VII.
Ne is that same great glorious lampe of light,

That doth enlumine all these leffer fyres,
In better case, ne keepes his course more right,
But is miscaried with the other spheres :
For since the terme of fourteen hundred yeres,
That learned Ptolomaee his hight did take,
He is declyned from that marke of theirs

Nigh thirtie minutes to the southerne lake ;
That makes me feare in time he will us quite forsake.

VIII.
And if to those Aegyptian wisards old

(Which in star-read were wont have best insight
Faith may be given, it is by them told
That since the time they first tooke the sunnes hight,
Foure times his place he shifted hath in fight,
And twice hath risen where he now doth west,
And wested twice where he ought rise aright.

But most is Mars amiffe of all the rest;
And next to him old Saturne, that was wont be best.

IX.
For during Saturnes ancient raigne it's sayd

That all the world with goodnesse did abound;
All loved vertue, no man was affrayd
Of force, ne fraud in wight was to be found;
No warre was knowne, no dreadful trompets found ;
Peace universal rayn'd mongst men and beasts ;
And all things freely grew out of the ground:

Iustice fate high ador'd with solemne feasts,
And to all people did divide her dred beheasts :

X.
Most sacred vertue lhe of all the rest,

Resembling God in his imperiall might ;
Whose foveraine

powre

is herein most exprest,
That both to good and bad he dealeth right,
And all his workes with iustice hath bedight.
That powre he also doth to princes lend,
And makes them like himselfe in glorious sight

To sit in his own seate, his cause to end,
And rule his people right, as he doth recommend.

XI. Dread

C Α Ν Τ Ο Ι.

Artegall traynd in iustice lore

Irenaes quest pursewed ;
He doeth avenge on Sanglier

His ladies bloud embrewed.

T

1.
HOUGH vertue then were held in highest price,

In those old times of which I doe intreat,
Yet then likewise the wicked feede of vice
Began to spring; which shortly grew full great,
And with their boughes the gentle plants did beat:
But evermore some of the vertuous race
Rose up, inspired with heroicke heat,

That cropt the branches of the fient base,
And with strong hand their fruitfull rancknes did deface.

II.
Such first was Bacchus, that with furious might

All th' east before untam'd did over-ronne,
And wrong repressed, and establisht right,
Which lawlesse men had formerly fordonne :
There iustice first her princely rule begonne.
Next Hercules his like ensample shewed,
Who all the west with equall conquest wonne,

And monstrous tyrants with his club subdewed;
The club of iustice dread with kingly powre endewed.

III.
And such was he of whom I have to tell,

The champion of true iustice, Artegall :
Whom (as ye lately mote remember well)
An hard adventure, which did then befall,
Into redoubted perill forth did call.;
That was to succour a distressed dame,
Whom a strong tyrant did uniustly thrall,

And from the heritage, which she did clame,
Did with strong hand withhold; Grantorto was his name.

IV. Wherefore

IV.
Wherefore the lady, which Irena hight,

Did to the faery queene her way addresse,
To whom complayning her afflicted plight,
She her besought of gratious redresse:
That soveraine queene, that mightie emperesse,
Whose glorie is to aide all suppliants pore,
And of weake princes to be patronesse,

Chose Artegall to right her to restore ;
For that to her he seem'd best skild in righteous lore.

V.
For Artegall in iustice was upbrought

Even from the cradle of his infancie,
And all the depth of rightfull doome was taught
By faire Astraea, with great industrie,
Whileft here on earth the lived mortallie :
For till the world from his perfection fell
Into all filth and foule iniquitie,

Astraea here mongst earthly men did dwell,
And in the rules of iustice them instructed well.

VI.

Whiles through the world she walked in this fort,

Upon a day she found this gentle childe
Amongst his peres playing his childish sport;
Whom seeing fit, and with no crime defilde,
She did allure with gifts and speaches milde
To wend with her : fo thence him farre she brought
Into a cave from companie exilde,

In which she noursled him, till yeares he raught;
And all the discipline of iustice there him taught.

VII.
There she him taught to weigh both right and wrong

In equall ballance with due recompence,
And cquitie to measure out along
According to the line of conscience,
Whenfo it needs with rigour to dispence:
Of all the which, for want there of mankind,
She caused him to make experience

Upon wyld beasts, which she in woods did find,
With wrongfull powre oppressing others of their kind.

VIII. Thus

VIII.
Thus the him trayned, and thus the him taught

In all the skill of deeming wrong and right,
Untill the ripenesse of mans yeares he raught;
That even wilde beasts did feare his awfull fight,
And men admyr'd his over-ruling might;
Ne
any

liv'd on ground that durst withstand
His dreadfull heast, much lesse him match in fight,

Or bide the horror of his wreakfull hand,
Whenso he list in wrath lift up his steely brand:

IX.
Which steely brand, to make him dreaded more,

She gave unto him, gotten by her flight
And earnest search, where it was kept in store
In loves eternall house, unwist of wight,
Since he himselfe it us'd in that great fight
Against the Titans, that whylome rebelled
Gainst highest heaven ; Chrysaor it was hight;

Chrysaor, that all other swords excelled,
Well prov'd in that same day when Iove those gyants quelled :

X.
For of most perfect metall it was made,

Tempred with adamant amongst the fame,
And garnisht all with gold upon the blade
In goodly wise, whereof it tooke his name,
And was of no lefle vertue then of fame :
For there no substance was so firme and hard,
But it would pierce or cleave whereso it came;

Ne any armour could his dint out-ward ;
But wherefoever it did light, it throughly shard.

XI.
Now when the world with finne gan to abound,

Astraea loathing lenger here to space
Mongst wicked men, in whom no truth The found,
Return'd to heaven, whence she deriv'd her race ;
Where she hath now an everlasting place
Mongst those twelve signes, which nightly we do see
The heavens bright-shining baudricke to enchace;
· And is the Virgin, sixt in her degree,
And next herselfe her righteous ballance hanging bee.
VOL. II.

B

XII. But