And is of late far out of order gone.
So Venus eeke, that goodly Paragone,
Though faire all night, yet is she darke all day:
And Phœbus selfe, who lightsome is alone,
Yet is he oft eclipsed by the way,
And fills the darkned world with terror and dismay.
“Now Mars, that valiant man, is changed most;
For he sometimes so far runnes out of square,
That he his way doth seem quite to have lost,
And cleane without his usuall spheere to fare;
That even these Star-gazers stonisht are
At sight thereof, and damne their lying bookes:
So likewise grim Sir Saturne oft doth spare
His sterne aspect, and calme his crabbed lookes.
So many turning cranks these have, so many crookes.
“But you, Dan Jove, that only constant are,
And King of all the rest, as ye doe clame,
Are you not subjedt eeke to this misfare?
Then, let me aske you this withouten blame;
Where were ye borne? Some say in Crete by name,
Others in Thebes, and others otherwhere;
But, wheresoever they comment the same,
They all consent that ye begotten were
And borne here in this world; ne other can appeare.
“Then are ye mortall borne, and thrall to me
Unlesse the kingdome of the sky yee make
Immortall and unchangeable to be:
Besides, that power and vertue which ye spake,
That ye here worke, doth many changes take,
And your owne natures change; for each of you,
That vertue have or this or that to make,
Is checkt and changed from his nature trew,
By others opposition or obliquid view.
“Besides, the sundry motions of your Spheares,
So sundry wayes and fashions as clerkes faine,
Some in short space, and some in longer yeares,
What is the same but alteration plaine?
Onely the starry skie doth still remaine:
Yet do the Starres and Signes therein still move,
And even itselfe is mov’d, as wizards saine:
But all that moveth doth mutation love;
Therefore both you and them to me I subject prove.
“Then, since within this wide great Universe
Nothing doth firme and permanent appeare,
But all things tost and turned by transverse,
What then should let, but I aloft should reare
My Trophee, and from all the triumph beare?
Now judge then, (O thou greatest goddesse trew)
According as thy selfe doest see and heare,
And unto me addoom that is my dew;
That is, the rule of all, all being rul’d by you.”
So having ended, silence long ensewed;
Nature to or fro spake for a space,
But with firme eyes affixt the ground still viewed.
Meane-while all creatures, looking in her face,
Expecting th’end of this so doubtfull case,
Did hang in long suspence what would ensew,
To whether side should fall the soveraine place:
At length she, looking up with chearefull view,
The silence brake, and gave her doome in speeches few.
“I well consider all that ye have said,
And find that all things stedfastnesse do hate
And changed be; yet, being rightly wayd,
They are not changed from their first estate;
But by their change their being do dilate,
And turning to themselves at length againe,
Do worke their owne perfection so by fate:
Then over them Change doth not rule and raigne,
But they raigne over Change, and do their states maintaine.
“Cease therefore, daughter, further to aspire,
And thee content thus to be rul’d by mee,
For thy decay thou seekst by thy desire;
But time shall come that all shall changed bee,
And from thenceforth none no more change shal see.”
So was the Titanesse put downe and whist,
And Jove confirm’d in his imperiall see.
Then was that whole assembly quite dismist,
And Natur’s selfe did vanish, whither no man wist.
Canto VIII
Unperfite
When I bethink me, on that speech whyleare
Of Mutabilitie, and well it way:
Me seemes, that though she all unworthy were
Of the heav’ns rule; yet, very sooth to say,
In all things else she bears the greatest sway.
Which makes me loath this state of life so tickle,
And love of things so vaine to cast away;
Whose flowring pride, so fading and so fickle,
Short Time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle.
Then gin I thihke on that which Nature said,
Of that same time when no more Chance shall be
But stedfast rest of all things, firmly stayd
Upon the Pillours of Eternity,
That is contrayr, to Mutabilitie:
For all that moveth doth in Change delight:
But thenceforth all shall rest eternally
With Him that is the God of Sabaoth hight:
O that great Sabaoth God, grant me that sabaoths sight.
Colophon
The Faerie Queene
was published in 1596 by
Edmund Spenser.
This ebook was transcribed and produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Emma Sweeney,
and is based on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
The Ermine Portrait of Elizabeth I of England,
a painting completed in 1585 by
Sir William Segar.
The cover and title pages feature the
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