Till they into the Mulla's water slide :
So secretly did he his love enjoy,

145
Yet not so secret but it was descride,
And told her father by a shepherd's boy,
Who, wondrous wroth for that so foul despight,
In great ayenge did roll down from his hill
Huge mighty stones, the which encomber might 150
His passage, and his water-courses spill ;
So of a river, which he was of old,
He none was made, but scatter'd all to nought,
And, lost

among

those rocks into him rold, Did lose his name : so dear his love he bought." 155

Which having said, him Thestylis bespake; 16 Now by my life this was a merry lay, Worthy of Colin's self, that did it make; But read now eke, of friendship I thee pray, What ditty did that other shepherd sing; 160 For I do covet most the same to bear, As men use most to covet foreign thing.' " That shall I eke," quoth he, His song was a lamentable lay Of great unkindness, and of usage hard 165 Of Cynthia, the lady of the sea, Which from her presence faultless him debarr'd; And ever and anon, with singults rife, He cried out, to make his 'undersong, “Ah ! my loves queen, and goddess of my life, 170 Who shall me pity,'when thou'doest me wrong?" Volume VI.

R

19

to you declare.

Then 'gan a gentle bonny lass to speak,
That Martine hight. « Right well he sure did

'plain,
That could great Cynthia's sore displeasure break,
And move to take him to her grace again. 175
But tell on further, Çolin, as befel
'Twixt him and thee, what thee did hencedissuade ?"

“ When thus our pipes we both had wearied well," Quoth he,“ and each an end of singing made, He 'gan to cast great liking to my lore, 180 And great disliking to my luckless lot, That banish'd had my self like wight forelore, Into that waste, where I was quite forgot ; The which to leave thenceforth he counseld me, Unmeet for man in whom was ought regardful, 185 And wend with him, his Cynthia to see, Whose gracę was great, and bounty most rewardful, Besides her peerless skill in making well, And all the ornaments of wondrous wit, Such as all womankind did far excell,

190 Such as the world admir'd, and praised it : So what with hope of good, and hate of ill, He me persuaded forth with him to fare : Nought took ļ with me but miñe qaten quill, Small needments else need shepherds to prepare : 195 So to the sea we came; the sea, that is, A world of waters heaped up on high, Rolling like mountains in wild wilderness, Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse cry."

201

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

fear;
Thousand wild beasts, with deep mouths gaping
Therein still wait, poor passengers to tear. Tdireful,
Who life doth loath, and longs death to behold
Before he die, already dead with fear,

205 And

yet

would live with heart half stony cold,
Let him to sea, and he shall see if 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: ait
For as we stood t'ere waiting on the strond,
Behold, an huge great vessel to us came,
Dancing upon tire water's back to lond,
As if it scom'd the danger of the same; 235
Yet was it But a wooden frame, and frâil,
Glewed together with some subtile mátter ;
Yet had it arms, and wings, and head, and tail,
And life to move itself upon the water.
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 receavey
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.

220

225

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, 230
In which I saw no living people dwell ;
Who me recomforting all that he might,
Told inę that that same was the regiment
Of a great shepherdess that Cynthia hight,
His liege, his lady, and his life's regent. 235

If then, quoth I, a shepherdess she be,
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? 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 250 Compelling them which way he list, and whither ; And I, among the rest of Have in the ocean charge to me assign'd, Where I will live or die at her beheast, And serve and honour her with faithful mind. 255

245

1

many least,

At sea,

261

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

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 eneroaching cruelty : 275
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 280
An high head-land, thrust far into the sea,
Like to an horn, whereof the name it has,
Yet seemd to be a goodly pleasant lea :