Had he so doen, he had him snatcht away 320 More light then culver11 in the faulcons fist: Eternall God thee save from such decay! But, whenas Mammon saw his purpose mist, Him to entrap unwares another way he wist.

[The poet then goes on to tell of the further temptations to which Guyon is subjected, and of how the Knight withstands them. At length, after three days have passed, according to men's reckoning, Guyon begs to be taken back into the world, and Mammon, though loth, is constrained to comply with the request. But as soon as Guyon reaches the vital air he swoons, and lies as one dead. The next Canto (which ends with the Knight's recovery and reunion with the Palmer, his appointed guide), begins with the following stanzas on the care of God for man, thus leading us to anticipate the happy ending.]

1 The poem from which this extract is taken first appeared in a miscellaneous collection entitled Complaints (1591). It was in this year that Spenser returned to his home in Ireland, after a stay in London of some two years. This visit to England had been made under the encouragement of Raleigh, who, Spenser tells us, secured his admission to the queen. The poet gives us an account of this visit in his Colin Clout's Come Home Again (pub. 1596), but in the lines here given we have probably an insight into the real mood in which he left the court.

Calm was the day, and through the trembling air

Sweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play,
A gentle spirit, that lightly did delay
Hot Titans beams, which then did glisten fair,
When I (whom sullen care,

Through discontent of my long fruitless stay
In Princes Court, and expectation vain
Of idle hopes, which still do fly away,
Like empty shadows, did afflict my brain,)
Walked forth to ease my pain

5

10

Along the shore of silver streaming Thames;
Whose rutty 2 bank, the which his river hems,
Was painted all with variable flowers,
And all the meads adorned with dainty gems
Fit to deck maidens bowers
And crown their paramours
Against the bridal day, which is not long.
Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.

There, in a meadow by the river's side
A flock of Nymphs I chanced to spy
All lovely daughters of the flood thereby,
With goodly greenish locks, all loose untied,
As each had been a Bride;

15

20

25

And each one had a little wicker basket,
Made of fine twigs entrayled curiously,
In which they gathered flowers to fill their
flasket,

And with fine fingers cropt full feateously 5
The tender stalks on high.

1 Prothalamion (or Prothalamium), a marriage song; or as Spenser himself defines it, "A Spousal Verse.' This song, the last complete poem of Spenser extant, was written in 1596, to celebrate the approaching mar riage of "two honourable and vertuous ladies, the Lady Elizabeth and the Lady Catherine Somerset."

2 Rooty.

3 In provision for the bridal-day, which is not far off. 4 Little basket. Nimbly, dextrously.

Nor Jove himself, when he a Swan would be,
For Love of Leda, whiter did appear;
Yet Leda was (they say) as white as he,
Yet not so white as these, nor nothing near; 45
So purely white they were,

That e'en the gentle stream, the which them bare,

Seem'd foul to them, and bade his billows spare To wet their silken feathers, lest they might Soil their fair plumes with water not so fair, 50 And mar their beauties bright,

That shone as heaven's light,

Against their bridal day, which was not long. Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.

"Ye gentle Birds! the world's fair ornament, And heaven's glory, whom this happy hour Doth lead unto your lovers' blissful bower, Joy may you have, and gentle hearts content Of your love's couplement;

And let fair Venus, that is Queen of Love, With her heart-quelling son upon you smile, Whose smile, they say, hath virtue to remove All love's dislike, and friendship's faulty guile For ever to assoil;10

90

95

100

Let endless peace your steadfast hearts accord,
And blessed plenty wait upon your board;
And let your bed with pleasures chaste abound,
That fruitful issue may to you afford,
Which may your foes confound,

105

And make your joys redound
Upon your bridal day, which is not long:"
Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.

Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.

From those high towers this noble lord issuing,
Like radiant Hesper, when his golden hair

In the Ocean's billows he hath bathed fair, 165
Descended to the river's open viewing,
With a great train ensuing.

Above the rest were goodly to be seen
Two gentle knights of lovely face and feature
Beseeming well the bower of any queen,

gifts of wit, and ornaments of nature,

Fit for so goodly stature,

170

That like the twins of Jove they seemed in sight, Which deck the baldrick of the heavens bright; They two, forth pacing to the river's side, 175 Received those two fair brides, their love's delight;

Which, at the appointed tide,

Each one did make his bride'

Against their bridal day, which is not long: 179 Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song. 13 A palace adjoining the Temple, formerly occupied by Elizabeth's favorite, the Earl of Leicester (the "gentle lord" here referred to) and afterwards by the Earl of Essex, the "noble peer" alluded to in the next stanza.

The capture of Cadiz, June 1596, by Raleigh, Lord Howard of Effingham, and Essex.

1 i. e. The alarm you excite.

THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD

(From England's Helicon, 1600)

If all the world and Love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pleasures might my passion move,
To live with thee, and be thy love.

But time drives flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb,
The rest complains of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancies spring but sorrows fall.

5

10

1 XL and LXXV. These are from a series of eightyeight sonnets entitled Amoretti, published together with the splendid Epithalamion, or marriage hymn, in 1595. The sonnets commemorate Spenser's courtship of, and the Epithalamion his marriage to, a certain Irish country girl whose Christian name was certainly Elizabeth, and whose last name (according to Grosart) was Boyle.