Complete Works of Edmund Spenser

by Edmund Spenser

  The second day ther came in a palmer bearing an infant with bloody hands, whose parents he complained to have bene slayn by an enchaunteresse called Acrasia: and therfore craved of the Faery Queene, to appoint him some knight to performe that adventure; which being assigned to Sir Guyon, he presently went forth with that same palmer: which is the beginning of the seccond booke and the whole subject thereof. The third day there came in a groome, who complained before the Faery Queene, that a vile enchaunter, called Busirane, had in hand a most faire lady, called Amoretta, whom he kept in most grievous torment, because she would not yield him the pleasure of her body. Whereupon Sir Scudamour, the lover of that lady, presently tooke on him that adventure. But being unable to performe it by reason of the hard enchauntments, after long sorrow, in the end met with Britomartis, who succoured him, and reskewed his love. 3

  But by occasion hereof, many other adventures are intermedled, but rather as accidents then intendments: as the love of Britomart, the overthrow of Marinell, the misery of Florimell, the vertuousnes of Belphœbe, the lasciviousnes of Hellenora, and many the like. 4

  Thus much, Sir, I have briefly overronne, to direct your understanding to the wel-head of the history, that from thence gathering the whole intention of the conceit, ye may, as in a handfull, gripe al the discourse, which otherwise may happily seeme tedious and confused. So humbly craving the continuaunce of your honourable favour towards me, and th’ eternall establishment of your happines, I humbly take leave.

  23. January, 1589.

  Yours most humbly affectionate,

  Ed. Spenser.

  Faerie Queene Detailed Table of Contents

  Glossary for ‘The Faerie Queene’

  Faerie Queene: Commendatory Verses

  A VISION UPON THIS CONCEIPT OF THE FAERY QUEENE

  ME thought I saw the grave where Laura lay,

  Within that temple where the vestall flame

  Was wont to burne; and passing by that way,

  To see that buried dust of living fame,

  Whose tumbe faire Love, and fairer Vertue kept, 5

  All suddeinly I saw the Faery Queene:

  At whose approch the soule of Petrarke wept,

  And from thenceforth those graces were not seene.

  For they this Queene attended; in whose steed

  Oblivion laid him downe on Lauras herse: 10

  Hereat the hardest stones were seene to bleed,

  And grones of buried ghostes the hevens did perse:

  Where Homers spright did tremble all for griefe,

  And curst th’ accesse of that celestiall theife.

  ANOTHER OF THE SAME

  THE PRAYSE of meaner wits this worke like profit brings, 15

  As doth the Cuckoes song delight when Philumena sings.

  If thou hast formed right true Vertues face herein,

  Vertue her selfe can best discerne, to whom they written bin.

  If thou hast Beauty praysd, let her sole lookes divine

  Judge if ought therein be amis, and mend it by her eine. 20

  If Chastitie want ought, or Temperaunce her dew,

  Behold her princely mind aright, and write thy Queene anew.

  Meane while she shall perceive, how far her vertues sore

  Above the reach of all that live, or such as wrote of yore:

  And thereby will excuse and favour thy good will: 25

  Whose vertue can not be exprest, but by an angels quill.

  Of me no lines are lov’d, nor letters are of price,

  Of all which speak our English tongue, but those of thy device.

  W. R.

  TO THE LEARNED SHEPEHEARD

  COLLYN, I see by thy new taken taske,

  Some sacred fury hath enricht thy braynes, 30

  That leades thy Muse in haughty verse to maske,

  And loath the layes that longs to lowly swaynes;

  That lifts thy notes from shepheardes unto kinges,

  So like the lively Larke that mounting singes.

  Thy lovely Rosolinde seemes now forlorne, 35

  And all thy gentle flockes forgotten quight;

  Thy chaunged hart now holdes thy pypes in scorne,

  Those prety pypes that did thy mates delight,

  Those trusty mates, that loved thee so well,

  Whom thou gav’st mirth, as they gave thee the bell. 40

  Yet, as thou earst, with thy sweete roundelayes,

  Didst stirre to glee our laddes in homely bowers,

  So moughtst thou now in these refyned layes

  Delight the daintie eares of higher powers:

  And so mought they, in their deepe skanning skill, 45

  Alow and grace our Collyns flowing quyll.

  And faire befall that Faery Queene of thine,

  In whose faire eyes Love linckt with Vertue sittes:

  Enfusing, by those bewties fyers devyne,

  Such high conceites into thy humble wittes, 50

  As raised hath poore pastors oaten reede,

  From rustick times, to chaunt heroique deedes.

  So mought thy Redcrosse Knight with happy hand

  Victorious be in that faire Hands right,

  Which thou dost vayle in type of Faery Land, 55

  Elizas blessed field, that Albion hight:

  That shieldes her friendes, and warres her mightie foes,

  Yet still with people, peace, and plentie flowes.

  But (jolly shepheard) though with pleasing style

  Thou feast the humour of the courtly trayne, 60

  Let not conceipt thy setled sence beguile,

  Ne daunted be through envy or disdaine.

  Subject thy dome to her empyring spright,

  From whence thy Muse, and all the world, takes light.

  HOBYNOLL.

  FAYRE Thamis streame, that from Ludds stately towne 65

  Runst paying tribute to the ocean seas,

  Let all thy nymphes and syrens of renowne

  Be silent, whyle this Bryttane Orpheus playes:

  Nere thy sweet bankes, there lives that sacred Crowne,

  Whose hand strowes palme and never-dying bayes: 70

  Let all at once, with thy soft murmuring sowne,

  Present her with this worthy poets prayes:

  For he hath taught hye drifts in shepeherdes weedes,

  And deepe conceites now singes in Faeries deedes.

  R. S.

  GRAVE Muses, march in triumph and with prayses; 75

  Our Goddesse here hath given you leave to land,

  And biddes this rare dispenser of your graces

  Bow downe his brow unto her sacred hand.

  Desertes findes dew in that most princely doome,

  In whose sweete brest are all the Muses bredde: 80

  So did that great Augustus erst in Roome

  With leaves of fame adorne his poets hedde.

  Faire be the guerdon of your Faery Queene,

  Even of the fairest that the world hath seene.

  H. B.

  WHEN stout Achilles heard of Helens rape 85

  And what revenge the states of Greece devisd:

  Thinking by sleight the fatall warres to scape,

  In womans weedes him selfe he then disguisde:

  But this devise Ulysses soone did spy,

  And brought him forth, the chaunce of warre to try. 90

  When Spencer saw the fame was spredd so large,

  Through Faery Land, of their renowned Queene,

  Loth that his Muse should take so great a charge,

  As in such haughty matter to be seene,

  To seeme a shepeheard then he made his choice; 95

  But Sydney heard him sing, and knew his voice.

  And as Ulysses brought faire Thetis sonne

  From his retyred life to menage armes,

  So Spencer was by Sidneys speaches wonne

  To blaze her fame, not fearing future harmes: 100

  For well he knew, his Muse would soone be tyred

  I
n her high praise, that all the world admired.

  Yet as Achilles, in those warlike frayes,

  Did win the palme from all the Grecian peeres,

  So Spencer now, to his immortall prayse, 105

  Hath wonne the laurell quite from all his feres.

  What though his taske exceed a humaine witt?

  He is excus’d, sith Sidney thought it fitt.

  W. L.

  TO looke upon a worke of rare devise

  The which a workman setteth out to view, 110

  And not to yield it the deserved prise

  That unto such a workmanship is dew,

  Doth either prove the judgement to be naught,

  Or els doth shew a mind with envy fraught.

  To labour to commend a peece of worke 115

  Which no man goes about to discommend,

  Would raise a jealous doubt, that there did lurke

  Some secret doubt, whereto the prayse did tend:

  For when men know the goodnes of the wyne,

  ’Tis needlesse for the hoast to have a sygne. 120

  Thus then, to shew my judgement to be such

  As can discerne of colours blacke and white,

  As alls to free my minde from envies tuch,

  That never gives to any man his right,

  I here pronounce this workmanship is such, 125

  As that no pen can set it forth too much.

  And thus I hang a garland at the dore,

  Not for to shew the goodnes of the ware,

  But such hath beene the custome heretofore,

  And customes very hardly broken are. 130

  And when your tast shall tell you this is trew,

  Then looke you give your hoast his utmost dew.

  IGNOTO.

  Faerie Queene Detailed Table of Contents

  Glossary for ‘The Faerie Queene’

  Faerie Queene: Dedicatory Sonnets

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON, LORD HIGH CHAUNCELOR OF ENGLAND, &C.

  THOSE prudent heads, that with theire counsels wise

  Whylom the pillours of th’ earth did sustaine,

  And taught ambitious Rome to Tyrannise,

  And in the neck of all the world to rayne,

  Oft from those grave affaires were wont abstaine, 5

  With the sweet, Lady Muses for to play:

  So Ennius the elder Africane,

  So Maro oft did Cæsars cares allay.

  So you, great Lord, that with your counsell sway

  The burdeine of this kingdom mightily, 10

  With like delightes sometimes may eke delay

  The rugged brow of carefull Policy;

  And to these ydle rymes lend litle space,

  Which for their titles sake may find more grace.

  TO THE MOST HONOURABLE AND EXCELLENT LORD THE EARLE OF ESSEX. GREAT MAISTER OF THE HORSE TO HER HIGHNESSE, AND KNIGHT OF THE NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, &C.

  MAGNIFICKE Lord, whose vertues excellent 15

  Doe merit a most famous poets witt,

  To be thy living praises instrument,

  Yet doe not sdeigne to let thy name be writt

  In this base poeme, for thee far unfitt:

  Nought is thy worth disparaged thereby. 20

  But when my Muse, whose fethers, nothing flitt,

  Doe yet but flagg, and lowly learne to fly,

  With bolder wing shall dare alofte to sty

  To the last praises of this Faery Queene,

  Then shall it make more famous memory 25

  Of thine heroicke parts, such as they beene.

  Till then vouchsafe thy noble countenaunce,

  To these first labours needed furtheraunce.

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARLE OF OXENFORD, LORD HIGH CHAMBERLAYNE OF ENGLAND, &C.

  RECEIVE, most noble Lord, in gentle gree

  The unripe fruit of an unready wit, 30

  Which by thy countenaunce doth crave to bee

  Defended from foule Envies poisnous bit:

  Which so to doe may thee right well befit,

  Sith th’ antique glory of thine auncestry

  Under a shady vele is therein writ, 35

  And eke thine owne long living memory,

  Succeeding them in true nobility;

  And also for the love which thou doest beare

  To th’ Heliconian ymps, and they to thee,

  They unto thee, and thou to them, most deare. 40

  Deare as thou art unto thy selfe, so love

  That loves and honours thee, as doth behove.

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARLE OF NORTHUMBERLAND

  THE SACRED Muses have made alwaies clame

  To be the nourses of nobility,

  And registres of everlasting fame, 45

  To all that armes professe and chevalry.

  Then, by like right, the noble progeny,

  Which them succeed in fame and worth, are tyde

  T’embrace the service of sweete poetry,

  By whose endevours they are glorifide; 50

  And eke from all of whom it is envide

  To patronize the authour of their praise,

  Which gives them life, that els would soone have dide,

  And crownes their ashes with immortall baies.

  To thee, therefore, right noble Lord, I send 55

  This present of my paines, it to defend.

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARLE OF ORMOND AND OSSORY

  RECEIVE, most noble Lord, a simple taste

  Of the wilde fruit which salvage soyl hath bred,

  Which, being through long wars left almost waste,

  With brutish barbarisme is overspredd: 60

  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 mansione:

  There in deede dwel faire Graces many one, 65

  And gentle nymphes, delights of learned wits,

  And in thy person without paragone

  All goodly bountie and true honour sits.

  Such, therefore, as that wasted soyl doth yield,

  Receive, dear Lord, in worth, the fruit of barren field. 70

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD CH. HOWARD, LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND, KNIGHT OF THE NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, AND ONE OF HER MAJESTIES PRIVIE COUNSEL, &C.

  AND ye, brave Lord, whose goodly person age

  And noble deeds, each other garnishing,

  Make you ensample to the present age

  Of th’ old heroes, whose famous ofspring

  The antique poets wont so much to sing, 75

  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 80

  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, 85

  And patrone of my Muses pupillage,

  Through whose large bountie, poured on me rife,

  In the first season of my feeble age,

  I now doe live, bound yours by vassalage:

  Sith nothing ever may redeeme, nor reave 90

  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 95

  In savadge soyle, far from Parnassomount,

  And roughly wrought in an unlearned loome:

  The which vouc
hsafe, dear Lord, your favorable doome.

  TO THE RIGHT NOBLE AND VALOROUS KNIGHT, 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, 100

  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. 105

  My rimes I know unsavory and sowre,

  To tast the streames, that like a golden showre

  Flow from thy fruitfull head, of thy loves praise;

  Fitter perhaps to thonder martiall stowre,

  When so thee list thy lofty Muse to raise: 110

  Yet till that thou thy poeme wilt make knowne,

  Let thy faire Cinthias praises bee thus rudely showne.

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD BURLEIGH, LORD HIGH THREASURER OF ENGLAND

  TO you, right noble Lord, whose carefull brest

  To menage of most grave affaires is bent,

  And on whose mightie shoulders most doth rest 115

  The burdein of this kingdomes governement,

  As the wide compasse of the firmament

  On Atlas mighty shoulders is upstayd,

  Unfitly I these ydle rimes present,

  The labor of lost time, and wit unstayd: 120

  Yet if their deeper sence be inly wayd,

  And the dim vele, with which from comune vew

  Their fairer parts are hid, aside be layd,

  Perhaps not vaine they may appeare to you.

  Such as they be, vouchsafe them to receave, 125

  And wipe their faults out of your censure grave.

  E. S.

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARLE OF CUMBERLAND

  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; 130

  To you this humble present I prepare,

  For love of vertue and of martiall praise;

  To which though nobly ye inclined are,

  As goodlie well ye shew’d in late assaies,

  Yet brave ensample of long passed daies, 135

  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. 140

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD OF HUNSDON, HIGH CHAMBERLAINE TO HER MAJESTY