Had he so doen, he had him snatcht away 320 More light then culver11 in the faulcons fist: Eternall God thee save from such decay! But, whenas Mammon saw his purpose mist, Him to entrap unwares another way he wist. [The poet then goes on to tell of the further temptations to which Guyon is subjected, and of how the Knight withstands them. At length, after three days have passed, according to men's reckoning, Guyon begs to be taken back into the world, and Mammon, though loth, is constrained to comply with the request. But as soon as Guyon reaches the vital air he swoons, and lies as one dead. The next Canto (which ends with the Knight's recovery and reunion with the Palmer, his appointed guide), begins with the following stanzas on the care of God for man, thus leading us to anticipate the happy ending.] 1 The poem from which this extract is taken first appeared in a miscellaneous collection entitled Complaints (1591). It was in this year that Spenser returned to his home in Ireland, after a stay in London of some two years. This visit to England had been made under the encouragement of Raleigh, who, Spenser tells us, secured bis admission to the queen. The poet gives us an account of this visit in his Colin Clout's Come Home Again pub. 1596), but in the lines here given we have probably an insight into the real mood in which he left the court. 25 And each one had a little wicker basket, And with fine fingers cropt full feateously 5 1 Prothalamion (or Prothalamium), a marriage song; or as Spenser himself defines it, "A Spousal Verse."' This song, the last complete poem of Spenser extant, was written in 1596, to celebrate the approaching mar riage of "two honourable and vertuous ladies, the Lady Elizabeth and the Lady Catherine Somerset." * Rooty. 3 In provision for the bridal-day, which is not far off. 4 Little basket. Nimbly, dextrously. Nor Jove himself, when he a Swan would be, That e'en the gentle stream, the which them bare, Seem'd foul to them, and bade his billows spare Against their bridal day, which was not long. "Ye gentle Birds! the world's fair ornament, And heaven's glory, whom this happy hour Doth lead unto your lovers' blissful bower, Joy may you have, and gentle hearts content Of your love's couplement; And let fair Venus, that is Queen of Love, With her heart-quelling son upon you smile, Whose smile, they say, hath virtue to remove All love's dislike, and friendship's faulty guile For ever to assoil;10 90 95 100 Let endless peace your steadfast hearts accord, 105 And make your joys redound 110 So ended she; and all the rest around So forth those joyous birds did pass along, 117 And all the fowl which in his flood did dwell And did their best service lend Against their wedding day, which was not At length they all to merry London came, 10 Absolve. 131 11 The refrain of her song, the purport of which is given in the following line. 12 Spenser claimed kinship with the Spencers of Althorpe,; the ancestors of the Spencers and Churchills of modern days." Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song. From those high towers this noble lord issuing, Above the rest were goodly to be seen 170 That like the twins of Jove they seemed in sight, Which, at the appointed tide, Against their bridal day, which is not long: 179 Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song. 13 A palace adjoining the Temple, formerly occupied by Elizabeth's favorite, the Earl of Leicester (the "gentle lord" here referred to) and afterwards by the Earl of Essex, the "noble peer" alluded to in the next stanza. 14 The capture of Cadiz, June 1596, by Raleigh, Lord Howard of Effingham, and Essex. 15 i. e. The alarm you excite. THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD (From England's Helicon, 1600) If all the world and Love were young, But time drives flocks from field to fold, 5 10 1 XL and LXXV. These are from a series of eightyeight sonnets entitled Amoretti, published together with the splendid Epithalamion, or marriage hymn, in 1595. The sonnets commemorate Spenser's courtship of, and the Epithalamion his marriage to, a certain Irish country girl whose Christian name was certainly Elizabeth, and whose last name (according to Grosart) was Boyle. |