To the right noble and valorous knight Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Wardein of the Stanneryes, and lieftenaunt of Cornewaile.

O thee, that art the fommers nightingale,

To

Thy foueraine Goddesses most deare delight, Why doe I fend this rufticke madrigale,

That may thy tunefull eare unfeason quite ?

Thou onely fit this argument to write,

In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her bowre,
And dainty Love learnd sweetly to endite.

My rimes I know unfauory and fowre,

To taste the streames, that like a golden fhowre

Flow from thy fruitfull head, of thy loues praise,

Fitter perhaps to thonder Martiall stowre,

When fo thee lift thy lofty Muse to raise :

Yet till that thou thy poeme wilt make knowne,

Let thy faire Cinthias praises be thus rudely showne.

E. S.

To the right honourable and most vertuous Lady, the Counteffe of Pembroke.

Remembrance of that most heroicke spirit,

The heuens pride, the glory of our daies,
Which now triumpheth through immortall merit
Of his braue vertues, crownd with lasting baies,
Of heuenlie blifs and euerlasting praies;

Who first my Mufe did lift out of the flore,
To fing his sweet delights in lowlie laies,

Bids me, most noble Lady, to adore

His goodly image, liuing euermore

In the diuine resemblaunce of

Which with your vertues ye

your face;

embellish more, And natiue beauty deck with heuenlie grace:

For his, and for your own especial sake,

Vouchsafe from him this token in good worth to take.

E. S.]

To the moft vertuous, and beautifull Lady, the Lady Carew.

TE

NE may I, without blot of endlesse blame,

You, faireft Lady, leaue out of this place, But with remembraunce of your gracious name, Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace, 'And deck the world, adorne thefe verfes base:

Not that these few lines can in them comprise
Those glorious ornaments of heauenly grace,
Wherewith ye triumph ouer feeble eyes,
And in fubdued harts do tyranyfe:

For thereunto doth need a golden quill,
And filuer leaues, them righty to deuise,
But to make humble present of good will;
Which, when as timely meanes it purchase may,
In ampler wise itselfe will forth display.

E. S.

To all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the Court.

HE Chian peincter, when he was requir'd'

THE

To pourtraict Venus in her perfect hew,

To make his worke more abfolute, defird

Of all the fairest maides to haue the vew.
Much more me needs to draw the semblant trew,

Of beauties Queene, the worlds fole wonderment,
To sharpe my fence with fundry beauties vew,
And steale from each fome part of ornament.

If all the world to feeke I ouerwent,

A fairer crew yet no where could I fee,

Then that braue court doth to mine eie prefent;

That the worlds pride seems gathered there to bee:

Of each a part I ftole by cunning thefte:

Forgiue it me, faire dames, fith leffe ye haue not lefte.

E. S.

THE

The first BoOKE of the

FAERY QUEENE

CONTAY NING

The Legend of the Knight of the Red-Crosse, or of Holinesse.

O Ithe man, whose Muse whylome did maske,
As time her taught, in lowly fhepheards weeds,
Am now enforft a farre unfitter taske,
For trumpets fterne to chaunge mine oaten reeds,
And fing of knights and ladies gentle deeds;
Whose praises having flept in filence long,

Me all too meane the facred Muse areeds
To blazon broade emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithful loves fhall moralize

Help then, o holy virgin, chiefe of

II.
nyne,

my song.

Thy weaker novice to perform thy will;
Lay forth out of thine everlasting scryne
The antique rolles, whch there lye hidden still.
Of faerie knights and fayreft Tanaquill,
Whom that most noble Briton prince fo long

Sought through the world, and fuffered fo much ill,
That I must rue his undeserved wrong.

O helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull tong!

- VOL. I.

B

And

III.

And thou, most dreaded impe of highest Jove,
Faire Venus fonne, that with thy cruell dart
At that good knight fo cunningly didst rove,
That glorious fire it kindled in his hart,
Lay now thy deadly heben bowe apart,
And with thy mother mylde come to mine ayde,
Come both, and with you bring triumphant Mart,
In loves and gentle jollities arraid,

After his murdrous fpoyles and bloudie

IV.

rage allayd.

And with them eke, o Goddesse heavenly bright,
Mirrour of grace and majestie divine,

Great ladie of the greatest isle, whose light

Like Phoebus lampe throughout the world doth shine,
Shed thy faire beames into my feeble eyne,
And raise my thoughtes too humble and too vile,
To thinke of that true glorious type of thine,

The

argument of mine afflicted ftile:

The which to hear vouchfafe, o deareft dread, a while.

CANTO

A

CANTO I.

The patron of true bolinesse
Foule Errour doth defeat;
Hypocrife, him to entrappe,

Doth to his home entreate.

I.

GENTLE knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and filver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine,
The cruel markes of many' a bloody fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His
angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seem'd, and faire did fitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

II.

And on his breft a bloodie croffe he bore,

The deare remembrance of his dying lord,

For whose sweete fake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd:
Upon his shield the like was also scor'd,
For foveraine hope, which in his helpe he had.
Right, faithfull, true he was in deed and word;
But of his cheere did feeme too folemne fad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.
III.

Upon a great adventure he was bond,

That greatest Gloriana to him gave,

(That greatest glorious queene of faery lond)
To winne him worshippe, and her grace to have,
Which of all earthly thinges he most did crave.
And ever, as he rode, his hart did earne
To prove his puiffance in battell brave
Upon his foe, and his new force to learne;
Upon his foe, a dragon horrible and stearne.
B 2

IV. A