And at the foote thereof, a gentle flud vii His siluer waues did softly tumble downe, Vnmard with ragged mosse or filthy mud, Ne mote wylde beastes, ne mote the ruder clowne Thereto approch, ne filth mote therein drowne: But Nymphes and Faeries by the bancks did sit, In the woods shade, which did the waters crowne, Keeping all noysome things away from it, And to the waters fall tuning their accents fit. And on the top thereof a spacious plaine viii Did spred it selfe, to serue to all delight, Either to daunce, when they to daunce would faine, Or else to course about[558] their bases light; Ne ought there wanted, which for pleasure might[559] Desired be, or thence to banish bale: So pleasauntly the hill with equall hight, Did seeme to ouerlooke the lowly vale; Therefore it rightly cleeped was mount _Acidale_. They say that _Venus_, when she did dispose ix Her selfe to pleasaunce, vsed to resort Vnto this place, and therein to repose And rest her selfe, as in a gladsome port, Or with the Graces there to play and sport; That euen her owne Cytheron, though in it She vsed most to keepe her royall court, And in her soueraine Maiesty to sit, She in regard hereof refusde and thought vnfit. Vnto this place when as the Elfin Knight x Approcht, him seemed that the merry sound Of a shrill pipe he playing heard on hight, And many feete fast thumping th’hollow ground, That through the woods their Eccho did rebound. He nigher drew, to weete what mote it be; There he a troupe of Ladies dauncing found Full merrily, and making gladfull glee, And in the midst a Shepheard piping he did see. He durst not enter into th’open greene, xi For dread of them vnwares to be descryde, For breaking of their daunce, if he were seene; But in the couert of the wood did byde, Beholding all, yet of them vnespyde. There he did see, that pleased much his sight, That euen he him selfe his eyes enuyde, An hundred naked maidens lilly white, All raunged in a ring, and dauncing in delight. All they without were raunged in a ring, xii And daunced round; but in the midst of them Three other Ladies did both daunce and sing, The whilest the rest them round about did hemme, And like a girlond did in compasse stemme: And in the middest of those same three, was placed Another Damzell, as a precious gemme, Amidst a ring most richly well enchaced, That with her goodly presence all the rest much graced.