L

Amongst these mighty men were women mixed; Proud women, vain, forgetful of their yoke: The bold Semiramis, whose sides transfixed With son's own blade her foul reproaches spoke : Fair Stheneboea, that herself did choke With wilful cord for wanting of her will: High-minded Cleopatra, that with stroke Of Aspes sting herself did stoutly kill: And thousands more the like that did that dungeon fill.

LI

Besides the endless routs of wretched thralls, Which thither were assembled day by day From all the world, after their woful falls, Through wicked pride and wasted wealth's decay. But most of all which in that dungeon lay, Fell from high princes' courts or ladies' bowers, Where they in idle pomp, or wanton play, Consumed had their goods and thriftless hours, And lastly thrown themselves into these heavy stoures. (I. 5.)

THE PLEASURES OF SENSE.

SIR GUYON ON THE ISLAND OF THE ENCHANTRESS.*

XII

It was a chosen plot of fertile land,
Amongst wide waves set, like a little nest,
As if it had by Nature's cunning hand
Been choicely picked out from all the rest,
And laid forth for ensample of the best :

* Compare with the originals in Odysseia V., and in Orlando Furioso VIII., Kalypso's Isle and Alcina's Palace.

No dainty flower or herb that grows on ground,

No arboret with painted blossoms drest

And smelling sweet, but there it might be found. To bud out fair, and throw her sweet smells all around.

XIII

No tree whose branches did not bravely spring;
No branch whereon a fine bird did not sit;
No bird but did her shrill notes sweetly sing;

No song but did contain a lovely ditt.

Trees, branches, birds, and songs, were framed fit
For to allure frail mind to careless ease:

Careless the man soon waxed, and his weak wit
Was overcome of thing that did him please;
So pleased did his wrathful purpose fair appease.

XIV

Thus when she had his eyes and senses fed
With false delights, and filled with pleasures vain,

Into a shady dale she soft him led,

And laid him down upon a grassy plain;

And her sweet self without dread or disdain

She set beside, laying his head disarmed

In her loose lap, it softly to sustain,

Where soon he slumbered fearing not be harmed: The whiles with a love lay she thus him sweetly charmed.

XV

'Behold, O man! that toilsome pains dost take, The flowers, the fields, and all that pleasant grows, How they themselves do thine ensample make, Whilst nothing envious nature them forth throws Out of her fruitful lap; how no man knows,

They spring, they bud, they blossom fresh and fair, And deck the world with their rich pompous shows; Yet no man for them taketh pains or care,

Yet no man to them can his careful pains compare.

XVI

"The lily, lady of the flowering field,

The flower-deluce, her lovely paramour,

Bid thee to them thy fruitless labours yield,
And soon leave off this toilsome weary stour:
Lo! lo! how brave she decks her bounteous bower,
With silken curtains and gold coverlets,

Therein to shroud her sumptuous belamour;
Yet neither spins nor cards, nor cares, nor frets,
But to her mother Nature all her care she lets

XVII

"Why then dost thou, O man! that of them all
Art lord, and eke of nature sovereign,
Wilfully make thyself a wretched thrall,
And waste the joyous hours in needless pain,
Seeking for danger and adventures vain?
What boots it all to have, and nothing use?
Who shall him rue that swimming in the main
Will die for thirst, and water doth refuse?
Refuse such fruitless toil, and present pleasures choose.

(II. 6.)

THE BOWER OF BLISS.

XLII

Thence passing forth, they shortly do arrive
Whereas the Bower of Bliss was situate;
A place picked out by choice of best alive,
That Nature's work by Art can imitate:
In which whatever in this worldly state
Is sweet and pleasing unto living sense,
Or that may daintiest fantasy aggrate,
Was poured forth with plentiful dispense,
And made there to abound with lavish affluence.

XLIII

Goodly it was enclosed round about

As well their entered guests to keep within, As those unruly beasts to hold without; Yet was the fence thereof but weak and thin ; Nought feared their force that fortilage to win But wisdom's power and temperance's might, By which the mightiest things efforced bin : And eke the gate was wrought of substance light, Rather for pleasure than for battery or fight.

XLIV

It framed was of precious ivory,

That seemed a work of admirable wit;
And therein all the famous history

Of Jason and Medea was ywrit ;

Her mighty charms, her furious loving fit;

His goodly conquest of the golden fleece:
His falsed faith, and love too lightly flit;

The wondered Argo, which in venturous peace First through the Euxine seas bore all the flower of Greece.

L

Thus being entered, they behold around
A large and spacious plain, on every side
Strewed with pleasance; whose fair grassy ground
Mantled with green, and goodly beautified
With all the ornaments of Flora's pride,
Wherewith her mother Art, as half in scorn
Of niggard Nature, like a pompous bride
Did deck her and too lavishly adorn,

When forth from virgin bower she comes in th' early

morn.

LI

Therewith the heavens always jovial

Looked on them lovely, still in steadfast state,
Nor suffered storm nor frost on them to fall,
Their tender buds or leaves to violate;

Nor scorching heat, nor cold intemperate,
T' afflict the creatures which therein did dwell
1 ;
But the middle air with season moderate

Gently attempered, and disposed so well

That still it breathed forth sweet spirit and wholesome smell.

LII

More sweet and wholesome than the pleasant hill
Of Rhodope, on which the nymph that bore

A giant babe herself for grief did kill;

Or the Thessalian Tempe, where of yore