Page:The Faerie Queene (Books 1 to 3) - Spenser (1590).djvu/137

Cant. X.

Her faithfull knight faire Vna bringsTo house of Holinesse,Where he is taught repentaunce, andThe way to heuenly blesse.

 

What man is he, that boasts of fleshly might,And vaine assuraunce of mortality,Which all so soone, as it doth come to fight,Against spirituall foes, yields by and by,Or from the fielde most cowardly doth fly?Ne let the man ascribe it to his skill,That thorough grace hath gained victory.If any strength we haue, it is to ill,But all the good is Gods, both power and eke will.

By that, which lately hapned, Vna saw,That this her knight was feeble, and too faint;And all his sinewes woxen weake and raw,Through long enprisonment, and hard constraint,Which he endured in his late restraint,That yet he was vnfitt for bloody fight:Therefore to cherish him with diets daint.She cast to bring him, where he chearen might,Till he recouered had his late decayed plight.

There was an auncient house not far away,Renowmd throughout the world for sacred lore,And pure vnspotted life: so well they sayIt gouernd was, and guided euermore,

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