IGHT well I wote, moft mighty Soveraine,
That all this famous antique hiftory
Of fome th' aboundance of an ydle braine
Will judged be, and painted forgery,
Rather then matter of juft memory;

Sith none that breatheth living aire does know
Where is that happy land of Faery,

Which I fo much doe vaunt, yet no where fhow,
But vouch antiquities, which no body can know.

2.

But let that man with better fence advize,
That of the world leaft part to us is red;
And daily how through hardy enterprize
Many great Regions are discovered,
Which to late age were never mentioned.
Who ever heard of th' Indian Peru?
Or who in venturous veffell measured

The Amazon huge river, now found trew?

a The Amazon buge river.] So the errata at the end of the 4to. 1590; but it may be doubted whether Spenfer did not write "The

Or fruitfullest Virginia who did ever vew?

3.

Yet all these were, when no man did them know,
Yet have from wifest ages hidden beene;

And later times thinges more unknowne shall show. Why then should witleffe man so much misweene, That nothing is but that which he hath feene? What if within the Moones fayre fhining fpheare, What if in every other ftarre unfeene

Of other worldes he happily fhould heare,

He wonder would much more; yet fuch to fome appeare.

4.

Of faery lond yet if he more inquyre,

By certein fignes, here fett in fondrie place,
He may it fynd; ne let him then admyre,
But yield his fence to bee too blunt and bace,
That no'te without an hound fine footing trace.
And thou, O fayrest Princeffe" under sky!
In this fayre mirrhour maist behold thy face,
And thine owne realmes in lond of Faery,
And in this antique ymage thy great auncestry.

5.

The which O! pardon me thus to enfold

In covert vele, and wrap in fhadowes light,

Amazons huge river," as indeed it ftands in the folio 1611. In the first edit. the text is "The Amarons huge river." C.

And thou, O fayreft Princeffe.] Nobody feems to have remarked that in the edit. 1590" thou" is mifprinted then. We note it particularly, because precifely the fame error occurs in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," A. v. Sc. 1, where Olivia fays, " Then cam'it in fmiling," inftead of "Thou cam'ft in smiling ;" an error corrected in the MS. notes of the folio 1632. See Collier's "Shakefp." edit. 1858, vol. ii. p. 722. The blunder in the original impreffion of Spenfer's "Faerie Queene" was corrected afterwards. C.

and wrap in fhadowes light.] So the old copies; the prepofition to being understood before "wrap.' ." Nevertheless, Todd, without notice, printed the participle wrapt; an error in which he has been followed by other modern editors. Profeffor Child, however, in his impreffion, Boston, 1855, has rejected the fuppofed improvement. C.

2009

That feeble eyes your glory may behold,

Which ells could not endure those beames bright, But would bee dazled with exceeding light. O! pardon, and vouchsafe with patient eare The brave adventures of this faery knight, The good Sir Guyon, gratiously to heare; In whom great rule of Temp'raunce goodly doth appeare.

HAT conning Architect of cancred guyle,"
Whom Princes late difpleasure left in

derstands

bands,

For falfed letters, and fuborned wyle,
Soone as the Redcroffe knight he un-

To beene departed out of Eden landes,
To ferve againe his foveraine Elfin Queene,
His artes he moves, and out of caytives handes
Himfelfe he frees by fecret meanes unfeene;
His fhackles emptie lefte, himfelfe escaped cleene.

2.

And forth he fares, full of malicious mynd,

To worken mifchiefe, and avenging woe,
Where ever he that godly knight may fynd,
His onely hart fore, and his onely foe;

aThat conning Architect of cancred guyle.] Gregory Nazianzen, it may be obferved, denominates, in his tragedy of " Chriftus Patiens," the old Dragon ayxuλourns, fraudis artifex; whence perhaps Spenfer's architect of guyle, applied to the fame deceiver, as Milton's artificer of fraud alfo is, " Par. L." B. iv. 121. TODD.

Sith Una now he algates must forgoe,b Whom his victorious handes did earst restore To native crowne and kingdom late ygoe; Where she enjoyes fure peace for evermore, As wetherbeaten ship arryv'd on happie shore.

3.

Him therefore now the object of his spight
And deadly food he makes: him to offend,
By forged treafon or by open fight,

He feekes, of all his drifte the aymed end:
Thereto his fubtile engins he does bend,
His practick witt and his fayre fyled tonge,
With thousand other fleightes; for well he kend
His credit now in doubtfull ballaunce hong:
For hardly could bee hurt who was already stong.

4.

Still as he went he craftie ftales did lay,d

With cunning traynes him to entrap unwares,
And privy spyals plaft in all his way,

To weete what course he takes, and how he fares,

To ketch him at a vauntage in his fnares.

But now fo wife and wary was the knight

By tryall of his former harmes and cares,

That he defcryde and shonned ftill his flight:

The fish that once was caught new bayt wil hardly byte.

5.

Nath'leffe th' Enchaunter would not spare his payne,
In hope to win occafion to his will;

bhe algates must forgoe.] i. e. he must entirely, altogether, all manner of ways forego: from the A. S. algeats. C.

And deadly food he makes.] We have before feen feud fpelt "food" in this poem, B. i. C. 8: it is feude here in the folio editions, as well as in fome modern reprints. C.

a he craftie ftales did lay.] "Crafty ftales" are crafty decoys; Fr. eftalon, not devices or tricks, as Todd alleges: Archimago, as it were, laid baits in order to entrap the knight. C.