1

So soft, though high, so loud, and yet so clear,
Even listening angels lean'd from Heaven to hear:
To farthest shores the ambrosial spirit flies,
Sweet to the world, and grateful to the skies.

66

Next these a youthful train their vows express'd,31
With feathers crown'd, with gay embroidery dress'd :
Hither, (they cried,) direct your eyes, and see
The men of pleasure, dress, and gallantry;
Ours is the place at banquets, balls, and plays,
Sprightly our nights, polite are all our days;
Courts we frequent, where 'tis our pleasing care
To pay due visits, and address the fair:
In fact, 'tis true, no nymph we could persuade,
But still in fancy vanquish'd every maid;
Of unknown duchesses lewd tales we tell,

375

380

385

Yet, would the world believe us, all were well.

The joy let others have, and we the name;
And what we want in pleasure grant in fame."

390

The Queen assents, the trumpet rends the skies,

And at each blast a lady's honour dies.

Pleased with the strange success, vast numbers press'd

Around the shrine, and made the same request.

395

"What! you (she cried) unlearn'd in arts to please,

Slaves to yourselves, and even fatigued with ease,
Who lose a length of undeserving days,

Would you usurp the lover's dear-bought praise ?
To just contempt, ye vain pretenders, fall,
The people's fable, and the scorn of all."
Straight the black clarion sends a horrid sound,
Loud laughs burst out, and bitter scoffs fly round,
Whispers are heard, with taunts reviling loud,
And scornful hisses run through all the crowd.

400

405

Last, those who boast of mighty mischiefs done,32 Enslave their country, or usurp a throne:

31 The reader might compare these twenty-eight lines following, which contain the same matter, with eighty-four of Chaucer, beginning thus:—

"Tho came the sixth companye,

And gan faste to Fame cry,"

being too prolix to be here inserted.

32"Tho came another companye,

That had y-done the treachery," &c.

Or who their glory's dire foundation laid
On sovereigns ruin'd, or on friends betray'd;
Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix,
Of crooked counsels and dark politics;

Of these a gloomy tribe surround the throne,
And beg to make the immortal treasons known.
The trumpet roars, long flaky flames expire,
With sparks, that seem'd to set the world on fire.
At the dread sound, pale mortals stood aghast,
And startled Nature trembled with the blast.

This having heard and seen, some power unknown 33

410

415

Straight changed the scene, and snatch'd me from the throne. Before my view appear'd a structure fair,

Its site uncertain, if in earth or air:

With rapid motion turn'd the mansion round;
With ceaseless noise the ringing walls resound;
Not less in number were the spacious doors,
Than leaves on trees, or sands upon the shores;
Which still unfolded stand, by night, by day,
Pervious to winds, and open every way.

420

425

33 The scene here changes from the Temple of Fame to that of Rumour, which is almost entirely Chaucer's. The particulars follow:

"Tho saw I stonde in a valey,

Under the castle fast by
A house, that Domus Dedali,
That Labyrinthus cleped is,
Nas made so wonderily, I wis,
Ne half so queintly y-wrought;
And evermo, as swift as thought,
This quient house about went,
That never more it still stent-
And eke this house hath of entrees
As many as leaves are on trees,
In summer when they ben grene;
And in the roof yet men may sene
A thousand hoels and well mo,
To letten the soune out go;
And by day in ev'ry tide
Ben all the doors open wide,
And by night each one unshet;
No porter is there one to let,
No manner tydings in to pace:
Ne never rest is in that place."

As flames by nature to the skies ascend,34

As weighty bodies to the centre tend,

As to the sea returning rivers roll,

430

And the touch'd needle trembles to the pole ;

Hither, as to their proper place, arise

All various sounds from earth, and seas, and skies,

Or spoke aloud, or whisper'd in the ear;

Nor ever silence, rest, or peace is here.

435

As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes,
The sinking stone at first a circle makes;
The trembling surface by the motion stirr'd,
Spreads in a second circle, then a third;
Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance,

440

Fill all the watery plain, and to the margin dance:
Thus every voice and sound, when first they break,
On neighb'ring air a soft impression make;
Another ambient circle then they move;

That, in its turn, impels the next above;
Through undulating air the sounds are sent,
And spread o'er all the fluid element.

There various news I heard of love and strife,35
and war,
health, sickness, death, and life,

Of peace

Of loss and gain, of famine and of store,

Of storms at sea, and travels on the shore,

Of prodigies, and portents seen in air,

Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair,

445

450

31 This thought is transferred hither out of the third book of Fame, where it takes up no less than one hundred and twenty verses, beginning thus:

"Geffray, thou wottest well this," &c.

35 "Of werres, of peace, of marriages,
Of rest, of labour, of voyages,
Of abode, of dethe, and of life,
Of love and hate, accord and strife,
Of loss, of lore, and of winnings,
Of hele, of sickness, and lessings,

Of divers transmutations
Of estates and eke of regions,
Of trust, of drede, of jealousy,
Of wit, of winning, and of folly,
Of good or bad government,
Of fire, and of divers accident."

Of turns of fortune, changes in the state,
The falls of fav'rites, projects of the great,
Of old mismanagements, taxations new:
All neither wholly false, nor wholly true.

36

Above, below, without, within, around,3 Confused, unnumber'd multitudes are found, Who pass, repass, advance, and glide away; Hosts raised by fear, and phantoms of a day: Astrologers, that future fates foreshew, Projectors, quacks, and lawyers not a few;

And priests, and party-zealots, numerous bands

With home-born lies, or tales from foreign lands;
Each talk'd aloud, or in some secret place,
And wild impatience stared in every face.
The flying rumours gather'd as they roll'd,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it added something new,
And all who heard it made enlargements too,
In every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew.
Thus flying east and west, and north and south,
News travelled with increase from mouth to mouth.
So from a spark, that kindled first by chance,
With gathering force the quickening flames advance;
Till to the clouds their curling heads aspire,
And towers and temples sink in floods of fire.

36"But such a great congregation

Of folke as I saw roam about,
Some within, and some without,
Was never seen, ne shall be eft-
"And every wight that I saw there
Rowned everich in others ear

A new tyding privily,

Or else he told it openly

Right thus, and said, 'Knowst not thou

That is betide to-night now?'

'No, (quoth he,) tell me what?'

And then he told them this and that, &c.
Thus north and south

Went every tyding fro mouth to mouth,

And that encreasing evermo,

As fire is wont to quicken and go
From a sparkle sprong amiss,
Till all the citee brent up is."

455

460

465

470

475

When thus ripe lies are to perfection sprung, Full grown, and fit to grace a mortal tongue, Through thousand vents, impatient, forth they flow, And rush in millions on the world below.

480

Fame sits aloft, and points them out their course,

Their date determines, and prescribes their force:
Some to remain, and some to perish soon;

485

Or wane and wax alternate like the moon.
Around, a thousand winged wonders fly,

Borne by the trumpet's blast, and scatter'd through the sky.

There, at one passage, oft you might survey

37

And long 'twas doubtful, both so closely pent,

A lie and truth contending for the way;

490

Which first should issue through the narrow vent:
At last agreed, together out they fly,

Inseparable now, the truth and lie;

The strict companions are for ever join'd,

And this or that unmix'd, no mortal e'er shall find.
While thus I stood, intent to see and hear,38
One came, methought, and whisper'd in my ear:
"What could thus high thy rash ambition raise ?
Art thou, fond youth, a candidate for praise ?"

495

500

""Tis true," said I, "not void of hopes I came,
For who so fond as youthful bards of fame?
But few, alas! the casual blessing boast,
So hard to gain, so easy to be lost.

How vain that second life in others' breath,
The estate which wits inherit after death!
Ease, health, and life, for this they must resign,
(Unsure the tenure, but how vast the fine!)

505

37" And sometime I saw there at once,

A lesing and a sad sooth saw

That gonnen at adventure draw
Out of a window forth to pace-

And no man be he ever so wrothe,

Shall have one of these two, but bothe," &c.

38 The hint is taken from a passage in another part of the third book, but here more naturally made the conclusion, with the addition of a moral to the whole. In Chaucer he only answers, "he came to see the place;" and the book ends abruptly, with his being surprised at the sight of a man of great authority, and awaking in a fright.