Her lying tongue was in two parts divided,
And both the parts did speak, and both contended;
And as her tongue so was her heart discided,1
That never thought one thing, but doubly still was guided.
Als2 as she double spake, so heard she double,
With matchless3 ears deformèd and distort,
Filled with false rumours and seditious trouble,
Bred in assemblies of the vulgar sort,
That still are led with every light report:
And as her ears, so eke her feet were odd,
And much unlike; the one long, the other short,
And both misplaced: that, when the one forward yode,1
The other back retirèd and contráry trode.
Likewise unequal were her handès twain ;
That one did reach the other pushed away;
That one did make the other marred again,
And sought to bring all things unto decay;
Whereby great riches, gathered many a day,
She in short space did often bring to nought,
And their possessors often did dismay :
For all her study was and all her thought
How she might overthrow the things that Concord wrought.
Tho, as he back returned from that land,
And there arrived again whence forth he set,
He had not passèd far upon the strand
When-as two old ill-favoured Hags he met,
By the wayside being together set;
Two griesly creatures: and, to that their faces
Most foul and filthy were, their garments yet,
Being all ragged and tattered, their disgraces
Did much the more augment, and made most ugly cases.
The one of them, that elder did appear,
With her dull eyes did seem to look askew,
That her mis-shape much helped; and her foul hear
Hung loose and loathsomely thereto her hue
Was wan and lean, that all her teeth arew,9
And all her bones, might through her cheeks be read :1
Her lips were, like raw leather, pale and blue :
And as she spake therewith she slaverèd;
Yet spake she seldom, but thought more the less she said.
Her hands were foul and dirty, never washed In all her life, with long nails over-raught,
Like puttock's claws; with the one of which she scratched
Her cursed head, although it itchèd naught :
The other held a snake with venom fraught,
On which she fed and gnawèd hungrily,
As if that long she had not eaten aught;
That round about her jaws one might descry
The bloody gore and poison dropping loathsomely.
Book V. Canto XII.
Thus having all things well in peace ordained,
The Prince himself there all that night did rest;
Where him Blandina fairly entertained
With all the courteous glee and goodly feast
The which for him she could imagine best:
For well she knew the ways to win good will
Of every wight, that were not too infest ;3
And how to please the minds of good and ill,
Through tempering of her words and looks by wondrous skill.
Yet were her words and looks but false and feigned, To some hid end to make more easy way,
Or to allure such fondlings whom she trained
Into her trap unto their own decay :
Thereto, when needed, she could weep and pray,
And when her listed she could fawn and flatter;
Now smiling smoothly, like to summer's day,
Now glooming sadly, so to cloak her matter;
Yet were her words but wind, and all her tears but water.
SIR CALIDORE AND THE FAIR PASTORELLA.
There on a day, as he pursued the chase,
He chanced to spy a sort of shepherd grooms,
Playing on pipes and carolling apace,
The whiles their beasts there in the budded brooms
Beside them fed, and nipt the tender blooms;
For other worldly wealth they carèd nought.
To whom Sir Calidore yet sweating comes,
And them to tell him courteously besought
If such a beast they saw, which he had thither brought.
They answered him that no such beast they saw,
Nor any wicked fiend that mote offend
Their happy flocks, nor danger to them draw;
But if that such there were (as none they kenned1)
They prayed high God them far from them to send
Then one of them, him seeing so to sweat,
After his rustic wise, that well he weened,
Offered him drink to quench his thirsty heat,
And, if he hungry were, him offered eke to eat.
The Knight was nothing nice, where was no need,
And took their gentle offer: so adown
They prayed him sit, and gave him for to feed
Such homely what as serves the simple clown,
That doth despise the dainties of the town.
Tho,2 having fed his fill, he there beside
Saw a fair Damsel, which did wear a crown
Of sundry flowers with silken ribbands tied,
Yclad in home-made green that her own hands had dyed.
Upon a little hillock she was placed
Higher then all the rest, and round about
Environed with a garland, goodly graced,
Of lovely lasses; and them all without
The lusty shepherd swains sate in a rout,3
The which did pipe and sing her praises due,
And oft rejoice, and oft for wonder shout,
As if some miracle of heavenly hue
Were down to them descended in that earthly view.
And soothly sure she was full fair of face,
And perfectly well shaped in every limb,
Which she did more augment with modest grace
And comely carriage of her countenance trim,
That all the rest like lesser lamps did dim :
Who, her admiring as some heavenly wight,
Did for their soverain goddess her esteem,
And, carolling her name both day and night,
The fairest Pastorella her by name did hight.
Ne was there herd,1 ne was there shepherd's swain, But her did honour; and eke many a one Burnt in her love, and with sweet pleasing pain Full many a night for her did sigh and groan :
But most of all the shepherd Coridon
For her did languish, and his dear life spend ;
Yet neither she for him nor other none
Did care a whit, ne any liking lend:
Though mean her lot, yet higher did her mind ascend.
Her whiles Sir Calidore there viewed well,
And marked her rare demeanour, which him seemed So far the mean2 of shepherds to excel,
As that he in his mind her worthy deemed
To be a Prince's paragon3 esteemed,
He was unwares surprised in subtle bands1
Of the blind Boy; ne thence could be redeemed
By any skill out of his cruel hands;
Caught like the bird which, gazing still on others, stands.
So stood he still long gazing thereupon,
Ne any will had thence to move away,
Although his quest were far afore him gone :
But after he had fed, yet did he stay
And sate there still, until the flying day
Was far forth spent, discoursing diversely
Of sundry things as fell, to work delay;
And evermore his speech he did apply
To the herds, but meant them to the Damsel's fantasy.
By this, the moisty night, approaching fast,
Her dewy humour gan on the earth to shed;
That warned the shepherds to their homes to haste
Their tender flocks, now being fully fed,
For fear of wetting them before their bed.
Then came to them a good old aged Sire,
Whose silver locks bedecked his beard and head,
With shepherd's hook in hand, and fit attire,
That willed the Damsel rise, the day did now expire.
He was, to weet, by common voice esteemed
The Father of the fairest Pastorell,
And of herself in very deed so deemed;
Yet was not so; but, as old stories tell,
Found her by fortune, which to him befell,
In the open fields, an Infant left alone;
And, taking up, brought home and nursed well
As his own child; for other he had none;
That she in tract of time accounted was his own.
Book VI. Canto IX.
PROCESSION OF THE MONTHS.
These,1 marching softly, thus in order went ;
And after them the Months all riding came.
First, sturdy March, with brows full sternly bent
And armèd strongly, rode upon a Ram,
The same which over Hellespontus swam ;
Yet in his hand a spade he also hent,2
And in a bag all sorts of seeds ysame,3
Which on the earth he strowèd as he went,
And filled her womb with fruitful hope of nourishment.
Next came fresh April, full of lustihead,
And wanton as a kid whose horn new buds:
Upon a Bull he rode, the same which led
Europa floating through the Argolick floods :
His horns were gilden all with golden studs,
And garnished with garlands goodly dight*
Of all the fairest flowers and freshest buds
Which the earth brings forth; and wet he seemed in sight
With waves, through which he waded for his love's delight.
Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground,
Decked all with dainties of her season's pride,
And throwing flowers out of her lap around :
Upon two brethrens' shoulders she did ride,
The Twins of Leda; which on either side
Supported her like to their soveraign Queen:
Lord! how all creatures laughed when her they spied,
And leapt and danced as they had ravished been !
And Cupid self about her fluttered all in green.
And after her came jolly June, arrayed
All in green leaves, as he a Player were;
Yet in his time he wrought as well as played,
That by his plough-irons mote5 right well appear.
Upon a Crab he rode, that him did bear
With crooked crawling steps an uncouth pace,
And backward yode, as bargemen wont to fare
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