THE FAERY QUEENE.

CANTO VIII. Unperfite.

I.

WHEN I bethinke me on that speech whyleare
Of Mutability, and well it way;

Me seems that though she all unworthy were
Of the heav'n's rule yet very sooth to say,
In all things else she bears the greatest sway,
Which makes me loath this state of life so tickle,
And love of things so vaine to cast away,
Whose flowring pride, so fading and so fickle,
Short Time shall soon cut down with his consuming

II.

[sickle. Then gin I thinke on that which Nature sayd, Of that same time when no more change shall be, But stedfast rest of all things, firmely stayd Upon the pillours of Eternity,

That is contrayr to Mutabilitie;

For all that moveth doth in change delight;
But thenceforth all shall rest eternally

With him that is the God of Sabbaoth hight;

O that great Sabbaoth's God, grant me that Sabbath's sight!

ADVERTISEMENT.

IN an advertisement prefixed to the first volume of this edition, p. 88. the reader was informed that the text of the Faery Queen was printed from Mr. Upton's Quarto Edition, as the most genuine text of that poem. It becomes necessary to intimate in this place, that the following Poems in this volume, as well as the whole of those in the seventh and eighth volumes, are printed from the text of Mr. Hughes, the edition by Mr. Upton containing the Faery Queen alone of all Spenser's writings. According to our usual method, the verses are numbered throughout every poem, which was not thought necessary in regard to the Faery Queen, that poem being wrote in stanzas of nine lines each.

Feb. 1778.

COME HOME AGAIN.

To the right worthy and noble Knt,

SIR WALTER RALEIGH,

Captain of her Majesty's Guard, Lord Warden of the Stanneries, and Lieut. of the County of Cornwall.

SIR,

THAT you may see that I am not always idle, as ye think, though not greatly well occupied, nor altogether undutiful, though not precisely officious, I make you present of this simple Pastoral, unworthy of your higher conceipt for the meanness of the stile, but agreeing with the truth in circumstance and matter; the which I humbly beseech you to accept in part of payment of the infinite debt in which lacknowledge myself bounden unto you, (for your singular favours and sundry good turns shewed to me at my late being in England) and with your good countenance protect against the malice of evil mouths, which are always wide open to carp at and misconstrue my simple meaning. I pray continually for your happiness.

From my house at Kilcolman,

December the 27th, 1591.

Yours ever humbly,

EDMUND SPENSER.

THE shepherd's boy (best knowen by that name) That after Tityrus first sung his lay,

Lays of sweet love, without rebuke or blame,
Sate (as his custom was) upon a day

Charming his oaten pipe unto his peers ;
The shepherd swains, that did about him play,
Who all the while with greedy listful ears,
Did stand astonish'd at his curious skill,
Like heartless deere, dismay'd with thunder's
sound;

At last, whenas he piped had his fill,
He rested him, and sitting then around,
One of those grooms (a jolly groom was he,
As ever piped on an oaten reed,,

And lov'd this shepherd dearest in degree,
Hight Hobbinol) 'gan thus to him areed:

10

15

Colin, my Life! my Life! how great a loss Had all the shepherds' nation by thy lack? And I, poor swain of many greatest cross, That sith thy Muse first since thy turning back Was heard to sound, as she was wont on high, 20 Hast made us all so blessed and so blythe,

A

Whilst thou wast hence, all dead in dole did lie,
The woods were heard to wail full many a sythe,
And all their birds with silence to complain ;-
The fields with faded flowers did seem to mourn, 25
And all
d all their flocks from feeding to refrain
The running waters wept for thy return,

And all their fish with languor did lament;

But now both woods, and fields, and floods revive,

Sith thou art come, their cause of merriment,
That us late dead hast made again alive.

30

But were it not too painful to repeat
The passed fortunes which to thee befel
In thy late voyage, we would thee intreat,
Now at thy leisure, them to us to tell.

35

40

To whom the shepherd gently answer'd thus ; "Hobbin, thou temptest me to that I covet, For of good passed newly to discuss, By double usury doth twise renew it : And since I saw that angel's blessed eye, Her world's bright sun, her heaven's fairest light, My mind, full of my thought's satiety, Doth feed on sweet contentment of that sight: Since that same day in nought I take delight, Ne feeling have in any earthly pleasure, But in remembrance of that glory bright, My life's sole bliss, my heart's eternal treasure. Wake, then, my Pipe! my sleepy Muse! awake, Till I have told her praises lasting long; Hobbin desires thou mayst it not forsake;

45

50

Hark, then, ye jolly shepherds! to my song." With that they all 'gan throng about him

near,

With hungry ears to hear his harmony,
The whiles their flocks, devoid of danger's fear,
Did round about them feed at liberty.

55

"One day (quoth he) I sate (as was my trade) Under the foot of Mole, that mountain hore, Keeping my sheep amongst the cooly shade Of the green alders by the Mulla's shore;