Page:Works of Edmund Spenser - 1857.djvu/389

Rh Ah, my loves queene, and goddesse of my life, Who shall me pittie, when thou doest me wrong?”
 * Then gan a gentle bonylasse to speake,

That Marin hight; “Right well he sure did plaine, That could great Cynthiaes sore displeasure breake, And move to take him to her grace againe. But tell on further, Colin, as befell Twixt him and thee, that thee did hence dissuade.”
 * “When thus our pipes we both had wearied well,

(Quoth he) and each an end of singing made, He gan to cast great lyking to my lore, And great dislyking to my lucklesse lot, That banisht had my selfe, like wight forlore, Into that waste, where I was quite forgot. The which to leave, thenceforth he counseld mee, Unmeet for man, in whom was ought regardfull, And wend with him, his Cynthia to see; Whose grace was great, and bounty most rewardfull. Besides her peerlesse skill in making well, And all the ornaments of wondrous wit, Such as all womankind did far excell; Such as the world admyr’d, and praised it: So what with hope of good, and hate of ill, He me perswaded forth with him to fare. Nought tooke I with me, but mine oaten quill: Small needments else need shepheard to prepare. So to the sea we came; the sea, that is A world of waters heaped up on hie, Rolling like mountaines in wide wildernesse. Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse crie.”
 * “And is the sea (quoth Coridon) so fearfull?”
 * “Fearful much more (quoth he) then hart can fear:

Thousand wyld beasts with deep mouthes gaping direfull Therin stil wait poore passengers to teare. Who life doth loath, and longs death to behold, Before lie die, alreadie dead with feare, And yet would live with heart halfe stonie cold, Let him to sea, and he shall see it there. And yet as ghastly dreadfull, as it seemes, Bold men, presuming life for gaine to sell, Dare tempt that gulf, and in those wandring stremes Seek waies unknowne, waies leading down to hell. For, as we stood there waiting on the strond, Behold, an huge great vessell to us came, Dauncing upon the waters back to lond, As if it scornd the daunger of the same; Yet was it but a wooden frame and fraile, Glewed togither with some subtile matter. Yet had it amies and wings, and head and taile, And life to move it selfe upon the water. Strange thing! how bold and swift the monster was, That neither car’d for wynd, nor haile, nor raine, Nor swelling waves, bur thorough them did passe So proudly, that she made them roare againe. The same aboord us gently did receave, And without hurme us farre away did beare, So farre that land, our mother, us did leave, And nought but sea and heaven to us appeare. Then hartelesse quite, and full of inward feare, That shepheard I besought to me to tell, Under what skie, or in what world we were, In which I saw no living people dwell. Who, me recomforting all that he might, Told me that that same was the regiment Of a great shepheardesse, that Cynthia hight, His liege, his ladie, and his lifes regent.”—
 * “If then (quoth I) a shepheardesse she bee,

Where be the flockes and heards, which she doth keep? And where may I the hills and pastures see, On which she useth for to feed her sheepe?”
 * “These be the hills (quoth he) the surges hie,

On which faire Cynthia her heards doth feed: Her heards be thousand fishes with their frie, Which in the bosome of the billowes breed. Of them the shepheard which hath charge in chief, Is Triton, blowing loud his wreathed horne: At sound whereof, they all for their relief Wend too and fro at evening and at morne. And Proteus eke with him does drive his heard Of stinking scales and porcpisces together, With hoary head and deawy dropping beard, Compelling them which way he list, and whether. And, I among the rest, of many least, Have in the Ocean charge to me assignd; Where I will live or die at her beheast, And serve and honour her with faithfull mind. Besides an hundred nymphs all heavenly borne, And of immortall race, doo still attend To wash faire Cynthiaes sheep, when they be shorne, And fold them up, when they have made an end. Those be the shepheards which my Cynthia serve At sea, beside a thousand more at land: For land and sea my Cynthia doth deserve To have in her commandëment at hand.”
 * Thereat I wondred much, till, wondring more

And more, at length we land far off descryde: Which sight much gladed me; for much afore I feard, least land we never should have eyde: Thereto our ship her course directly bent, As if the way she perfectly had knowne. We Lunday passe; by that same name is ment An island, which the first to west was showne. From thence another world of land we kend, Floting amid the sea in ieopardie, And round about with mightie while rocks hemd, Against the seas encroching crueltie. Those same, the shepheard told me, were the fields In which dame Cynthia her landheards fed; Faire goodly fields, then which Armulla yields None fairer, nor more fruitfull to be red, The first, to which we nigh approched, was An high headland thrust far into the sea, Like to an home, whereof the name it has, Yet seemd to be a goodly pleasant lea: There did a loftie mount at first us greet, Which did a stately heape of stones upreare, That seemd amid the surges for to fleet, Much greater then that frame, which us did beare; There did our ship her fruitfull wombe unlade, And put us all ashore on Cynthias land. “What land is that thou meanst, (then Cuddy sayd) And is there other then whereon we stand?”
 * “All! Cuddy (then quoth Colin) thous a fen,

That hast not seene least part of natures worke: Much more there is unkend then thou doest kon, And much more that does from mens knowledge lurke. For that same land much larger is than this, And other men and beasts and birds doth feed: There fruitfull corne, faire trees, fresh herbage is, And all things else that living creatures need. Besides most goodly rivers there appeare, No whit inferiour thy Fanchins praise, Or unto Allo, or to Mulla cleare: Nought hast thou, foolish boy, seene in thy dales.”
 * “But if that land be there (quoth he) as here,

And is theyr heaven likewise there all one? And, if like heaven, be heavenly graces there, Like as in this same world where we do wone?”
 * “Both heaven and heavenly graces do much more

(Quoth he) abound in that same then this.