2.

And on his breft a bloodie Croffe he bore,
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whofe sweete fake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd:

Upon his fhield the like was also scor'd,

For foveraine hope which in his helpe he had.
Right faithfull true he was in deede and word;
But of his cheere did feeme too folemne fad ;*
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.
3.

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 ftearne.

4.

A lovely Ladie rode him faire befide,

Upon a lowly Affe more white then fnow,
Yet fhe much whiter; but the fame did hide
Under a vele, that wimpled was full low;d
And over all a blacke ftole fhee did throw:
As one that inly mournd, fo was she fad,

too folemne fad.] "Sad" generally means grave, ferious, heavy, in the writings of Spenfer's time: but in the next stanza but one he says of Una, "fo was fhe fad," i. e. not merely grave and serious, but as one lamenting fome fecret misfortune, fome " hidden care." C.

d Under a vele, that wimpled was full low.] A veil and a wimple seem to have been different names for the fame thing; and when Lydgate, in a paffage quoted by T. Warton, fpeaks of " your veile, your wimple," he merely calls it by two different names. A "veil that wimpled was full low" is a veil that covered, or concealed, not merely the face of Una, but a part of her perfon. C.

And heavie fate upon her palfrey flow;

Seemed in heart fome hidden care she had,

And by her, in a line, a milkewhite lambe fhe lad.

So

5.

pure and innocent, as that same lambe, She was in life and every vertuous lore;

And by descent from Royall lynage came

Of ancient Kinges and Queenes, that had of

yore

Their scepters stretcht from East to Westerne shore, And all the world in their subjection held; Till that infernall feend with foule uprore Forwafted all their land, and them expeld; Whom to avenge she had this Knight from far compeld. 6.

Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag,

That lafie feemd, in being ever last,

Or wearied with bearing of her bag

Of needments at his backe. Thus as they past,
The day with cloudes was fuddeine overcast,

And angry Jove an hideous ftorme of raine

Did

poure into his Lemans lap so fast,

That everie wight to fhrowd it did constrain;

And this faire couple eke to shroud themselves were fain.

7.

Enforft to feeke some covert nigh at hand,
A fhadie grove not farr away they spide,
That promift ayde the tempeft to withstand;
Whofe loftie trees, yclad with fommers pride,
Did fpred fo broad, that heavens light did hide,
Not perceable with power of any ftarr:

And all within were pathes and alleies wide,

e into his Lemans lap.] "Leman" usually meant fweet-heart or miftrefs; and fo Spenfer employs it, B. ii. C. v. St. 28, where he speaks of the "leman" of Cymochles. It is a very old word in our language, and has been derived from the Fr. l'aimante.

C.

With footing worne, and leading inward farr. Faire harbour that them feems; fo in they entred ar.

8.

And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led,
Joying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,
Which, therein shrouded from the tempeft dred,
Seemd in their fong to scorne the cruell sky.
Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy,
The fayling Pine; the Cedar proud and tall ;
The vine-propp Elme; the Poplar never dry;
The builder Oake, fole king of forrests all;
The Afpine good for ftaves; the Cypreffe funerall;

9.

The Laurell, meed of mightie Conquerours

And Poets fage; the Firre that weepeth still;
The Willow, worne of forlorne Paramours;
The Eugh, obedient to the benders will;
The Birch for fhaftes; the Sallow for the mill
The Mirrhe sweete-bleeding in the bitter wound;

f Much can they praise the trees.] The reader will find this expreffion very often, Much can they praife-i. e. Much they praised. It is often ufed thus in Chaucer, and much oftener in G. Douglass, the translator of Virgil. The Greeks and Latins have exactly the fame idiom. UPTON. Ovid, Seneca, Lucan, Statius, and Claudian, have all left us a description of trees; but Spenser, in this before us, feems more immediately to have had his favourite Chaucer in his eye: see the " Affemb. of Fowles," v. 176.

"The bilder oke, and eke the hardie asfhe,
"The piller elme, the coffir unto caraine,

"The boxe pipe-tree, the holme to whippis lasshe,
"The failing firre, the cipres death to plaine,

"The shooter ewe, the afpe for shaftis plaine,

"The olive of peace, and eke the dronken vine,
"The victor palme, the laurer to divine."

In Chaucer's" Complaint of the Blacke Knight," we meet with another description of trees, from which Spenser seems also to have drawn one or two circumstances.

"The mirre also that wepith ever of kinde

"The cedris hie, as upright as a line." T. WARTon.

The warlike Beech; the Afh for nothing ill;

The fruitfull Olive; and the Platane round; The carver Holme; the Maple feeldom inward found.

IO.

Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
Untill the blustring storme is overblowne ;
When, weening to returne whence they did ftray,
They cannot finde that path, which first was showne,
But wander too and fro in waies unknowne,
Furtheft from end then, when they neerest weene,
That makes them doubt their wits be not their owne:
So many pathes, so many turnings feene,

That which of them to take in diverse doubt they been.

II.

At laft refolving forward ftill to fare,

Till that fome end they finde, or in or out,

That path they take that beaten seemd most bare,
And like to lead the labyrinth about;

Which when by tract they hunted had throughout,
At length it brought them to a hollowe cave
Amid the thickeft woods. The Champion ftout
Eftfoones difmounted from his courfer brave,
And to the Dwarfe a while his needleffe fpere he gave.

12.

"Be well aware," quoth then that Ladie milde, "Leaft fuddaine mischiefe ye too rash provoke: The danger hid, the place unknowne and wilde, Breedes dreadfull doubts. Oft fire is without smoke, And perill without show: therefore your stroke, Sir Knight, with-hold, till further tryall made." "Ah Ladie,” (fayd he) " shame were to revoke

8 therefore your ftroke.] It is "bardy ftroke" in the edit. 1590; but the epithet is directed to be erased in the faults escaped in the prefs. Nevertheless it was not erased, and the line remains of twelve fyllables, even in the folio 1611. C.

The forward footing for an hidden shade:

Vertue gives her selfe light through darknesse for to wade.”1

13.

"Yea but" (quoth fhe) " the perill of this place
I better wot then you: though nowe too late
To wish you backe returne with foule difgrace,
Yet wifedome warnes, whileft foot is in the gate,
To stay the steppe, ere forced to retrate.

This is the wandring wood, this Errours den,
A monster vile, whom God and man does hate:
Therefore I read beware." "Fly, fly!" (quoth then
The fearefull Dwarfe) "this is no place for living men."

14.

But, full of fire and greedy hardiment,

The youthfull Knight could not for ought be staide ; But forth unto the darkfom hole he went, And looked in his gliftring armor made A litle glooming light, much like a shade; By which he saw the ugly monfter plaine, Halfe like a ferpent horribly difplaide, But th'other halfe did womans shape retaine, Moft lothfom, filthie, foule, and full of vile difdaine. 15.

And, as fhe lay upon the durtie ground,

Her huge long taile her den all overfpred,
Yet was in knots and many boughtes upwound,
Pointed with mortall fting. Of her there bred
A thousand yong ones, which she dayly fed,
Sucking upon her poifnous dugs; each one

h Vertue gives her felfe light through darknesse for to wade.] Milton had the same beautiful idea in his mind, and perhaps this paffage, when he wrote the following in "Comus:"

"Virtue could fee to do what virtue would

"By her own radiant light, though fun and moon
"Were in the flat fea funk." UPTON.