Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2)

The warlike Elfe[689] much wondred at this tree, lvi

So faire and great, that shadowed all the ground,

And his broad braunches, laden with rich fee,

Did stretch themselues without the vtmost bound

Of this great gardin, compast with a mound,

Which ouer-hanging, they themselues did steepe,

In a blacke flood which flow’d about it round;

That is the riuer of Cocytus deepe,

In which full many soules do endlesse waile and weepe.

Which to behold, he clomb vp to the banke, lvii

And looking downe, saw many damned wights,

In those sad waues, which direfull deadly stanke,

Plonged continually of cruell Sprights,

That with their pitteous cryes, and yelling shrights,

They made the further shore resounden wide:

Emongst the rest of those same ruefull sights,

One cursed creature[690] he by chaunce espide,

That drenched lay full deepe, vnder the Garden side.

Deepe was he drenched to the vpmost chin, lviii

Yet gaped still, as coueting to drinke

Of the cold liquor, which he waded in,

And stretching forth his hand, did often thinke

To reach the fruit, which grew vpon the brincke:

But both the fruit from hand, and floud from mouth

Did flie abacke, and made him vainely swinke:

The whiles he steru’d with hunger and with drouth

He daily dyde, yet neuer throughly dyen couth.

The knight him seeing labour so in vaine, lix

Askt who he was, and what he ment thereby:

Who groning deepe, thus answerd him againe;

Most cursed of all creatures vnder skye,

Lo Tantalus, I here tormented lye:

Of whom high Ioue wont whylome feasted bee,

Lo here I now for want of food doe dye:

But if that thou be such, as I thee see,

Of grace I pray thee, giue to eat and drinke to mee.

Nay, nay, thou greedie Tantalus (quoth he) lx

Abide the fortune of thy present fate,

And vnto all that liue in high degree,

Ensample be of mind intemperate[691],

To teach them how to vse their present state.

Then gan the cursed wretch aloud to cry,

Accusing highest Ioue and gods ingrate,

And eke blaspheming heauen bitterly,

As authour of vniustice, there to let him dye.

He lookt a little further, and espyde lxi

Another wretch, whose carkasse deepe was drent

Within the riuer, which the same did hyde:

But both his hands most filthy feculent,

Aboue the water were on high extent,

And faynd to wash themselues incessantly;

Yet nothing cleaner were for such intent,

But rather fowler seemed to the eye;

So lost his labour vaine and idle industry.

The knight him calling, asked who he was, lxii

Who lifting vp his head, him answerd thus:

I Pilate am the falsest Iudge, alas,

And most vniust, that by vnrighteous

And wicked doome, to Iewes despiteous

Deliuered vp the Lord of life to die,

And did acquite a murdrer felonous;

The whiles my hands I washt in puritie,

The whiles my soule was soyld with foule iniquitie.

Infinite moe, tormented in like paine lxiii

He there beheld, too long here to be told:

Ne Mammon would there let him long remaine,

For terrour of the tortures manifold,

In which the damned soules he did behold,

But roughly him bespake. Thou fearefull foole,

Why takest not of that same fruit of gold,

Ne sittest downe on that same siluer stoole,

To rest thy wearie person, in the shadow coole.

All which he did, to doe him deadly fall lxiv

In frayle intemperance through sinfull bayt;

To which if he inclined had at all,

That dreadfull feend, which did behind him wayt,

Would him haue rent in thousand peeces strayt:

But he was warie wise in all his way,

And well perceiued his deceiptfull sleight,

Ne suffred lust his safetie to betray;

So goodly did beguile the Guyler of the pray[692].

And now he has so long remained there, lxv

That vitall powres gan wexe both weake and wan,

For want of food, and sleepe, which two vpbeare,

Like mightie pillours, this fraile life of man,

That none without the same enduren can.

For now three dayes of men were full outwrought,

Since he this hardie enterprize began:

For thy great Mammon fairely he besought,

Into the world to guide him backe, as he him brought.

The God, though loth, yet was constraind t’obay, lxvi

For lenger time, then that, no liuing wight

Below the earth, might suffred be to stay:

So backe againe, him brought to liuing light.

But all so soone as his enfeebled spright

Gan sucke this vitall aire into his brest,

As ouercome with too exceeding might,

The life did flit away out of her nest,

And all his senses were with deadly fit opprest.

FOOTNOTES:

[651] Arg. 1 Mamon 1590, 1596

[652] i 9 fly. 1590, 1596

[653] iii 9 spetting 1609

[654] iv 4 yet] it 1596, 1609

[655] 8 vpside downe 1590

[656] 9 And] A 1596

[657] v 4 Melcibers 1590

[658] vii 3 heapes] hils 1590

[659] x 1 besits] befits 1609

[660] xii 7 Strife; 1596

[661] 9 as] in 1590

[662] xviii 2 that om. 1596

[663] xix 5 bloodguiltnesse 1590: bloud guiltnesse 1596

[664] xxi 5 infernall] internall 1590

[665] xxiii 1 horror 1590: horrour 1596

[666] xxiv 7 ought] nought 1590

[667] xxv 9 betwixt 1609

[668] xxxi 1 spake 1609

[669] 3 his] it 1609

[670] xxxii 6 Hammon 1590: corr. F. E.

[671] xxxiii 9 slaue 1609

[672] xxxvi 4 yron] dying 1590

[673] xxxvii 1 as] an 1590

[674] 5 cam 1590

[675] xxxix 8 mesprise] mespise 1596, 1609

[676] xl 5 if om. 1596

[677] that] the 1590 &c.: corr. F. E.

[678] would 1596

[679] 7 But] And 1590

[680] golden] yron 1590

[681] xli 3 his] to 1596, 1609

[682] 5 terrestiall 1609

[683] xlviii 6 my deare my, 1596

[684] 7 alone, 1590 &c.

[685] l 1 Mammon 1590, 1596

[686] lii 6 Which with 1590, 1596: Which-with 1609

[687] liii 1 Gordin 1596

[688] liv 8 th’] the 1590, 1596: corr. F. E.

[689] lvi 1 Elfe, 1590, 1596

[690] lvii 8 creature, 1590, 1596

[691] lx 4 intemperate] more temperate 1590

[692] lxiv 9 the pray] his pray 1590

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2)

About This Book

FOOTNOTES: