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Till, at full time, the tedious prison flying,

It breaks all lets, its ready way denying;

And shakes the trembling Isle with often painful dying.
XXVIII.

So by the Bosphorus straights, in Euxine seas,
Not far from old Byzantum, closely stand
Two neighbour islands, call'd Symplegades,
Which sometime seem but one combined land:
For often meeting on the wat'ry plain,

And parting oft, tost by the boist❜rous main,
They now are join'd in one, and now disjoin'd again.
XXIX.

Here oft, not lust, but sweeter chastity,

Coupled sometimes, and sometimes single, dwells;
Now link'd with love, to quench lust's tyranny;
Now Phoenix-like, alone in narrow cells :

Such Phoenix one, (but one at once may be,
In Albion's Isle,) thee, *Basilissa, thee,
Such only have I seen, such shall I never see,
XXX.

What nymph was this, said fairest Rosaleen,

Whom thou admirest thus above so many?

She, while she was, ah! was the shepherd's queen,
Sure such a shepherd's queen, was never any:
But, ah! no joy her dying heart contented,
Since she a dear +Deer's side unwilling rented;
Whose death she all too late, too much repented.
XXXI.

Ah, royal maid! why shouldst thou thus lament thee?
Thy little fault, was but too much believing ‡:

* Queen Elizabeth.

+ The Earl of Essex.

Historians inform us, that Elizabeth complained she had been betrayed

into this sanguinary measure.

It is too much, so much thou should'st repent thee;
His joyous soul at rest deserves no grieving.

These words (vain words!) fond comforters did lend her; But, ah, no words, no pray'rs, might ever bend her To give an end to grief: till endless grief did end her. XXXII.

But how should I those sorrows dare display?
Or how limme forth her virtues' wonderment !
She was, ay me! she was, the sweetest May,
That ever flow'r'd in Albion's regiment:

Few eyes fall'n lights adore; yet fame shall keep
Her name awake, when others silent sleep;

While men have ears to hear, eyes to look back, and weep.
XXXIII.

And though the curs (which whelpt and nurs'd in Spain, Learn of fell Geryon* to snarl and brawl)

Have vow'd and strove her virgin tomb to stain;

And grin, and foam, and rage, and yelp, and bawl; Yet shall our Cynthia's high triumphing light Deride their howling throats and toothless spite : And sail through heav'n, whilst they sink down in end

less night.

XXXIV.

So is this Island's lower region:

Yet, ah! much better is it sure than so. But my poor reeds, like my condition,

(Low is the shepherd's state, my song as low) Mar what they make-But now in yonder shade Rest we, while suns have longer shadows made: See, how our panting flocks run to the cooler glade."

* In heathen mythology, a fabulous giant, with three heads.

G

CANTO IV.

I.

THE shepherds in the shade their hunger feasted,
With simple cates, such as the country yields;
And while from scorching beams secure they rested,
The nymphs, dispers'd along the woody fields,

Pull'd from their stalks the blushing strawberries, Which lurk close shrouded from high looking eyes; Shewing that sweetness oft both low and hidden lies. II.

But when the day had his meridian run,
Between his highest throne and low declining;
Thirsil again his forced task begun,

His wonted audience his sides entwining.

"The middle province next this lower stands,

Where th' Isle's heart-city spreads his large commands, Leagu'd to the neighbour towns with sure and friendly bands.

III.

Such as that star, which sets his glorious chair
In midst of Heaven, and to dead darkness here

Gives light and life; such is this city fair:

Their ends, place, office, state, so nearly near,

That those wise ancients, from their nature's sight And likeness, turn'd their names, and call'd aright The sun the great world's heart, the heart the less world's

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IV.

This middle coast, to all the Isle dispends All heat and life: hence it another guard (Beside these common to the first) defends;

Built whole of massy stone, cold, dry, and hard: Which stretching round about his circling arms, Warrants these parts from all exterior harms; Repelling angry force, securing all alarms.

ས.

But in the front † two fair twin-bulwarks rise;
In th' Arren built for strength and ornament ;
In Thelu of more use, and larger size;

;

For hence the young Isle draws his nourishment;
Here lurking Cupid hides his bended bow;
Here milky springs in sugar'd rivers flow,
Which first gave th' Infant Isle to be, and then to grow.
VI.

For when the lesser Island (still increasing
In Venus' temple) to some greatness grows,
Now larger rooms and wider spaces seizing,
It stops the Hepar rivers ;-backward flows
The stream, and to these hills bears up his flight,
And in these founts (by some strange hidden might)
Dyes his fair rosy waves into a lily white.

VII.

So where fair Medway down the Kentish dales,

To many towns her plenteous waters dealing,

The heart is the seat of heat and life; therefore walled about with the ribs, for more safety.

The breasts.

When the infant grows large, the blood vessels are so oppressed, that partly through the readiness of the passage, but especially by the providence of God, blood turns back to the breast, and there by an innate and wonderful faculty is turned into milk.

Lading her banks into wide Thamis falls;

The big-grown main with foamy billows swelling,
Stops there the sudden stream: her steady race
Staggers a while, at length flows back apace;
And to the parent fount returns its fearful pace.
VIII.

These two fair mounts are like two hemispheres,
Endow'd with goodly gifts and qualities;
Whose tops two little purple hillocks rears,
Much like the poles in Heaven's axletrees :
And round about two circling altars gire

In blushing red; the rest in snowy tire,

Like Thracian Homus looks, which ne'er feels Phoebus' fire.

IX.

That mighty Hand, in these dissected wreaths,

(Where moves our Sun) his throne's fair picture gives; The pattern breathless, but the picture breathes;

His highest heav'n is dead, our low heav'n lives:
Nor scorns that lofty One, thus low to dwell;
Here his best stars he sets and glorious cell,

And fills with saintly spirits, so turns to Heav'n from Hell.
X.

About this region round in compass stand

A guard, both for defence and respiration, Of * sixty four, parted in several bands; Half to let out the smoky exhalation;

The other half to draw in fresher winds:

Beside both these, a third of both their kinds, That lets both out and in; which no enforcement binds.

* In the Thorax, or breast, are sixty-five muscles for respiration, or breathing, which is either free or forced: the instruments of forced breathing are sixty-four, whereof thirty-two distend, and as many contract it,

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