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

474 THE FAERIE QUEENA. [BOOK IV.
At last to Tryphon she for help did'hie 8
CANTO XI. (This Tryphon is the sea-gods' surgeon.hight),
Whom she besought to find some remedy:
Marinell's former wound is hearl'd
Hre comes to Proteus' hall, And for his pains a whistle him behight,9
He comes to Proteus' hall,
Where Thames doth the Medway wed, That of a fish's shell was wrought with rare
And feasts the sea-gods all. delight.
BUT ah! for pity that I have thus long So well that leach did hark to her request,
Left a fair lady languishing in pain! And did so well employ his careful pain,
Now well-away that I have done such wrong, That in short space his hurts he had redrest,l0
To let fair Florimell in bands remain, And him restor'd to healthful state again:
In bands of love, and in sad thraldom's chain; In which he long time after did remain
From which unless some heav'nly power her free There with the nymph his mother, like her
By miracle not yet appearing plain, thrall; 1
She longer yet is like captiv'd to be; Who sore against his will did him retain,
That ev'n to think thereof it inly pities me. For fear of peril which to him might fall
er ho e il' Through his too venturous prowess proved over
Here need you to remember, how erewhile all.
Unlovely Proteus, missing 2 to his mind
That virgin's love to win by wit or wile, It fortun'd then, a solemn feast was there
Her threw into a dungeon deep and blind,3 To all the sea-gods and their fruitful seed,
And there in chains her cruelly did bind, In honour of the spousals which then were
In hope thereby her to his bent to draw: Betwixt the Medway and the Thames agreed.
For, when as neither gifts nor graces kind Long had the Thames (as we in records read)
Her constant mind could move at all he saw, Before that day her wooed to his bed;
He thought her to compel by cruelty and awe. But the proud nymph would for no worldly
meed 12
Deep in the bottom of a huge great rock mee
Nor no entreaty, to his love be led;
The dungeon was, in which her bound he left, n a l
That ntrrbrnrrelTill now at last relenting she to him was wed.
That neither iron bars, nor brazen lock,
Did need to guard from force or secret theft So both agreed that this their bridal feast
Of all her lovers which would her have reft; Should for the gods in Proteus' house be made;
For wall'd it was with waves, which rag'd and To which they all repair'd, both most and least,l3
roar'd As well which in the mighty ocean trade,14
As they the cliff in pieces would have cleft; As that in rivers swim, or brooks do wade:
Besides, ten thousand monsters foul abhorr'd All which, not if a hundred tongues to tell,
Did wait about it, gaping grisly, all begor'd.4 And hundred mouths, and voice of brass I had,
And in the midst thereof did Horror dwell, And endless memoy that might excel,
And Darkness dread that never viewedd day, In order as they came could I recount them well.
Like to the baleful house of lowest hell, Help therefore, O thou sacredimp 5 of Jove,
In which old Styx her aged bones alway The nursling of Dame Memory his dear,
(Old Styx the grandame of the gods) doth lay. To whom those rolls, laid up in heav'n above,
There did this luckless maid sev'n months abide, And records of antiquity appear,
Nor ever evening saw, nor morning's ray, To which no wit of man may comen near;
Nor ever from the day the night descried, Help me to tell the names of all those Floods
But thiught- itall one night, that did no hours And all those Nymphs, which then assembled
divide. were
And all this was for love of -arinell, To that great banquet of the watery gods,
Who her despis'd (ah! who would her despise!) And all their sundry kinds, and all their hid
And women's love did from his heart expel, abodes.
And all those joys that weak mankind entice. -First came great Neptune, with his three-fork'd
Nathless his pride full dearly he did price; mace 16
For of 6 a woman's hand it wasy-wroke,7
For of 6 a woman's hand it was~y-wroke,7 That rules the seas and makes them rise or fall;
That of the wound he yet in languor lies, His dewy locks did drop with brine apace
Nor can be cured of that cruel stroke Under his diadem imperil:
Which Britomart him gave, when he did her And by his side his queen with coronal,
-provoke. Fair Amphitrite, most divinely fair,
Yet far and near the nymph, his mother, sought, Whose ivory shoulders weren cover'd all,
And many salves did to his sore apply, As with a robe, with her own silver hair,
And many herbs did use: but when as naught And deck'd with pearls which th' Indian seas
She saw could ease his rankling malady, for her prepare.
1 Formerly. See canto viii. of the third book. 10 Healed. l As if he were her slave.
2 Failing. 3 Dark. 12 Gift, reward. 13 Greatest and smallest.
4 Stained with gore. 5 Pay for. 6 By. 14 Resort, have their abode.
7 Revenged; by the hand of Britomart, as told in 15 Child. Clio, the historic Muse, daughter of Jupiter
canto iv. of the third book. and Mnemosyne or Memory.
8 Haste. - 9 Promised. 16 Sceptre; the trident.