Down slid into the ocean flood apart,
The Bear, that in the Irish seas had dipt

His grisly feet, with speed from thence he whipt;

For Thetis, hasting from the Virgin's bed Pursued the Bear, that ere she came was fled. 35

And Phaeton now reaching to his race
With glistering beams, gold streaming where
they bent,

Was prest to enter in his resting place.
Erythius that in the cart first went,

Had even now attained his journey's stent:" 40
And fast declining hid away his head,
While Titan couched him in his purple bed.

And pale Cynthéa with her borrowed light,
Beginning to supply her brother's place,
Was past the noonstead six degrees in sight, 45
When sparkling stars amid the heaven's face,
With twinkling light shone on the earth apace,
That while they brought about the nightės
chare,'

The dark had dimmed the day ere I was ware.

see

101 Thou canst not dure with sorrow thus attaint." And with that word of sorrow all forfaint, She looked up, and, prostrate as she lay, With piteous sound, lo, thus she gan to say, 105

"Alas, I wretch whom thus thou seest distrained

With wasting woes, that never shall aslake,
Sorrow I am, in endless torments pained
Among the Furies in the infernal lake;
Where Pluto, god of hell, so grisly black
Doth hold his throne and Letheus deadly taste
Doth reave remembrance of each thing forepast.

"Whence come I am, the dreary destiny
And luckless lot for to bemoan of those,
Whom Fortune in this maze of misery,

110

115

136

"O Sorrow, alas, sith sorrow is thy name,
And that to thee this drere18 doth well pertain,
In vain it were to seek to cease the same:
But as a man himself with sorrow slain,
So I, alas, do comfort thee in pain,
That here in sorrow art forsunk so deep,

That at thy sight I can but sigh and weep." 140

I had no sooner spoken of a stike, 19
But that the storm so rumbled in her breast,
As Eolus could never roar the like,

And showers down rained from her eyen so fast,

That all bedreynt 20 the place, till at the last 145 Well eased they the dolour of her mind,

As rage of rain doth swage the stormy wind.

But lo, while thus amid the desert dark,
We passed on with steps and pace unmeet:
A rumbling roar, confused with howl and bark
Of dogs, shook all the ground under our feet,
And struck the din within our ears so deep
As, half distraught, unto the ground I fell,
Besought return, and not to visit hell.

195

295

And, next in order, sad Old Age we found,
His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind,
With drooping cheer still poring on the ground,
As on the place where nature him assigned
To rest, when that the Sisters had untwined
His vital thread, and ended with their knife 300
The fleeting course of fast declining life.

There heard we him with broken and hollow plaint

Rue with himself his end approaching fast, And all for naught his wretched mind torment With sweet remembrance of his pleasures past, And fresh delights of lusty youth forwaste; 306 Recounting which, how would he sob and shriek And to be young again of Jove beseek.

Crook backt he was, toothshaken, and blear eyed,

330

Went on three feet, and sometimes crept on fower, 41

With old lame bones that rattled by his side,
His scalp all pilde, 42 and he with eld forlore:
His withered fist still knocking at Death's door,
Fumbling and drivelling as he draws his
breath,

For brief, the shape and messenger of Death.

And fast by him pale Malady was placed,
Sore sick in bed, her colour all forgone,
Bereft of stomach, savour, and of taste,
Ne could she brook no meat, but broth alone:
Her breath corrupt, her keepers every one
Abhorring her, her sickness past recure, 43
Detesting physick, and all physick's cure.

335

339

Great was her force, whom stone wall could not stay,

360

Her tearing nails scratching at all she saw;
With gaping jaws that by no means ymay
Be satisfied from hunger of her maw,
But eats herself as she that hath no law:
Gnawing, alas, her carcass all in vain,
Where you may count each sinew, bone, and
vein.

On her while we thus firmly fixed our eyes, 365
That bled for ruth of such a dreary sight,
Lo, suddenly, she shrieked in so huge wise
As made hell gates to shiver with the might.
Wherewith, a dart we saw, how it did light
Right on her breast, and therewithal pale Death
Enthrilling" it, to reave her of her breath. 371

Cities he sacked, and realms (that whilom flowered

394

In honour, glory, and rule above the best)
He overwhelmed, and all their fame devoured,
Consumed, destroyed, wasted, and never ceased,
Till he their wealth, their name, and all op-
pressed:

His face forehewed" with wounds, and by his side

There hung his targe with gashes deep and wide.

With conquerors' hands forbathed in their own blood,

421

And Caesar weeping over Pompey's head.
Yet saw I Scilla and Marius where they stood,
Their great cruelty, and the deep bloodshed
Of friends: Cyrus I saw and his host dead,
And how the queen with great despight hath

flung

His head in blood of them she overcome.

425

46 Straightway. 47 Cut in front. 48 Broils, evils.