Imatges de pàgina
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UNA.

NOUGHT is there under Heavens wide hollownesse,
That moves more dear compassion of the mind,
Then beautie brought t' unworthie wretchednesse,
Through envies snares, or fortunes freakes unkind.
I, whether lately through her brightness blynd,
Or through alleageance, and fast feälty,
Which I do owe unto all womankynd,
Feele my hart perst with so great agony,
When such I see, that all for pitty I could dy.

And now it is empassioned so deepe,

For fairest Unaes sake, of whom I sing,

That my frayle eies these lines with teares do steepe,
To thinke how she through guyleful handeling,
Though true as touch, though daughter of a king,
Though faire as ever living wight was faire,
Though nor in word nor deede ill meriting,
Is from her knight divorced in despayre,
And her dew loves deryved to that vile witches shayre.

Yet she, most faithful ladye, all this while
Forsaken, wofull, solitarie mayd,

Far from all peoples preace,1 as in exile,
In wildernesse and wastfull deserts strayd,
To seeke her knight; who, subtily betrayd,

Through that late vision which the enchanter wrought,
Had her abandond: she, of nought affrayd,

Through woods and wastnes wide him daily sought; Yet wished tydinges none of him unto her brought.

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One day, nigh wearie of the yrkesome way,
From her unhastie beast she did alight;
And on the grass her dainty limbs did lay
In secrete shadow, far from all mens sight;
From her faire head her fillet she undight,
And layd her stole aside: her angels face,
As the great eye of heaven, shyned bright,
And made a sunshine in the shady place;
Did never mortall eye behold such heavenly grace.
It fortuned, out of the thickest wood
A ramping lyon rushed suddeinly,
Hunting full greedy after salvage blood:
Soone as the royall virgin he did spy,
With gaping mouth at her ran greedily,
To have attonce devourd her tender corse :
But to the prey when as he drew more ny
His bloody rage aswaged with remorse,

And, with the sight amazd, forgat his furious forse.

Instead thereof he kist her wearie feet,
And lickt her lily hands with fawning tong;
As he her wronged innocence did weet.

O how can beautie maister the most strong,
And simple truth subdue avenging wrong!

SPENSER.

CAVE OF DESPAIR.

Ere long they come, where that same wicked wight His dwelling has, low in an hollow cave,

Far underneath a craggy cliff ypight,

Darke, dolefull, dreary, like a greedy grave,

That still for carrion carcases doth crave:
On top whereof ay dwelt the ghastly owle,
Shrieking his balefull note, which ever drave
Far from that haunt all other chearefull fowle;
And all about it wandring ghostes did wayle and howl:

And all about old stocks and stubs of trees,
Whereon nor fruit nor leafe was ever seen,
Did hang upon the ragged rocky knees;
On which had many wretches hanged beene,
Whose carcases were scattered on the greene,
And throwne about the cliffs. Arrived there,
That bare-head knight, for dread and dolefull teene,
Would faine have fled, ne durst approchen neare;
But the other forst him staye, and comforted in feare.

That darksome cave they enter, where they find
That cursed man, low sitting on the ground,
Musing full sadly in his sullein mind:

His griesie lockes, long growen and unbound,
Disordred hong about his shoulders round,
And hid his face; through which his hollow eyne
Lookt deadly dull, and stared as astound;
His raw-bone cheeks, through penurie and pine,
Were shronke into his iawes, as he did never dine.

His garment, nought but many ragged clouts,
With thorns together pind and patched was,
The which his naked sides he wrapt abouts:
And him beside there lay, upon the gras,
A dreary corse, whose life away did pas,
All wallowd in his own yet luke-warme blood,
That from his wound yet welled fresh, alas!
In which a rusty knife fast fixed stood,
And made an open passage for the gushing flood.

SPENSER.

A LANDSCAPE.

ONE day, as he did raunge the fields abroad,
Whilest his faire Pastorella was elsewhere,
He chaunst to come, far from all peoples troad,
Unto a place, whose pleasaunce did appere
Το passe all others on the Earth which were:
For all that ever was by Natures skill
Devizd to worke delight was gatherd there;
And there by her were poured forth at fill,
As if, this to adorne, she all the rest did pill.

It was an hill plaste in an open plaine,
That round about was borderd with a wood
Of matchlesse hight, that seemd th' earth to disdaine;
In which all trees of honour stately stood,
And did all winter as in sommer bud,
Spredding pavilions for the birds to bowre,
Which in their lower braunches sung aloud;
And in their tops the soring hauke did towre,
Sitting like king of fowles in maiesty and powre:

And at the foote thereof a gentle flud
His silver waves did softly tumble downe,
Unmard with ragged mosse or filthy mud;
Ne mote wylde beastes, ne mote the ruder clowne,
Thereto approch; ne filth mote therein drowne:
But nymphes and faeries by the bancks did sit
In the woods shade which did the waters crowne,
Keeping all noysome things away from it,
And to the water's fall tuning their accents fit.

And on the top thereof a spacious plaine
Did spred itselfe, to serve to all delight,
Either to daunce, when they to daunce would faine,
Or else to course-about their bases light;
Ne ought there wanted, which for pleasure might
Desired be, or thence to banish bale:

So pleasauntly the hill with equall hight
Did seeme to overlooke the lowly vale;
Therefore it rightly cleeped was Mount Acidale.

MACBETH.

SPENSER.

ACT II. SCENE 1.

Macb. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:

I have thee not; and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind; a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;
And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
Which was not so before, There's no such thing:

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