Stories from the Faerie Queen, Told to the Children

by Edmund Spenser

  V

  PASTORELLA

  Long, long ago, in a far-away land, there lived a great noble, called theLord of Many Islands. He had a beautiful daughter named Claribel, and hewished her to marry a rich prince.

  But Claribel loved a brave young knight, and she married him without herfather's knowledge.

  The Lord of Many Islands was fearfully angry when he found out that shewas married.

  He threw the young knight into one dark dungeon and Claribel into another,and there they were imprisoned for years and years, until the Lord of ManyIslands was dead. Claribel was rich then, and she and her husband wouldhave been very happy together, but for a great loss that they had had.

  While she was in prison a little baby girl came to Claribel. She fearedthat her angry father might kill the baby if he knew that it had beenborn, so she gave it to her maid, and told her to give it to some one totake care of.

  The maid carried the child far away to where there were no houses, butonly wild moors and thick woods. There was no one there to give it to, butshe dared not take it back in case its grandfather might kill it. She didnot know what to do, and she cried and cried until the baby's clothes werequite wet with her tears.

  It was a very pretty baby, and the maid noticed that on its little breastthere was a tiny purple mark, as if some one had painted on it an openrose. She drew its clothes over the mark, and then laid the baby gentlydown behind some green bushes, and went home crying bitterly.

  When the baby found herself lying out in the cold with no one to care forher, she cried too. And she cried so loudly and so long, that a shepherdcalled Meliboeus heard her cries, and came to see what was wrong.

  When he found the beautiful baby, he wrapped her in his warm cloak andcarried her home to his wife. From that day the baby was their littlegirl. They called her Pastorella, and loved her as if she were reallytheir own.

  Pastorella grew up amongst shepherds and shepherdesses, yet she was neverquite like them. None of the shepherdesses were as beautiful as she was,and none were as gentle nor as full of grace. So they called Pastorellatheir queen, and would often crown her with garlands of flowers.

  When Pastorella was grown up, there came one day to the country of plainsand woods where she lived a brave and noble knight.

  His name was Calidore, and of all the knights of the Faerie Queen therewas none so gentle nor so courteous as he. He always thought of othersfirst, and never did anything that he thought would hurt the feelings ofany one. Yet he was brave and strong, and had done many gallant deeds.

  He was hunting a monster that had done much harm, when he came near thehome of Pastorella.

  Sheep were grazing on the plain, and nibbling the golden buds that thespring sunshine had brought to the broom. Shepherds were watching thesheep. Some were singing out of the happiness of their hearts, because ofthe blue sky and the green grass and the spring flowers. Others wereplaying on pipes they had made for themselves out of the fresh youngwillow saplings.

  Calidore asked them if they had seen the monster that he sought.

  'We have seen no monster, nor any dreadful thing that could do our sheepor us harm,' they answered, 'and if there be such things, we pray they maybe kept far from us.'

  Then one of them, seeing how hot and tired Sir Calidore was, asked him ifhe would have something to drink and something to eat. Their food was verysimple, but Calidore thanked them, and gladly sat down to eat and drinkalong with them.

  A little way from where they sat, some shepherds and shepherdesses weredancing. Hand in hand, the pretty shepherdesses danced round in a ring.Beyond them sat a circle of shepherds, who sang and piped for the girls todance. And on a green hillock in the middle of the ring of girls satPastorella. She wore a dainty gown that she herself had made, and on herhead was a crown of spring flowers that the shepherdesses had boundtogether with gay silken ribbons.

  'Pastorella,' sang the shepherds and the girls, 'Pastorella is our queen.'

  Calidore sat and watched. And the more he looked at Pastorella, the morehe wanted to look. And he looked, and he looked, and he looked again atPastorella's sweet and lovely face, until Pastorella had stolen all hisheart away. He forgot all about the monster he was hunting, and could onlysay to himself, as the shepherds had sung, 'Pastorella ... Pastorella ...Pastorella is my queen.'

  All day long he sat, until the evening dew began to fall, and the sunsetslowly died away, and the shepherds called the sheep together and drovethem home.

  As long as Pastorella was there, Calidore felt that he could not move. Butpresently an old man with silver hair and beard, and a shepherd's crook inhis hand, came and called to Pastorella, 'Come, my daughter, it is time togo home.'

  It was Meliboeus, and when Calidore saw Pastorella rise and call her sheepand turn to go, he did not know what to do, for he could only think ofPastorella.

  But when good old Meliboeus saw the knight being left all alone, and theshadows falling, and the trees looking grey and cold, he said to him, 'Ihave only a little cottage, turfed outside to keep out the wind and wet,but it is better to be there than to roam all night in the lonely woods,and I bid you welcome, Sir Knight.'

  In the middle of the ring of girls sat Pastorella (page63)]

  And Calidore gladly went with him, for that was just what he was longingto do.

  All evening, as he listened to the talk of Meliboeus, who was a wise andgood old man, Calidore's eyes followed Pastorella. He offered Meliboeussome gold to pay for his lodging, but Meliboeus said, 'I do not want yourgold, but, if you will, stay with us and be our guest.'

  So, day after day, Calidore stayed with the shepherds. And, day after day,he loved Pastorella more. He treated her and said pretty things to her asknights were used to treat and to speak to the court ladies. ButPastorella was used to simpler things, and liked the simple things best.

  When Calidore saw this, he laid aside his armour and dressed himself likea shepherd, with a crook instead of a spear. Every day he helpedPastorella to drive her sheep to the field, and took care of them anddrove away the hungry wolves, so that she might do as she liked and neverhave any care, knowing that he was there.

  Now, one of the shepherds, whose name was Corydon, for a long time hadloved Pastorella. He would steal the little fluffy sparrows from theirnests, and catch the young squirrels, and bring them to her as gifts. Hehelped her with her sheep, and tried in every way he knew to show her thathe loved her.

  When he saw Calidore doing things for Pastorella he grew very jealous andangry. He sulked and scowled and was very cross with Pastorella.

  One day when the shepherd who piped the best was playing, the othershepherds said that Calidore and Pastorella must dance. But Calidore putCorydon in his place, and when Pastorella took her own garland of flowersand placed it on Calidore's head, Calidore gently took it off and put iton Corydon's.

  Another time, when the shepherds were wrestling, Corydon challengedCalidore to wrestle with him. Corydon was a very good wrestler, and hehoped to throw Calidore down. But in one minute Calidore had thrownCorydon flat on the ground. Then Pastorella gave the victor's crown ofoak-leaves to Calidore. But Calidore said 'Corydon has won the oak-leaveswell,' and placed the crown on Corydon's head.

  All the shepherds except Corydon soon came to like Calidore, for he wasalways gentle and kind. But Corydon hated him, because he thought thatPastorella cared for Calidore more than she cared for him.

  One day Pastorella and Corydon and Calidore went together to the woods togather wild strawberries. Pastorella's little fingers were busy pickingthe ripe red fruit from amongst its fresh green leaves, when there glidedfrom out the bushes a great beast of black and yellow, that walked quietlyas a cat and had yellow, cruel eyes.

  It was a tiger, and when Pastorella heard a twig break under its greatpads, and looked up, it rushed at her fiercely. Pastorella screamed forhelp, and Corydon, who was near her, ran to see what was wrong. But whenhe saw the savage tiger, he ran away again in a fearful fright. Calidorewas further
off, but he, too, ran, and came just in time to see the tigerspring at Pastorella. He had no sword nor spear, but with his shepherd'scrook he struck the tiger such a terrific blow, that it dropped, stunned,to the ground. Before it could rise, he drew his knife and cut off itshead, which he laid at Pastorella's feet.

  From that day Pastorella loved Calidore, and he and she were very, veryhappy together.

  It chanced that one day Calidore went far into the forest to hunt thedeer. While he was away a band of wicked robbers attacked the shepherds.They killed many of them, and took the rest prisoners. They burned downall their cottages, and stole their flocks of sheep.

  Amongst those that they drove away as captives were Meliboeus and hiswife, Corydon, and Pastorella. Through the dark night they drove them on,until they came to the sea. On an island near the coast was the robbers'home. The island was covered with trees and thick brushwood, and therobbers lived in underground caves, so well hidden amongst the bushes thatit was hard to find them. The robbers meant to sell the shepherds andshepherdesses as slaves, but until merchants came to buy them they kepttheir prisoners in the darkest of the caves, and used them very cruelly.

  One morning the robber captain came to look at his captives. When he sawPastorella in her pretty gown, all soiled now and worn, with her longgolden hair and beautiful blue eyes, and her face white and thin withsuffering, he thought her so lovely that he determined to have her for hiswife.

  From that day she was kindly treated. But when the robber told Pastorellathat he loved her and wanted her for his wife, she pretended she was ill.

  'I am much too ill to marry any one,' she said.

  To the island there came one day the ships of some merchants who wished tobuy slaves. They bought Meliboeus and Corydon and all the others. Then oneof the robbers said to the captain:

  'They are all here but the fair shepherdess.'

  And he told the merchants that Pastorella would make a much more beautifulslave than any of those they had bought.

  Then the captain was very angry.

  'She belongs to me,' he said. 'I will not sell her.'

  To show the merchants that Pastorella was ill and not fit to be a slave,at last he sent for her.

  The cave was lighted only by flickering candles, and Pastorella's fairface looked like a beautiful star in the darkness. Although she was sopale, she was so beautiful that the merchants said that they mustcertainly have her.

  'I have told you I will not sell her,' said the captain sulkily.

  They offered him much gold, but still he would only say, 'I will not sellher.'

  'If you will not sell this slave,' said the merchants, 'we will not buyany of the others.'

  Then the other robbers grew very angry with their captain, and tried tocompel him to give in.

  'I shall kill the first who dares lay a hand on her!' furiously said thecaptain, drawing his sword.

  Then began a fearful fight. The candles were knocked down, and the robbersfought in the dark, no man knowing with whom he fought.

  But before the candles went out, the robbers in their fury killed alltheir prisoners, lest they might take the chance of escaping, or fightagainst them. Old Meliboeus and his wife were slain, and all the othershepherds and shepherdesses, excepting Corydon and Pastorella.

  Corydon, who was always good at running away, escaped in the darkness.

  The robber captain put Pastorella behind him, and fought for her. At lasthe was stabbed through the heart and fell dead. The sword that killed himpierced Pastorella's arm, and she, too, fell down in a faint.

  When she opened her eyes the robbers who were left had stopped fighting,and had lighted the candles, and were counting their dead and wounded.When she saw her dear father and mother and her friends lying cold andstill beside her, she began to sob and cry. As soon as the robbers knewthat she lived, they thrust her back into the darkest of their caves. Themost cruel of all the robbers was her gaoler. He would not allow her tobind up her wound, and he gave her scarcely anything to eat or to drink.He would not even let her rest, and so, in pain and hunger and sadness,Pastorella passed her weary nights and days.

  Now when Calidore got back from his hunting, he expected to hear theshepherds' pipes, and their songs, and the bleating of the sheep, and tosee Pastorella in her dainty gown and with flowers in her golden haircoming to meet him.

  Instead of that, the place which had been so gay was sad and silent. Thecottages were smouldering black ruins, and there was no living creaturethere.

  Calidore wildly sought everywhere for some trace of Pastorella. But whenhe sought her in the woods and called 'Pastorella ... Pastorella ...',only the trees echoed 'Pastorella.' In the plains he sought her, but theylay silent and lonely under the stars, and they, too, only echoed'Pastorella ... Pastorella....'

  Week after week he searched for her, until one day he saw a man runningacross the plain. The man's hair was standing up on his head as if he werein a terrible fright, and his clothes were in rags.

  When he got near, Calidore saw that it was Corydon.

  'Where is Pastorella?' eagerly asked Calidore.

  Corydon burst into tears.

  'Ah, well-a-day,' he said, 'I saw fair Pastorella die!'

  He then told Calidore all about the robbers' raid, and all that hadhappened in that dreadful cave. Only one thing he did not know. He did notknow that Pastorella was alive. He had seen her fall down, and he thoughtthat she was dead.

  So Calidore's heart was nearly broken, and he vowed a vow that he wouldnot rest until he had punished the wicked men who had killed Pastorella.

  He made Corydon come with him to show him the way to the robbers' island.At first Corydon was too frightened to go, but at last Calidore persuadedhim. Together they set off, dressed like shepherds. But although Calidorecarried only a shepherd's crook, under his smock he wore his steel armour.

  When at last they had reached the island, they found some sheep grazing,and knew them for some of those that had belonged to Meliboeus. WhenCorydon saw the sheep he had taken care of in the days when he was mosthappy, he began to cry.

  But Calidore comforted him, and they went on to where some robbershepherds lay asleep in the shade. Corydon wanted to kill them as theyslept, but Calidore had other plans, and would not let him.

  He awoke them, and they talked together. The robbers told him that theydid not care to look after sheep, but liked better to fight and rob andkill. When Calidore and Corydon said that they would help them to keep thesheep, the robbers were glad. All day they stayed with the flocks, and atnight the robbers took them home to their dark caves. There Calidore andCorydon heard news that made them glad, but made Calidore the more glad,for he loved Pastorella more than Corydon had ever done.

  They learned that Pastorella was alive.

  And so, day after day, they went on with their work, and waited andwatched for a chance to set Pastorella free.

  One night when the robbers had been away all day stealing and killing, andwere all very tired, Calidore knew that the time had come to try to savePastorella.

  Corydon was too frightened to go with him. So all alone, at dead of night,Calidore went to the cave where the new robber captain, Pastorella'sgaoler, slept. Calidore had managed to get a little sword belonging to arobber, but he had nothing else to fight with.

  When he came to the cave, he found the door fastened. He put his strongshoulder against it, and burst the door in. The crash awoke Pastorella'sgaoler, and he ran to see what it was. With one blow of his sword Calidorekilled him. Then he called, till his voice rang through the gloomy cave,'_Pastorella!_'

  Pastorella heard the noise, and lay trembling lest some new dreadful thinghad come upon her. But when, again and again, Calidore called her name,her heart jumped for joy, and she ran out of the darkness right into hertrue knight's arms. And Calidore threw his arms about her, and kissed hera thousand times.

  The robbers had waked up, hearing the crash of the door, and the yell ofthe robber as he died, and Calidore's cry of
'Pastorella.' Like a swarm ofangry wasps they flocked to the door of the cave, but in the doorway stoodCalidore with his sword, and slew every man who dared to try to kill him.He slew and slew until the doorway was blocked with dead bodies. Thenthose robbers that still lived were afraid to touch him, and went away torest until morning.

  Calidore also rested, and when daylight came he found amongst the deadrobbers a better sword than the one he already had, and with that in hishand he walked out of the cave.

  The robbers were lying in wait for him, and rushed at him from every sidewhen he appeared.

  But Calidore was like a lion in a herd of deer. With his sharp sword hethrust and smote, until the robbers who did not lie dead around him fledin terror, and hid themselves in their caves.

  Then Calidore went back to where he had left Pastorella, and cheered andcomforted her. Together they went through the robbers' caves, and took therichest of their treasures of gold and precious jewels. All the sheep theygave to Corydon, who gladly drove them away.

  Then Calidore took Pastorella to the castle of one of his friends, a nobleknight, whose gentle wife was called Claribel.

  Calidore had to go to hunt the monster that he was pursuing when he firstmet the shepherds, so he left Pastorella with the knight and his lady.Pastorella was so gentle and beautiful that they loved her for her ownsweet sake, as well as for Calidore's, and cared for her as if she wastheir own daughter.

  An old woman who had always been Claribel's maid was given as maid toPastorella.

  One morning as this woman helped her to dress, she noticed on Pastorella'swhite breast a curious little mark. It was as if some one had painted onthe fair skin a tiny purple rose with open petals. The old woman ran toher mistress, Claribel.

  'Your baby lives!' she cried; 'the little baby I left crying under thegreen bushes is the beautiful Pastorella who is to marry Sir Calidore!'

  Claribel ran to Pastorella's room, and looked at the little rose, andasked many questions. And when Pastorella had answered her, she was quitesatisfied that she was indeed the baby-girl for whom her heart had been sohungry through all those years.

  'My daughter, my daughter, that I mourned as dead!' she sobbed, as sheheld Pastorella in her arms and kissed her again and again.

  When the knight knew that he was Pastorella's father, he was as glad asClaribel. So they lived happily together until Calidore had slain themonster and come back to marry Pastorella.

  Then instead of Pastorella, the shepherd's daughter, with her littledainty gown and her wreath of wildflowers, he found a Pastorella injewels, and silks, and satins, who was the daughter of a great knight andhis lady, and grand-daughter of the Lord of Many Islands.

  Yet the Pastorella who married brave Sir Calidore was evermore Pastorella,the simplest and sweetest bride that any knight ever brought to the courtof the Faerie Queen.