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“There next the utmost brinck doth he abide
That did the bankets of the gods bewray,
Whose throat through thirst to nought nigh being dride,
His sense to seeke for ease turnes every way:
And he that in avengement of his pride,
For scorning to the sacred gods to pray,
Against a mountaine rolls a mightie stone,
Calling in vaine for rest, and can have none.

“Go ye with them, go, cursed damosells,
Whose bridale torches foule Erynnis tynde*,
And Hymen, at your spousalls sad, foretells
Tydings of death and massacre unkinde**:
With them that cruell Colchid mother dwells,
The which conceiv’d in her revengefull minde
With bitter woundes her owne deere babes to slay,
And murdred troupes upon great heapes to lay.
[* Tynde, kindled.]
[** Unkinde, unnatural.]

“There also those two Pandionian maides,
Calling on Itis, Itis evermore,
Whom, wretched boy, they slew with guiltie blades;
For whome the Thracian king lamenting sore,
Turn’d to a lapwing, fowlie them upbraydes,
And flattering round about them still does sore;
There now they all eternally complaine
Of others wrong, and suffer endles paine.

“But the two brethren* borne of Cadmus blood,
Whilst each does for the soveraignty contend,
Blinde through ambition, and with vengeance wood**,
Each doth against the others bodie bend
His cursed steele, of neither well withstood,
And with wide wounds their carcases doth rend;
That yet they both doe mortall foes remaine,
Sith each with brothers bloudie hand was slaine.
[* I.e. Eteocles and Polynices.]
[** Wood, mad.]

“Ah (waladay!) there is no end of paine,
Nor chaunge of labour may intreated bee:
Yet I beyond all these am carried faine,
Where other powers farre different I see,
And must passe over to th’Elisian plaine:
There grim Persephone, encountring mee,
Doth urge her fellow Furies earnestlie
With their bright firebronds me to terrifie.

“There chast Alceste lives inviolate,
Free from all care, for that her husbands daies
She did prolong by changing fate for fate:
Lo! there lives also the immortall praise
Of womankinde, most faithfull to her mate,
Penelope; and from her farre awayes
A rulesse* rout of yongmen which her woo’d,
All slaine with darts, lie wallowed in their blood.
[* Rulesse, rule-less.]

“And sad Eurydice thence now no more
Must turne to life, but there detained bee
For looking back, being forbid before:
Yet was the guilt thereof, Orpheus, in thee!
Bold sure he was, and worthie spirite bore,
That durst those lowest shadowes goe to see,
And could beleeve that anie thing could please
Fell Cerberus, or Stygian powres appease.

“Ne feard the burning waves of Phlegeton,
Nor those same mournfull kingdomes, compassed
With rustle horrour and fowle fashion;
And deep digd vawtes*; and Tartar covered
With bloodie night and darke confusion;
And iudgement seates, whose iudge is deadlie dred,
A iudge that after death doth punish sore
The faults which life hath trespassed before.
[* Vawtes, vaults.]

“But valiant fortune made Dan Orpheus bolde:
For the swift running rivers still did stand,
And the wilde beasts their furie did withhold,
To follow Orpheus musicke through the land:
And th’okes, deep grounded in the earthly molde,
Did move, as if they could him understand;
And the shrill woods, which were of sense bereav’d,
Through their hard barke his silver sound receav’d.

“And eke the Moone her hastie steedes did stay,
Drawing in teemes along the starrie skie;
And didst, O monthly Virgin, thou delay
Thy nightly course, to heare his melodie?
The same was able, with like lovely lay,
The Queene of Hell to move as easily
To yeeld Eurydiee unto her fere,
Backe to be borne, though it unlawfull were.