THE GRACES' DANCE.

FROM THE SAME.

FOR what hath all that goodly glorious gaze
Like to one sight which Calidore did vew ?

The glaunce whereof their dimmed eies would daze,
That never more they should endure the shew

Of that sunne-shine, that makes them looke askew : Ne ought in all that world of beauties rare

(Save only Glorianaes heavenly hew,

To which what can compare?) can it compare; The which, as commeth now by course, I will declare.

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 all others on the earth which were:
passe
For all that ever was by natures skill

Devisd to worke delight was gathered there;
And there by her were poured forth at fill,
As if this to adorne she all the rest did pill.

It was a hill plaste in an open plaine,

That round about was bordered 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 summer 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 waters 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.

They say that Venus, when she did dispose
Herselfe to pleasaunce, used to resort
Unto this place, and therein to repose
And rest herselfe as in a gladsome port,
Or with the Graces there to play and sport;
That even her owne Cytheron, though in it
She used most to keepe her royall court,
And in her soveraine majesty to sit,

She in regard hereof refusde, and thought unfit.

Unto this place whenas the elfin knight
Approcht, him seemed that the merry sound
Of a shrill pipe he playing heard on hight,
And many feete fast thumping th' hollow ground,
That through the woods their eccho did rebound.
He nigher drew, to weete what mote it bee:
There he a troupe of ladies dauncing found
Full merrily, and making gladfull glee,
And in the midst a shepheard piping he did see.

He durst not enter into th' open greene,
For dread of them unwares to be descryde,

For breaking of their daunce, if he were seene;
But in the covert of the wood did byde,
Beholding all, yet of them unespyde:

There he did see, that pleased much his sight,
That even he himselfe his eyes envyde,
An hundred naked maidens lilly white
All raunged in a ring and dauncing in delight.

All they without were raunged in a ring,

And daunced round; but in the midst of them
Three other ladies did both daunce and sing,

The whilest the rest them round about did hemme,
And like a girlond did in compasse stemme:
And in the middest of those same three was placed
Another damzell, as a precious gemme

Amidst a ring most richly well enchaced,
That with her goodly presence all the rest much graced.

Looke how the crowne, which Ariadne wore
Upon her yvory forehead, that same day
That Theseus her unto his bridale bore,

When the bold Centaures made that bloudy fray
With the fierce Lapithes, which did them dismay,
Being now placed in the firmament,

Through the bright heaven doth her beams display And is unto the starres an ornament,

Which round about her move in order excellent.

Such was the beauty of this goodly band, Whose sundry parts were here too long to tell:

But she that in the midst &c

Faery Queene, Book 6. Canto 10. V.14