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THE FAERY QUEENE.

CANTO VII.

Pealing from Iove to Nature's bar,
Bold Alteration pleades

Large evidence; but Nature soone
Her righteous doome areads.

I.

AH! whither doost thou now, thou greater Muse,
Me from these woods and pleasing forrests bring,
And my fraile spirit, that dooth oft refuse
This too high flight unfit for her weake wing,
Lift up aloft, to tell of heaven's king
(Thy soveraine sire) his fortunate successe,
And victory in bigger noates to sing,
Which he obtain'd against that Titanesse,
That him of heaven's empire sought to dispossesse ?
II.

Yet sith I needs must follow thy behest,

Doe thou my weaker wit with skill inspire,
Fit for this turne, and in my feeble brest
Kindle fresh sparks of that immortall fire
Which learned minds inflameth with desire
Of heavenly things; for who but thou alone,
That art yborne of heaven and heavenly sire,
Can tell things doen in heaven so long ygone,
So farre past memory of man that may be knowne ?

III.

Now at the time that was before agreed,
The gods assembled all on Arlo hill,

As well those that are sprung of heavenly seed,
As those that all the other world doe fill,

And rule both sea and land unto their will;
Onely th' infernall powers might not appeare,
As well for horror of their count'naunce ill,
As for th' unruly fiends which they did feare;
Yet Pluto and Proserpina were present there.
IV.

And thither also came all other creatures,
Whatever life or motion doe retaine,
According to their sundry kinds of features,
That Arlo scarsly could them all containe,
So full they filled every hill and plaine;
And had not Nature's sergeant (that is Order)
Them well disposed by his busie paine,

And raunged farre abroad in every border,
They would have caused much confusion and dis-

V.

[order. Then forth issewed (great goddesse) great Dame With goodly port and gracious maiesty, [Nature, Being far greater and more talk of stature Then any of the gods or powers on hie ; Yet certes, by her face and physnomy, Whether she man or woman inly were, That could not any creature well descry; For with a veile that wimpled every where Her head and face was hid, that mote to none appeare.

VI.

That some doe say was so by skill devized,
To hide the terror of her uncouth hew
From mortail eyes that should be sore agrized,
For that her face did like a lion shew,
That eye of wight could not indure to view :
But others tell that it so beautious was,

And round about such beames of splendor threw,
That it the sunne a thousand times did pass,
Ne could be seene, but like an image in a glass.
VII.

That well may seemen true; for well I weene
That this same day when she on Arlo sat,
Her garment was so bright and wondrous sheene,
That my fraile wit cannot devize to what
It to compare, nor finde like stuffe to that;

As those three sacred saints, though else most wise,
Yet on Mount Thabor quite their wits forgat,
When they their glorious Lord in strange disguise
Transfigur'd sawe; his garments so did daze their
VIII.

In a fayre plain upon an equall hill

She placed was in a pavilion,

Not such as craftesmen, by their idle skill,
Are wont for princes states to fashion;
But th' Earth herself, of her owne motion
Out of her fruitfull bosome made to growe
Most dainty trees, that shooting up anon

[eyes.

Did seeme to how their bloosming heads full lowe, For homage unto her, and like a throne did shew.

IX.

So hard it is for any living wight

All her array and vestiments to tell,

That old Dan Geffrey (in whose gentle spright well-head of poesie did dwell)

The pure

In his Foules Parley durst not with it mell,
But it transferd to Alane, who he thought
Had in his Plaint of Kindes describ'd it well;
Which who will read set forth so as it ought,
Go seeke he out that Alane where he may be sought.
X.

And all the Earth far underneath her feete
Was dight with flowers, that voluntary grew
Out of the ground, and sent forth odours sweet;
Tenne thousand mores of sundry sent and hew,
That might delight the smell, or please the view,
The which the nymphes from all the brooks thereby
Had gathered, which they at her foot-stoole threw,
That richer seem'd then any tapestry

That princes bowres adorne with painted imagery.

XI.

And Mole himselfe, to honour her the more,
Did deck himself in freshest faire attire,
And his high head, that seemeth alwaies hore.
With hardned frosts of former winters ire,
He with an oaken girlond now did tire,
As if the love of some new nymph late seene
Had in him kindled youthfull fresh desire,
And made him change his gray attire to greene;
Ah,gentle Mole! such ioyance hath thee well beseene.

XII.

Was never so great ioyance since the day
That all the gods whylome assembled were
On Hamus hill in their divine array,
To celebrate the solemne bridall cheare

Twixt Peleus and Dame Thetis pointed there,
Where Phœbus' self, that God of Poets hight,
They say did sing the spousall hymne full cleere,
That all the gods were ravisht with delight
Of his celestiall song, and musick's wondrous might.
XIII.

This great grandmother of all creatures bred
Great Nature, ever young, yet full of eld,
Still mooving, yet unmoved from her sted,
Unseene of any, yet of all beheld;

Thus sitting in her throne as I have teld,
Before her came Dame Mutabilitie,

And being lowe before her presence feld,
With meek obaysance and humilitie,

Thus gan her plaintif plea with words to amplifie.
XIV.

"To thee, O greatest Goddesse! onely great, "An humble suppliant, loe, I lowely fly, "Seeking for right, which I of thee entreat, "Who right to all dost deale indifferently, "Damning all wrong and tortious iniurie "Which any of thy creatures doe to other, "Oppressing them with power unequally, "Sith of them all thou art the equall mother, "And knittest each to each, as brother unto brother: Volume VI.

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