Cant. VI.
the Faery Queene.
259
But to weake wench did yield his martiall might.So easie was to quench his flamed mindeWith one sweete drop of sensuall delight.So easie is, t'appease the stormy windeOf malice in the calme of pleasaunt womankind.
Diuerse discourses in their way they spent,Mongst which Cymochles of her questioned,Both what she was, and what that vsage ment,Which in her cott she daily practized.Vaine man (saide she) that wouldest be reckonedA straunger in thy home, and ignorauntOf Phædria (for so my name is red)Of Phædria, thine owne fellow seruaunt;For thou to serue Acrasia thy selfe doest vaunt.
In this wide Inland sea, that hight by nameThe Idle lake, my wandring ship I row,That knowes her port, and thether sayles by ayme,Ne care, ne feare I, how the wind do blow,Or whether swift I wend, or whether slow:Both slow and swift a like do serue my tourne,Ne swelling Neptune, ne lowd thundring IoueCan chaunge my cheare, or make me euer mourne;My little boat can safely passe this perilous bourne.
Whiles thus she talked, and whiles thus she toyd,They were far past the passage, which he spake,And come vnto an Island, waste and voyd,That floted in the midst of that great lake,There her small Gondelay her port did make,And that gay payre issewing on the shoreDisburdned her. Their way they forward takeInto the land, that lay them faire before,Whose pleasaunce she him shewd, and plentifull great store.
It
