So thought this Maid (as maidens use to done)1
Whom fortune for her husband would allot :
Not that she lusted after any one,
For she was pure from blame of sinful blot;
Yet wist her life at last must link in that same knot.
Eftsoons there was presented to her eye
A comely Knight, all armed in complete wise,
Through whose bright ventayle, 2 lifted
up on high,
His manly face, that did his foes agrise,
And friends to terms of gentle truce entice,
Looked forth, as Phoebus' face out of the east
Betwixt two shady mountains doth arise:
Portly his person was, and much increased
Through his heroic grace and honorable gest.
His crest was covered with a couchant hound,
And all his armour seemed of antique mould,
But wondrous massy and assured sound,
And round about yfretted all with gold,
In which there written was, with cyphers old,
Achilles' arms, which Artegall did win:
And on his shield enveloped sevenfold
He bore a crownèd little ermelin,5
That decked the azure field with her fair pouldred skin.
The Damsel well did view his personage
And liked well, ne further fastened not,
But went her way; ne her unguilty age
Did ween, unwares, that her unlucky lot
Lay hidden in the bottom of the pot.
Of hurt unwist most danger doth redound;
But the false Archer, which that arrow shot
So slily that she did not feel the wound,
Did smile full smoothly at her witless woful stound.9
Thenceforth the feather in her lofty crest,
Ruffèd 10 of love, gan lowly to avail ; 11
And her proud portance and her princely gest,
With which she erst triumphèd, now did quail:
Sad, solemn, sour, and full of fancies frail,
She wox; 13 yet wist she neither how, nor why.
She wist not, silly Maid, what she did ail,
Yet wist she was not well at ease, perdy; 14
Yet thought it was not love, but some melancholy.
2 The front of the helmet.
4 Gesture, bearing. 5 Ermine. 6 Powdered, spotted.
So soon as Night had with her pallid hue
Defaced the beauty of the shining sky,
And reft from men the world's desired view,
She with her Nurse adown to sleep did lie;
But sleep full far away from her did fly :
Instead thereof, sad sighs and sorrows deep
Kept watch and ward about her warily,
That nought she did but wail, and often steep
Her dainty couch with tears which closely she did weep.
Book III. Canto II.
MARINELL WOUNDED BY THE PRECIOUS SHORE.
Like as the sacred Ox that careless stands,
With gilden horns and flowery garlands crowned,
Proud of his dying honour and dear bands,1
Whiles the altars fume with frankincense around,
All suddenly, with mortal stroke astound,
Doth groveling fall, and with his streaming gore
Distains the pillars and the holy ground,
And the fair flowers that deckèd him afore ;-
So fell proud Marinell upon the Precious Shore.
The Martial Maid2 stayed not him to lament,
But forward rode, and kept her ready way
Along the strand; which, as she overwent,
She saw bestrowèd all with rich array
Of pearls and precious stones of great assay,3
And all the gravel mixt with golden ore:
Whereat she wondered much, but would not stay
For gold, or pearls, or precious stones, an hour,
But them despisèd all; for all was in her power.
Whiles thus he lay in deadly stonishment,
Tidings hereof came to his mother's ear:
His mother was the black-browed Cymoënt,
The daughter of great Nereus, which did bear
This warlike son unto an earthly peer,
2 Britomart (see p. 252), who in the armour of Angela, a Saxon Queen, with her Nurse, also armed, for her Squire, has set out to Faeryland to seek for Arthegali, the Knight of her vision. Her first warlike encounter is with Marinell, the proud son of a sea-nymph, who holds possession of "the Precious Shore."
There he this Knight of her begot, whom born,
She, of his father,1 Marinell did name;
And in a rocky cave, as wight forlorn,2
Long time she fostered up, till he became
A mighty man at arms, and mickle fame
Did get through great adventures by him done :
For never man he suffered by that same
Rich Strond3 to travel, whereas he did won,1
But that he must do battle with the Sea-nymph's Son. . . .
And, for his more assurance, she inquired
One day of Proteus, by his mighty spell
(For Proteus was with prophecy inspired),
Her dear son's destiny to her to tell,
And the sad end of her sweet Marinell :
Who, through foresight of his eternal skill,
Bade her from womankind to keep him well,
For of a woman he should have much ill;
A virgin strange and stout him should dismay or kill. . .
Too true the famous Marinell it found,
Who, through late trial, on that wealthy Strond
Inglorious now lies in senseless swound,5
Through heavy stroke of Britomartis hond."
Which when his mother dear did understond,
And heavy tidings heard, whereas she played
Amongst her watery sisters by a pond,
Gathering sweet daffadillies, to have made
Gay garlands from the Sun their foreheads fair to shade,
Eftsoons both flowers and garlands far away
She flung, and her fair dewy locks yrent ;7
To sorrow huge she turned her former play,
And gamesome mirth to grievous dreariment:
She threw herself down on the continent,
Ne word did speak, but lay as in a swoun,9
Whiles all her sisters did for her lament
With yelling outcries, and with shrieking soun;10
And every one did tear her garland from her crown.
Soon as she up out of her deadly fit
Arose, she bade her chariot to be brought;
And all her sisters that with her did sit
Bade eke at once their chariots to be sought :
1 After his father.
4 Where he dwelt.
3 The Precious Shore. 7 Rent.
So soon as Night had with her pallid hue
Defaced the beauty of the shining sky,
And reft from men the world's desired view,
She with her Nurse adown to sleep did lie;
But sleep full far away from her did fly:
Instead thereof, sad sighs and sorrows deep
Kept watch and ward about her warily,
That nought she did but wail, and often steep
Her dainty couch with tears which closely she did weep.
Book III. Canto II.
MARINELL WOUNDED BY THE PRECIOUS SHORE.
Like as the sacred Ox that careless stands,
With gilden horns and flowery garlands crowned,
Proud of his dying honour and dear bands,1
Whiles the altars fume with frankincense around,
All suddenly, with mortal stroke astound,
Doth groveling fall, and with his streaming gore
Distains the pillars and the holy ground,
And the fair flowers that deckèd him afore ;—
So fell proud Marinell upon the Precious Shore.
The Martial Maid2 stayed not him to lament,
But forward rode, and kept her ready way
Along the strand; which, as she overwent,
She saw bestrowèd all with rich array
Of pearls and precious stones of great assay,3
And all the gravel mixt with golden ore:
Whereat she wondered much, but would not stay
For gold, or pearls, or precious stones, an hour,
But them despisèd all; for all was in her power.
Whiles thus he lay in deadly stonishment,
Tidings hereof came to his mother's ear:
His mother was the black-browed Cymoënt,
The daughter of great Nereus, which did bear
This warlike son unto an earthly peer,1
2 Britomart (see p. 252), who in the armour of Angela, a Saxon Queen, with her Nurse, also armed, for her Squire, has set out to Faeryland to seek for Arthegall, the Knight of her vision. Her first warlike encounter is with Marinell, the proud son of a sea-nymph, who holds possession of "the Precious Shore."
There he this Knight of her begot, whom born,
She, of his father,1 Marinell did name;
And in a rocky cave, as wight forlorn,2
Long time she fostered up, till he became
A mighty man at arms, and mickle fame
Did get through great adventures by him done :
For never man he suffered by that same
Rich Strond3 to travel, whereas he did won,
But that he must do battle with the Sea-nymph's Son. . . .
And, for his more assurance, she inquired
One day of Proteus, by his mighty spell
(For Proteus was with prophecy inspired),
Her dear son's destiny to her to tell,
And the sad end of her sweet Marinell :
Who, through foresight of his eternal skill,
Bade her from womankind to keep him well,
For of a woman he should have much ill;
A virgin strange and stout him should dismay or kill. . .
Too true the famous Marinell it found,
Who, through late trial, on that wealthy Strond
Inglorious now lies in senseless swound,5
Through heavy stroke of Britomartis hond."
Which when his mother dear did understond,
And heavy tidings heard, whereas she played
Amongst her watery sisters by a pond,
Gathering sweet daffadillies, to have made
Gay garlands from the Sun their foreheads fair to shade,
Eftsoons both flowers and garlands far away
She flung, and her fair dewy locks yrent;7
To sorrow huge she turned her former play,
And gamesome mirth to grievous dreariment:
She threw herself down on the continent,
Ne word did speak, but lay as in a swoun,9
Whiles all her sisters did for her lament
With yelling outcries, and with shrieking soun;10
And every one did tear her garland from her crown.
Soon as she up out of her deadly fit
Arose, she bade her chariot to be brought;
And all her sisters that with her did sit
Bade eke at once their chariots to be sought :
1 After his father.
4 Where he dwelt.
3 The Precious Shore. 7 Rent.
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