Cant. XII.
the Faerie Queene.
173
And them before, the fry of children yongTheir wanton sportes and childish mirth did play,And to the Maydens sownding tymbrels songIn well attuned notes, a ioyous lay,And made delightfull musick all the way,Vntill they came, where that faire virgin stood;As fayre Diana in fresh sommers day,Beholdes her Nymphes, enraung'd in shady wood,Some wrestle, some do run, some bathe in christall flood,
So she beheld those may dens meriment.With chearefull vew; who when to her they came,Themselues to ground with gracious humblesse bentAnd her ador'd by honorable name,Lifting to heuen her euerlasting fame:Then on her head they sett agirlond greene,And crowned her twixt earnest and twixt game;Who in her self-resemblance well beseene,Did seeme such, as she was, a goodly maiden Queene.
And after all the raskall many ran,Heaped together in rude rablement,To see the face of that victorious man:Whom all admired, as from heauen sent,And gazd vpon with gaping wonderment,But when they came, where that dead Dragon Iay,Stretcht on the ground in monstrous large extent,The sight with ydle feare did them dismay,Ne durst approch him nigh, to touch, or once assay.
Some feard, and fledd; some feard and well it saynd;One that would wiser seeme, then all the rest,Warnd him not touch, for yet perhaps remayndSome lingring life within his hollow brest,
Or
