Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 2 (of 2) : $b Books IV-VII

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

Spenser, Edmund

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

_Marinells former wound is heald,
      he comes to Proteus hall,
    Where Thames doth the Medway wedd,
      and feasts the Sea-gods all._
]


    Bvt ah for pittie that I haue thus long                              i
      Left a fayre Ladie languishing in payne:
      Now well away[198], that I haue doen such wrong,
      To let faire _Florimell_ in bands remayne,
      In bands of loue, and in sad thraldomes chayne;
      From which vnlesse some heauenly powre her free
      By miracle, not yet appearing playne,
      She lenger yet is like captiu’d to bee:
    That euen to thinke thereof, it inly pitties mee.

    Here neede you to remember, how erewhile                            ii
      Vnlouely _Proteus_, missing to his mind
      That Virgins loue to win by wit or wile,
      Her threw into a dongeon[199] deepe and blind,
      And there in chaynes her cruelly did bind,
      In hope thereby her to his bent to draw:
      For when as neither gifts nor graces kind
      Her constant mind could moue at all he saw,
    He thought her to compell by crueltie and awe.

    Deepe in the bottome of an huge great rocke                        iii
      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 louers, which would her haue reft.
      For wall’d it was with waues, which rag’d and ror’d
      As they the cliffe in peeces would haue 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,                          iv
      And darkenesse dredd, that neuer viewed day,
      Like to the balefull house of lowest hell,
      In which old _Styx_ her aged bones alway,
      Old _Styx_ the Grandame[200] of the Gods, doth lay.
      There did this lucklesse mayd seuen[201] months abide,
      Ne euer euening saw, ne mornings ray,
      Ne euer from the day the night descride,
    But thought it all one night, that did no houres diuide.

    And all this was for loue of _Marinell_,                             v
      Who her despysd (ah who would her despyse?)
      And wemens loue did from his hart expell,
      And all those ioyes 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 gaue, when he did her prouoke.

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

Opening the text

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 2 (of 2) : $b Books IV-VIISpenser, Edmund

General

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 2 (of 2) : $b Books IV-VII

Spenser, Edmund

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

_Marinells former wound is heald,
      he comes to Proteus hall,
    Where Thames doth the Medway wedd,
      and feasts the Sea-gods all._
]


    Bvt ah for pittie that I haue thus long                              i
      Left a fayre Ladie languishing in payne:
      Now well away[198], that I haue doen such wrong,
      To let faire _Florimell_ in bands remayne,
      In bands of loue, and in sad thraldomes chayne;
      From which vnlesse some heauenly powre her free
      By miracle, not yet appearing playne,
      She lenger yet is like captiu’d to bee:
    That euen to thinke thereof, it inly pitties mee.

    Here neede you to remember, how erewhile                            ii
      Vnlouely _Proteus_, missing to his mind
      That Virgins loue to win by wit or wile,
      Her threw into a dongeon[199] deepe and blind,
      And there in chaynes her cruelly did bind,
      In hope thereby her to his bent to draw:
      For when as neither gifts nor graces kind
      Her constant mind could moue at all he saw,
    He thought her to compell by crueltie and awe.

    Deepe in the bottome of an huge great rocke                        iii
      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 louers, which would her haue reft.
      For wall’d it was with waues, which rag’d and ror’d
      As they the cliffe in peeces would haue 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,                          iv
      And darkenesse dredd, that neuer viewed day,
      Like to the balefull house of lowest hell,
      In which old _Styx_ her aged bones alway,
      Old _Styx_ the Grandame[200] of the Gods, doth lay.
      There did this lucklesse mayd seuen[201] months abide,
      Ne euer euening saw, ne mornings ray,
      Ne euer from the day the night descride,
    But thought it all one night, that did no houres diuide.

    And all this was for loue of _Marinell_,                             v
      Who her despysd (ah who would her despyse?)
      And wemens loue did from his hart expell,
      And all those ioyes 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 gaue, when he did her prouoke.

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

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 2 (of 2) : $b Books IV-VII

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 2 (of 2) : $b Books IV-VII

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