THE FAERIE QUEENE by Edmund Spenser TO The ... - Planet.ee

www.TaleBooks.comBut with her dreadfull strokes were all dismayd:Here, there, and every where, about her swaydHer wrathfull steele, that none mote it abyde;And eke the Redcrosse knight gave her good ayd,Ay joyning foot to foot, and syde to syde;That in short space their foes they have quite terrifyde.LXVII. Tho, whenas all were put to shamefull flight,The noble Britomartis her arayd,And her bright armes about her body dight.For nothing would she lenger there be stayd,Where so loose life, and so ungentle trade,Was usd of knightes and Ladies seeming gent:So earely, ere the grosse Earthes gryesy shadeWas all disperst out of the firmament,They tooke their steeds, and forth upon their journeywent.THIRD_BOOKE|CANTO_IICANTO IIThe Redcrosse knight to BritomartDescribeth Artegall:The wondrous myrrhour, by which sheIn love with him did fall.I. HERE have I cause in men just blame to find,That in their proper praise too partiall bee,And not indifferent to woman kind,To whom no share in armes and chevalreeThey doe impart, ne maken memoreeOf their brave gestes and prowesse martiall:Scarse do they spare to one, or two, or three,Rowme in their writtes; yet the same writing smallDoes all their deedes deface, and dims their glories all.II. But by record of antique times I findeThat wemen wont in warres to beare most sway,And to all great exploites them selves inclind,Of which they still the girlond bore away;Till envious Men, fearing their rules decay,Gan coyne streight lawes to curb their liberty:Yet sith they warlike armes have laide away,They have exceld in artes and pollicy,That now we foolish men that prayse gin eke t' envy.III. Of warlike puissaunce in ages spent,Be thou, faire Britomart, whose prayse I wryte;But of all wisedom bee thou precedent,O soveraine Queene! whose prayse I would endyte,Endite I would as dewtie doth excyte;But ah! my rymes too rude and rugged arre,When in so high an object they do lyte,And, striving fit to make, I feare, doe marre:Page 272 , Faerie Queene, The - Edmund Spenser