which there fate, moft brave embellished
With royall robes and gorgeous array,
A mayden Queene that shone, as Titans ray,
In gliftring gold and pereleffe pretious stone;
Yet her bright blazing beautie did affay
To dim the brightneffe of her glorious throne,
As envying her felfe, that too exceeding shone:

VII. 6. Ne Perfia felfe, the nourfe of pompous pride,

66

Like ever faw:] Our poet, in his defcription of the palace of Pride, has his eye on the Perfian pomp, and on their magnificent kings, called the king by way of eminence. And I believe likewife he had in view the Perfian princefs in Heliodorus, Lib. vii. p. 347. Whoever was admitted into the prefence of the great king muft needs make his adoration and fervile proftrations. St. 13. They on humble knee making obeyfance"-The Perfian monarch was attended by feven great officers of state, after the deftruction of Smerdis the Mage. See Herod. B. iii. See alfo Ezra vii. 14, Efther i. 14. Thus too Lucifera is attended, St. 12.-I believe myself that, befide this hiftorical allufion, there is another to the Seven deadly Sins, as the Schoolmen call them; and 'tis by no means foreign to Spenfer's manner to blend hiftorical and moral, or religious allufions and allegories. UPTON.

VIII. 9.

VOL. II.

that too exceeding fhone:] Having

I

IX.

Exceeding fhone, like Phoebus fayrest childe, That did prefume his fathers fyrie wayne, And flaming mouthes of fteedes unwonted wilde,

Through higheft heaven with weaker hand to

rayne;

Proud of fuch glory and advancement vayne, While flashing beames do daze his feeble eyen, He leaves the welkin way moft beaten playne, And, rapt with whirling wheeles, inflames the fkyen

With fire not made to burne, but fayrely for to

fhyne.

X.

So proud fhe fhyned in her princely state,

here faid, that the "fhone as Titan's ray," he compares her, in the following ftanza to Phaeton; which is a very striking anticlimax. T. WARTON.

"Tis a very elegant figure which our poet ufes to correct himself with a repetition of the fame words. He had compared Pride to the Sun; correcting himself, he adds, or rather this emblem of the world's vanity is to be compared to Phaeton, the Sun's falfe representative:

"exceeding fhone:

"Exceeding fhone, like Phoebus fayreft childe." He uses the fame figure in other places. See F. Q. i. ii. 44, 45, Then turning to his Lady, dead with feare her found :"Her feeming dead he found with feigned feare."

66.

Again, ii. xii. 53.

"Till that he came unto another gate;

"No gate, but like one." UPTON.

X. 1. So proud fhe thyned] This was the ancient preterperfect tenfe of fhine. A writer, criticifing Milton's fonnets, fays that, in the twenty third fonnet,