186 craued of the Faery Queene, to appoint him some knight, to 187 performe that aduenture, which being assigned to Sir 188 Guyon, he presently went forth with that same Palmer: 189 which is the beginning of the second booke and the whole 190 subiect thereof. The third day there came in, a Groome who 191 complained before the Faery Queene, that a vile Enchaunter 192 called Busirane had in hand a most faire Lady called Amoretta, 193 whom he kept in most grieuous torment, because she would 194 not yield him the pleasure of her body. Whereupon Sir 195 Scudamour the louer of that Lady presently tooke on him 196 that aduenture. But being vnable to performe it by reason of 197 the hard Enchauntments, after long sorrow, in the end met 198 with Britomartis, who succoured him, and reskewed his loue. 199 But by occasion hereof, many other aduentures are 200 intermedled, but rather as Accidents, then intendments. As 201 the loue of Britomart, the ouerthrow of Marinell, the misery 202 of Florimell, the vertuousnes of Belph{oe}be, the 203 lasciuiousnes of Hellenora, and many the like. 204 Thus much Sir, I haue briefly ouerronne to direct your 205 vnderstanding to the wel-head of the History, that from 206 thence gathering the whole intention of the conceit, ye may 207 as in a handfull gripe al the discourse, which otherwise may 208 happily seeme tedious and confused. So humbly crauing the 209 continuaunce of your honorable fauour towards me, and 210 th'eternall establishment of your happines, I humbly take leaue. 211 23. Ianuary. 1589._ 212 213 Yours most humbly affectionate. 214 Ed. Spenser. 215 47 48 A 49 letter of the author's, expounding his 50 whole intention in the course of this work: which, 51 +for+ that it gives great light to the reader, for for > [in] 52 the better understanding is hereto 53 annexed. 54 55 _To the Right Noble and Valorous Sir Walter 56 Raleigh, Knight, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and Raleigh > (1552-1618, poet, scholar, soldier, explorer, statesman, and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, who granted him, in 1584, a patent for the exploration and settlement of the Americas. Later he fell from her good graces, and after many hardships and adventures was beheaded by James I. Probably an exact contemporary of Spenser. He had a huge estate near Spenser's in southern Ireland, and under his auspices _FQ_ was published and dedicated to Elizabeth) Stannaries > (The districts comprising the tin mines in Devon and Cornwall, under the jurisdiction of the Stannary courts)