And
angry

Iovel an hideous storme of raine
Did poure into his lemansa lap so fast,

That everie wight to shroud it did constrain;
And this faire couple eke to shroud themselves were fain.
Enforst 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,

Joying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,
Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred,
Seemed in their song to score 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 mightie 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 shafts, the Sallow for the mill,
The Mirrhe sweete-bleeding 10 in the bitter wound,
The warlike 11 Beech, the Ash for nothing ill,

The fruitful Olive, and the Platane 12 round,
The carver Holme, 13 the Maple seldom inward sound.

8

(1) Jove—the air or atmosphere is frequently so named in the Classics. (2) Leman- from the Anglo-Saxon leof, loved, and man, one-a loved one, sweetheart. (3) Shroud-shelter. (4) Fain-glad. (5) Not perceable, &c.—" It was an ancient superstition,” says Warton, “that stars had a malign influence on trees. Hence Milton, in Arcades :

• Under the shady roof

Of branching elm star-proof.'” (6) Much cun they praise-i.e. much they praise. (7) Vine-propp Elme-i.e. the Elm that props up and supports the vine. (8) Forlorne paramoura_forsaken lovers. (9) Eugh-yew. (10) Sweete-bleeding, &c.-In allusion to the healing virtues of myrrh. (11) Warlike Beech--war-chariots used to be made of beech. (12) Platane-the plane-tree. (13) Iloime-the holm oak.

Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,

Untill the blustring storme is overblowne;
When, weening? to returne, whence they did stray,
They cannot find 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 own;
So many pathes, so many turnings seene,
That which of them to take in diverse doubt they been.

THE HOUSE OF SLEEP.

6

He, making speedy way through spersed“ ayre,

And through the world of waters wide and deepe,
To Morpheus house doth hastily repaire;
Amid the bowels of the earthe full steepe
And low, where dawning day doth never peepe,
His dwelling is; there Tethys his wet bed
Doth ever wash, and Cynthia still doth steepe

In silver deaw his ever-drouping hed,
Whiles sad Night over him her mantle black doth spred;
Whose double gates he findeth locked fast;

The one faire framed of burnisht yvory,
The other all with silver overcast;
And watchful dogges before them farre doe lye,
Watching to banish Care, their enimy,
Who oft is wont to trouble gentle Sleepe.
By them the sprite doth passe in quietly,

And unto Morpheus comes, whom drowned deepe
In drowsie fit he findes; of nothing he takes keepe.

(1) Weening-imagining, thinking.

(2) “Faerie Queene,” book i., canto l. “ What can be more solitary, more shut up in itself, than his description of the House of Sleep? It is as if the honey-dew of slumber' had settled on his pen in writing these lines."--Hazlitt. (3) Hle-a sprite sent on a mission by Archimago, or Fraud, the enchanter, (1) Sperseu---dispersed. (5) Morpheus house—in the Classical writers Somnus, and not Morpheus, is the God of Sleep, the latter being one of the children of Somnus. (6) Tethys—the mythological wife of the ocean; here put for the ocean itself.

(7) The one faire, &c.--Homer and Virgil represent the gates of Sleep's palace as made of ivory and horn respectively, the former for false and the latter for true dreams.

s ?

And more to lull him in his slumber soft,

A trickling streame from high rock tumbling downe,
And ever drizling raine upon the loft,
Mixt with a murmuring winde, much like the sowne?
Of swarming bees, did cast him in a swowne.?
No other noyse, nor peoples troublous cryes,
As still are wont to annoy the walled towne,
Might there be heard: but carelesse Quiet lyes
Wrapt in eternall silence, farre from enimyes.

UNA AND THE LION.3

One day, nigh wearie of the yrkesome way,

From her unhastie beast she did alight;
And on the grasse her dainty limbs did lay
In secrete shadow, far from all men's sight;
From her fayre head her fillet she undight,
And layd her stole aside : her angels face,
As the great eye of heaven, shyned bright,

And made a sunshine in the shady place:
Did never mortal

eye

behold such heavenly grace.
It fortunéd, out of the thickest wood

A ramping lyon rushéd suddeinly,
Hunting full greedy after salvage6 blood;
Soone as the royall virgin he did spy,
With gaping mouth at her rangreedily,
To have attonce8 devourd her tender corse :
But to the pray when as he drew more ny,

His bloody rage aswagéd, with remorse,
And, with tħe sight amazed, forgat his furious forse.

(1) Soune-sound.

(2) Swoune-Swoon. (3) “ Faerie Queene,” book i., canto 3. “ What a picture !” says Professor Wilson, in reference to this passage, “We have seen it painted, and beautifully too, by colours on canvas; but never nearly so beautiful as here in the light of words:" -- Blackwood's Magazine, Nov. 1834.

(4) Undight - loosened, untied.

(5) And made a sunshine, &c.—"A line,” says the writer just quoted, “ of itself sufficient to make the whole world in love with Truth.”

(6) Salvage--savage.

(7) Ran—i.e. he ran ; the ellipsis of the personal pronoun is very common in the old writers. See another instance in the last line of this stanza.

(8) Attonce---at once.

Instead thereof he kist her weary feet,

And lickt her lilly hands with fawning tong;
As he her wronged innocence did weet.
O how can beautie maister the most strong,
And simple truth subdue avenging wrong!
Whose yielded pride and proud submission,
Still dreading death, when she had markéd long,

Her heart gan melt in great compassion;
And drizling teares did shed for

pure

affectiòn.
“The lyon, lord of everie beast in field,”

Quoth she, “his princely puissance doth abate,
And mightie proud to humble weake does yield,
Forgetfull of the hungry rage, which late
Him prickt, in pittie of my sad estate :-
But he, my lyon, and my noble lord,
How does he find in cruell hart to hate

Her, that him loved, and ever most adord
As the god of my life? why hath he me abhord ?”
Redounding: tears did choke th' end of her plaint,

Which softly ecchoed from the neighbour wood;
And, sad to see her sorrowful constraint,

The kingly beast upon her gazing stood;
Witb pittie calmd, downe fell his angry mood.
A last, in close hart shutting up payne,
Arose the virgin borne of heavenly brood,

And to her snowy palfrey* got agayne,
To seeke her strayéd champion if she might attayne.
The lyon would not leave her desolate,

But with her went along, as a strong gard
Of her chast person, and a faythfull mate
Of her sad troubles and misfortunes hard :
Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward;
And when she wakt, he wayted diligent,
With humble service to her will prepard ;

From her fayre eyes he took commandément,
And ever by her lookes conceived her intent.

her

a

(1) Weet--from the Anglo-Saxon wit-an, to know-recognise. (2) My nobl lord—the Red-Cross Knight, from whom Una had been separated by Archimago’s devices. (3) Redounding-from the Latin redundare, to flow over--abounding (4) Palfrey—from the French par le frein, by the bridle--a lady's horse, led by the squire. The word here refers to the ass before named.

MAN THE CARE OF ANGELS.'

4

5

And is there care in heaven? And is there love

In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,
That may compassion of their evils move ?
There is :-else much more wretched were the case
Of men then? beasts : but O the exceeding grace
Of Highest God! that loves his creatures so,
And all his workes with mercy doth embrace,

That blessed angels he sends to and fro,
To serve to 3 wicked man, to serve his wicked foe!
How oft do they their silver bowers leave,

To come to succour us that succour want!
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skyes, like flying pursuivant,
Against fowle feendes to ayd us militant !6
They for us fight, they watch, and dewly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant;

And all for love, and nothing for reward;
O why should hevenly God to men have such regard !

THE BOWER OF BLISS.7
THERE the most daintie paradise on ground

Itselfe doth offer to his! sober eye,
In which all pleasures plenteously abownd,
And none does others happinesse envġe;
The painted flowers; the trees upshooting hye;
The dales for shade; the hilles for breathing space;
The trembling groves; the christall running by;

And, that which all faire works doth most aggrace,"
The art," which all that wrought, appeared in no place.

10

11

(1) “Faerie Queene," book ii., canto 8. These,” says Dr. Jortin, “are fine lines, and would not suffer by being compared with anything that Milton has said upon this subject."

(2) Then-than. (3) Serve to- this is the old syntax. (4) Flitting skyesthe floating clouds (see note 4, p. 5). (5) Pursuivant from the French poursuivre, to follow up-a state messenger. (6) Militant-from the Latin militare, to serve as a soldier-fighting, engaged in warfare. (7) “Faerie Queene," book ii., canto 12. (8) On ground on earth.

(9) His --i.e. Sir Guyon, or Temperance. (10) Aggrace-favour, enhance. (11) The art, dc.-The old maxim--artis est celare artem, the perfection of art consists in concealing it, seems to be here hinted at.