Whiles Scorpio dreading Sagittarius dart,

And Phaeton nowe neare reaching to his race With gliftering beames, gold streamynge where they bent

Was preft to enter in his refting place.
Crythius that in the carte fyrste went
Had even now attaynde his journeys ftent
And faft declining hid away his head,
While Titan couched him in his purple bed.

And pale Cinthea with her borowed light
Beginning to fupply her brothers place,
Was paft the noonfteede fyre degrees in fight,
When sparkling starres amyd the heavens face
With twinkling light sheen on the earth apace,
That whyle they brought about the nightes
The darke had dimmed the day ear I was ware.

chare

And forowing I to fee the fommer flowers
The livly greene, the lufty leas forlorne,
The sturdy trees fo fhattered with the showers,
The fields fo fade that floorifht so beforne
It taught me wel all earthly thinges be borne
To dye the death, for nought long time may laft;
The fommers beauty yeeldes to winters blast.

Then looking upward to the heavens leames
With nightes ftarres thicke powdred every where,
Which erst fo glistened with the golden ftreames
That chearefull Phebus fpred downe from his
sphere,

Beholding darke oppreffing day so neare :
The fodayne fight reduced to my minde
The fundry chaunges that in earth we fynde.

flypt,

Downe flyd into the ocean flud aparte,

The Beare that in the Iryfhe feas had dipt

whypt:

For Thetis hafting from the Virgines bed

Purfued the Bear, that ear fhe came was fled.

That ofte I wifht fome would their woes def

cryve.

To warne the rest whom fortune left alive

And ftrayt forth ftalking with redoubled pace
For that I fawe the night drewe on to fait,
In blacke all clad there fell before my face
A piteous wight, whom woe had al forwaste,
Furth from her iyen the criftall teares outbrast,
And fyghing fore her handes the wrong and
folde,

Tare al her heare, that ruth was to beholde.

Her body small forwithered and forefpent,
As is the stalk that fommers drought oppreft;
Her wealked face with woful teares befprent,
Her colour pale, and (as it seemd her beft)
In woe and playnt reposed was her rest.

And as the tone that droppes of water weares;
So dented wer cher cheekes with fall of teares.

Her iyes fwollen with flowing streames aflote,
Wherewith her lookes throwen up full piteouslie,
Her forceles handes together ofte she smote,
With doleful fhrikes, that echoed in the skye:
Whose playnt such sighes dyd strayt accompany,
That in my doome was never man did fee
A wight but halfe fo woe begon as she.

I ftoode agaft beholding all her plight,
Tweene dread and dolour fo diftreynd in hart,
That while my heares upstarted with the fight,
The teares out ftreamde for forowe of her fmart:
But when I fawe no ende that could aparte
The deadly dewle, which the fo fore dyd make,
With dolefull voice then thus to her I fpake.

Unwrap thy woes what ever wight thou be,
And ftint betime to fpill thy felfe wyth playnt;
Tell what thou art, and whence, for well I fee
Thou canst not dure with forowe thus attaynt.
And with that worde of forrowe all forfaynt
She looked up, and proftrate as the laye
With piteous found loe thus fhe gan to faye.

Alas! I wretche whom thus thou feeft diftreyned
With wafting wees that never shall aflake,
Sorrowe I am, in endeles tormentes payned,
Among the furies in the infernall lake:
Where Pluto god of hel fo griefly blacke
Doth hold his throne, and Letheus deadly tafte
Doth rieve remembraunce of eche thyng forepaft.

Whence come I am, the drery deftinie
And luckeles lot for to bemone of those,
Whom fortune in this maze of miferie
Of wretched chaunce most wofuil myrrours chose
That when thou feeft how lightly they did lofe
Theyr pope, theyr power, and that they thought
moft fure

Thou mayeft foone deeme no earthly joy may dure

Whofe rufull voyce no fooner had out brayed
Those woful woordes, wherewith fhe forrowed fo,
But out alas fhe fhryght and never flayed,
Fell downe, and all to dafht her felfe for woe.
The cold pale dread my lymes gan overgo
And I fo forrowed at her forowes eft,
That what with griefe and feare my wittes were

[reft.

I ftrecht my felfe, and strayt my heart revives,
That dread and dolour erft did so appale;
Lyke him that with the fervent fever stryves
When ficknes feekes his caftell health to skale:
With gathered ipirites fo forft I feare to availe:
And rearing her with anguishe all fordone,
My fpirits return'd, and then I thus begonne.

O Sorrowe, alas! fith forrowe is thy name,
And that to thee this drere doth well pertayne,
In vayne it were to feeke to ceas the fame:
But as a man hym felfe with forrowe slayne,
So I, alas! do comfort thee in payne,
That here in forrowe art forfonke so depe
That at thy fight I can but figh and wepe.

I had no fooner spoken of a stike,
But that the storm fo rumbled in her breft,
As Eolus could never roare the like,
And showers downe rayned from her iyen fo falt,
That all bedreynt the place, till at the last
Well eafed they the dolour of her minde,
As rage of rayne doth swage the ftormy wynde.

For furth fhe placed in her fearfull tale :
Cum, cum, (quod fhe) and fee what I shall thewe,
Cum heare the playning, and the bytter bale
Of worthy men, by fortune overthrowe.
Cum thou and fee them rewing all in rowe.
They were but shades that erft in minde thou rolde.
Cum, cum with me, thine eyes shall them beholde.
What could these wordes but make me more agaft:
To heare her tell whereon I musde while eare:
So was I mazed therewyth, tyll at the last,
Mufing upon her wurdes, and what they were,
All fodaynly well leffoned was my feare:
For to my minde returned howe the telde
Both what the was, and where her wun fhe helde.

And with these wurdes as I upraysed stood,

And gan to folowe her that strayght furth paced, Eare I was ware, into a defert wood

We nowe were cum: where hand in hand imbraced,

She led the way, and through the thicke fo traced
As but I had beene guided by her might,
It was no way for any mortail wight.

But loe, while thus amid the defert darke,
We paffed on with steppes and pace unmette:
A rumbling roar confufde with howle and bark
Of dogs, fhoke all the ground under our feete,
And itroke the din within our cares fo deepe
As halfe diftraught unto the ground I fell,
Befought retourne, and not to visite hell.

But the forthwith uplifting me apace
Removed my dread, and with a ftedfaft minde
Bad me come on, for here was now the place,
The place where we our travayle ende fhould finde.
Wherewith I arofe, and to the place affynde
Aftoynde I talke, when ftrayt we approched nere
The dredfull place, that you wil dread to here.

An hydeous hole al vaste, withouten shape,
Of endless depth, orewhelmde with ragged stone,
Wyth ougly mouth, and grifly jawes doth gape,
And to our fight confounds it seife in one.
Here entred we, and yeding forth, anone
An horrible lothly lake we might difcerne
As blacke as pitche, that cleped is Averne.

A deadly gulfe where nought but rubbishe grows, With fowle blacke iwelth in thickned lumpes lyes,

Which up in the ayer fuch ftinking vapors throwes That over there, may flye no fowie but dyes, Choakt with the peftilent favours that aryse. Hither we cum, whence forth we ftill dyd pace, In dreadtul feare amid the dreadfull place.

And first within the portche and jawes of hell
Sate diepe Remorfe of Conscience, al befprent
With teares: and to her felfe oft would the tell
Her wretchednes, and curfing never stent
To fob and figh: but ever thus lament,
With thoughtful care, as fhe that all in vayne.
Would weare and wafte continually in payne..

Stoynde and amazde at his owne fhade for deed,
And fearing greater daungers than was nede.

And next within the entry of this lake
Sate fell Revenge gnashing her teeth for yre,
Devifing means howe fhe may vengeaunce take,
Never to reft tyll fhe have her defire:
But frets within fo far forth with the fyer
Of wreaking flames, that now determines fhe,
To dye by death, or vengde by death to be.

When fell Revenge with bloudy foule pretence
Had fhowed her felfe as next in order fet,
With trembling limmes we foftly parted thence,
Tyll in our iyes another fight we met :
When fro my hart a figh forthwith I fet,
Rewing alas upon the wofull plight
Of Miferie, that next appeared in fight.

His face was leane, and fumdeale pyned away,
And eke his handes confumed to the bone,
But what his body was I can not fay,
For on his carkas rayment had he none,
Save cloutes and patches pieced one by one.
With staffe in hande, and fkrip on fhoulders caft,
His chiefe defence agaynft the winters blast.

His foode for moft, was wylde fruytes of the tree,
Unles fumtimes fum crummes fell to his fhare :
Which in his wallet long, Ged wote, kept he,
As on the which full dayntlye would he fare.
His drinke the running ftreame: his cup the bare
Of his palme closed: his bed the hard colde
grounde.

To this poore life was Miserie ybound.

Whose wretched ftate when we had well behelde
With tender ruth on him and on his feres,
In thoughtful cares, furth then our pace we helde;
And by and by, an other fhape apperes,
Of greedy Care, ftil brushing up the breres,
His knuckles knob'd, his flethe depe dented in,
With tawed handes, and hard ytanned skyn.

The morrowe graye no fooner had begunne
To fpreade his light even peping in our iyes,
When he is up and to his worke yrunne :
But let the nightes blacke miftye mantels rife,
And with fowle darke never to much difguy fe
The fayre bright day, yet ceaffeth he no whyle,
But hath his candels to prolong his toyle.

There heard we him with broken and hollow playn,

Rewe with him felfe his ende approaching faft,
And all for nought his wretched minde torment
With fwete remembraunce of his pleasures paft,'
And frethe delites of lufty youth forwaste.
Recounting which, how would he fob and shrike:
And to be yong againe of Jove beseke.

But and the cruell fates fo fixed be
That time forpaft can not retourne agayne,
This one requeft of Jove yet prayed he:
That in fuch withered plight, and wretched paine,
As elde (accompanied with his lothfom trayne)
Had brought on him, all were it woe and griefe..
He might a while yet linger forth his lief;

With greedy lookes, and gaping mouth that cryed,

And roard for meat as she should there have dyed,
Her body thin and bare as any bone,
Wharto was left nought but the cafe alone;

And that alas was knawen on every where
All full of holes, that i ne mought refrayee
From teares, to see how she her armes could tere,
And with her teech gnash on the bones in vayne:
When all for nought the fayne would fo fuftayne
Her ftarven corps, that rather feemde a fhade,
Then any fubitaunce of a creature made.

Great was her force whom ftonewall could not nay,

Her tearyng nayles fcratching at all fhe fawe:
With gaping jawes that by no means ymay
Be fatisfyed from hunger of her mawe,
But eates her felfe as the that hath no lawe:
Gnawing alas her carkas all in vayne, [
Where you may count eche finow, bone, and

On her while we thus firmly fixt our iyes,
That bled for ruth of fuch a drery fight,
Loe fodayuelye the fhryght in fo huge wyle,
As made hell gates to fhyver with the myght.
Wherewith a dart we fawe howe it did lyght
Ryght on her breast, and therewithal pale death

And by and by a dum dead corps we fawe,
Heavy and colde, the fhape of death aryght,
That dauntes all earthly creatures to his lawe:
Agaynft whofe force in vayne it is to fyght
Ne pieres, ne princes, nor no mortall wyght,
No townes, ne realmes, cities, ne strongest tower,
But al perforce must yeeld unto his power.

His dart anon out of the corps he tooke,
And in his hand (a dreadful fight to fee)
With great triumphe eftfones the fame he shockt,
That most of all my feares affrayed me:
His bodie dight with nought but bones perdye,
The naked shape of man there fawe I playne,
All fave the fleshe, the fynowe, and the vayne.

Laftly ftoode Warre in glitteryng armes yclad. With vifage grym, fterne lookes, and backty hewed:

In his right hand a naked sworde he had,
That to the hiltes was al with bloud embrewed:
And in his left (that kinges and kingdomes rewed)
Famine and fyer he held, and therewythall
He razed townes, and threwe downe towers and
all.

Cities he fakt, and realmes that whilom flowered,
In honour, glory, and rule above the best,
He overwhelmde, and all theyr fame devoured,
Confumed, deftroyed, wafted, and never ceaft,
Tyll he theyr wealth, their name, and all opprefl.
His face forchewed with woundes, and by ha

fide

There hunge his terge with gashes depe and wyde.