The Faerie Queene, Book III, Canto VI

Edmund Spenser 1552 (London) – 1599 (London)



THE THIRD BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QUEENE
Contayning
THE LEGENDE OF BRITOMARTIS
OR OF CHASTITIECANTO VI
     The birth of faire Belphoebe and
        Of Amoret is told.
    The Gardins of Adonis fraught
        With pleasures manifold.

i
    Well may I weene, faire Ladies, all this while
    Ye wonder, how this noble Damozell
    So great perfections did in her compile,
    Sith that in salvage forests she did dwell,
    So farre from court and royall Citadell,
   The great schoolmistresse of all curtesy:
   Seemeth that such wild woods should far expell
   All civill usage and gentility,
   And gentle sprite deforme with rude rusticity.

ii

   But to this faire Belphoebe in her berth
   The heavens so favourable were and free,
   Looking with myld aspect upon the earth,
   In th'Horoscope of her nativitee,
   That all the gifts of grace and chastitee
   On her they poured forth of plenteous horne;
   Jove laught on Venus from his soveraigne see,
   And Phoebus with faire beames did her adorne,
   And all the Graces rockt her cradle being borne.

iii

   Her berth was of the wombe of Morning dew,
   And her conception of the joyous Prime,
   And all her whole creation did her shew
   Pure and unspotted from all loathly crime,
   That is ingenerate in fleshly slime.
   So was this virgin borne, so was she bred,
   So was she trayned up from time to time,
   In all chast vertue, and true bounti-hed
   Till to her dew perfection she was ripened.

iv

   Her mother was the faire Chrysogonee,
   The daughter of Amphisa, who by race
   A Faerie was, yborne of high degree,
   She bore Belphoebe, she bore in like cace
   Faire Amoretta in the second place:
   These two were twinnes, and twixt them two did share
   The heritage of all celestiall grace.
   That all the rest it seem'd they robbed bare
   Of bountie, and of beautie, and all vertues rare.

v

   It were a goodly storie, to declare,
   By what straunge accident faire Chrysogone
   Conceiv'd these infants, and how them she bare,
   In this wild forrest wandring all alone,
   After she had nine moneths fulfild and gone:
   For not as other wemens commune brood,
   They were enwombed in the sacred throne
   Of her chaste bodie, nor with commune food,
   As other wemens babes, they sucked vitall blood.

vi

   But wondrously they were begot, and bred
   Through influence of th'heavens fruitfull ray,
   As it in antique bookes is mentioned.
   It was upon a Sommers shynie day,
   When Titan faire his beames did display,
   In a fresh fountaine, farre from all mens vew,
   She bath'd her brest, the boyling heat t'allay;
   She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,
   And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.

vii

   Till faint through irkesome wearinesse, adowne
    Upon the grassie ground her selfe she layd
   To sleepe, the whiles a gentle slombring swowne
   Upon her fell all naked bare displayd;
   The sunne-beames bright upon her body playd,
   Being through former bathing mollifide,
   And pierst into her wombe, where they embayd
   With so sweet sence and secret power unspide,
   That in her pregnant flesh they shortly fructifide.

viii

   Miraculous may seeme to him, that reades
   So straunge ensample of conception;
   But reason teacheth that the fruitfull seades
   Of all things living, through impression
   Of the sunbeames in moyst complexion,
   Doe life conceive and quickned are by kynd:
   So after Nilus inundation,
   Infinite shapes of creatures men do fynd,
   Informed in the mud, on which the Sunne hath shynd.

ix

   Great father he of generation
   Is rightly cald, th'author of life and light;
   And his faire sister for creation
   Ministreth matter fit, which tempred right
   With heate and humour, breedes the living wight.
   So sprong these twinnes in wombe of Chrysogone,
   Yet wist she nought thereof, but sore affright,
   Wondred to see her belly so upblone,
   Which still increast, till she her terme had full outgone.

x

   Whereof conceiving shame and foule disgrace,
   Albe her guiltlesse conscience her cleard,
   She fled into the wildernesse a space,
   Till that unweeldy burden she had reard,
   And shund dishonor, which as death she feard:
   Where wearie of long travell, downe to rest
   Her selfe she set, and comfortably cheard;
   There a sad cloud of sleepe her overkest,
   And s
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

3:32 min read
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Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBCDEXE CFFFXFBFGD HGHDDABAA IJIJJKJDD ABGBBLBLL LALAAMAMX KNDNNCNII ADADDDDDD BABAADADD AOAOOADAA BDBDDXDDB
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 4,238
Words 698
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 8, 10, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. more…

All Edmund Spenser poems | Edmund Spenser Books

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