For to dilate at large, but urged fore, With percing wordes and pittifull implore, Him hafty to arife. As one affright With hellish feends, or Furies mad uprore, He then uprofe, inflamd with fell defpight, And called for his armes, for he would algates fight:

38.

They bene ybrought; he quickly does him dight,
And lightly mounted paffeth on his way;
Ne Ladies loves, ne fweete entreaties, might
Appease his heat, or haftie paffage stay;
For he has vowd to beene avengd that day
(That day it felfe him feemed all too long)
On him, that did Pyrochles deare difmay:
So proudly pricketh on his courfer strong,
And Atin ay him pricks with fpurs of fhame and wrong.

HARDER leffon to learne Continence

In joyous pleasure then in grievous paine; For fweetneffe doth allure the weaker fence

So ftrongly, that uneathes it can refraine From that which feeble nature covets faine: But griefe and wrath, that be her enemies And foes of life, fhe better can abstaine:" Yet vertue vauntes in both her victories, And Guyon in them all fhewes goodly mayfteries.

2.

Whom bold Cymochles traveiling to finde,
With cruell purpose bent to wreake on him
The wrath which Atin kindled in his mind,
Came to a river, by whofe utmost brim
Wayting to paffe, he faw whereas did swim

fbe better can abstaine.] "Abftaine" is the word in the edit. 1590, and there is no correction of it among the errata. "Abftaine," as Upton obferved, means to keep from, which entirely accords with the fenfe of the paffage. We therefore adhere to it in preference to reftraine, which was afterwards, and needlessly, fubftituted by Todd and others. C.

Along the shore, as swift as glaunce of eye,
A litle Gondelay, bedecked trim

With boughes and arbours woven cunningly,
That like a litle forreft feemed outwardly.

3.

And therein fate a Lady fresh and fayre,

Making sweete folace to herselfe alone:
Sometimes fhe fong as lowd as larke in ayre,
Sometimes the laught, as merry as Pope Jone;"
Yet was there not with her else any one,

That to her might move cause of meriment:
Matter of merth enough, though there were none,
She could devife; and thousand waies invent
To feede her foolish humour and vaine jolliment.

4.

Which when far off Cymochles heard and faw,
He lowdly cald to fuch as were abord
The little barke unto the fhore to draw,
And him to ferry over that deepe ford.
The merry mariner unto his word

Soone hearkned, and her painted bote ftreightway
Turnd to the shore, where that fame warlike Lord
She in receiv'd; but Atin by no way

She would admit, albe the knight her much did pray.

5.

Eftfoones her shallow fhip away did slide,

b

More swift then fwallow fheres the liquid fkye,

as merry as Pope Jone.] This faying was proverbial, as Upton pointed out, being found in Edwards's play of " Damon and Pythias," and in Fox's "Acts and Monuments." Our text is that of the 4to. 1590; but afterwards, for what reason is nowhere stated, it was altered to "that nigh her breath was gone." Oppofite these words Drayton placed a mark in the margin of his folio 1611, perhaps to indicate that the poet's original language had been changed, but he did not make any attempt to restore that language. C.

• That to her might move.] So the first edition reads: all the rest read, "That might to her," &c. TODD.

Withouten oare or Pilot it to guide,
Or winged canvas with the wind to fly :
Onely she turnd a pin, and by and by
It cut away upon the yielding wave,
Ne cared fhe her courfe for to apply;

For it was taught the way which fhe would have, And both from rocks and flats it felfe could wifely save.

6.

And all the way the wanton Damfell found
New merth her paffenger to entertaine;
For fhe in pleasaunt purpose did abound,
And greatly joyed merry tales to faine,

Of which a store-house did with her remaine :
Yet feemed, nothing well they her became ;
For all her wordes fhe drownd with laughter vaine,
And wanted grace in utt'ring of the same,
That turned all her pleasaunce to a scoffing game.

7.

And other whiles vaine toyes fhe would devize,
As her fantasticke wit did moft delight:
Sometimes her head fhe fondly would aguize'
With gaudy girlonds, or fresh flowrets dight
About her necke, or rings of rushes plight:

For fhe in pleasaunt purpose.] Spenfer feems to use "purpose in the fame way that Shakespeare ("Much Ado about Nothing," A. iii. Sc. 1,) employs propose, viz. converfation. It is to be observed that in the 4to. edit. of the comedy, in 1600, the word is "propofe," while in the folio of 1623 it is altered to purpoje, as in Spenfer. See alfo "fitting purpofe," p. 68. C.

• And wanted grace.] The fecond and subsequent folios read, " And wanting grace." TODD. Another proof of Todd's careless collation, for the folio 1611 has "wanted grace," like the 4to. 1590. C.

f * fhe fondly would aguize.] i. e. drefs after a certain way, guife, or fashion: Spenfer was fond of the word, and we shall find it occurring elfew here. Guife is, in fact, the fame word as A. S. wife, way, or mode. C. • About her necke, or rings of rushes plight.] Folded, [perhaps plaited.] So Chaucer, "Tr. and Cr." ii. 1204, of a letter:

"Yeve me the labour it to fowe and plite:" that is, to stitch and fold it. T. Warton.

Sometimes, to do him laugh, fhe would affay
To laugh at shaking off the leaves light,

Or to behold the water worke and play
About her little frigot, therein making way.

8.

Her light behaviour and loose dalliaunce

Gave wondrous great contentment to the knight,
That of his way he had no fovenaunce,"

Nor care of vow'd revenge and cruell fight,
But to weake wench did yield his martiall might:
So eafie was to quench his flamed minde
With one sweete drop of sensuall delight.
So eafie is t'appease the stormy winde
Of malice in the calme of pleasaunt womankind.

9.

Diverse discourses in their way they spent ;

Mongft which Cymochles of her questioned

Both what she was, and what that ufage ment,
Which in her cotti fhe daily practized?

"Vaine man," (faide fhe) "that wouldest be reckoned A ftraunger in thy home, and ignoraunt

Of Phædria, (for fo my name is red)

Of Phædria, thine owne fellow fervaunt;

For thou to serve Acrafia thy felfe doeft vaunt.

10.

"In this wide Inland fea, that hight by name
The Idle lake, my wandring fhip I row,
That knowes her port, and thether fayles by ayme,
Ne care, ne feare I how the wind do blow,

That of his way he had no fovenaunce.] Remembrance, Fr. CHURCH. i Which in her cott.] "Cott" is a little boat. 66 They call, in Ireland, cots, things like boats, but very unfhapely, being nothing but fquare pieces of timber made hollow." See Gerard Boate's " Nat. Hift. of Ireland," [1652,] p. 64. CHURCH. Perhaps Spenser derived the word from Ireland; or perhaps we are to take "cott" (not cote as in Richardfon) merely for a dwelling-place, a place of abode. C.