EXPLANATION OF THE OBSOLETE WORDS USED IN

THIS POEM.

Archimage, the chief, or great- Han, have.

est, of magicians or en- Hight, named, called; and

chanters.

Apaid, paid.
Appal, affright.
Atween, between.
Ay, always.

Base, sorrow, trouble, misfor

tune.

Benempt, named.

Blazon, painting, displaying.
Breme, cold, raw.

Carol, to sing songs of joy.
Caurus, north-east wind.

Certes, certainly.

sometimes A is used for is called. See stanza vii.

Idless, Idleness.

Imp, child, or offspring; from the Saxon impan, to graft or plant.

Kest, or cast.
Lad, for led.

Lea, a piece of land, or meadow

Libbard, leopard.

Dan, a word prefixed to Louting, bowing, bending.

Lig, to lie.

Losel, a loose idle fellow.

names.

Lithe, loose, lax.

Fays, fairies.

Ne, nor.

page, dress.

Glaive, sword (Fr.)

Glee, joy, pleasure.

Gear, or Geer, furniture, equi. Needments, necessaries.

Noursling, a child that is nur

sed.

Noyance, harm.

132

EXPLANATION OF OBSOLETE WORDS.

Prankt, coloured, adorned gai- Smackt, savoured.

ly. Perdie, (Fr. par Dieu) an old

oath,

Prick'd thro' the forest, rode

thro' the forest.
Scar, dry, burnt up.
Sheen, bright, shining.
Sicker, sure, surely.
Soot, sweet, or sweetly.
Sooth, true, or truth.

Stound, misfortune, pang.

Thrall, slave.
Transmew'd, transformed.
Vild, vile.

Unkempt (Lat. incomptus) un-
adorned.

Ween, to think, be of opinion.
Weet, to know, to weet, to wit.
Whilom, ere-while, formerly.
Wight, man.

Wis, for wist, to know, think,
understand.

Sweltry, sultry, consuming Wonne, (a noun) dwelling.

with heat.

Swink, to labour.

Wroke, wreakt.

N. B. The letter Y is frequently placed at the beginning of a word, by Spenser, to lengthen it a syllable, and en at the end of a word, for the same reason, as withouten, casten, &c.

Yborn, born.

Yfere, together.

Yblent, or blent, blended, min- Ymolten, melted.

gled.

Yclad, clad.

Keleped, called, named.

Yode, (the preter tense of jede,)

went.

THE

CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

CANTO I

The Castle high of Indolence,
And its false luxury,
Where, for a little time, alas!
We liv'd right jollily.

I.

O MORTAL Man! who livest here by toil,
Do not complain of this thy hard estate;
That like an emmet thou must ever moil,
Is a sad sentence of an ancient date:

And, certes, there is for it reason great:
For tho' sometimes it makes thee weep and wail,
And curse thy star, and early drudge and late,
Withouten that would come a heavier bale,
Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale.
II.

In lowly dale, fast by a river's side,

With woody hill o'er hill encompass'd round,
A most enchanting wizard did abide,

Than whom a fiend more fell is no where found.
was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground;

It

And there a season atween June and May,

Half prankt with spring, with summer half imbrown'd, A listless climate made, where, sooth to say,

No living wight could work, ne cared e'en for play.

III.

Was naught around but images of rest,
Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between,
And flowery beds, that slumb'rous influence kest
From poppies breath'd, and beds of pleasant green,
Where never yet was creeping creature seen.
Meantime unnumber'd glittering streamlets play'd,
And hurled every where their waters sheen,
That, as they bicker'd thro' the sunny glade,
Tho' restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made.
IV.

Join'd to the prattle of the purling rills,
Were heard the lowing herds along the vale,
And flocks loud-bleating from the distant hills,
And vacant shepherds piping in the dale;
And now and then sweet Philomel would wai
Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep,
That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale;
And still a coil the grashopper did keep;
Yet all these sounds yblent inclined all to sleep.
V.

Full in the passage of the vale, above,

A sable, silent, solemn forest stood,

Where naught but shadowy forms was seen to move,
As Idless fancy'd in her dreaming mood;
And up the hills, on either side, a wood
Of blackening pines, ay waving to and fro,
Sent forth a sleepy horror thro' the blood;
And where this valley winded out, below,

The murmuring main was heard, and scarcely heard, to flow.

VI.

A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was,

Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,
And of gay castles in the cloud that pass,

For ever flushing round a summer sky;