They heare him not, they have forgot his lore, But go which way they list, their guide they have forlore. XL. As when the firie-mouthed steedes, which drew The Sunnes bright wayne to Phaetons decay, Soone as they did the monstrous Scorpion vew With ugly craples crawling in their way, The dreadfull sight did them so sore affray, That their well-knowen courses they forwent; And, leading th' ever-burning lampe astray, This lower world nigh all to ashes brent, And left their scorchéd path yet in the firmament. XLI. Such was the furie of these head-strong steeds, The yron charet, and the wheeles did teare, XLII. Yet still the Prince pursew'd him close behind, But scattred all about, and strow'd upon the greene. The tyrant's lady, Adicia-whose name, from the Greek, means Injustice-ran into the woods and was transformed into a tiger. [CANTO IX.] I. What tygre, or what other salvage wight, Is so exceeding furious and fell As wrong, when it hath arm'd it selfe with might? But mongst wyld beasts, and salvage woods, to dwell; And they that most in boldnesse doe excell Arthur and Arthegall, on their way to the court of Mercilla, caught Malengin-Guile-who took many shapes to elude them, till at last, in the shape of a snake, he was crushed under the flail of Talus. Then came Justice and Divine Grace into the court of Mercy, when before Mercilla's judgment-seat there was Duessa brought; and every line in the allegory now glances at Mary Queen of Scots, against whom Zeal sets forth the whole indictment, and whom Mercy herself is unwillingly forced to condemn. XXXVIII. Then was there brought, as prisoner to the barre, A Ladie of great countenance and place, Yet did appeare rare beautie in her face, Yet in that wretched semblant she did sure XXXIX. Then up arose a person of deepe reach, And rare in-sight hard matters to revele; He now t' abhorre and loath her person had procured. XL. First gan he tell how this, that seem'd so faire And royally arayd, Duessa hight; That false Duessa, which had wrought great care And mickle mischiefe unto many a knight, By her beguyléd and confounded quight: But not for those she now in question came, Though also those mote question'd be aright, But for vyld treasons and outrageous shame, Which she against the dred Mercilla oft did frame. XLI. For she whylome (as ye mote yet right well That she might it unto her selfe deryve, And tryumph in their blood whom she to death did dryve. XLII. But through high heavens grace, which favour not The wicked driftes of trayterous desynes Gainst loiall Princes, all this cursed plot, Ere proofe it tooke, discovered was betymes, And th' actours won the meede meet for their crymes. Was brought to her sad doome, as here was to be seene. XLIII. Strongly did Zele her haynous fact enforce, And many other crimes of foule defame Against her brought, to banish all remorse, And aggravate the horror of her blame: And with him, to make part against her, came Many grave persons that against her pled. First was a sage old Syre, that had to name The Kingdomes Care, with a white silver hed, That many high regards and reasons gainst her red. XLIV. Then gan Authority her to appose With peremptorie powre, that made all mute; And then the Law of Nations gainst her rose, And reasons brought that no man could refute : Next gan Religion gainst her to impute High Gods beheast, and powre of holy lawes; Then gan the Peoples cry and Commons sute Importune care of their owne publicke cause; And lastly Justice chargéd her with breach of lawes. XLV. But then, for her, on the contrarie part, Rose many advocates for her to plead : First there came Pittie with full tender hart, And with her joyn'd Regard of womenhead; And then came Daunger, threatning hidden dread And high alliance unto forren powre; Then came Nobilitie of birth, that bread Great ruth through her misfortunes tragicke stowre; And lastly Griefe did plead, and many teares forth powre. XLVI. With the neare touche whereof in tender hart The Briton Prince was sore empassionate, And woxe inclinéd much unto her part, Through the sad terror of so dreadfull fate, And wretched ruine of so high estate; That for great ruth his courage gan relent: Which when as Zele perceivéd to abate, He gan his earnest fervour to augment, And many fearefull objects to them to present. XLVII. He gan t'efforce the evidence anew, And all her traynes and all her treasons forth did lay. XLVIII. Then brought he forth with griesly grim aspect Abhorréd Murder, who, with bloudie knyfe Yet dropping fresh in hand, did her detect, And there with guiltie bloudshed chargéd ryfe: Then brought he forth Sedition, breeding stryfe In troublous wits, and mutinous uprore: Then brought he forth Incontinence of lyfe, Even foule Adulterie her face before, And lewd Impietie, that her accuséd sore. XLIX. All which when as the Prince had heard and seene, His former fancies ruth he gan repent, And from her partie eftsoons was drawen cleene: But Artegall, with constant firme intent For zeale of Justice, was against her bent: So was she guiltie deemed of them all. Then Zele began to urge her punishment, And to their Queene for judgement loudly call, Unto Mercilla myld, for Justice gainst the thrall. L. But she, whose Princely brest was touchéd nere With piteous ruth of her so wretched plight, Though plaine she saw, by all that she did heare, That she of death was guiltie found by right, Yet would not let just vengeance on her light; But rather let, instead thereof, to fall Few perling drops from her faire lampes of light; The which she covering with her purple pall Would have the passion hid, and up arose withall. In the tenth canto the contest of Justice against Wrong is represented by the aid of Divine Grace in the contest of the Protestants in the Netherlands against the power of Spain. Arthur is called to the aid of Belge, who had "seventeen goodly sons," the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands, of whom all but five were the prey of the son of Geryon, a cruel giant with three bodies, the three bodies being Spain, Naples, and the Empire. But this fell tyrant of his tortious power Had left her now but five of all that brood, For twelve of them he did by times devour, And to his idols sacrificed their blood. There were but five provinces-Holland, Guelders, Zealand, Utrecht, Friesland-that in 1579 joined in the Union of Utrecht by which they declared independence of Spain. Belgè was "new made widow," by the assassination of the Prince of Orange in 1584, and sending for help to the court of Mercilla, the Briton Prince, Prince Arthur, went to her aid. The expedition of the Earl of Leicester was in 1585, and this, no doubt, Spenser wished his readers to observe ; but the allegory proceeds through this and the next canto to show victory through God's grace over tyranny and idolatry. Then follows Arthegall's achievement of the overthrow of Grantorto: Justice destroys Wrong. But first Spenser makes him meet on the way a knight, Sir Burbon, who has changed his shield, and clearly censures Henry IV. of France for having in July, 1593, obtained his crown by doing on grounds of political expediency what he knew to be unjust, in abjuring his faith as a Pro testant. [CANTO XI.] LII. "But why have ye" (said Artegall) "forborne To loose the badge that should his deedes display." came. LIII. "True is that I at first was dubbed knight By a good knight, the knight of the Redcrosse ; Who, when he gave me armes in field to fight, Gave me a shield, in which he did endosse His deare Redeemers badge upon the bosse: The same long while I bore, and therewithall Fought many battels without wound or losse; Therewith Grandtorto selfe I did appall, And made him oftentimes in field before me fall, LIV. "But for that many did that shield envie, And with corruptfull brybes is to untruth mistrayned." LV. To whom thus Artegall: "Certes, Sir knight, Dye, rather then doe ought that mote dishonour yield." LVI. "Not so," (quoth he) "for yet, when time doth serve, My former shield I may resume againe : To temporize is not from truth to swerve, Then in the last canto of this book Grantorto is slain and Irena freed. But as Arthegall proceeds to the Faerie Court he is reviled by two ill-favoured hags, named Envy and Detraction. [CANTO XII.] XLI. Thereto the Blatant Beast, by them set on, So dreadfully his hundred tongues did bray: To sharpen him, and their owne cursed tongs did straine. XLII. And still among most bitter wordes they spake, Most shamefull, most unrighteous, most untrew, That they the mildest man alive would make Forget his patience, and yeeld vengeaunce dew To her, that so false sclaunders at him threw : And more, to make them pierce and wound more deepe, She with the sting which in her vile tongue grew Did sharpen them, and in fresh poyson steepe: Yet he passed on, and seem'd of them to take no keepe. XLIII. But Talus, hearing her so lewdly raile, And speake so ill of him that well deserved, Would her have chastiz'd with his yron flaile, If her Sir Artegall had not preserved, And him forbidden, who his heast observed: So much the more at him still did she scold, And stones did cast; yet he for nought would swerve From his right course, but still the way did hold To Faerie Court; where what him fell shall else be told. So ends the fifth book. The sixth contains the Legend of Sir Calidore (Fair-gift)-Courtesy-whose assigned adventure is to subdue the Blatant BeastSlander, or Disdainful Speaking. [BOOK VI.-CANTO 1.] VII. "The Blattant Beast" (quoth he) "I doe pursew, And through the world incessantly doe chase, Till I him overtake, or else subdew: Yet know I not or how, or in what place To find him out, yet still I forward trace." (Then answered he) "which often hath annoyd VIII. "Of Cerberus whilome he was begot To be the plague and scourge of wretched men, He sore doth wound, and bite, and cruelly torment." Of this book I will note only that as the book of Courtesie it is marked by one of the daintiest of poet's courtesies, for Spenser enshrines in it his wife. He had married in 1594. His second instalment of the "Faerie Queene" appeared in 1596, and near the close of it, in the tenth canto of the sixth book, he thus built a little shrine for his wife Elizabeth, as in the fourth book he had built a shrine for his master Chaucer. Calidore came to a pleasant hill: [CANTO X.] IX. They say that Venus, when she did dispose Her selfe to pleasaunce, uséd to resort Unto 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 even her owne Cytheron, though in it She used most to keepe her royall court, And in her soveraine Majesty to sit, She in regard hereof refusde and thought unfit. X. Unto this place when as the Elfin Knight Approcht, him seemed that the merry sound Of a shrill pipe he playing heard on hight, |