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

6oS. 0: POEMS OF EDMUND SPENSER.
Keeping my sheep amongst the cooly shade To Buttevant, where, spreading forth at large,
Of the green alders by the Mulla's shore: It giveth name unto that ancient city
There astrange shepherd chanc'd to:find me out, Which Kilnemullah called is of old;
Whether allured with my pipe's delight, Whose ragged ruins breed great ruth and pity
Whose pleasing sound y-shrilled far about, To travellers which it from far behold.
Or thither led by chance, I know not right: Full fain she lov'd, and was belov'd full fain
Whom when I asked from what place he came, Of her own brother river, Bregog hight;
And how he hight, himself he did y-clepe 2 So hight because of this deceitful train
The Shepherd of the Ocean 3 by name, Which he with Mulla wrought to win delight.
And said he came far from the main-sea deep. But her old sire, more careful of her good,
He, sitting me beside in that same shade, And meaning her much better to prefer,
Provoked me to play some pleasant fit; 4 Did think to match her with the neighbour flood,
And, when he heard the music which I made, Which Allo 10 hight, Broadwater called far;
He found himself full greatly pleas'd at it: And wrought so well with his continual pain,
Yet, remuling 5 my pipe, he took in hand That he that river for his daughter won:
My pipe, before that semuled of many, The dower agreed, the day assigned plain,
And play'd thereon (for well that skill he The place appointed where it should be done.
conn'd 6); Nathless the Nymph her former liking held;
Himself as skilful in that art as any. For love will not be drawn, but must be led;
He pip'd, I sung; and when he sung, I pip'd; And Bregog did so well her fancy weld,l
By change of turns, each making other merry; That her good will he got her first to wed.
Neither envying other, nor envied, But for 12 her father, sitting still on high,
So piped we, until we both were weary." Did warily still watch which way she went,
There interrupting him, a bonny swain, And eke from far observ'd, with jealous eye,
That Cuddy hight, him thus atween bespake: Which way his course the wanton Bregog bent;
"And should it not thy ready course restrain, Him to deceive, for all his watchful ward,
I would request thee, Colin, for my sake, The wily lover did devise this sleight:
To tell what thou didst sing when he did play; First into many parts his stream he shar'd,l3
For well, I ween, it worth recounting was, That, whilst the one was watch'd, the other
Whether it were some hymn, or moral lay, might
Or carol made to praise thy loved lass." Pass unespied to meet her by the way;
" Nor of my love, nor of my lass," quoth he And then, besides, those little streams so broken
"I then did sing, as then occasion fell: He under ground so closely 14 did convey,
For love had me forlorn, forlorn of me, That of their passage doth appear no token,
That made me in that desert choose to dwell. Till they into the Mulla's water slide.
But of my river Bregog's 7 love I sung, So secretly did he his love enjoy:
Which to the shiny Mulla he did bear, Yet not so secret, but it was descried,
And yet doth bear, and ever will, so long And told her father by a shepherd's boy.
As water doth within his banks appear." Who, wondrous wroth for that so foul despite,
"Of fellowship," said then that bonny boy, In great revenge did roll down from his hill
" Record to us that lovely lay again: Huge mighty stones, the which encumber might
The stay whereof8 shall naught these ears annoy, His passage, and his water courses spill.1"
Who all that Colin makes do covet fain." So of16 a river, which he was of old,
"Hear, then," quoth he, "the tenor of my tale, He none was made, but scatter'd all to naught;
In sort as I it to that shepherd told: And, lost among those rocks into him roll'd,
No leasing 9 new, nor grandam's fable stale, Did lose his name: so dear his love he bought."
But ancient truth confirm'd with credence old. Which having said, him Thestylis bespakc;
"Old Father Mole (Mole hight that mountain " Now, by my life, this was a merry lay,
gray Worthy of Colin's self that did it make.
That walls the north side of Armulla dale), But readl7 now eke, of friendship I thee pray,
He had a daughter fresh as flow'r of May, What ditty did that other shepherd sing:
Which gave that name unto that pleasant vale; For I do covet most the same to hear,
Mulla, the daughter of old Mole, so hight As men use most to covet foreign thing."
The Nymph which of that water-course has "That shall I eke," quoth he, "to you decharge, clare:
That, springing out of Mole, doth run down right His song was all a lamentable lay
1 The river Awbeg, which Spenser poetically called 8 The delay caused by the recital of which.
Mulla, after the mountain in which it had its source. 9 Falsehood.
See note 13, page 477. 2 Call. 10 Among the Irish rivers enumerated in canto xi.,
3 Sir Walter Raleigh; who visited Spenser at Kil- book iv., of " The Faerie Queen" (page 477), as attendcolman in the latter part of 1589; and with whom the ing the marriage of the Thames and the Medway, arepoet-bearing in manuscript and ready for the press Song All tumbling fiom Slievelogher steep,
the first three books of "The Faerie Queen"-pro- "Song ll tmin gfrom Slievelogher steep,
ceeded to England before the close of the same year. And ula in whose waves I whilom taught to
4 Strain. 5 Emulating. 6 Knew. weep."
7 The Irish name of the river means "false" or 11 Wield, govern. 12 Because.
"sly;" the stream, which rises in the Ballyhoura Hills, 13 Divided. 14 Secretly. 15 Spoil.
runs for some distance under ground. 16 From being. 17 Tell.