5
the Faery Queene.
Cant. I.
Enforst to seeke some couert nigh at hand,A shadie groue not farr away they spide,That promist ayde the tempest to withstand:Whose loftie trees yclad with sommers pride,Did spred so broad, that heauens light did hide,Not perceable with power of any starr:And all within were pathes and alleies wide,With footing worne, and leading inward farr:Faire harbour that them seemes, so in they entred ar.
And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led,Ioying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred,Seemd in their song to scorne the cruell sky.Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy,The sayling Pine, the Cedar proud and tall,The vine-propp Elme, the Poplar neuer dry,The builder Oake, sole king of forrests all,The Aspine good for staues, the Cypresse funerall.
The Laurell, meed of mightie ConqueroursAnd Poets sage, the Firre that weepeth still,The Willow worne of forlorne Paramours,The Eugh obedient to the benders will,The Birch for shaftes, the Sallow for the mill,The Mirrhe sweete bleeding in the bitter wound,The warlike Beech, the Ash for nothing ill,The fruitfull Oliue, and the Platane round,The caruer Holme, the Maple seeldom inward sound.
Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,Vntill the blustring storme is ouerblowne;When weening to returne, whence they did stray,They cannot finde that path, which first was showne,
But