"Thence forth I passed to the second gate,
The gate of Good Desert, whose goodly pride
And costly frame were long here to relate:
The same to all stoode alwaies open wide;
But in the porch did evermore abide
An hideous giant, dreadfull to behold,

That stopt the entraunce with his spacious stride,
And with the terrour of his countenance bold
Full many did affray, that else faine enter would:

"His name was Daunger, dreaded over all;
Who day and night did watch and duely ward
From fearefull cowards entrance to forstall
And faint-heart fooles, whom shew of perill hard
Could terrifie from fortunes faire adward:
For oftentimes faint hearts, at first espiall
Of his grim face, were from approaching scard:
Unworthy they of grace, whom one deniall
Excludes from fairest hope withouten furthertriall.

"Yet many doughty warriours, often tride
In greater perils to be stout and bold,
Durst not the sternnesse of his looke abide;
But, soone as they his countenance did behold,
Began to faint, and feele their corage cold.
Againe, some other, that in hard assaies

Were cowards knowne, and litle count did hold,
Either through gifts, or guile, or such like waies,
Crept in by stouping low, or stealing of the kaies.

"But I, though meanest man of many moe,
Yet much disdaining unto him to lout,
Or creepe betweene his legs, so in to goe,
Resolv'd him to assault with manhood stout,
And either beat him in or drive him out.
Eftsoones, advauncing that enchaunted shield,
With all my might I gan to lay about:
Which when he saw, the glaive which he did wield
He gan forthwith t'avale, and way unto me yield.

"So, as I entred, I did backeward looke,

For feare of harme that might lie hidden there;
And loe! his hind parts, whereof heed I tooke,
Much more deformed, fearfull, ugly were,
Then all his former parts did earst appere:
For Hatred, Murther, Treason, and Despight,
With many moe lay in ambúshment there,
Awayting to entrap the warelesse wight
Which did not them prevent with vigilant foresight.

"Thus having past all perill, I was come
Within the compasse of that islands space;
The which did seeme, unto my simple doome,
The onely pleasant and delightfull place
That ever troden was of footings trace:
For all that Nature by her mother-wit
Could frame in earth, and forme of substance base,
Was there; and all that Nature did omit,
Art, playing second Natures part, supplyed it.

"No tree, that is of count, in greenewood growes, From lowest iuniper to ceder tall;

No flowre in field, that daintie odour throwes,
And deckes his branch with blossomes over all,
But there was planted, or grew naturall:
Nor sense of man so coy and curious nice,
But there mote find to please itseife withall;
Nor hart could wish for any queint device,
But there it present was, and did fraile sense entice.

"In such luxurious plentie of all pleasure,
It seem'd a second Paradise I ghesse,
So lavishly enricht with Natures threasure,
That if the happie soules, which doe possesse
Th' Elysian fields and live in lasting blesse,
Should happen this with living eye to see,
They soone would loath their lesser happinesse,
And wish to life return'd againe to bee, [free.
That in this ioyous place they mote have ioyance

"Fresh shadowes, fit to shroud from sunny ray;
Faire lawnds, to take the Sunne in season dew;
Sweet springs, in which a thousand nymphs did play;
Soft-rombling brookes, that gentle slomber drew;
High-reared mounts, the lands about to view;
Low-looking dales, disloignd from common gaze;
Delightfull bowres, to solace lovers trew;
False labyrinthes, fond runners eyes to daze;
All which by Nature made did Nature selfe amaze.
"And all without were walkes and alleyes dight
With divers trees enrang'd in even rankes;
And here and there were pleasant arbors pight,
And shadie seates, and sundry flowring bankes,
To sit and rest the walkers wearie shankes:
Aud therein thousand payres of lovers walkt,
Praysing their God, and yeelding him great thankes,
Ne ever ought but of their true loves talkt,
Ne ever for rebuke or blame of any balkt.

"All these together by themselves did sport
Their spotlesse pleasures and sweet loves content.
But, farre away from these, another sort
Of lovers lincked in true harts consent;
Which loved not as these for like intent,
But on chaste vertue grounded their desire,
Farre from all fraud or fayned blandishment;
Which, in their spirits kindling zealous fire, [pire.
Brave thoughts and noble deedes did evermore as-.

"Such were great Hercules, and Hyllus deare;
Trew Ionathan, and David trustie tryde;
Stout Theseus, and Pirithous his feare;
Pylades, and Orestes by his syde;
Myld Titus, and Gesippus without pryde;
Damon, and Pythias, whom death could not sever:
All these, and all that ever had bene tyde
In bands of friendship, there did live for ever;
Whose lives although decay'd, yet loves decayed

never.

"Which whenas I, that never tasted blis
Nor happy howre, beheld with gazefull eye,

I thought there was none other Heaven then this;
And gan their endlesse happinesse envye,
That being free from feare and gealosye
Might frankely there their loves desire possesse;
Was forst to seeke my lifes deare patronesse:
Whilest I, through pains and perlous ieopardie,
Much dearer be the things which come through
hard distresse.

"Yet all those sights, and all that else I saw,
Might not my steps withhold but that forthright
Unto that purposd place I did me draw,
Whereas my love was lodged day and night,
The temple of great Venus, that is hight
The queene of Beautie, and of Love the mother,
There worshipped of every living wight;
Whose goodly workmanship farre past all other
That ever were on Earth, all were they set together,

"Not that same famous temple of Diáne,
Whose hight all Ephesus did oversee,
And which all Asia sought with vowes prophane,
One of the worlds seven wonders sayd to bee,
Might match with this by many a degree:
Nor that, which that wise king of Iurie framed
With endlesse cost to be th' Almighties see;
Nor all, that else through all the world is named
To all the heathen gods, might like to this be clamed.

" I, much admyring that so goodly frame,
Unto the porch approcht, which open stood;
But therein sate an amiable dame,

That seem'd to be of very sober mood,
And in her semblant shew'd great womanhood:
Strange was her tyre; for on her head a crowne
She wore, much like unto a Danisk hood,

Poudred with pearle and stone; and all her gowne
Enwoven was with gold, that raught full low adowne.

"On either side of her two young men stood,
Both strongly arm'd, as fearing one another;
Yet were they brethren both of halfe the blood,
Begotten by two fathers of one mother,
Though of contrárie natures each to other:
The one of them hight Love, the other Hate;
Hate was the elder, Love the younger brother;
Yet was the younger stronger in his state
Then th' elder, and him maystred still in all debate.

"Nathlesse that dame so well them tempred both,
That she them forced hand to ioyne in hand,
Albe that Hatred was thereto full loth,
And turn'd his face away, as he did stand,
Unwilling to behold that lovely band:

Yet she was of such grace and vertuous might,
That her commaundment he could not withstand,
But bit his lip for felonous despight,

And gnasht his yron tuskes at that displeasing sight.

"Concord she cleeped was in common reed,
Mother of blessed Peace and Friendship trew;
They both her twins, both borne of heavenly seed,
And she herselfe likewise divinely grew;
The which right well her workes divine did shew:
For strength and wealth and happinesse she lends,
And strife and warre and anger does subdew;
Of little much, of foes she maketh frends,
And to afflicted minds sweet rest and quiet sends.

"By her the Heaven is in his course contained,
And all the world in state unmoved stands,
As their Almightie Maker first ordained,
And bound them with inviolable bands;
Else would the waters overflow the lands,

And fire devoure the ayre, and Hell them quight;
But that she holds them with her blessed hands.
She is the nourse of pleasure and delight,
And unto Venus grace the gate doth open right.

"By her I entring half dismayed was;
But she in gentle wise me entertayned,
And twixt herselfe and Love did let me pas;
But Hatred would my entrance have restrayned,
And with his club me threatned to have brayned,
Had not the ladie with her powrefull speach
Him from his wicked will uneath refrayned;
And th' other eke his malice did empeach,
Till I was throughly past the perill of his reach.

"Into the inmost temple thus I came,
Which fuming all with frankensence I found,
And odours rising from the altars flame.
Upon an hundred marble pillors round
The roof up high was reared from the ground,
All deckt with crownes, and chaynes, and girlands
gay,

And thousand pretious gifts worth many a pound,
The which sad lovers for their vowes did pay;
And all the ground was strow'd with flowres as fresh
as May.

"An hundred altars round about were set,
All flaming with their sacrifices fire,
That with the steme thereof the temple swet,
Which rould in clouds to Heaven did aspire,
And in them bore true lovers vowes entire:
And eke an hundred brasen caudrons bright,
To bath in ioy and amorous desire,

Every of which was to a damzell hight;

For all the priests were damzels in soft linnen dight.
"Right in the midst the goddesse selfe did stand
Upon an altar of some costly masse,
Whose substance was uneath to understand:
For neither pretious stone, nor durefull brasse,
Nor shining gold, nor mouldring clay it was;
But much more rare and pretious to esteeme,
Pure in aspect, and like to christal! glasse;
Yet glasse was not, if one did rightly deeme;
But, being faire and brickle, likest glasse did seeme.
"But it in shape and beautie did excell
All other idoles which the heath'en adore,
Farre passing that, which by surpassing skill
Phidias did make in Paphos isle of yore,
With which that wretched Greeke, that life forlore,
Did fall in love: yet this much fairer shined,
But covered with a slender veile afore;
And both her feete and legs together twyned
Were with a snake, whose head and tail were fast
combyned.

"The cause why she was covered with a vele
Was hard to know, for that her priests the same
From peoples knowledge labour'd to concele:
But sooth it was not sure for womanish shame,
Nor any blemish, which the worke mote blame;
But for (they say) she hath both kinds in one,
Both male and female, both under one name;
She syre and mother is herselfe alone,
Begets and eke conceives, ne needeth other none.

And all about her necke and shoulders flew
A flocke of litle Loves, and Sports, and loyes,
With nimble wings of gold and purple hew;
Whose shapes seem'd not like to terrestriall boyes,
The whilest their eldest brother was away,
But like to angels playing heavenly toyes;
Cupid their eldest brother: he enjoyes
The wide kingdome of Love with lordly sway,
And to his law compels all creatures to obay.

"And all about her altar scattered lay
Great sorts of lovers piteously complayning,
Some of their losse, some of their loves delay,
Some of their pride, some paragons disdayning,
Some fearing fraud, some fraudulently fayning,
As every one had cause of good or ill.

Amongst the rest some one, through Loves constrayn-
Tormented sore, could not conteine it still, [ing
But thus brake forth, that all the temple it did fill;

"No lesse did Daunger threaten me with dread,
Whenas he saw me, maugre all his powre,
That glorious spoyle of beautie with me lead,
Then Cerberus, when Orpheus did recoure
His leman from the Stygian princes boure.
But evermore my shield did me defend
Against the storme of every dreadfull stoure:
Thus safely with my love I thence did wend."
So ended he his tale; where I this canto end.

CANTO XI.

Marinells former wound is heald;

He comes to Proteus hall, Where Thames doth the Medway wedd, And feasts the sea-gods all.

BUT ah! for pittie that I have thus long
Left a fayre ladie languishing in payne!
Now well away! that I have doen such wrong,
To let faire Florimell in bands remayne,

In bands of love, and in sad thraldomes chayne;
From which unlesse some heavenly powre her free
By miracle, not yet appearing playne,
She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee;
That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.

Here neede you to remember, how erewhile
Unlovely Proteus, missing to his mind
That virgins love to win by wit or wile,
Her threw into a dongeon deepe and blind,
And there in chaynes her cruelly did bind,
In hope thereby her to his bent to draw:
For, whenas neither gifts nor graces kind
Her constant mind could move at all he saw,
He thought her to compell by crueltie and awe.

Deepe in the bottome of an huge great rocke
The dongeon was, in which her bound he left,
That neither yron barres, nor brasen locke,
Did neede to gard from force or secret theft
Of all her lovers which would her have reft:
For wall'd it was with waves, which rag'd and ror'd
As they the cliffe in peeces would have cleft;
Besides, ten thousand monsters foule abhor'd
Did waite about it, gaping griesly, all begor'd.

And in the midst thereof did Horror dwell,
And Darkenesse dredd that never viewed day,
Like to the balefull house of lowest Hell,
In which old Styx her aged bones alway
(Old Styx the grandame of the gods) doth lay.
There did this luck!esse mayd seven months abide,
Ne ever evening saw, ne mornings ray,
Ne ever from the day the night descride,

Yet farre and neare the nymph his mother sought,
And many salves did to his sore applie,
And many herbes did use: but whenas nought
She saw conld ease his rankling maladie;
At last to Tryphon she for helpe did hie,
(This Tryphon is the sea-gods surgeon hight)
Whom she besought to find some remedie:
And for his paines a whistle him behight,
That of a fishes shell was wrought with rare delight.

So well that leach did hearke to her request,
And did so well employ his carefull paine,
That in short space his hurts he had redrest,
And him restor❜d to healthfull state againe:
In which he long time after did remaine
There with the nymph his mother, like her thrall ;
Who sore against his will did him retaine,
For feare of perill which to him mote fall
Through his too ventrous prowesse proved over al!!

It fortun'd then, a solemne feast was there
To all the sea-gods and their fruitfull seede,
In honour of the spousalls which then were
Betwixt the Medway and the Thames agreed.
Long had the Thames (as we in records reed)
Before that day her wooed to his bed;
But the proud nymph would for no worldly meed,
Nor no entreatie, to his love be led;
Till now at last relenting she to him was wed.

So both agreed that this their bridale feast
Should for the gods in Proteus house be made;
To which they all repayr'd, both most and least,
As well which in the mightie ocean trade,
As that in rivers swim, or brookes doe wade:
All which, not if an hundred tongues to tell,
And hundred mouthes, and voice of brasse I had,
And endlesse memorie that mote excell,
In order as they came could I recount them well.

Helpe therefore, O thou sacred impe of love,
The noursling of dame Memorie his deare,
To whom those rolles, layd up in Heaven above,
And records of antiquitie appeare,

To which no wit of man may comen neare;
Helpe me to tell the names of all those floods
And all those nymphes, which then assembled were
To that great banquet of the watry gods,
And all their sundry kinds, and all their hid abodes.

First came great Neptune, with his three-forkt mace,
That rules the seas and makes them rise or fall;
His dewy lockes did drop with brine apace
Under his diademe imperiall:
And by his side his queene with coronall,
Faire Amphitrite, most divinely faire,
Whose yvorie shoulders weren covered all,
As with a robe, with her owne silver hair,

vide.

And all this was for love of Marinell,

Who her despysd (ah! who would her despyse!)
And wemens love did from his hart expell,
And all those joyes that weake mankind entyse.
Nathlesse his pride full dearely he did pryse;
For of a womans hand it was ywroke,
That of the wound he yet in languor lyes,
Ne can be cured of that cruell stroke
Which Britomart him gave, when he did her provoke.

prepaire.

These marched farre afore the other crew:
And all the way before them, as they went,
Triton his trompet shrill before them blew,
For goodly triumph and great jollyment,
That made the rockes to roare as they were rent.
And after them the royall issue came,
Which of them sprung by lineall descent:
First the sea-gods, which to themselves doe clame
The powre to rule the billowes, and the waves to tame.