The Faerie Queene · Book II · Canto 2 12 (2/3)

Ere long they heard an hideous bellowing

Of many beasts, that roard outrageously,

As if that hungers poynt or Venus sting

Had them enraged with fell surquedry:

Yet nought they feard, but past on hardily,

Untill they came in vew of those wilde beasts,

Who all attonce, gaping full greedily,

And rearing fercely their upstaring crests,

Ran towards to devoure those unexpected guests.

But soone as they approcht with deadly threat,

The Palmer over them his staffe upheld,

His mighty staffe, that could all charmes defeat.

Eftesoones their stubborne corages were queld,

And high advaunced crests downe meekely feld;

Instead of fraying, they them selves did feare,

And trembled as them passing they beheld:

Such wondrous powre did in that staffe appeare,

All monsters to subdew to him that did it beare.

Of that same wood it fram’d was cunningly,

Of which Caduceus whilome was made,

Caduceus, the rod of Mercury,

With which he wonts the Stygian realmes invade

Through ghastly horror and eternall shade:

Th’infernall feends with it he can asswage,

And Orcus tame, whome nothing can persuade,

And rule the Furyes when they most doe rage.

Such vertue in his staffe had eke this Palmer sage.

Thence passing forth, they shortly doe arryve

Whereas the Bowre of Blisse was situate;

A place pickt out by choyce of best alyve,

That natures worke by art can imitate:

In which whatever in this worldly state

Is sweete and pleasing unto living sense,

Or that may dayntest fantasy aggrate,

Was poured forth with plentifull dispence,

And made there to abound with lavish affluence.

Goodly it was enclosed rownd about,

As well their entred guestes to keep within,

As those unruly beasts to hold without;

Yet was the fence thereof but weake and thin:

Nought feard theyr force that fortilage to win,

But wisedomes powre, and temperaunces might,

By which the mightiest things efforced bin:

And eke the gate was wrought of substaunce light,

Rather for pleasure then for battery or fight.

Yt framed was of precious yvory,

That seemd a worke of admirable witt;

And therein all the famous history

Of Jason and Medæa was ywritt;

Her mighty charmes, her furious loving fitt;

His goodly conquest of the golden fleece,

His raised fayth, and love too lightly flitt;

The wondred Argo, which in venturous peece

First through the Euxine seas bore all the flowr of Greece.

Ye might have seene the frothy billowes fry

Under the ship as thorough them she went,

That seemd the waves were into yvory,

Or yvory into the waves were sent;

And otherwhere the snowy substaunce sprent

With vermell, like the boyes blood therein shed,

A piteous spectacle did represent;

And otherwhiles, with gold besprinkeled,

Yt seemd thenchaunted flame which did Crëusa wed.

All this and more might in that goodly gate

Be red, that ever open stood to all

Which thither came; but in the Porch there sate

A comely personage of stature tall,

And semblaunce pleasing, more then naturall,

That traveilers to him seemd to entize:

His looser garment to the ground did fall,

And flew about his heeles in wanton wize,

Not fitt for speedy pace, or manly exercize.

They in that place him Genius did call:

Not that celestiall powre, to whom the care

Of life, and generation of all

That lives, perteines in charge particulare,

Who wondrous things concerning our welfare,

And straunge phantomes doth lett us ofte foresee,

And ofte of secret ill bids us beware:

That is our Selfe, whom though we do not see,

Yet each doth in him selfe it well perceive to bee.

Therefore a God him sage Antiquity

Did wisely make, and good Agdistes call;

But this same was to that quite contrary,

The foe of life, that good envyes to all,

That secretly doth us procure to fall

Through guilefull semblants which he makes us see:

He of this Gardin had the governall,

And Pleasures porter was devizd to bee,

Holding a staffe in hand for mere formalitee.

With diverse flowres he daintily was deckt,

And strowed rownd about; and by his side

A mighty Mazer bowle of wine was sett,

As if it had to him bene sacrifide,

Wherewith all newcome guests he gratyfide:

So did he eke Sir Guyon passing by;

But he his ydle curtesie defide,

And overthrew his bowle disdainfully,

And broke his staffe with which he charmed semblants sly.

Thus being entred, they behold arownd

A large and spacious plaine, on every side

Strowed with pleasauns; whose fayre grassy grownd

Mantled with greene, and goodly beautifide

With all the ornaments of Floraes pride,

Wherewith her mother Art, as halfe in scorne

Of niggard Nature, like a pompous bride

Did decke her, and too lavishly adorne,

When forth from virgin bowre she comes in th’early morne.

Therewith the Heavens alwayes joviall

Lookte on them lovely, still in stedfast state,

Ne suffred storme 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;

But the milde ayre with season moderate

Gently attempred, and disposd so well,

That still it breathed forth sweet spirit and holesom smell:

More sweet and holesome then the pleasaunt hill

Of Rhodope, on which the Nimphe that bore

A gyaunt babe herselfe for griefe did kill;

Or the Thessalian Tempe, where of yore

Fayre Daphne Phœbus hart with love did gqre;

Or Ida, where the Gods lov’d to repayre,

When ever they their heavenly bowres forlore;

Or sweet Parnasse, the haunt of Muses fayre;

Or Eden selfe, if ought with Eden mote compayre.

Much wondred Guyon at the fayre aspect

Of that sweet place, yet suffred no delight

To sincke into his sence, nor mind affect,

But passed forth, and lookt still forward right,

Brydling his will and maystering his might,

Till that he came unto another gate;

No gate, but like one, being goodly dight

With bowes and braunches, which did broad dilate

Their clasping armes in wanton wreathings intricate:

So fashioned a Porch with rare device,

Archt over head with an embracing vine,

Whose bounches hanging downe seemd to entice

All passers by to taste their lushious wine,

And did them selves into their hands incline,

As freely offering to be gathered;

Some deepe empurpled as the Hyacine,

Some as the Rubine laughing sweetely red,

Some like faire Emeraudes, not yet well ripened.

And them amongst some were of burnisht gold,

So made by art to beautify the rest,

Which did themselves emongst the leaves enfold,

As lurking from the vew of covetous guest,

That the weake boughes, with so rich load opprest

Did bow adowne as overburdened.

Under that Porch a comely dame did rest

Clad in fayre weedes but fowle disordered,

And garments loose that seemd unmeet for womanhed.

In her left hand a Cup of gold she held,

And with her right the riper fruit did reach,

Whose sappy liquor, that with fulnesse sweld,

Into her cup she scruzd with daintie breach

Of her fine fingers, without fowle empeach,

That so faire winepresse made the wine more sweet:

Thereof she usd to give to drinke to each,

Whom passing by she happened to meet:

It was her guise all Straungers goodly so to greet.

So she to Guyon offred it to tast,

Who, taking it out of her tender hond,

The cup to ground did violently cast,

That all in peeces it was broken fond,

And with the liquor stained all the lond:

Whereat Excesse exceedingly was wroth,

Yet no’te the same amend, ne yet withstond,

But suffered him to passe, all were she loth;

Who, nought regarding her displeasure, forward goth.

There the most daintie Paradise on ground

It selfe doth offer to his sober eye,

In which all pleasures plenteously abownd,

And none does others happinesse envye;

The painted flowres, the trees upshooting hye,

The dales for shade, the hilles for breathing space,

The trembling groves, the christall running by,

And, that which all faire workes doth most aggrace,

The art which all that wrought appeared in no place.

One would have thought, (so cunningly the rude

And scorned partes were mingled with the fine)

That nature had for wantonesse ensude

Art, and that Art at nature did repine;

So striving each th’other to undermine,

Each did the others worke more beautify;

So differing both in willes agreed in fine:

So all agreed, through sweete diversity,

This Gardin to adorne with all variety.

And in the midst of all a fountaine stood,

Of richest substance that on earth might bee,

So pure and shiny that the silver flood

Through every channell running one might see;

Most goodly it with curious ymageree

Was overwrought, and shapes of naked boyes,

Of which some seemd with lively jollitee

To fly about, playing their wanton toyes,

Whylest others did them selves embay in liquid joyes.

And over all of purest gold was spred

A trayle of yvie in his native hew;

For the rich metall was so coloured,

That wight who did not well avis’d it vew

Would surely deeme it to bee yvie trew:

Low his lascivious armes adown did creepe,

That themselves dipping in the silver dew

Their fleecy flowres they fearefully did steepe,

Which drops of Christall seemd for wantones to weep.

Infinit streames continually did well

Out of this fountaine, sweet and faire to see,

The which into an ample laver fell,

And shortly grew into so great quantitie,

That like a litle lake it seemd to bee;

Whose depth exceeded not three cubits hight,

That through the waves one might the bottom see,

All pav’d beneath with Jaspar shining bright,

That seemd the fountaine in that sea did sayle upright.

And all the margent round about was sett

With shady Laurell trees, thence to defend

The sunny beames which on the billowes bett,

And those which therein bathed mote offend.

As Guyon hapned by the same to wend,

Two naked Damzelles he therein espyde,

Which therein bathing seemed to contend

And wrestle wantonly, ne car’d to hyde

Their dainty partes from vew of any which them eyd.

Sometimes the one would lift the other quight

Above the waters, and then downe againe

Her plong, as over-maystered by might,

Where both awhile would covered remaine,

And each the other from to rise restraine;

The whiles their snowy limbes, as through a vele,

So through the christall waves appeared plaine:

Then suddeinly both would themselves unhele,

And th’amarous sweet spoiles to greedy eyes revele.

As that faire Starre, the messenger of morne,

His deawy face out of the sea doth reare;

Or as the Cyprian goddesse, newly borne

Of th’Ocean’s fruitfull froth, did first appeare:

Such seemed they, and so their yellow heare

Christalline humor dropped downe apace.

Whom such when Guyon saw, he drew him neare,

And somewhat gan relent his earnest pace;

His stubborne brest gan secret pleasaunce to embrace.

The wanton Maidens, him espying, stood

Gazing awhile at his unwonted guise;

Then th’one her selfe low ducked in the flood,

Abasht that her a straunger did avise;

But thother rather higher did arise,

And her two lilly paps aloft displayd,

And all that might his melting hart entyse

To her delights she unto him bewrayd;

The rest hidd underneath him more desirous made.

With that the other likewise up arose,

And her faire lockes, which formerly were bown’d

Up in one knott, she low adowne did lose,

Which flowing low and thick her cloth’d arownd,

And th’yvorie in golden mantle gownd:

So that faire spectacle from him was reft,

Yet that which reft it no lesse faire was fownd.

So hidd in lockes and waves from lookers theft,

Nought but her lovely face she for his looking left.

Withall she laughed, and she blusht withall,

That blushing to her laughter gave more grace,

And laughter to her blushing, as did fall.

Now when they spyde the knight to slacke his pace

Them to behold, and in his sparkling face

The secrete signes of kindled lust appeare,

Their wanton meriments they did encreace,

And to him beckned to approch more neare,

And shewd him many sights that corage cold could reare.

On which when gazing him the Palmer saw,

He much rebukt those wandring eyes of his,

And counseld well him forward thence did draw.

Now are they come nigh to the Bowre of blis,

Of her fond favorites so nam’d amis,

When thus the Palmer: “Now, Sir, well avise;

For here the end of all our traveill is:

Here wonnes Acrasia, whom we must surprise,

Els she will slip away, and all our drift despise.”

Eftsoones they heard a most melodious sound,

Of all that mote delight a daintie eare,

Such as attonce might not on living ground,

Save in this Paradise, be heard elsewhere:

Right hard it was for wight which did it heare,

To read what manner musicke that mote bee;

For all that pleasing is to living eare

Was there consorted in one harmonee;

Birdes, voices, instruments, windes, waters, all agree

The joyous birdes, shrouded in chearefull shade

Their notes unto the voice attempred sweet;

Th’Angelicall soft trembling voyces made

To th’instruments divine respondence meet;

The silver sounding instruments did meet

With the base murmure of the waters fall;

The waters fall with difference discreet,

Now soft, now loud, unto the wind did call;

The gentle warbling wind low answered to all.

There, whence that Musick seemed heard to bee,

Was the faire Witch her selfe now solacing

With a new Lover, whom, through sorceree

And witchcraft, she from farre did thither bring:

There she had him now laid aslombering

In secret shade after long wanton joyes;

Whilst round about them pleasauntly did sing

Many faire Ladies and lascivious boyes,

That ever mixt their song with light licentious toyes.

And all that while right over him she hong

With her false eyes fast fixed in his sight,

As seeking medicine whence she was stong,

Or greedily depasturing delight;

And oft inclining downe, with kisses light

For feare of waking him, his lips bedewd,

And through his humid eyes did sucke his spright,

Quite molten into lust and pleasure lewd;

Wherewith she sighed soft, as if his case she rewd.

The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay:

Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see,

In springing flowre the image of thy day.

Ah! see the Virgin Rose, how sweetly shee

Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestee,

That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may.

Lo! see soone after how more bold and free

Her bared bosome she doth broad display;

Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away.

So passeth, in the passing of a day,

Of mortall life the leafe, the bud, the flowre;

Ne more doth florish after first decay,

That earst was sought to deck both bed and bowre

Of many a lady’, and many a Paramowre.

Gather therefore the Rose whilest yet is prime,

For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre;

Gather the Rose of love whilest yet is time,

Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equall crime.

He ceast; and then gan all the quire of birdes

Their diverse notes t’attune unto his lay,

As in approvaunce of his pleasing wordes.

The constant payre heard all that he did say,

Yet swarved not, but kept their forward way

Through many covert groves and thickets close,

In which they creeping did at last display

That wanton Lady with her lover lose,

Whose sleepie head she in her lap did soft dispose.