English 201: English Literature to 1700 Prof. Boyer

The best beginning procedure is always to read the assignment all the way through, keeping track of characters, so that you know what's happening. If possible, read the whole work first. Try to get the big picture of the book (or canto) before getting bogged down in details. Read through, then go back and clear up details. Then you're ready to read the work closely with these questions in mind. (In the discussion below, page and line numbers in parentheses refer to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th ed., vol. 1[B] [2000] unless otherwise indicated.)

A note on the language: Spenser is consciously writing in a slightly archaic language in imitation of Chaucer. Many of his spellings in fact contain puns (for example, a "geaunt" or giant is made of earth, "gaia" in Greek) or other multiple meanings, and therefore editors keep the original spellings. (If we read Shakespeare in original spelling editions it would look much like this; the difference is that there is no sense that Shakespeare paid any attention to his spelling or to anything about the printed versions of his plays.) But Spenser's language is contemporary with Shakespeare's language, not Chaucer's, and therefore you should read Spenser with modern pronunciation.

A note on line numbering: It is traditional to refer to passages from The Faerie Queene by book, canto, stanza, and line numbers (not by line numbers within the whole canto, as our anthology does). These study questions use the traditional method, so that what appears in the anthology as line 115 of Book 3, Canto 1 (on p. 788) appears in these notes as 3.1.13.7 (i.e., Book 3, Canto 1, stanza 13, line 7). The introductory stanzas appearing in each Book before the beginning of Canto 1 are called the "proem"; thus line 10 on p. 784 of the anthology is cited in the traditional format as 3.Proem.2.1. The four short lines appearing at the beginning of each canto are the "argument" or description of the canto. The second line of the argument to Canto 1 on p. 785 is cited as 3.1.Arg.2.

Note that for convenience the questions often refer only to a stanza number (identified as "stanza[s]").

1. How does Spenser describe the kind of allegory he is writing and what objections might people have to it (page 624)?

2. What, according to Spenser, is "the general end . . . of all the booke" (page 625)?

3. Who is to be Spenser's hero? What is his connection to the Faery Queen?

4. Who are the heroes of the first three books (pages 626-627)? How does each of their adventures begin?

1. In stanza 1, what change does the author claim to be making in his career? The parallel Spenser is claiming with Virgil, who began with pastorals and then moved to the epic Aeneid, is clearer when we realize that the Renaissance thought that The Aeneid began not with "Arms and the man I sing . . ." ("Arma virumque cano . . .") but with "I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then leaving the woodland, constrained the neighboring fields to serve the husbandmen, however grasping-a work welcome to farmers: but now of arms and the man I sing . . ."

2. To whom is Spenser referring in stanza 4, line 3?

1. In the Proem, what two characters does Spenser say mirror Queen Elizabeth? What aspect of her does each mirror? What important female character is missing here?

2. Book 3 begins with Arthur (who appears in each book; his first appearance is at 1.7.29, page 704, and his dream of Gloriana is described in 1.9.13-15, pages 724-725) and Sir Guyon, the hero of Book 2, traveling together. Whom do they encounter? What happens in stanzas 4-8? Who has defeated Guyon? Why is Britomart traveling in Faery Land? What keeps them from continuing the fight? (The "golden chaine" of concord ultimately links all of the knights; it is first mentioned at 1.9.1, page 721.)

3. What happens to separate Guyon and Arthur from Britomart? Whom do Guyon and Arthur pursue? How does Spenser describe Britomart's refusal to join the pursuit (stanza 19)?

4. What does she encounter in stanza 20? What does she do about it? What do we know about the six knights so far? Why are they fighting the one knight (stanza 24)? Who is the single knight? (See note 1, page 790; Redcrosse is the Redcross knight, hero of Book 1, and identified there as the one who will become St. George.) Why does Britomart have to fight? What is ironic about the penalty for losing and the reward for winning? Who wins the second round of fighting (stanzas 28-29)?

5. How would you describe Castle Joyeous? Look carefully at the description of the tapestry of Venus and Adonis (stanzas 34-38); this sort of pictorial description of a work of art (the technical name for such a description is ekphrasis) is typical of Spenser and usually conveys important information or images (see note 7 on p. 793). What is unusual about Venus's role in the Venus and Adonis story? In traditional thinking, who should normally be the active wooer?

6. What do Redcrosse and Britomart find when they enter the chamber and meet the lady of the castle (stanzas 39-41)? Why does Britomart refuse to take her armor off (stanza 42)? What are the names of the six knights (stanza 45)? Why are the names appropriate to this setting? What is the Lady's response to Britomart? Why doesn't Britomart discourage her (see stanza 55)? What is the Lady's name (stanza 57)? Why is she named only now and not earlier? (This is typical of Spenser, who lets us see the character, both physically and in action, before giving us the name that accurately describes the character. Thus we have seen Malecasta's "unchastity" before we learn that her name is in fact "Unchaste.")

7. What happens that night (stanzas 58-67)? What seems to be the significance of the wounding of Britomart? How do Malecasta's wooing and the wounding of Britomart echo the Venus and Adonis story in the tapestry (stanzas 34-38)? What happens to Britomart and Redcrosse?

1. Why aren't there female warriors any more?

2. What does Redcrosse learn from Britomart? (stanzas 4-8; note Spenser's error in naming Guyon in 4.1 instead of Redcrosse.) What does Britomart claim about Arthegall in stanza 8? Is it true? Why does she say this? According to Redcrosse, what sort of knight is Arthegall (stanza 13-14)? What does Britomart think of his answer?

3. Notice that Spenser interrupts the present narrative to explain how Britomart came to be in love with Arthegall. The narration picks up at the end of Canto 3, when Redcrosse and Britomart separate. Who made the "mirrhour plaine" (17.4) or "looking glasse" (18.8)? What is it? What powers does it have? What does it show Britomart (stanzas 23-26)?

4. What happens to Britomart when she falls in love? Notice that this love is a wound (stanza 39); compare this wound with the physical wounds Britomart received in Canto 1 and will receive in Canto 12.

5. What extreme examples of unchastity does Spenser have Glauce present in stanza 41? (This is one of the ways Spenser can increase the number and range of examples he presents.) What is Britomart's response to the examples (stanza 43)?

6. How does Glauce try to cure Britomart? What success does she have?

1. Notice the invocation of the muse in stanzas 1-4. (We will eventually want to compare it to Milton's famous invocation "Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born!" at the beginning of Book 3 of Paradise Lost [p. 1858]). What muse does Spenser invoke? Why is it a surprise? Why is it a fitting selection? (See note 8 on page 814.) Note also the neoplatonism of stanza 1; compare Book 4 of Hoby's translation of Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (pages 579-593).

2. Where do Glauce and Britomart decide to go for an answer? What will you see and hear if you go there now (stanzas 8-13)? What happens when Glauce and Britomart get there? How successful is their disguise? What good news does Britomart receive from Merlin? (Note especially stanzas 21.6-9, 22, 23.3-5, and 26.) What doesn't Arthegall know about himself?

3. The anthology should have finished the story with the next three stanzas. (Notice the echoes of the history reported by Geoffrey of Monmouth and the other Medieval Arthurian writers. Who actually are the "forrein Paynims" of 27.9 below?) Here are the "missing" stanzas:

27

But sooth he is the sonne of Gorlois,
And brother unto Cador Cornish king,
And for his warlike feates renowmed is,
From where the day out of the sea doth spring,
Untill the closure of the Evening.
From thence, him firmely bound with faithfull band,
To this his native soyle thou backe shalt bring,
Strongly to aide his countrey, to withstand
The powre of forrein Paynims, which invade thy land.

28

Great aid thereto his mighty puissaunce,
And dreaded name shall give in that sad day:
Where also proofe of thy prow valiaunce
Thou then shalt make, t'increase thy lovers pray.
Long time ye both in armes shall beare great sway,
Till thy wombes burden thee from them do call,
And his last fate him from thee take away,
Too rathe cut off by practise criminall
Of secret foes, that him shall make in mischiefe fall.

29

With thee yet shall he leave for memory
Of his late puissaunce, his Image dead,
That living him in all activity
To thee shall represent. He from the head
Of his coosin Constantius without dread
Shall take the crowne, that was his fathers right,
And therewith crowne himselfe in th'others stead:
Then shall he issew forth with dreadfull might,
Against his Saxon foes in bloudy field to fight.

4. At the end of Canto 3 (in a passage not in our anthology), Britomart takes from her father's collection the armor of "Angela, the Saxon Queene" (58.8) and a magic spear made by the Briton king Bladud. What is the significance of thus combining the powers of the Saxons and the Britons? (See the Summary on p. 819, and be sure to read the Canto 4 Summary on the same page as well as the Summary of the beginning of Canto 5.)

1. How is Timias (Arthur's squire) saved (stanza 27)? Who tends him? Who is she and what does she represent? (See 3.Proem.5.5-9, pages 784-785, and note 9 on page 785. Timias, in his unrequited love for Belphoebe the virgin, probably represents Ralegh.) Belphoebe is described in Book 2 (2.3.21-31.9) as

A goodly Ladie clad in hunters weed,
That seemd to be a woman of great worth,
And by her stately portance, borne of heavenly birth. (2.3.21.7-9)

Belphoebe (one of the models of Elizabeth; see 3.Proem.5.5-9) is modeled on the goddess Diana (whom we shall soon meet in person). Her ten-stanza description follows this passage; that description appears at the end of these notes, but you should read it now.

2. Why does Belphoebe nurse Timias? (See especially stanza 36, but also note that this scene represents a Diana-figure taking on the role of Venus nursing the wounded Adonis and thus echos the theme established in the canto 1 tapestry.)

3. What happens to Timias as Belphoebe cures his wound?

4. What flower does Spenser use as the symbol of Belphoebe's virginity (stanza 51)?

1. How did Belphoebe get into the woods? Who was her mother? How was she born?

2. Why was Venus in the woods? Whom was she searching for? Where had she searched thus far? What success had she had? (See stanzas 11-17.) Whom does she surprise bathing? In what way are the nymphs in 19.9 similar to the rose of Canto 5, stanza 51, page 825?

3. What do Venus and Diana reveal about themselves in their discussion (stanzas 20-25)? What do they find instead of Cupid? What does Chrysogone know about all this (stanza 27)? What happens to the two babies? What are their names (stanza 28)? Have we met Amoret before? (See the Letter to Ralegh, page 627. But the knight sent by Gloriana was Scudamour, not Britomart. Where is Scudamour? Just wait.)

4. The Garden of Adonis is the allegorical core of Book 3, the essence of what Spenser means by Chastity (which is really natural procreation). What is the function of the garden (stanzas 29-38)? What is the only enemy in the garden (stanza 39)? Note the return of the positive description in stanzas 41-42. Stanza 42, with its mention of "continuall spring, and harvest there" helps identify the garden's type as the locus amoenus ("pleasant place"). One of the earliest examples in the Garden of Alkínoös in Book 7 of The Odyssey (in Robert Fitzgerald's translation):

To left and right, outside, he saw an orchard
closed by a pale-four spacious acres planted
with trees in bloom or weighted down for picking:
pear trees, pomegranates, brilliant apples,
luscious figs, and olives ripe and dark.
Fruit never failed upon these trees: winter
and summer time they bore, for through the year
the breathing Westwind ripened all in turn-
so one pear came to prime, and then another,
and so with apples, figs, and the vine's fruit
empurpled in the royal vineyard there.
Currants were dried at one end, on a platform
bare to the sun, beyond the vintage arbors
and vats the vintners trod; while near at hand
were new grapes barely formed as the green bloom fell,
or half-ripe clusters, faintly coloring.
After the vines came rows of vegetables
of all the kinds that flourish in every season,
and through the garden plots and orchard ran
channels from one clear fountain, while another
gushed through a pipe under the courtyard entrance
to serve the house and all who came for water.
These were the gifts of heaven to Alkínoös.

5. St. 43 is the exact middle of the 1590 version of Book 3, just as the Mount of Venus it describes is at the center of the Garden of Adonis and also represents its generative principle. How are the mount and the arbor described in stanza 44 fitting representatives of generation?

6. What has happened to Adonis and the boar? (Stanzas 46-48; compare the story in the tapestry, Canto 1 stanzas 34-38, pages 792-794, and compare the imprisoned boar to the imprisoned workmen in Merlin's cave, Canto 3, stanzas 8-13, pages 814-816.) What does Spenser mean by "eterne in mutabilitie" (stanza 47, line 5)? This is one of Spenser's important concepts.

7. Where is Cupid now, and who is with him (stanzas 49-50)?

8. What happened to Amoret in the Garden of Adonis? Where did she go after that? What happened to her there? (See stanzas 51-53, and note how she wounds the knights, stanza 52, lines 8-9.)

1. The "snowy Florimell" or false Florimell created in Canto 8 is not important for our condensed version of Book 3 (although it certainly represents a literalization of the idea of "frigid," one response to the problems of love, and it shows how deceptive outward appearances can be, an idea Spenser stresses frequently). However, our study of the Petrarchan conventions in the sonnets and in Spenser would not be complete without one stanza describing the "construction" of the snowy Florimell because of the way the stanza literalizes the Petrarchan conventions in a very different way than happened in the Book 2 description of Belphoebe ("she" refers to the witch who makes the false Florimell out of snow):

7

In stead of eyes two burning lampes she set
In silver sockets, shyning like the skyes,
And a quicke moving Spirit did arret
To stirre and roll them, like a womans eyes;
In stead of yellow lockes she did devise,
With golden wyre to weave her curled head;
Yet golden wyre was not so yellow thrise
As Florimells faire haire: and in the stead
Of life, she put a Spright to rule the carkasse dead. (3.8.7)

2. It is also too bad that we miss the story of Malbecco, the typical comic old husband of a young, beautiful wife Hellenore who loses her to Paridell, a descendant of the Paris who ran away with Menelaus's wife Helen, thus starting the Trojan War. In Canto 10 Malbecco finally visits Hellenore where she is living with a group of satyrs after being abandoned by Paridell. He evades the satyrs by pretending to be one of their goats. First he has to observe his wife at night among the satyrs:

48

At night, when all they went to sleepe, he vewd,
Whereas his lovely wife emongst them lay,
Embraced of a Satyre rough and rude,
Who all the night did minde his joyous play:
Nine times he heard him come aloft ere day,
That all his hart with gealosie did swell;
But yet that nights ensample did bewray,
That not for nought his wife them loved so well,
When one so oft a night did ring his matins bell.

Then, when the satyr finally sleeps, he asks her to return:

52

He wooed her, till day spring he espyde;
But all in vaine: and then turnd to the heard,
Who butted him with hornes in every syde,
And trode downe in the durt, where his hore beard
Was fowly dight, and he of death afeard.
Early before the heavens fairest light
Out of the ruddy East was fully reard,
The heardes out of their foldes were loosed quight,
And he emongst the rest crept forth in sory plight.

He then runs wild and jumps off a cliff:

57

But through long anguish, and selfe-murdring thought
He was so wasted and forpined quight,
That all his substance was consum'd to nought,
And nothing left, but like an aery Spright,
That on the rockes he fell so flit and light,
That he thereby receiv'd no hurt at all,
But chaunced on a craggy cliff to light;
Whence he with crooked clawes so long did crall,
That at the last he found a cave with entrance small.

58

Into the same he creepes, and thenceforth there,
Resolv'd to build his balefull mansion,
In drery darknesse, and continuall feare
Of that rockes fall, which ever and anon
Threates with huge ruine him to fall upon,
That he dare never sleepe, but that one eye
Still ope he keepes for that occasion;
Ne ever rests he in tranquillity,
The roring billowes beat his bowre so boystrously.

59

Ne ever is he wont on ought to feed,
But toades and frogs, his pasture poysonous,
Which in his cold complexion do breed
A filthy bloud, or humour rancorous,
Matter of doubt and dread suspitious,
That doth with curelesse care consume the hart,
Corrupts the stomacke with gall vitious,
Croscuts the liver with internall smart,
And doth transfixe the soule with deathes eternall dart.

60

Yet can he never dye, but dying lives,
And doth himselfe with sorrow new sustaine,
That death and life attonce unto him gives.
And painefull pleasure turnes to pleasing paine.
There dwels he ever, miserable swaine,
Hatefull both to him selfe, and every wight;
Where he through privy griefe, and horrour vaine,
Is woxen so deform'd, that he has quight
Forgot he was a man, and Gealosie is hight.

And so ends Canto 10. In a wonderful imitation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Malbecco has metamorphosed into some sort of bird. Stanza 57 certainly reminds me, in several verbal details, of Tennyson's "The Eagle: A Fragment":

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls:
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

And if Malbecco has in fact turned into a bird named Jealousy, Canto 11 opens with a terrible pun when it refers to "Fowle Gealosie" (11.1.5)! There is much humor in Spenser.

1. Britomart and Sir Satyrane encounter Ollyphant chasing a young man (stanzas 3-6). Who or what is Ollyphant? (His name is an Elizabethan variant of "elephant.") Why is he afraid of Britomart? His sister is Argante, whom we would have encountered in Canto 7 in a passage containing important information about them both:

47

Then trembling yet through feare, the Squire bespake,
That Geauntesse Argante is behight,
A daughter of the Titans which did make
Warre against heaven, and heaped hils on hight,
To scale the skyes, and put Jove from his right:
Her sire Typhaeus was, who mad through merth,
And drunke with bloud of men, slaine by his might,
Through incest, her of his owne mother Earth
Whilome begot, being but halfe twin of that berth.

48

For at that berth another Babe she bore,
To weet the mighty Ollyphant, that wrought
Great wreake to many errant knights of yore,
And many hath to foule confusion brought.
These twinnes, men say, (a thing far passing thought)
Whiles in their mothers wombe enclosed they were,
Ere they into the lightsome world were brought,
In fleshy lust were mingled both yfere,
And in that monstrous wise did to the world appere.

49

So liv'd they ever after in like sin,
Gainst natures law, and good behavioure:
But greatest shame was to that maiden twin,
Who not content so fowly to devoure
Her native flesh, and staine her brothers bowre,
Did wallow in all other fleshly myre,
And suffred beasts her body to deflowre:
So whot she burned in that lustfull fyre,
Yet all that might not slake her sensuall desyre.

50

But over all the countrey she did raunge,
To seeke young men, to quench her flaming thrust,
And feed her fancy with delightfull chaunge:
Whom so she fittest finds to serve her lust,
Through her maine strength, in which she most doth trust,
She with her brings into a secret Ile,
Where in eternall bondage dye he must,
Or be the vassall of her pleasures vile,
And in all shamefull sort him selfe with her defile.

2. Whom does Britomart find (stanzas 7 ff.)? This, we discover in stanza 11, is Scudamore. If you remember, in the Letter to Ralegh (page 627), Scudamore is the knight who left Gloriana's court the third day to rescue Amoret, his beloved, from the enchanter Busirane. Obviously he's not doing very well! How long has Amoret been Busirane's captive (stanza 10)? How does Scudamore rate his chances of rescuing her? Look at 17.5: how does Spenser (or Scudamore) define her thralldom?

3. What do they find when they arrive at Busirane's castle? Why is Britomart but not Scudamore able to pass through the flames?

4. What does Britomart find when she enters the castle? What does she see in the first room? What do the tapestries show? (Since they cover all of stanzas 28-46, they are obviously important. Remember the tapestry of Venus and Adonis in Canto 1 and its significance for the story of Book 3.)

5. What altar and statue does she also find in the room (stanzas 47-49)? What is written on the door behind the statue? What does Britomart do?

6. What does Britomart find in the second room (stanzas 51-54)? What is written on the door she just came through (stanza 54)? What is written on the other door? What does Britomart do?

1. What happens at midnight? What sorts of characters appear in the Masque of Cupid (stanzas 6-26)? How does Amoret appear in the masque (stanzas 19-21)? Does the description of her heart in stanza 21 remind you of anything? What sort of Cupid follows her in triumph (stanzas 22-23)? Is this the Cupid we're used to, even in Book 3? Why is he different now?

2. We learn in Book 4 that this is the masque Busirane brought to the wedding of Scudamore and Amoret, where it appeared much more benign. From whose point of view is Cupid seen in such a fearful way? What does the masque seem to represent here?

3. What happens at the conclusion of the masque (stanza 26)? What does Britomart do?

4. What happens the second evening? What does Britomart see when she goes into the third room? What do the "yron bands" and "brasen pillour" in 30.8-9 seem to represent?

5. What happens when Britomart enters? What does Busirane try to do in stanza 32? What happens to Britomart in stanza 33? Why is the wound significant? Note that Britomart, another woman in love, has in some sense submitted to Amoret's torture, and compare her wound here to the literal one in Canto 1 (stanza 65, page 800) and to the figurative one in Canto 2 (stanza 39, page 809).

6. Why does Amoret tell Britomart not to attack Busirane (stanza 34)? What happens when Busirane undoes the charm? Notice in 36.5 another way in which Britomart undergoes Amoret's torture. How bad will Amoret's scar be?

7. What has happened to the rooms and the wall of flames (stanza 42)? Why?

8. What has happened to Scudamore and Glauce (stanza 44-45)?

9. That's what you think. The ending we have is the revised one Spenser provided for the 1596 edition of Books 1-6. This ending provides a bridge to Book 4. But since we are stopping at the end of Book 3, we should reunite Amoret and Scudamore, as Spenser did in 1590, when he published only Books 1-3. These stanzas replace stanzas 43-45, page 863:

43 (1590)

At last she came unto the place, where late
She left Sir Scudamour in great distresse,
Twixt dolour and despight halfe desperate,
Of his loves succour, of his owne redresse,
And of the hardie Britomarts successe:
There on the cold earth him now thrown she found,
In wilfull anguish, and dead heavinesse,
And to him cald; whose voices knowen sound
Soone as he heard, himself he reared light from ground.

44 (1590)

There did he see, that most on earth him joyd,
His dearest love, the comfort of his dayes,
Whose too long absence him had sore annoyd,
And wearied his life with dull delayes:
Straight he upstarted from the loathed layes,
And to her ran with hasty egernesse,
Like as a Deare, that greedily embayes
In the coole soile [=pool], after long thirstinesse,
Which he in chace endured hath, now nigh breathlesse.

45 (1590)

Lightly he clipt her twixt his armes twaine,
And streightly did embrace her body bright,
Her body, late the prison of sad paine,
Now the sweet lodge of love and deare delight:
But she faire Lady overcommen quight
Of huge affection, did in pleasure melt,
And in sweete ravishment pourd out her spright:
No word they spake, nor earthly thing they felt,
But like two senceles stocks in long embracement dwelt.

46 (1590)

Had ye them seene, ye would have surely thought,
That they had beene that faire Hermaphrodite,
Which that rich Romane of white marble wrought,
And in his costly Bath causd to bee site:
So seemd those two, as growne together quite,
That Britomart halfe envying their blesse,
Was much empassiond in her gentle sprite,
And to her selfe oft wisht like happinesse,
In vaine she wisht, that fate n'ould let her yet possesse.

47 (1590)

Thus doe those lovers with sweet countervayle,
Each other of loves bitter fruit despoile.
But now my teme begins to faint and fayle,
All woxen weary of their journall toyle:
Therefore I will their sweatie yokes assoyle
At this same furrowes end, till a new day:
And ye faire Swayns, after your long turmoyle, (Amoret and Scudamour)
Now cease your worke, and at your pleasure play;
Now cease your worke; to morrow is an holy day.

22

Her face so faire as flesh it seemed not,
But heavenly pourtraict of bright Angels hew,
Cleare as the skie, withouten blame or blot,
Through goodly mixture of complexions dew;
And in her cheekes the vermeill red did shew
Like roses in a bed of lillies shed,
The which ambrosiall odours from them threw,
And gazers sense with double pleasure fed,
Hable to heale the sicke, and to revive the ded.

23

In her faire eyes two living lamps did flame,
Kindled above as th'heavenly makers light,
And darted fyrie beames out of the same,
So passing persant, and so wondrous bright, [piercing]
That quite bereav'd the rash beholders sight:
In them the blinded god his lustfull fire
To kindle oft assayd, but had no might;
For with dredd Majestie, and awfull ire,
She broke his wanton darts, and quenched base desire.

24

Her ivorie forhead, full of bountie brave, [virtue]
Like a broad table did it selfe dispred,
For Love his loftie triumphes to engrave,
And write the battels of his great godhed;
All good and honour might therin be red:
For there their dwelling was. And when she spake,
Sweet words, like dropping honny she did shed,
And twixt the perles and rubins softly brake [rubies]
A silver sound, that heavenly musicke seem'd to make.

25

Upon her eyelids many Graces sate,
Under the shadow of her even browes,
Working belgards, and amorous retrate, [loving looks; picture, portrait]
And every one her with a grace endowes:
And every one with meeknesse to her bowes.
So glorious mirrhour of celestiall grace,
And soveraine moniment of mortall vowes,
How shall fraile pen descrive her heavenly face,
For feare through want of skill her beautie to disgrace?

26

So faire, and thousand thousand times more faire
She seemd, when she presented was to sight,
And was yclad, for heat of scorching aire,
All in a silken Camus lylly whight [loose dress, chemise]
Purfled upon with many a folded plight, [bordered, decorated; fold, pleat]
Which all above besprinckled was throughout,
With golden aygulets, that glistred bright, [metal points used for decoration]
Like twinckling starres, and all the skirt about
Was hemd with golden fringe

27

Below her ham her weed did somewhat traine, [thigh]
And her streight legs most bravely were embayld [wrapped]
In golden buskins of costly Cordwaine, [boots; costly leather, cordovan]
All bard with golden bendes, which were entayld [fastened; bands; carved]
With curious antickes, and full faire aumayld: [designs; enamelled]
Before they fastned were under her knee
In a rich Jewell, and therein entrayld
The ends of all their knots, that none might see,
How they within their fouldings close enwrapped bee.

28

Like two faire marble pillours they were seene,
Which doe the temple of the Gods support,
Whom all the people decke with girlands greene,
And honour in their festivall resort;
Those same with stately grace, and princely port
She taught to tread, when she her selfe would grace,
But with the wooddie Nymphes when she did play,
Or when the flying Libbard she did chace, [leopard]
She could them nimbly move, and after fly apace.

29

And in her hand a sharpe bore-speare she held,
And at her backe a bow and quiver gay,
Stuft with steele-headed darts, wherewith she queld
The salvage beastes in her victorious play,
Knit with a golden bauldricke, which forelay [belt, holding quiver]
Athwart her snowy brest, and did divide
Her daintie paps; which like young fruit in May
Now little gan to swell, and being tide,
Through her thin weed their places only signifide.

30

Her yellow lockes crisped, like golden wyre,
About her shoulders weren loosely shed,
And when the winde amongst them did inspyre, [breathe]
They waved like a penon wide dispred [pennant]
And low behinde her backe were scattered:
And whether art it were, or heedlesse hap,
As through the flouring forrest rash she fled,
In her rude haires sweet flowres themselves did lap,
And flourishing fresh leaves and blossomes did enwrap.

31

Such as Diana by the sandie shore [Eurotas: river near Sparta]
Of swift Eurotas, or on Cynthus greene, [hill on Delos where Apollo and]
Where all the Nymphes have her unwares forlore, [/Diana were born]
Wandreth alone with bow and arrowes keene,
To seeke her game: Or as that famous Queene [Penthesilea]
of Amazons, whom Pyrrhus did destroy, [son of Achilles]
The day that first of Priame she was seene,
Did shew her selfe in great tiumphant joy,
To succour the weake state of sad afflicted Troy.

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