The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene &c., &c., &c., ed. for popular perusal with current illustrations and explanatory notes, by D. Laing Purves.

.ANTOXr. ] T FA' EEN. 43
Amongst ithem was -stern-Strife; -and Anger- Hearing him those same bloody lines rehearse;
stout; And, all the while lie read, she did extend
Unquiet Care; and fond Unthriftihead; Her sword high overhim, if4 aught he did offend.
Lewd Loss of Time.; and Sorrow seeming dead; Anon she gan perceive the house to quake,
Inconstant Change; and false Disloyalty; sh g p th h qu
Inconsutant Change; and false Disloyalty; And all the doors to rattle round about
Consuming Riotise; and guilty Dread Yet all that did not her dismayed make,
Of heav'nly vengeance; faint Infirmity; Nor slack her threatful hand for danger's doubt,
Vile Poverty; and, lastly, Death with infamy. But still with steadfast eye and courage stout
There were full many more like maladies, Abode, to weet 5 what end would come of all:
Whose names and natures I n'ot readen well;2 At last that,mighty chain, which round about
So many more, as there be fantasies Her tender waist was wound, adown gan fall,
In wavering women's wit, that none can tell, And that great brazen pillar broke in pieces
Or pains in love, or punishments in hell: small.
All which disguised march'din masking wise The cruel steel, which thrill'd her dying heart,
About the chamber by the damosel; Fell softly forth, as of its own accord;
And then returned, having marched thrice, And the wide wound, which lately did dispart
Into the inner room from whence they first did Her bleeding breast, and riven bowels gor'd,
rise. Was closed up, as it had not been sor'd; 5
So soon as they had entered, the door was And ev'ry part to safity full sound,
closed, as it had been opened, by a blast of As she were never hurt, was soon restor'd:
wind; and Britomart, issuing from her post of Then, when she felt herself to be unbound
safety, vainly sought with force and with sleight And perfect whole, prostrate she fell unto the
to open it. She therefore resolved to wait till ground
the masque appeared on the morrow; and:when, Before Britomart, with eloquent utterances, of
on the second evening, the brazen door flew praise and gratitude. Raising her up, the Maid
open, the Maiden entered fearlessly, "neither replied that to have delivered her was sufficient
of idle shows nor of false charms aghast."' Cast- reward, and bade her displace the memory of
ing her eyes around, she found none of all the her past pain by the thought that " her gentle
masquers; no living wight was there, save that make7 had no less grief endured for her gentle
same woefullady, whose hands were bound fast, sake." Amoretta was much cheered by the
"and her small waist girt round with iron mention of her lover; and Britomart then
bands unto a brazen pillar, by the which she bound the enchanter with the same great chain
stands." Before her sat the vile enchanter, that lately fastened his fair captive to the pillar.
"figuring strange characters of his art" in the
living blood "dreadfully dropping from her Returing back, those goodly rooms, which erst
dying heart," with the vain hope to charm her She saw so rich and royally array'd,
into loving him. Seeing Britomart, he over- Now vanish'd utterly and clean subvers'd
threw his wicked books, and ran fiercely with a She found, and all their glory quite decay'd;
murderous knife to kill the lady true; but the That sight of such a change her much dismay'd.
Virgin Knight " his cursed hand withheld, and Thence forth descending to that perilous porch,
masterid hismight." But nowBusirane turned Those dreadful flames she also found delay'd 9
his wicked weapon against the deliverer, and And quenched quite like a consumed torch,
"unwares it struck into her snowy chest, That erst all ent'rers wont so cruelly to scorch.
"unwares it struck into her snowy chest,
that little drops empurpled her fair breast." More easy issue now than entrance late
Wrathfully drawing her mortal blade, Brito- She found; for now that feigned-dreadful flame,
mart smote him to the ground half-dead; and Which chok'd the porch of that enchanted gate,
she would have slain him outright, if Amoretta And passage barr'd to all that thither came,
had not celled on her to abstain, for he alone Was vanish'd quite, as it were not the same;
could undo the charm that wrought her pain. And gave her leave at pleasure forth to pass.
Britomart therefore spared his life, on condition Th' enchanter's self, which all that fraud did
that he should restore the captive dame imme- frame
diately to her health and former state. The To have efforc'd the love of that fair lass,
enchanter submitted; Seeing his work now wasted, deep engrievid was.
And, rising up, gan straight to overlook But, on arriving at the gate, they were astonThose cursid leaves, his charms back to reverse: ished and grieved to find no Scudamour; for
Full dreadful things out of that baleful book he had certainly believed that Britomart had
He read, and measur'd many a sad verse, perished in the flames, and, with the sorrowing
That horror gan the Virgin's heart to perse,3 Glauce, he had ridden away in search of further
An.d her fair locks upstared stiff on end, aid.l0
3. Foolish Unthrift. 2 I cannot well tell. sequent editions stood at the end of the third book,
3 Pierce. 4 In case. 5 Learn. narrating the happy reunion of Scudamour and Amoret,
6 As if it had never been inflicted. and closing up their story in this wise:
7 Mate; Scudamour. "Thus do those lovers, with sweet countervail,'8 But a little while before. 9 Assuaged, stopped. Each other of love's bitter fruit despoil.
1o When the first three books of " The Faerie Queen" But now my team begins to faint and fail,
were printed, in 1590, seven stanzas not given in sub- All woxen weary of their journal toil;