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“She, ladie, having well before approoved
The feends to be too cruell and severe,
Observ’d th’appointed way, as her behooved,
Ne ever did her eysight turne arere,
Ne ever spake, ne cause of speaking mooved;
But, cruell Orpheus, thou much crueller,
Seeking to kisse her, brok’st the gods decree,
And thereby mad’st her ever damn’d to be.

“Ah! but sweete love of pardon worthie is,
And doth deserve to have small faults remitted;
If Hell at least things lightly done amis
Knew how to pardon, when ought is omitted:
Yet are ye both received into blis,
And to the seates of happie soules admitted.
And you beside the honourable band
Of great heroes doo in order stand.

“There be the two stout sonnes of AEacus,
Fierce Peleus, and the hardie Telamon,
Both seeming now full glad and ioyeous
Through their syres dreadfull iurisdiction,
Being the iudge of all that horrid hous:
And both of them, by strange occasion,
Renown’d in choyce of happie marriage
Through Venus grace, and vertues cariage.

“For th’one was ravisht of his owne bondmaide,
The faire Ixione captiv’d from Troy:
But th’other was with Thetis love assaid,
Great Nereus his daughter and his ioy.
On this side them there is a yongman layd,
Their match in glorie, mightie, fierce, and coy,
That from th’Argolick ships, with furious yre,
Bett back the furie of the Troian fyre.

“O! who would not recount the strong divorces
Of that great warre, which Troianes oft behelde,
And oft beheld the warlike Greekish forces,
When Teucrian soyle with bloodie rivers swelde,
And wide Sigraean shores were spred with corses,
And Simois and Xanthus blood outwelde;
Whilst Hector raged, with outragious minde,
Flames, weapons, wounds, in Greeks fleete to have tynde.

“For Ida selfe, in ayde of that fierce fight,
Out of her mountaines ministred supplies;
And like a kindly nourse did yeeld, for spight,
Store of firebronds out of her nourseries
Unto her foster children, that they might
Inflame the navie of their enemies,
And all the Rhetaean shore to ashes turne,
Where lay the ships which they did seeke to burne.

“Gainst which the noble sonne of Telamon
Oppos’d himselfe, and thwarting* his huge shield,
Them battell bad; gainst whom appeard anon
Hector, the glorie of the Troian field:
Both fierce and furious in contention
Encountred, that their mightie strokes so shrild
As the great clap of thunder, which doth ryve
The railing heavens and cloudes asunder dryve.
[* Thwarting, interposing.]

“So th’one with fire and weapons did contend
To cut the ships from turning home againe
To Argos; th’other strove for to defend*
The force of Vulcane with his might and maine.
Thus th’one Aeacide did his fame extend:
But th’other ioy’d that, on the Phrygian playne
Having the blood of vanquisht Hector shedd,
He compast Troy thrice with his bodie dedd.
[* Defend, keep off.]

“Againe great dole on either partie grewe,
That him to death unfaithfull Paris sent;
And also him that false Ulysses slewe,
Drawne into danger through close ambushment;
Therefore from him Laertes sonne his vewe
Doth turn aside, and boasts his good event
In working of Strymonian Rhaesus fall,
And efte* in Dolons slye surprysall.
[* Efte, again.]

“Againe the dreadfull Cycones him dismay,
And blacke Laestrigones, a people stout;
Then greedie Scilla, under whom there bay
Manie great bandogs, which her gird about;
Then doo the AEtnean Cyclops him affray,
And deep Charybdis gulphing in and out;
Lastly the squalid lakes of Tartarie,
And griesly feends of hell him terrifie.