Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b Books I-III

Name: Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b Books I-III
Author: Spenser, Edmund

Spenser, Edmund

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Knights and knighthood -- Poetry; Virtues -- Poetry

Daughter (said she) what need ye be dismayd,                      xl
      Or why make ye such Monster of your mind?
      Of much more vncouth thing I was affrayd;
      Of filthy lust, contrarie vnto kind:
      But this affection nothing straunge I find;
      For who with reason can you aye reproue,
      To loue the semblant pleasing most your mind,
      And yield your heart, whence ye cannot remoue?
    No guilt in you, but in the tyranny of loue.

    Not so th’_Arabian Myrrhe_ did set her mind;                     xli
      Nor[895] so did _Biblis_ spend her pining hart,
      But lou’d their natiue flesh against all kind,
      And to their purpose vsed wicked art:
      Yet playd _Pasiphaë_ a more monstrous part,
      That lou’d a Bull, and learnd a beast to bee;
      Such shamefull lusts who loaths not, which depart
      From course of nature and of modestie?
    Sweet loue such lewdnes bands from his faire companie.

    But thine my Deare (welfare thy heart my deare)                 xlii
      Though strange beginning had, yet fixed is
      On one, that worthy may perhaps appeare;
      And certes seemes bestowed not amis:
      Ioy thereof haue thou and eternall blis.
      With that vpleaning on her elbow weake,
      Her alablaster[896] brest she soft did kis,
      Which all that while she felt to pant and quake,
    As it an Earth-quake were; at last she thus bespake.

    Beldame, your words doe worke me litle ease;                   xliii
      For though my loue be not so lewdly bent,
      As those ye blame, yet may it nought[897] appease
      My raging smart, ne ought my flame relent,
      But rather doth my helpelesse griefe augment.
      For they, how euer shamefull and vnkind,
      Yet did possesse their horrible intent:
      Short end of sorrowes they thereby did find;
    So was their fortune good, though wicked were their mind.

    But wicked fortune mine, though mind[898] be good,              xliv
      Can haue no end, nor hope of my desire,
      But feed on shadowes, whiles I die for food,
      And like a shadow wexe, whiles with entire
      Affection, I doe languish and expire.
      I fonder, then _Cephisus_ foolish child,
      Who hauing vewed in a fountaine shere
      His face, was with the loue thereof beguild;
    I fonder loue a shade, the bodie farre exild.

    Nought like (quoth she) for that same wretched boy               xlv
      Was of himselfe the idle Paramoure;
      Both loue and louer, without hope of ioy,
      For which he faded to a watry flowre.
      But better fortune thine, and better howre,
      Which lou’st the shadow of a warlike knight;
      No shadow, but a bodie hath in powre:
      That bodie, wheresoeuer that it light,
    May learned be by cyphers, or by Magicke might.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b Books I-IIISpenser, Edmund

General

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b Books I-III

Spenser, Edmund

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Knights and knighthood -- Poetry; Virtues -- Poetry

Daughter (said she) what need ye be dismayd,                      xl
      Or why make ye such Monster of your mind?
      Of much more vncouth thing I was affrayd;
      Of filthy lust, contrarie vnto kind:
      But this affection nothing straunge I find;
      For who with reason can you aye reproue,
      To loue the semblant pleasing most your mind,
      And yield your heart, whence ye cannot remoue?
    No guilt in you, but in the tyranny of loue.

    Not so th’_Arabian Myrrhe_ did set her mind;                     xli
      Nor[895] so did _Biblis_ spend her pining hart,
      But lou’d their natiue flesh against all kind,
      And to their purpose vsed wicked art:
      Yet playd _Pasiphaë_ a more monstrous part,
      That lou’d a Bull, and learnd a beast to bee;
      Such shamefull lusts who loaths not, which depart
      From course of nature and of modestie?
    Sweet loue such lewdnes bands from his faire companie.

    But thine my Deare (welfare thy heart my deare)                 xlii
      Though strange beginning had, yet fixed is
      On one, that worthy may perhaps appeare;
      And certes seemes bestowed not amis:
      Ioy thereof haue thou and eternall blis.
      With that vpleaning on her elbow weake,
      Her alablaster[896] brest she soft did kis,
      Which all that while she felt to pant and quake,
    As it an Earth-quake were; at last she thus bespake.

    Beldame, your words doe worke me litle ease;                   xliii
      For though my loue be not so lewdly bent,
      As those ye blame, yet may it nought[897] appease
      My raging smart, ne ought my flame relent,
      But rather doth my helpelesse griefe augment.
      For they, how euer shamefull and vnkind,
      Yet did possesse their horrible intent:
      Short end of sorrowes they thereby did find;
    So was their fortune good, though wicked were their mind.

    But wicked fortune mine, though mind[898] be good,              xliv
      Can haue no end, nor hope of my desire,
      But feed on shadowes, whiles I die for food,
      And like a shadow wexe, whiles with entire
      Affection, I doe languish and expire.
      I fonder, then _Cephisus_ foolish child,
      Who hauing vewed in a fountaine shere
      His face, was with the loue thereof beguild;
    I fonder loue a shade, the bodie farre exild.

    Nought like (quoth she) for that same wretched boy               xlv
      Was of himselfe the idle Paramoure;
      Both loue and louer, without hope of ioy,
      For which he faded to a watry flowre.
      But better fortune thine, and better howre,
      Which lou’st the shadow of a warlike knight;
      No shadow, but a bodie hath in powre:
      That bodie, wheresoeuer that it light,
    May learned be by cyphers, or by Magicke might.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b Books I-III — John Shaqi

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b Books I-III

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b Books I-III

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