Page:Works of Edmund Spenser - 1857.djvu/394

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For beautie is the bayt which with delight
Doth man allure for to enlarge his kynd;
Beautie, the burning lamp of heavens light,
Darting her beames into each feeble mynd:

Against whose powre, nor God nor man can fynd

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Defence, ne ward the daunger of the wound;
But, being hurt, seeke to be medicynd
Of her that first did stir that mortall stownd.
Then do they cry and call to love apace,

With praiers lowd importuning the skie,

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Whence he them heares; and, when he list shew grace,
Does graunt them grace that otherwise would die.
So Love is lord of all the world by right,
And rules their creatures by his powrfull saw:

All being made the vassalls of his might,

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Through secret sence which therto doth them draw.
Thus ought all lovers of their lord to deeme;
And with chaste heart to honor him alway:
But who so else doth otherwise esteeme,

Are outlawes, and his lore do disobay.

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For their desire is base, and doth not merit
The name of love, but of disloyall lust:
Ne mongst true lovers they shall place inherit,
But as exuls out of his court be thrust.”

So having said, Melissa spake at will;

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“Colin, thou now full deepely hast divynd
Of Love and beautie; and, with wondrous skill,
Hast Cupid selfe depainted in his kynd,
To thee are all true lovers greatly bound,

That doest their cause so mightily defend:

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But most, all women are thy debtors found,
That doest their bountie still so much commend.
“That ill (said Hobbinol) they him requite,
For having loved ever one most deare:

He is repayd with scorne and foule despite,

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That yrkes each gentle heart which it doth heare.”
“Indeed (said Lucid) I have often heard
Faire Rosalind of divers fowly blamed
For being to that swaine too cruell hard;

That her bright glorie else hath much defamed.

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But who can tell what cause had that faire mayd
To use him so that used her so well;
Or who with blame can iustly her upbrayd.
For loving not? for who can love compell?

And, sooth to say, it is foolhardie thing,

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Rashly to wyten creatures so divine;
For demigods they be and first did spring
From heaven, though graft in frailnesse feminine.
And well I wote, that oft I heard it spoken,

How one, that fairest Helene did revile,

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Through iudgement of the gods to been ywroken,
Lost both his eyes and so remaynd long while,
Till he recanted had his wicked rimes,
And made amends to her with treble praise.

Beware therefore, ye groomes, I read betimes,

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How rashly blame of Rosalind ye raise.”
“Ah! shepheards, (then said Colin) ye ne weet
How great a guilt upon your heads ye draw,
To make so bold a doome, with words unmeet,

Of things celestiall which ye never saw.

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For she is not like as the other crew
Of shepheards daughters which emongst you bee,
But of divine regard and heavenly hew,
Excelling all that ever ye did see.

Not then to her that scorned thing so base,

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But to my selfe the blame that lookt so hie:
So hie her thoughts as she her selfe have place,
And loath each lowly thing with loftie eie.
Yet so much grace let her vouchsafe to grant

To simple swaine, sith her I may not love:

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Yet that I may her honour paravant,
And praise her worth, though far my wit above.
Such grace shall be some guerdon for the griefe,
And long affliction which I have endured:

Such grace sometimes shall give me some reliefe,

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And ease of paine which cannot be recured.
And ye, my fellow shepheards, which do see
And hear the languors of my too long dying,
Unto the world for ever witnesse bee,

That hers I die, nought to the world denying,

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This simple trophe of her great conquest.”—
So, having ended, he from ground did rise;
And after him uprose eke all the rest:
All loth to part, but that the glooming skies

Warnd them to draw their bleating flocks to rest.

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