LXXXVI.

Straight-way he with his vertuous ftaff them ftrook,
And straight of beafts they comely men became ;
Yet being men, they did unmanly look,

And ftared ghaftly, fome for inward fhame,
And fome for wrath to fee their captive Dame:
But one above the reft in special,

That had an Hog been late (hight Grill by name)
Repined greatly, and did him mifcall,

That had from hoggish form him brought to natural.
LXXXVII.

Said Guyon, fee the mind of beastly man,
That hath fo foon forgot the excellence
Of his creation, when he life began,
That now he choofeth with vile difference,
To be a beast, and lack intelligence.

To whom the Palmer thus, the dunghil kind
Delights in filth and foul incontinence;

Let Grill be Grill, and have his hoggish mind,
But let us hence depart, whilft weather ferves and wind.

Vol.1.Books.

Lud.Du Guernier invet Sculp. 5

THE

THIRD BOOK

OF THE

FAIRY QUEEN:

CONTAINING

The legend of BRITOMARTIS; or of Chastity!

I

I.

T falls me here to write of chastity,

That faireft vertue, far above the reft;
For which what needs me fetch from Faëry
Foreign enfamples, it to have expreft ?
Sith it is shrined in my Soveraines breast,
And form'd fo lively in each perfect part,
That to all Ladies which have it profeft,
Need but behold the pourtraict of her heart,
If pourtray'd it might be by any living art.
II.

But living art may not leaft part express,
Nor life-refembling pencil it can paint,
All were it Zeuxis or Praxitiles,

His Dædale hand would fail, and greatly faint,
And her perfections with his error taint:
Ne Poets wit, that paffeth Painter far
In picturing the parts of beauty daint,
So hard a workmanship adventure dare,

For fear through want of words her excellence to mar;
VOL. I.

III.

How then fhall I, apprentice of the skill,
That whylome in divineft wits did reign,
Presume fo high to ftretch mine humble quill?
Yet now my lucklefs lot doth me constrain
Hereto perforce. But O, dred Soveraine,
Thus far forth pardon, fith that choicest wit
Cannot your glorious pourtraict figure plain
That I in colour'd fhows may fhadow it,
And antique praises unto prefent perfons fit.
IV.

But if in living colours, and right hue,
Your felf you covet to fee pictured,
Who can it do more lively, or more true,
Than that sweet verfe, with Nectar sprinkeled,
In which a gracious fervant pictured
His Cynthia, his heavens faireft light?
That with his melting fweetnefs ravished,
And with the wonder of her beamës bright,
My fenfes lulled are in flumber of delight.

V.

But let that fame delicious Poet lend

A little leave unto a rustick mufe,

To fing his miftrefs praife, and let him mend,
If ought amifs her liking may abuse:
Ne let his faireft Cynthia refuse,

In mirrours more than one her felf to fee;
But either Gloriana let her chufe,

Or in Belphebe fashioned to be:

In th'one her rule, in th'other her rare chastity.