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"And is the sea," quoth Coridon, "so fearful?” *Fearful much more," quoth hey "than heart can

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fear; Thousand wild beasts, with deep mouths gaping Therein still wait, poor passengers to tear. [direful, Who life doth loath, and longs death to behold Before he die, already dead with fear, And yet would live with heart half stony cold, Let him to sea, and he shall see it there: And yet as ghastly dreadful as it seems, Bold men, presuming life for gain to sell, Dare tempt that gulf, and in those wandring streams Seek ways unknown, ways leading down to hell: 211 For as we stood there waiting on the strond, Behold, an huge great vessel to us came, Dancing upon the water's back to lond, As if it scorn'd the danger of the same; Yet was it but a wooden frame, and frail, Glewed together with some subtile matter; Yet had it arms, and wings, and head, and tail, And life to move itself upon the water.

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Strange thing how bold and swift the monster

was!

That neither car'd for wind, nor hail, nor rain,
Nor swelling waves, but through them did pass
So proudly, that she made them rore again.
The same aboord us gently did receave,
And without harm us far away did bear,
So far, that land, our mother, us did leave,
And nought but sea and heaven to us appear.

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Then heartless quite, and full of inward fear,
That shepherd I besought to me to tell
Under what sky, or in what world, we were,
In which I saw no living people dwell;
Who me recomforting all that he might,
Told me that that same was the regiment
Of a great shepherdess that Cynthia hight,
His liege, his lady, and his life's regent.

If then, quoth I, a shepherdess she be,

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Where be the flocks and herds which she doth

keep?

And where may I the hills and pastures see,

On which she useth for to feed her sheep?

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These be the hills, quoth he, the surges high, 240
On which fair Cynthia her herds doth feed;
Her herds be thousand fishes with their fry,
Which in the bosom of the billows breed:
Of them the shepherd which has charge in chief
Is Triton, blowing loud his wreathed horn,
At sound whereof they all for their relief
Wend to and fro at evening and at morn.
And Proteus, eke with him does drive his heard
Of stinking seales and porcpisces together,
With hoary head and dewy dropping beard
Compelling them which way he list, and whither;

And I, among the rest of many least,
Have in the ocean charge to me assign'd,
Where I will live or die at her beheast,

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And serve and honour her with faithful mind. 255

Besides, an hundred nymphs, all heavenly born, And of immortal race, do still attend

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To wash fair Cynthia's sheep when they be shorn,
And fold them up when they have made an end.
Those be the shepherds which my Cynthia serve
At sea, besides a thousand more at land;
For land and so my Cynthia doth deserve
To have in her commandement at hand.
Thereat I wonder much, till wondering more
And more, at length we land far off descryde, 265
Which sight much gladded me; for much afore
I fear'd lest land we never should have eyde :
Thereto our ship her course directly bent,
As if the way she perfectly had known.

We Lynday pass, by that same name is ment 270
An island which the first to west was shown;
From thence another world of land we kend,
Floating amid the sea in jeopardy,

And round about with mighty white rocks hend,
Against the sea's encroaching cruelty :
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Those same, the shepherd told me, were the fields
In which Dame Cynthia her land-herds fed,
Fair goodly fields, than which Armulla yields
None fairer, nor more fruitful to be red:
The first of which we nigh approached was
An high head-land, thrust far into the sea,
Like to an horn, whereof the name it has,
Yet seem'd to be a goodly pleasant lea:

Riij

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There did a lofty mount at first us greet, Which did a stately heap of stones uprear, That seem'd amid the surges for to fleet, Much greater than that frame which us did bear; There did our ship her fruitful womb unlade, And put us all ashore on Cynthia's land.” [said; "What land is that thou meanst ?" then Cuddy And is there other than whereon we stand ?" 291 "Ah! Cuddy," then quoth Colin, “thou's a fon,

That hast not seen least part of Nature's work:
Much more there is unken'd than thou doost kon,
And much more that does from mens knowledge
lurk :.

For that same land much larger is than this, 296
And other men, and beasts, and birds, doth feed:
There fruitful corn, fair trees, fresh herbage, is,
And all things else that living creatures need.
Besides, most goodly rivers there appear,
No wit inferior to thy Fanchin's praise,
Or, unto Allo, or to Mulla clear :

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Nought hast thou, foolish Boy! seen in thy days." "But if that land be there, quoth he, as here, And is their heaven likewise there all one? And if like heaven, be heavenly graces there, Like as in this same world where we do wonne ?" "Both heaven and heavenly graces do much more,"

Quoth he, "abound in that same land than this;

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For there all happy peace and plenteous store
Conspire in one to make contented bliss ;
No wailing there, nor wretchedness, is heard,
No bloody issues, nor no leprosies,
No griesly famine, nor no raging sweard,
No nightly bodrags, nor no hue and cries:
The shepherds there abroad may safely lie
On hills and downs, withouten dread or danger;
No ravenous wolves the goodman's hope destroy,
Nor outlaws fell affray the forest-1
t-ranger :
There learned arts do flourish in great honour, 320
And poets' wits are had in peerless price;
Religion hath lay-powre to rest upon her,
Advancing vertue and suppressing vice.
For end, all good, all grace, there freely grows,
Had people grace it gratefully to use;

For God his gifts there plenteously bestows,
But graceless men them greatly do abuse."
"But say on further, then," said Corylas,
"The rest of thine adventures that betided."

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"Forth on our voyage we by land did pass," 330 Quoth he," as that same shepherd still us guided, Until that we to Cynthia's presence came, Whose glory, greater than my simple thought, I found much greater than the former fame; : Such greatness I cannot compare to ought: But if I her like ought on earth might read, I would her liken to a crown of lillies Upon a virgin bride's adorned head,

With roses dight, and goolds, and daffadilies;

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