All which when Artegal did see, and hear
How he misled the simple people's train,
In 'sdainful wise he drew unto him near,
And thus unto him spake, without regard or fear:

"Thou that presum'st to weigh the world anew,
And all things to an equal to restore,

Instead of right, meseems, great wrong dost shew,
And far above thy force's pitch to soar:
For, ere thou limit what is less or more
In every thing, thou oughtest first to know
What was the poise of every part of yore,
And look then how much it doth overflow
Or fail thereof; so much is more than just, I trow.

"For at the first they all created were
In goodly measure by their Maker's might,
And weighed out in balances so near
That not a dram was missing of their right;
The earth was in the middle centre pight,1
In which it doth immovable abide,
Hemmed in with waters like a wall in sight,"
And they with air, that not a drop can slide;

All which the heavens contain, and in their courses guide.

"Such heavenly justice doth among them reign,
That every one do know their certain bound,
In which they do these many years remain,

And 'mongst them all no change hath yet been found;
But, if thou now should'st weigh them new in pound,
We are not sure they would so long remain ;
All change is perilous, and all chance unsound;
Therefore leave off to weigh them all again,

Till we may be assured they shall their course retain."

"Thou foolish elf," said then the Giant wroth,
"See'st not how badly all things present be,
And each estate quite out of order goth?
The sea itself dost thou not plainly see
Encroach upon the land there under thee?
And the earth itself, how daily it's increased

By all that dying to it turned be?

Were it not good that wrong were then surceased,

And from the most that some were given to the least? 2 Perhaps, site.

1 Pitched, fixed.

"Therefore I will throw down these mountains high,
And make them level with the lowly plain;
These towering rocks, which reach unto the sky,
I will thrust down into the deepest main,
And, as they were, them equalize again.
Tyrants, that make men subject to their law,
I will suppress, that they no more may reign,
And lordings curb that commons over-awe,

And all the wealth of rich men to the poor will draw."

"Of things unseen how canst thou deem aright," Then answered the righteous Artegal,

"Sith thou misdeem'st so much of things in sight?
What though the sea with waves continual

Do eat the earth, it is no more at all,
Ne is the earth the less or loseth aught;
For whatsoever from one place doth fall,
Is with the tide unto another brought;

For there is nothing lost that may be found if sought.

"Likewise the earth is not augmented more
By all that dying unto it do fade;

For of the earth they formed were of yore:
However gay their blossom or their blade
Do flourish now, they into dust shall vade;1
What wrong then is it if that when they die
They turn to that whereof they first were made?
All in the power of their great Maker lie;

All creatures must obey the voice of the Most High.

"They live, they die, like as he doth ordain,

Ne ever any asketh reason why.

The hills do not the lowly dales disdain ;
The dales do not the lofty hills envy.
He maketh kings to sit in sovereignty;
He maketh subjects to their power obey;
He pulleth down, he setteth up on high;
He gives to this, from that he takes away;
For all we have is his; what he list do he may.

"Whatever thing is done by him is done,
Ne any may his mighty will withstand;
Ne any may his sovereign power shun,

1 Pass away.

Ne loose that he hath bound with stedfast band;
In vain, therefore, dost thou now take in hand
To call to count, or weigh his works anew,
Whose counsels' depth thou canst not understand,
Sith of things subject to thy daily view

Thou dost not know the causes nor their courses due.

"For take thy balance, if thou be so wise,

And weigh the wind that under heaven doth blow;
Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise;

Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow:
But, if the weight of these thou canst not show,
Weigh but one word which from thy lips doth fall:
For how canst thou those greater secrets know,
That dost not know the least thing of them all?
Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.”

Therewith the Giant, much abashed, said,
That he of little things made reckoning light;
Yet the least word that ever could be laid
Within his balance he could weigh aright.
"Which is," said he, "more heavy, then, in weight,
The right or wrong, the false or else the true?"
He answered that he would try it straight;

So he the words into his balance threw,

But straight the winged words out of his balance flew.

Wroth wexed he then, and said that words were light,
Ne could within his balance well abide ;

But he could justly weigh the wrong or right.

66 Well, then," said Artegal, “let it be tried;
First in one balance set the true aside."

He did so first, and then the false he laid

In the other scale; but still it down did slide,

And by no mean could in the weight be stayed;

For by no means the false will with the truth be weighed.

"Now take the right likewise," said Artegale,

"And counterpoise the same with so much wrong.”
So first the right he put into one scale,

And then the Giant strove, with puissance strong,
To fill the other scale with so much wrong;
But all the wrongs that he therein could lay
Might it not poise; yet did he labour long,

And swat, and chaufed, and proved every way;
Yet all the wrongs could not a little right downweigh.

Which when he saw he greatly grew in rage,
And almost would his balances have broken;
But Artegal him fairly gan assuage,

And said, "Be not upon thy balance wroken,1
For they do nought but right or wrong betoken;
But in the mind the doom of right must be;
And so likewise of words, the which be spoken,
The ear must be the balance to decree

And judge whether with truth or falsehood they agree.

"But set the truth and set the right aside,
For they with wrong or falsehood will not fare,
And put two wrongs together to be tried,
Or else two falses, of each equal share,
And then together do them both compare;
For truth is one, and right is ever one."
So did he, and then plain it did appear
Whether of them the greater were attone;
But right sat in the middest of the beam alone.

2

But he the right from thence did thrust away,
For it was not the right which he did seek;
But rather strove extremities to weigh,
The one to diminish, the other for to eke,
For of the mean he greatly did misleke;3
Whom when so lewdly minded Talus found,
Approaching nigh unto him cheek by cheek,
He shouldered him from off the higher ground,
And, down the rock him throwing, in the sea him drowned.

Like as a ship, whom cruel tempest drives
Upon a rock with horrible dismay,
Her shattered ribs in thousand pieces rives,
And, spoiling all her gears and goodly ray,*
Does make herself misfortune's piteous prey;
So down the cliff the wretched Giant tumbled;
His battered balances in pieces lay,

His timbered bones all broken rudely rumbled:

So was the high-aspiring with huge ruin humbled.

1 Revenged.

4 Array.

VOL. I.

2 Taken all together.

69

3 Mislike.

And mutining to stir up civil faction,2
For certain loss of so great expectation;
For well they hoped to have got great good
And wondrous riches by his innovation;
Therefore, resolving to revenge his blood,

They rose in arms, and all in battle order stood.

In old Greece and Rome the Poet was regarded as a species of Prophet, and called by the same name; both were held to be alike divinely inspired; but there are not many unveilings of the distant future in poetry so remarkable as this anticipation and refutation of the Liberty and Equality philosophism of the end of the eighteenth century in the end of the sixteenth. Nor has the kernel of that false philosophy ever perhaps been so acutely detected as it is in these verses, by the exposure, first, of the assumption involved in the original notion that equality is anywhere a law or principle of nature; secondly, of the impossibility of either establishing true equality, or even of ascertaining its existence, by such` rude, superficial, almost mechanical methods as human legislation has alone at its command. The essence or reality of things will not be weighed in any scales which its hand can hold.

OTHER ELIZABETHAN POETRY.

In the six or seven years from 1590 to 1596, what a world of wealth had thus been added to our poetry by Spenser alone! what a different thing from what it was before had the English language been made by his writings to natives, to foreigners, to all posterity! But England was now a land of song, and the busiest and most productive age of our poetical literature had fairly commenced. What are commonly called the minor poets of the Elizabethan age are to be counted by hundreds, and few of them are altogether without merit. If they have nothing else, the least

1 Perhaps misprint for "ran."

2 The reading of this line may be doubted.