TO THE MOST Honourable and EXCELLENT LORD
THE EARLE OF ESSEX,

GREAT MAISTER OF THE horse to HER HIGHNESSE, AND
KNIGHT OF THE NOBLE ORDER of the garter, &c.

MAGNIFICKE lord, whose vertues excellent
Doe merit a most famous poets witt
To be thy living praises instrument;
Yet doe not sdeigue to let thy name be writt
In this base poeme, for thee far unått:
Nought is thy worth disparaged thereby.
But when my Muse, whose fethers, nothing flitt,
Doe yet but flagg and lowly learne to fly,
With bolder wing shall dare alofte to sty
To the last praises of this Faery Queene;
Then shall it make most famous memory
Of thine heroicke parts, such as they beene:
Till then, vouchsafe thy noble countenaunce
To their first labours needed furtherance.

E. S.

TO THE

RIGHT HON. THE LORD OF HUNSDON,

HIGH CHAMBERLAINE TO HER MAJESTY.

RENOWMED lord, that for your worthinesse
And noble deeds, have your deserved place
High in the favour of that emperesse,
The worlds sole glory and her sexes grace;
Here eke of right have you a worthie place,
Both for your nearnes to that Faerie Queene,
And for your owne high merit in like cace:
Of which, apparaunt proofe was to be seene,
When that tumultuous rage and fearfull deene
Of northerne rebels ye did pacify,
And their disloiall powre defaced clene,
The record of enduring memory.
Live, lord, for ever in this lasting verse,
That all posteritie thy honor may reherse.

E. S.

TO THE RIGHT HON.

THE EARLE OF ORMOND AND OSSORY.

RECEIVE, most noble lord, a simple taste Of the wilde fruit which salvage soyl hath bred; Which, being through long wars left almost waste, • With brutish barbarisme is overspredd : And, in so faire a land as may be redd, Not one Parnassus, nor one Helicone, Left for sweete Muses to be harboured, But where thyselfe hast thy brave mansione: There indeede dwel faire graces many one, And gentle nymphes, delights of learned wits; And in thy person, without paragone, All goodly bountie and true honour sits. Such therefore, as that wasted soyl doth yield, Receive, dear lord, in worth, the fruit of barren field.

E. S.

TO THE MOST RENOWMNED AND VALIANT LORD,
THE LORD GREY OF WILTON,
KNIGHT OF THE noble order of THE GARTER, &c.
MOST noble lord, the pillor of my life,
And patrone of my Muses pupillage;
Through whose large bountie, poured on me rife
In the first season of my feeble age,

I now doe live bound yours by vassalage;
(Sith nothing ever may redeeme, nor reave
Out of your endlesse debt, so sure a gage)
Vouchsafe, in worth, this small guift to receave,
Which in your noble hands for pledge I leave
Of all the rest that I am tyde t' account:
Rude rymes, the which a rustick Mase did weave
In savadge soyle, far from Parnasso Mount,
And roughly wrought in an unlearned loome:
The which vouchsafe, dear lord, your favourable
doome.

E. S.

TO THE RIGHT HON.

THE LORD CHARLES HOWARD,

LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND, KNIGHT OF THE NOBLE ORDER OF THE Carter, and one of HER MAJESTIE'S PRIVIE COUNSEL, &c.

AND ye, brave lord, whose goodly personage
And noble deeds, each other garnishing,
Make you ensample to the present age,
Of th' old beroës, whose famous offspring
The antique poets wont so much to sing;
In this same pageaunt have a worthy place,
Sith those huge castles of Castilian king,
That vainly threatned kingdomes to displace,
Like flying doves ye did before you chace;
And that proud people, woxen insolent
Through many victories, didst first deface:
Thy praises everlasting monument
Is in this verse engraven semblably,

That it may live to all posterity.

E. S.

TO THE RIGHT HON.

THE LORD OF BUCKHURST,

ONE OF HER MAJESTIES PRIVIE COUNSELL.

In vain I thinke, right honourable lord,
By this rude rime to memorize thy name,
Whose learned Muse hath writ her owne record
In golden verse, worthy immortal fame:
Thou much more fit (were leasure to the same)
Thy gracious soverains praises to compile,
And her imperiall majestie to frame
In loftie numbers and heroicke stile.
But, sith thou maist not so, give leave a while
To baser wit his power therein to spend,
Whose grosse defaults thy daintie pen may file,
And unadvised oversights amend.

But evermore vouchsafe, it to maintaine
Against vile Zolus backbitings vaine.

E. S.

TO THE RIGHT HON.

SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM, KNIGHT,

PRINCIPALL SECRETARY TO HER MAJESTY, AND ONE OF HER HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNSELL

THAT Mantuane poets incompared spirit,
Whose girland now is set in highest place,
Had not Mecænas, for his worthy merit,
It first advaunst to great Augustus grace,
Might long perhaps have lien in silence bace,
Ne bene so much admir'd of later age.
This lowly Muse, that learns like steps to trace,
Flies for like aide unto your patronage,
(That are the great Mecanas of this age,
As well to all that civil artes professe,
As those that are inspir'd with martial rage,)
And craves protection of her feeblenesse :
Which if ye yield, perhaps ye may her rayse
In bigger tunes to sound your living prayse.

E. S.

Yet, till that thou thy poeme wilt make knowne, Let thy faire Cinthias praises be thus rudely shownc.

E. S.

TO THE RIGHT HON. AND MOST VERTUOUS LADY, THE COUNTESSE OF PEMBROKE, REMEMBRAUNCE of that most heroicke spirit, The Hevens pride, the glory of our daies, Which now triumpheth (through immortall merit Of his brave vertues) crown'd with lasting baies Of hevenlie blis and everlasting praies; Who first my Muse did lift out of the flore, To sing his sweet delights in lowlie laies; Bids me, most noble lady, to adore His goodly image living evermore In the divine resemblaunce of your face; Which with your vertues ye embellish more, And native beauty deck with heavenly grace: For his, and for your owne especial sake, Vouchsafe from him this token in good worth to take

E. S.

TO THE RIGHT NOBLE LORD AND MOST VALIAUNT CAPTAINE, SIR JOHN NORRIS, KNIGHT,

LORD PRESIDENT OF MOUNSTER.

WHO ever gave more honourable prize
To the sweet Muse then did the martiall crew,
That their brave deeds she might immortalize
In her shril tromp, and sound their praises dew?
Who then ought more to favour her then you,
Most noble lord, the honor of this age,
And precedent of all that armes ensue ?
Whose warlike prowesse and manly courage,
Tempred with reason and advizement sage,
Hath fild sad Belgicke with victorious spoile;
In Fraunce and Ireland left a famous gage;
And lately shakt the Lusitanian soile.
Sith then each where thou hast dispredd thy fame,
Love him that hath eternized your name.

E. S.

TO THE MOST VERTUOUS AND BEAUTIFULL LADY,
THE LADY CAREW.

NE may I, without blot of endlesse blame,
You, fairest lady, leave out of this place;
But, with remembraunce of your gracious name,
(Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace
And deck the world) adorne these verses base:
Not that these few lines can in them comprise
Those glorious ornaments of hevenly grace,
Wherewith ye triumph over feeble eyes,
And in subdued harts do tyranyse;
(For thereunto doth need a golden quill
And silver leaves, them rightly to devise ;)
But to make humble present of good will:
Which, whenas timely meanes it purchase may,
In ampler wise itselfe will forth display.

E. S.

TO THE RIGHT NOBLE AND VALOROUS KNIGHT,
SIR WALTER RALEIGH,

LORD WARDEIN OF THE STANNERYES, AND LIEFTENAUNT

OF CORNEWAILE.

To thee, that art the sommers nightingale,
Thy soveraine goddesses most deare delight,
Why doe I send this rusticke madrigale,
That may thy tunefull eare unseason quite ?
Thou onely fit this argument to write, [bowre,
In whose high thoughts Pleasure bath built her
And dainty Love learnd sweetly to endite.
My rimes I know unsavory and sowre,
To tast the streames that, like a golden showre,
Flow from thy fruitfull head of thy love's praise;
Fitter perhaps to thonder martiall stowre,
Whenso thee list thy lofty Muse to raise:

TO ALL THE GRATIOUS AND BEAUTIFULL

LADIES IN THE COURT.

THE Chian peincter, when he was requir'd
To pourtraict Venus in her perfect hew;
To make his worke more absolute, desir'd
Of all the fairest maides to have the vew.
Much more me needs, (to draw the semblant trew
Of beauties queene, the worlds sole wonderment)
To sharpe my sence with sundry beauties vew,
And steale from each some part of ornament.
If all the world to seeke I overwent,

A fairer crew yet no where could I see
Then that brave court doth to mine eie present;
That the world's pride seemes gathered there to bee.
Of each a part I stole by cunning thefte:
Forgive it me, faire dames, sith lesse ye have not
lefte.

E. S.

A lovely ladie rode him faire beside,
Upon a lowly asse more white then snow;
Yet she much whiter; but the same did hide
Under a vele, that wimpled was full low;
And over all a blacke stole shee did throw :
As one that inly mournd, so was she sad,
And heavie sate upon her palfrey slow;
Seemed in heart some hidden care she had;

At last resolving forward still to fare,
Till that some end they finde, or in or out,
That path they take, that beaten seemd most bare,
And like to lead the labyrinth about;
Which when by tract they hunted had throughout,
At length it brought them to a hollowe cave,
Amid the thickest woods. The champion stout
Eftsoones dismounted from his courser brave,

So pure and innocent, as that same lambe,
She was in life and every vertuous lore;
And by descent from royall lynage came
Of ancient kinges and queenes, that had of yore
Their scepters stretcht from east to westerne shore,
And a 1 the world in their subjection held;
Till that infernal feend with foule uprore
Forwasted all their land, and them expeld; [peld.
Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far com-

Behind her farre away a dwarfe did lag,
That lasie seemd, in being ever last,
Or wearied with bearing of her bag

Of needments at his backe. Thus as they past,
The day with cloudes was suddene overcast,
And angry love an hideous storme of raine
Did poure into his lemans lap so fast,
That everie wight to shrowd it did constrain; [fain.
And this faire couple eke to shroud themselves were

Euforst to seeke some covert nigh at hand,
A shadie grove not farr away they spide,
That promist ayde the tempest to withstand;
Whose loftie trees, yclad with sommers pride,
Did spred so broad, that Heavens light did hide,
Not perceable with power of any starr:
And all within were pathes and alleies wide,
With footing worne, and leading inward farr:
Faire harbour that them seems; so in they entred ar.

And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led,
loying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,
Which, therein shrouded from the tempest dred,
Seemd in their song to scorne the cruell sky.
Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy,
The sayling pine; the cedar proud and tall;
The vine-propp elme; the poplar never dry;
The builder oake, sole king of forrests all;
The aspine good for staves; the cypresse funerall;

The laurell, meed of mighty conquerours
And poets sage; the firre that weepeth still;
The willow, worne of forlorne paramours;
The eugh, obedient to the benders will;
The birch for shaftes; the sallow for the mill;
The mirrhe sweete-bleeding in the bitter wound;
The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill;
The fruitfull olive; and the platane round;
The carver holme; the maple seeldom inward
sound.

Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
Untill the blustring storme is overblowne;
When, weening to returne whence they did stray,
They cannot finde that path, which first was showne,
But wander too and fro in waies unknowne,
Furthest from end then, when they neerest weene,
That makes them doubt their wits be not their owne:
So many pathes, so many turnings seene, [been.
That, which of them to take, in diverse doubt they

"Be well aware," quoth then that ladie milde,
"Least suddaine mischiefe ye too rash provoke:
The danger hid, the place unknowne and wilde,
Breedes dreadfull doubts; oft fire is without smoke,
And perill without show: therefore your stroke,
Sr Knight, with-hold, till further tryall made."
"Ah, ladie," sayd he, "shame were to revoke
The forward footing for an hidden shade: [wade."
Vertue gives her selfe light through darknesse for to
"Yea but," quoth she, "the perill of this place
I better wot then you: Though nowe too late
To wish you backe returne with foule disgrace,
Yet wisedome warnes, whilest foot is in the gate,
To stay the steppe, ere forced to retrate.
This is the Wandring Wood, this Errours Den,
A monster vile, whom God and man does hate:
Therefore I read beware."—"Fly, fly," quoth then
The fearefull dwarfe; "this is no place for living men."

But, full of fire and greedy hardiment,

The youthful knight could not for ought be staide;
But forth unto the darksom hole he went,
And looked in: his glistring armor made
A litle glooming light, much like a shade;
By which he saw the ugly monster plaine,
Halfe like a serpent horribly displaide,
But th' other halfe did womans shape retaine,
Most lothsom, filthie, foule, and full of vile disdaine.

Much daunted with that dint her sence was dazd;
Yet kindling rage her selfe she gathered round,
And all attonce her beastly bodie raizd
With doubled forces high above the ground:
Tho, wrapping up her wrethed sterne arownd,
Lept fierce upon his shield, and her huge traine
All suddenly about his body wound,

That hand or foot to stirr he strove in vaine.
God helpe the man so wrapt in Errours endlesse
[traine!

His lady, sad to see his sore constraint,
Cride out, "Now, now, sir Knight, shew what ye bee;
Add faith unto your force, and be not faint;
Strangle her, els she sure will strangle thee."
That when he heard, in great perplexitie,
His gall did grate for griefe and high disdaine;
And, knitting all his force, got one hand free,
Wherewith he grypt her gorge with so great paine,
That soone to loose her wicked bands did her con-
straine.

Therewith she spewd out of her filthie maw
A floud of poyson horrible and blacke,
Full of great lumps of flesh and gobbets raw,
Which stunck so vildly, that it forst him slacke
His grasping hold, and from her turne him backe:
Her vomit full of bookes and papers was,
With loathly frogs and toades, which eyes did lacke,
And creeping sought way in the weedy gras:
Her filthie parbreake all the place defiled has.

As when old father Nilus gins to swell
With timely pride above the Aegyptian vale,
His fattie waves doe fertile slime outwell,
And overflow each plaine and lowly dale:
But, when his later spring gins to avale,
Huge heapes of mudd he leaves, wherin there breed
Ten thousand kindes of creatures, partly male
And partly femall, of his fruitful seed; [reed.
Such ugly monstrous shapes elswhere may no man

The same so sore annoyed has the knight,
That, wel-nigh choked with the deadly stinke,
His forces faile, ne can no lenger fight.
Whose corage when the feend perceivd to shrinke,
She poured forth out of her hellish sinke
Her fruitfull cursed spawne of serpents small,
(Deformed monsters, fowle, and blacke as inke,)
Which swarming all about his legs did crall,
And him encombred sore, but could not hurt at all.

As gentle shepheard in sweete eventide,
When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in west,
High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide,
Markes which doe byte their hasty supper best;
A cloud of cumbrous gnattes doe him molest,
All striving to infixe their feeble stinges,
That from their noyance he no where can rest;
But with his clownish hands their tender wings
He brusheth oft, and oft doth mar their murmurings.

Thus ill bestedd, and fearefull more of shame
Then of the certeine perill he stood in,
Halfe furious unto his foe he came,
Resolvd in minde all suddenly to win,
Or soone to lose, before he once would lin;
And stroke at her with more then manly force,
That from her body, full of filthie sin,

He raft her hatefull heade without remorse: [corse.
A streame of cole-black blood forth gushed from her

Her scattred brood, soone as their parent deare
They saw so rudely falling to the ground,
Groning full deadly all with troublous feare
Gathred themselves about her body round,
Weening their wonted entrance to have found
At her wide mouth; but, being there withstood,
They flocked all about her bleeding wound,
And sucked up their dying mothers bloud; [good.
Making her death their life, and eke her hurt their

That détestable sight him much amazde,
To see th' unkindly impes, of Heaven accurst,
Devoure their dam; on whom while so he gazd,
Having all satisfide their bloudy thurst,
Their bellies swolne he saw with fulnesse burst,
And bowels gushing forth: well worthy end
Of such, as drunke her life, the which them nurst!
Now needeth him no lenger labour spend,

His foes have slaine themselves, with whom he should contend.

His lady seeing all, that chaunst, from farre,
Approcht in hast to greet his victorie;
And saide, "Faire knight, borne under happie starre,
Who see your vanquisht foes before you lye;
Well worthie be you of that armory,
Wherein ye have great glory wonne this day,
And proov'd your strength on a strong enimie;
Your first adventure: many such I pray,
And henceforth ever wish that like succeed it may!"

Then mounted he upon his steede againe,
And with the lady backward sought to wend:
That path he kept, which beaten was most plaine,
Ne ever would to any by-way bend;
But still did follow one unto the end,
The which at last out of the wood them brought.
So forward on his way (with God to frend)
He passed forth, and new adventure sought:
Long way he traveiled, before he heard of ought.

At length they chaunst to meet upon the way
An aged sire, in long blacke weedes yclad,
His feete all bare, liis beard all hoarie gray,
And by his belt his booke he hanging had;
Sober he seemde, and very sagely sad;
And to the ground his eyes were lowly bent,
Simple in shew, and voide of malice bad;
And all the way he prayed, as he went,
And often knockt his brest, as one that did repent.

He faire the knight saluted, louting low,
Who faire him quited, as that courteous was;
And after asked him, if he did know

Of straunge adventures, which abroad did pas.
"Ah! my dear sonne," quoth he, "how should, alas!
Silly old man, that lives in hidden cell,
Bidding his beades all day for his trespás,
Tydings of warre and worldly trouble tell?
With holy father sits not with such thinges to mell.

"But if of daunger, which hereby doth dwell,
And homebredd evil ye desire to heare,
Of a straunge man I can you tidings tell,
That wasteth all this countrie farre and neare."
"Of such," saide he, "I chiefly doe inquere ;
And shall thee well rewarde to shew the place,
In which that wicked wight his dayes doth weare:
For to all knighthood it is foule disgrace,
That such a cursed creature lives so long a space."