The Faerie Queene by Spenser

It falles me here to write of Chastity,

The fayrest vertue, far above the rest:

For which what needes me fetch from Faery

Forreine ensamples it. to have exprest?

Sith it is shrined in my Soveraines brest,

And formd so lively in each perfect part,

That to all Ladies, which have it profest,

Need but behold the pourtraict of her hart;

If pourtrayd it might bee by any living art.

But living art may not least part expresse,

Nor life-resembling pencill it can paynt:

All were it Zeuxis or Praxiteles,

His dsdale hand would faile and greatly faynt,

And her perfections with his error taynt:

Ne Poets witt, that passeth Painter farre

In picturing the parts of beauty daynt,

So hard a workemanship adventure darre,

For fear, through want of words,

her excellence to marre.

How then shall I, Apprentice of the skill,

That whylome¹ in diuinest wits did raine,

Presume so high to stretch mine humble quill?

Yet now my lucklesse lot doth me constraine

Hereto perforce. But ô dred Soueraine

Thus farre forth pardon, sith that choicest wit

Cannot your glorious pourtraict figure plaine

That I in colourd showes may shadow it,

And antique praises vnto present persons fit.

Note 1. whylome: formerly

But if in living colours, and right hew,

Your selfe you couet to see pictured,

Who can it doe more liuely, or more trew,

Then that sweet verse, with Nectar sprinckeled,

In which a gracious servant¹ pictured

His Cynthia², his heauens fairest light?

That with his melting sweetnesse rauished,

And with the wonder of her beames bright,

My senses lulled are in slomber of delight.

Note 1. Walter Raleigh.

Note 2. Cynthia: goddess of the moon and chastity, also Diana. Raleigh's poem Cynthia praises Queen Elizabeth's virtues.

But let that same delitious Poet lend

A little leaue vnto a rusticke Muse

To sing his mistresse prayse, and let him mend,

If ought amis her liking may abuse:

Ne let his fairest Cynthia refuse,

In mirrours more then one her selfe to see,

But either Gloriana¹ let her chuse,

Or in Belphoebe² fashioned to bee:

In th'one her rule, in th'other her rare chastitee.

Note 1. Gloriana: Queen of Faerieland.

Note 2. Belphoebe: a beautiful woman who will be a character in Canto V.