138
The first Booke of
Cant. X.
All keepe the broad high way, and take delightWith many rather for to goe astray,And be partakers of their euill plight,Then with a few to walke the rightest way;O foolish men, why hast ye to your owne decay?
Thy selfe to see, and tyred limbes to rest,O matrone sage (quoth she) I hether came,And this good knight his way with me addrest,Ledd with thy prayses and broad-blazed fame,That vp to heuen is blowne. The auncient Dame,Him goodly greeted in her modest guyse,And enterteynd them both, as best became,With all the court'sies, that she could deuyse,Ne wanted ought, to shew her bounteous or wise.
Thus as they gan of sondrie thinges deuise,Loe two most goodly virgins came in place,Ylinked arme in arme in louely wise,With countenance demure, and modest grace,They numbred euen steps and equall pace:Of which the eldest, that Fidelia hight,Like sunny beames threw from her Christall face,That could haue dazd the rash beholders sight,And round about her head did shine like heuens light.
She was araied all in lilly white,And in her right hand bore a cup of gold,With wine and water fild vp to the hight,In which a Serpent did himselfe enfold,That horrour made to all, that did behold;But she no whitt did chaunge her constant mood:And in her other hand she fast did holdA booke that was both signd and seald with blood,Wherin darke things were writt, hard to be vnderstood.
Her
