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

550 THIE FAERIE QUEEN. [BOOK VIi.
Which any of thy creatures do to other, And ev'ry river still doth ebb and flow;
Oppressing them with pow'r unequally; Nor any lake that seems most still and slow,
Since of them all thou art the equal mother, Nor pool so small, that can his smoothness hold
And knittest each to each, as brother unto When any wind doth under heaven blow;
brother. With which the clouds are also toss'd and roll'd,
"To thee therefore of this same Jove I plain,x te unfold.
" To thee therefore of this same Jove I plain,l Now like great hills, and straight like sluices
And of his fellow gods that feign to be, them unfold.
That challenge 2 to themselves the whole world's " So likewise are all watery living wights
reign, Still toss'd and turned with continual change,
Of which the greatest part is due to me, Never abiding in their steadfast plights:
And heav'n itself by heritage in fee: The fish, still floating, do at random range,
For heav'n and earth I both alike do deem, And never rest, but evermore exchange
Since heav'n and earth are both alike to thee; Their dwelling places, as the streams them carry:
And gods no more than men thou dost esteem: Nor have the watery fowls a certain grange 12
Fqr ev'n the gods to thee, as men to gods, do Wherein to rest, nor in one stead do tarry;
seem. But flitting still do fly, and still their places vary.' Then weigh, O sov'reign goddess, by what " Next is the air; which who feels not by sense
right (For of all sense it is the middle mean 13)
These gods do claim the world's whole sov'- To flit still, and with subtile influence
reignty; Of his thin spirit all creatures to maintain
And that 3 is only due unto thy might, In state of life? O weak life! that does lean
Arrogate to themselves ambitiously: On thing so tickle 14 as th' unsteady air,
As for the gods' own principality, Which ev'ry hour is chang'd, and alter'd clean
Which Jove usurps unjustly, that to be With ev'ry blast that bloweth, foul or fair:
My heritage Jove's self cannot deny, The fair doth it prolong; the foul dothit impair.
From my great grandsire Titan unto me "Therein the changes infinite behold,
Deriv'd by due descent; as is well known to Which to her creatures ev'ry minute chance;
thee. Now boiling hot; straight freezing deadly cold;
" Yet maugre4 Jove, and all his gods beside, Now fair sunshine, that makes all skip and
I do possess the world's most regiment; 5 dance;
As, if ye please it into parts divide, Straight bitterstorms, and baleful countenance,
And e'ry part's inholders 6 to convent,7 That makes them all to shiver and to shake:
Shall to your eyes appear incontinent.8 Rain, hail? and snow do pay them sad penance,
And first, the Earth (great mother of us all), And dreadful thunder-claps (that make them
That only seems unmov'd and permanent, quake)
And unto Mutability not thrall, With flames and flashing lights that thousand
Yet is she chang'd in part, and eke in general: changes make.
"For all that from her springs, and is y-bred, "Last is the fire; which, though i- live for ever,
However fair it flourish for a time, Nor can be quenched quite, yet ev'ry day
Yet see we soon decay; and, being dead, We see his parts, so soon as they do sever,
To turn again unto their earthly slime: To lose their heat and shortly to decay;
Yet out of their decay and mortal crime 9 So makes himself his own consuming prey:
We daily see new creatures to arise, Nor any living creatures doth he breed,
And of their winter spring another prime,10 But all that are of others bred doth slay,
Unlike in form, and chang'd by strange disguise: And with their death his cruel life doth feed;
So turn they still about, and change in restless Naught leaving but their barren ashes without
wise. seed.
"As for her tenants, that is, man and beasts, "Thus all these four (the which the groundThe beasts we daily see massacred die work be
As thralls and vassals unto men's behests; 1 Of all the world and of all living wights)
And men themselves do change continually, To thousand sorts of change we subject see:
From youth to eld, from wealth to poverty, Yet are they chang'd by other wondrous sleights
From good to bad, from bad to worst of all: Into themselves, and lose their native mights;
Nor do their bodies only flit and fly, The fire to air, and th' air to water sheer, 5
But eke their minds (which they immortal call, And water into earth; yet water fights
Still change, and vary thoughts, as new occasions With fire, and air with earth, approaching
fall. near;
Nor is the water in more constant case; Yet all are in one body, and as one appear.
Whether those same on high, or these below: " So in them all reigns Mutability;
For th' ocean moveth still from place to place; However these, that gods themselves do call,
I C6mplain. 8 Immediately. 9 Fault; or, doom.
2 Claim. 3 That which. 10 Spring. 11 Commands. 12 Dwelling.
4 In spite of. 13 The medium of communication between the senses
5 The rule of the greater part of the world, and their objects. 14 Uncertain.
6 Inhabitants. 7 Convene. 15 Clear.