So be ye pleafd to pardon all amis.

That gentle Lady whom I love and serve,
After long fuit and wearie fervicis,

Did aske me, how I could her love deserve,

And how the might be fure that I would never fwerve?

54.

"I, glad by any meanes her grace to gaine,
Badd her commaund my life to fave or spill.
Eftfoones fhe badd me, with inceffaunt paine
To wander through the world abroad at will,
And every where, where with my power or skill
I might doe fervice unto gentle Dames,

That I the same should faithfully fulfill;

And at the twelve monethes end should bring their

names

And pledges, as the spoiles of my victorious games.

55.

"So well I to faire Ladies fervice did,

And found fuch favour in their loving hartes,
That ere the yeare his course had compassid,
Thre hundred pledges for my good defartes,
And thrice thre hundred thanks for my good partes,
I with me brought, and did to her prefent:
Which when she saw, more bent to eke my fmartes
Then to reward my trusty true intent,

She gan for me devife a grievous punishment.
56.

"To weet, that I my traveill should resume,
And with like labour walke the world arownd,
Ne ever to her prefence should prefume,
Till I fo many other Dames had fownd,
The which, for all the fuit I could propownd,
Would me refuse their pledges to afford,
But did abide for ever chafte and fownd.”

"Ah! gentle Squyre," (quoth he)
(quoth he)" tell at one word,

How many fownd'ft thou fuch to put in thy record?"

57.

"In deed, Sir knight," (faid he) "one word may tell All that I ever fownd fo wifely stayd,

For onely three they were difpofd fo well;

And yet three yeares I now abrode have strayd,
To fynd them out." "Mote I," (then laughing fayd
The knight)" inquire of thee what were those three,
The which thy proffred curtefie denayd?

Or ill they seemed fure avizd to bee,

Or brutishly brought up, that nev'r did fashions fee." 58.

"The first which then refufed me," (faid hee)

"Certes was but a common Courtisane; Yet flat refufd to have adoe with mee, Because I could not give her many a Jane." (Thereat full hartely laughed Satyrane.) "The fecond was an holy Nunne to chofe, Which would not let me be her Chappellane, Because she knew, fhe fayd, I would disclose Her counsell, if she should her truft in me repose. 59.

"The third a Damzell was of low degree,

Whom I in countrey cottage fownd by chaunce:
Full litle weened I that chastitee

Had lodging in fo meane a maintenaunce;
Yet was the fayre, and in her countenaunce

• give her many a Jane.] So Chaucer, "Rime of Sir Topas," v. 3242: "That coft many a jane." Many a jane, i.e. " much money." Skinner informs us that jane is a coin of Genoa; and Speght, in his Gloffary to Chaucer, interprets " jane" half-pence of Janua [Genoa]. Chaucer fometimes ufes it as a coin of little value; as, "Dear enough a jane,” “ Cl. of Oxenford's Tale," v. 2020, and in other places. Stow has given an account of these half-pence [alfo called Gallye halfe pence"] at large, Survey of London," p. 97, edit. 1599, 4to. T.

WARTON.

Dwelt fimple truth in seemely fashion.
Long thus I woo'd her with due obfervaunce,
In hope unto my pleasure to have won ;
But was as far at last, as when I first begon.
60.

"Safe her, I never any woman found

That chastity did for it selfe embrace,
But were for other causes firme and found;
Either for want of handsome time and place,
Or elfe for feare of fhame and fowle difgrace.P
Thus am I hopelesse ever to attaine

My Ladies love in fuch a defperate cafe,

But all my dayes am like to waste in vaine,

Seeking to match the chafte with th' unchafte Ladies

traine."

61.

Perdy," (fayd Satyrane)" thou Squyre of Dames, Great labour fondly haft thou hent in hand, Το get fmall thankes, and therewith many blames, That may emongst Alcides labours ftand." Thence backe returning to the former land, Where late he left the Beast he overcame, He found him not; for he had broke his band, And was returnd againe unto his Dame, To tell what tydings of fayre Florimell became.

P Or else for feare of shame and fowle difgrace.] In Marston's copy of the 4to. 1590 fome person had written in the margin, " I am of his mind;" which Marston fatirically fubfcribed quis non? In the next stanza the letter k had dropped out in the word "backe." C.

O oft as I this hiftory record,

My heart doth melt with meere com

paffion,

To thinke how caufeleffe, of her owne

accord,

This gentle Damzell, whom I write upon,
Should plonged be in fuch affliction
Without all hope of comfort or reliefe ;
That fure, I weene, the hardest hart of stone
Would hardly finde to aggravate her griefe ;
For mifery craves rather mercy then repriefe.

2.

But that accurfed Hag, her hofteffe late,
Had fo enranckled her malitious hart,
That she defyrd th' abridgement of her fate,
Or long enlargement of her painefull smart.
Now when the Beaft, which by her wicked art
Late foorth fhe fent, fhe backe retourning spyde
Tyde with her golden girdle; it a part

a Tyde with her golden girdle.] So the first edition reads; the reft

Of her rich spoyles whom he had earst destroyd She weend, and wondrous gladnes to her hart applyde.

3.

And, with it ronning haft❜ly to her fonne,

Thought with that fight him much to have reliv'd; Who, thereby deeming sure the thing as donne, His former griefe with furie fresh reviv'd

Much more then earft, and would have algates riv'd The hart out of his breft: for fith her dedd He furely dempt, himselfe he thought depriv'd Quite of all hope wherewith he long had fedd His foolish malady, and long time had misledd.

4.

With thought whereof exceeding mad he grew,
And in his rage his mother would have flaine,
Had fhe not fled into a fecret mew,

Where she was wont her Sprightes to entertaine,
The maifters of her art: there was fhe faine
To call them all in order to her ayde,

And them conjure, upon eternall paine,
To counfell her, fo carefully difmayd,

How she might heale her fonne whose fenfes were decayd.

5.

By their device, and her owne wicked wit,

She there deviz'd a wondrous worke to frame,
Whose like on earth was never framed yit;
That even Nature felfe envide the fame,
And grudg'd to see the counterfet should shame
The thing it felfe: In hand fhe boldly tooke
To make another like the former Dame,

read, "her broken girdle." But, as Mr. Upton obferves, "this famous girdle was loofed from Florimel, yet not broken, as the reader may fee particularly from F. Q. iv. iv. 15, and the following canto, where the ladies try to gird themselves with this chafte, unbroken, and golden zone." TODD. Yet fee " for he had broke his band," C. vii. St. 61. C.

By their device.] So the 4to. 1590, which there can be no pretext for altering to advice, as it ftands in fubfequent impreffions. C.