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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN STUDIES IN
FAMILY AND INTIMATE LIFE

Romantic
Relationships
in a Time of
‘Cold Intimacies’
Edited by
Julia Carter · Lorena Arocha
Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family
and Intimate Life

Series Editors
Graham Allan
Keele University
Keele, UK

Lynn Jamieson
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, UK

David H.J. Morgan


University of Manchester
Manchester, UK
‘The Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life series is
impressive and contemporary in its themes and approaches’—Professor
Deborah Chambers, Newcastle University, UK, and author of New Social
Ties.
The remit of the Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate
Life series is to publish major texts, monographs and edited collections
focusing broadly on the sociological exploration of intimate relationships
and family organization. The series covers a wide range of topics such as
partnership, marriage, parenting, domestic arrangements, kinship, demo-
graphic change, intergenerational ties, life course transitions, step-families,
gay and lesbian relationships, lone-parent households, and also non-­
familial intimate relationships such as friendships and includes works by
leading figures in the field, in the UK and internationally, and aims to
contribute to continue publishing influential and prize-winning research.

More information about this series at


http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14676
Julia Carter • Lorena Arocha
Editors

Romantic
Relationships in a
Time of ‘Cold
Intimacies’
Editors
Julia Carter Lorena Arocha
University of the West of England University of Hull
Bristol, UK Hull, UK

Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life


ISBN 978-3-030-29255-3    ISBN 978-3-030-29256-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29256-0

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020


This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans-
mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgements

First, we would like to thank the contributors to this volume, each of


whom has worked hard, met deadlines and stayed patient with our many
emails, reminders and requests. It has been a pleasure to work with you
all (and to work together as editors for the first time) and we hope that
we have nurtured some useful relationships within our scholarly com-
munity. It has also been good to work with Palgrave and we extend our
thanks to Amelia Derkatsch for her always reliable assistance and the
anonymous reviewer who provided excellent, invaluable and incredibly
detailed feedback on our initial proposal: thank you. We extend our
appreciation to the British Sociological Association and the Families and
Relationships study group who funded the original workshop from which
this project emerged back in July 2017. May their support for early career
scholars fund many an edited collection. Finally, we would like to thank
our families and friends for providing support when we needed it and for
encouraging us in our low moments; for this, a special thank you belongs
to Daniel Smith.

v
Contents

1 Introduction  1
Julia Carter and Lorena Arocha

Section I The Great Transformation of Love  15

2 Intimate Relationships and Choice in a Time of ‘Cold


Intimacies’: Examining Illouz 17
Rachel Thwaites

3 Making Up and Breaking Up: The Changing


Commitments of Age-­Dissimilar Couples 37
Lara McKenzie

4 The Transformation of Love? Choice, Emotional


Rationality and Wedding Gifts 57
Julia Carter and Daniel Smith

vii
viii Contents

Section II Sexual Abundance and Emotional Inequalities  81

5 ‘I Would Like to Be Better at It’: A Critical Engagement


with Illouz’s Account of Men and Intimacy in Romantic
Relationships 83
Fiona McQueen and Sharani Osborn

6 Swipe Right? Tinder, Commitment and the


Commercialisation of Intimate Life109
Jenny van Hooff

7 Dating in the Age of Tinder: Swiping for Love?129


Lauren Palmer

Section III Women’s Exclusivist Strategies 151

8 Wretched? Women’s Questions of Love and Labour in the


People’s Republic of China153
Alison Lamont

9 Chasing Happiness: The Role of Marriage in the


Aspiration of Success Among China’s Middle-Class
Women181
Kailing Xie

10 ‘I Entered This Life Because My Husband Left Me, I Have


to Be Careful Now’: A Study of Domesticity, Intimacy
and Belonging in the Lives of Women in Sex Work
in a Red-Light Area in Eastern India207
Mirna Guha
Contents ix

Section IV From Romantic Fantasy to Disappointment 233

11 ‘Utterly Heart-Breaking and Devastating’: Couple


Relationships and Intensive Parenting Culture in a Time
of ‘Cold Intimacies’235
Charlotte Faircloth

12 ‘I Wanted a Happy Ever After Life’: Love, Romance and


Disappointment in Heterosexual Single Mothers’
Intimacy Scripts261
Charlotte Morris

13 The Affective Politics of Progress Narratives: Women


Talking About Equality in Heterosexual Relationships285
Raisa Jurva

Index 309
Notes on Contributors

Lorena Arocha is Lecturer in Contemporary Slavery at the Wilberforce


Institute at the University of Hull, UK. Her research sits at the intersec-
tion of policy and practice around cross-cutting issues of modern slavery,
migration, development and socio-political inequalities. She is working
on a research project with colleagues based at the Advanced Centre for
Women’s Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai
examining the collective organising strategies of workers in exploitation
in India.

Julia Carter is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of the


West of England. Her research interests include marriage and relation-
ships, families and personal life, gender and sexuality and weddings.
She is particularly interested in intimate relationships and the roles
these play in an ever-changing social context. Her previous publications
have focused on marriage and narratives of love, sexuality and commit-
ment, and living apart together relationships, policy and social change.
Her more recent publications focus on weddings, gender and race and
her book Reinventing Couples: Tradition, Agency and Bricolage (co-
authored with Simon Duncan) was published in 2018 by Palgrave
Macmillan.

xi
xii Notes on Contributors

Charlotte Faircloth is Lecturer in Sociology of Gender in the


Department of Social Science, University College London, UK. Her
work has explored cultures of parenthood, with a focus on gender, inti-
macy and equality. She has published widely, including the books Militant
Lactivism? Attachment Parenting and Intensive Motherhood in the UK and
France and Parenting Culture Studies. She has also edited numerous jour-
nal special issues in addition to the volumes Parenting in Global Perspective
and Feeding Children Inside and Outside the Home.

Mirna Guha is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Anglia Ruskin University


(ARU), Cambridge. Her research specialisms include sex work, gender-­
based violence, social relations and social justice. Mirna has a PhD in
International Development from the University of East Anglia, which
explored experiences and negotiations with everyday violence in the lives
of women formerly and currently in sex work in eastern India. Findings
from this research have been published in Gender, Place and Culture;
Gender and Development and the International Journal of Fashion Studies.
At ARU, Mirna teaches feminist theory and practice, sexuality and social
control and globalisation and social policy.

Raisa Jurva is finalising her doctoral thesis in Gender Studies at the


Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. Her research
interests include ambivalent attachments of intimacy, entanglements of
power and affect in intimate relationships, feminist and queer theories
and methodologies and life course perspectives on gender. She has pub-
lished on discourses of heterosexuality in sex education materials, men’s
experiences of prostate cancer treatment and female complaint as an
expression of gender inequality. Her doctoral research is part of the
Academy of Finland funded research project ‘Just the Two of Us? Affective
Inequalities in Intimate Relationships’ (287983).

Alison Lamont Having completed her PhD as part of the Universität


Duisburg-Essen’s “Risk and East Asia” Graduiertenkolleg 1613, Alison
works on risk and modernity within the People’s Republic of China,
focussing on families and the role of the state in private relationships. As
Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at the University of Roehampton,
Notes on Contributors xiii

she is working on a monograph exploring the rebuilding of nuclear fami-


lies after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China.

Lara McKenzie is Honorary Research Fellow in Anthropology and


Sociology at The University of Western Australia. Her research focuses on
Australia, and particularly on gender, age, love and kinship. Lara’s book,
Age-Dissimilar Couples and Romantic Relationships: Ageless Love? (2015),
explores age-dissimilar couples. She has previously undertaken research
on inequality and cultural difference in education and is now conducting
a study on precarious academics’ experiences of looking for stable work in
universities. Her writing here addresses the themes of gender, age, casu-
alisation and audit practices.

Fiona McQueen is a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University specialis-


ing in Gender and Sexuality, having finished her PhD at University of
Edinburgh at CRFR (Centre for Research on Families and Relationships)
in 2015. Fiona is interested in intersections between gender, power and
emotion within intimate relationships. A specific interest relates to how
gendered patterns of emotion serve to normalise affective inequalities
within heterosexual relationships influenced by therapeutic culture, yet
are resistant to changes in gender equality, making the reproduction of
male power invisible.

Charlotte Morris is employed as a lecturer in education. She completed


her doctoral thesis on the topic of heterosexual single mothers’ narratives
of intimacy in 2014 at the University of Sussex and has continued to
work there in a teaching capacity. She also has research interests in gender
and education, feminist pedagogies and higher education cultures.

Sharani Osborn is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and an


associate researcher with the Centre for Families and Relationships. Her
research with mothers and fathers explores how parents negotiate the
intersection of constructions of parenting, childhood and gender in
reflections on their role, relationships and practice, with attention to
the temporality of relations between generations and the interaction of
contending discourses. An abiding interest is the consideration of how
xiv Notes on Contributors

different conceptualisations of gender, and of masculinities in particu-


lar, theorise the de-gendering and re-gendering processes in the fine-
grained practices of family life and relationships.

Lauren Palmer is a sociology graduate of Canterbury Christ Church


University who has conducted research into young people’s dating prac-
tices on social media, in particular the extent to which technology effects
romantic relationships. She now works for the National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) as a Market Insights Analyst,
looking at how NSPCC services ensure they meet the needs of vulnerable
children and families. Her wider interests include gender inequalities,
policy and public affairs and international development.

Daniel Smith is Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences


at Cardiff University (UK). His interests include the social theory and
anthropology of gift exchange and its role in the sociology of class. This
is explored in his ethnography of the British upper-middle classes, Elites,
Race and Nationhood: The Branded Gentry (Palgrave, 2016). His research
also extends to an interest in the sociology of comedy and humour.
Comedy & Critique: Stand-up Comedy and the Professional Ethos of
Laughter was published by the University of Bristol Press in 2018.

Rachel Thwaites is a visiting fellow at the University of Lincoln, UK,


where she was previously Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy.
She has research and teaching interests in gender and inequalities, identi-
ties, contemporary heterosexual relationships, early career work experi-
ences in academia and the arts and the sociology of health and illness. She
is working as a senior research officer at the Scottish Government. This
role is separate from her academic interests and is unconnected to the
work or views expressed in this volume.

Jenny van Hooff is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester


Metropolitan University, UK. She is a sociologist of personal life and has
published work on couple relationships, sexual practices, relationship
breakdown, infidelity and friendship.
Notes on Contributors xv

Kailing Xie is Teaching Fellow at the Politics and International


Development at the University of Warwick, where she is the course direc-
tor for gender and international development. She completed her PhD at
the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York. Her work
explores the role of gender in contemporary Chinese governance. Her
PhD thesis adopts a feminist approach to understanding how gender
affects the lives of China’s urban privileged only-daughters. Her broader
research interests include feminist approaches to social justice, identity
politics and race and nationalism in contemporary China.
1
Introduction
Julia Carter and Lorena Arocha

This edited collection emerged from a workshop held in July 2017 which
was funded by the British Sociological Association (BSA) regional early
career workshop fund. Participants at the event included some of the
contributors in this volume and others joined this writing project at later
stages. Authors include postgraduate and early career academics, more
established scholars, not all in academia, and almost all women. The con-
tributions to this volume get to the heart of discussions and debates cen-
tral to problematisations of ‘intimacy’ and the sociology of family life.
This centrality of intimacy to sociological debate does not mean that
‘intimacy’, as a concept, is well defined and equally articulated. ‘Intimacy’
can often be taken for granted, a buzzword at risk of becoming meaningless

J. Carter (*)
University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
e-mail: julia.carter@uwe.ac.uk
L. Arocha
University of Hull, Hull, UK
e-mail: Lorena.Arocha@hull.ac.uk

© The Author(s) 2020 1


J. Carter, L. Arocha (eds.), Romantic Relationships in a Time of ‘Cold Intimacies’,
Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29256-0_1
2 J. Carter and L. Arocha

(Geschiere 2013: 24) and yet fundamental to explanations of social and


personal dynamics observed across societies from the last decades of the
twentieth century. It has commonly been reduced to mean sexual rela-
tions in heterosexual couples, but its etymology indicates a wider mean-
ing, ‘intimacy is to make known to a close friend what is innermost’
(Kasulis 2002: 28). Hence, ‘intimacy’ better relates to the interaction
between interpersonal relations and the public sphere and sees these as
mutually constituted (Berlant 1998: 282–3). ‘Intimacy’ is frequently cast
in positive and celebratory terms when linked to ‘modern’ Euro-American
societies (Jamieson 2011), as in the democratisation of intimacy seen by
Giddens (1992), which can serve to exaggerate and reify geopolitical dif-
ferences, characterised as cultural differences along a binary logic
(Khandelwal 2009). Both Khandelwal (2009) and Jamieson (1998,
2011) see, however, the potential for ‘intimacy’ to provide a locus from
which to conduct in-depth studies, exploring differences and particulari-
ties to arrive at nuanced and intricate understandings of how we relate to
others and how these everyday practices of intimacies are co-constituted
and shape the state (Puri 2016).
This volume is a conversation with this body of work and with that of
Eva Illouz (2007, 2012) more particularly. Illouz focuses on exploring the
impact of the intensification of commercialisation and the forms and
conditions of intimate relationships. She offers an explanation for how
specific individuals make sense of themselves in late modernity, and how
love, romance and intimacy can offer a route to salvation, even if only
temporarily and ultimately leading to suffering. Hers is a theory that aims
to make sense of transformations seen across societies, which have been
associated with the growth and proliferation of mass and digital media,
the arrival of new and improved technologies of transportation and
reproduction, the expansion of consumerism and its logic and the accel-
eration of the individualistic ‘therapeutic culture’, which fosters the tell-
ing of self-narratives and self-help literature (Plummer 1996; Giddens
1992; Illouz 2007). Shifts in ‘practices of intimacy’ (Jamieson 1998,
2011) include the rise in non-married cohabitation, increases in child-
birth outside of marriage and the use of commercial surrogacy, the legali-
sation of same-sex marriage, increased attention on living alone or living
apart from partners and changes to ‘arranged’ marriage practices. Equally,
1 Introduction 3

these shifts lead to the creation of moral panics and subsequent moral
crusades around the normalisation and expansion of commercialised sex-
ual exchanges, trafficking for sexual exploitation, cross-border marriages
and mail-order brides, forced and child marriages, sex tourism and the
impact of the feminisation of migration and the emergence of transna-
tional care systems on children left behind. Theories and explanations for
these shifts tend to overstate change and underemphasise continuity
along the familiar trope of geopolitical modernity (or progress narratives).
Many have contested these grand theories as they can ‘provide little
real aid in understanding the direct empirical world’ (Plummer 1996:
37). Family sociology consequently moved towards documenting the
intricacies and practices of relationships and family life (e.g. Morgan
1996; Finch 2007; Nordqvist 2010; Phoenix and Brannen 2014; van
Hooff 2016; Carter 2017; Thwaites 2013; Morris 2015). Yet this narrow
empirical focus, while vital in providing robust evidence for theory-­
testing, has also obscured the ways in which the ‘family’ operates in tan-
dem with wider society. Others have, therefore, adopted a more processual
concept of intimacy that allows us to explore more than one institutional
framework, one idiom of representation and one orientation (Herzfeld
2016: 51) and recognise the ambivalence and tensions contained in inti-
macy (Berlant 1998). The notion of intimacy can therefore include atti-
tudes, practices, desires and feelings that are safe and dangerous, that
bring solace or erupt in violence, that lead to salvation or condemnation
and where virtual encounters and increased internal and cross-border
mobility have altered the relation between intimacy and distance. Scholars
studying people on the move have contributed to a reworking of ‘inti-
macy’: ‘a productive space where intimacy is shaped as much through
emotion and the imagination as by structural constraints’ (Bloch 2017:
118 and also Brennan 2004; Constable 2003, 2005, 2009; Cheng 2010;
Faier 2009; Hirsch and Wardlow 2006; Padilla et al. 2007). Illouz, though
focused primarily on Western societies and drawing on experiences of
middle-class and majority groups, attempts to draw out some of these
tensions and provides an explanation for the modern condition of love,
focusing on why, if love hurts, many still feel it is a hurt worth suf-
fering for.
4 J. Carter and L. Arocha

On the face of it, her account, which incorporates the therapeutic turn
and infusion of economics into romance, offers an appealing alternative
lens to existing grand theory (e.g. Giddens 1992; Beck and Beck-­
Gernsheim 2002, 2014; Bauman 2003). Illouz draws on theories of indi-
vidualisation—particularly Giddens (1992)—to coolly endorse a late
modernity where the very process of choice-making has changed signifi-
cantly. For Illouz, ‘modern’ conditions of love inevitably produce suffer-
ing due to the expansion of the logic of consumerism where ‘free’ and
abundant choice has extended to personal relations, but the conditions of
choice are imbued with uncertainty and risk. The way we make decisions
about relationships speaks of an instrumental and strategic approach
which is—she claims—fundamentally different to the past, where these
decisions were embedded in wider moral and social communities. Now,
she argues, individuals are left out in the cold to make romantic decisions
based purely on their self-rational calculations. Due to these changes in
the architecture (reflexivity) and ecology (social conditions) of choice,
‘modern’ marriage markets have irrevocably changed. And yet, the revers-
ibility of choice in who is selected as a potential partner has increased the
uncertainty and risk of every decision made. Moreover, as men and
women differ in their strategies and aspirations, this ecology of choice
reproduces and maintains the pervasive inequality that characterise gen-
der relations.
Marriage markets have opened up so that class positions no longer
determine suitable partners but the consequent increase in choice
(enabled and encouraged by dating apps, for example) leads to greater
suffering as there is less certainty and security in any choice made. This is
explored by Ansari and Klinenberg (2015) in Modern Romance, which
documents fundamental changes in our expectations about courtship
because of significant changes in how people ‘search’ for a romantic part-
ner (what Illouz calls the romantic ecology) and who individuals consider
to be the ‘right’ person (what Illouz calls the romantic architecture). The
seemingly endless possibilities—especially in big cities and with the use
of dating technologies—mean that the stakes for making the wrong deci-
sion are necessarily incredibly high; as Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (2014:
46) say, ‘the greater the choice, the stronger the temptation’ to look else-
where. Moreover—Illouz states—the considerations involved in such
1 Introduction 5

decision-making are different, since couple relationships ought to achieve


individual fulfilment, realise individual’s ‘destiny’ and accomplish
­emotional inner balance. Or as Ansari and Klinenberg suggests: coupling
involves ‘very deep connections between the two people that made them
feel like they’d found someone unique, not just someone who was pleas-
ant to start a family with’ (2015: 20).
Illouz finds a difference in how decisions are made today about inti-
mate coupling, decisions which are dis-embedded from groups and com-
munities and are now located solely within an individual’s cognitive
calculation. This cognitive effort relies upon rational, economic balances
rather than romantic visions of all-encompassing love and it is in this way
that emotions have ‘cooled’ and intimacy became cold. It should be
noted, however, that many theorists of grand social changes in intimacy,
including authors mentioned above, have focused their attention on large
cosmopolitan, multicultural and largely Western cities. Seebach (2016),
following a long history of sociologists and anthropologists who have
focused on the forms and conditions of personal relations in urban set-
tings, notes that the dis-embedding of people from identity-providing
social contexts is easily intuited in large cities.
Nevertheless, Illouz offers a nuanced account of the process of, and
changes within, intimate decision-making, partly as the result of the
arrival of digital dating technology, and details how this has impacted on
choice, commitment and marriage markets. Illouz also does not overlook
continuities in unequal gendered relations and provides a convincing
explanation for the continuation of male dominance in sexual fields and
marriage markets. This explanation is also unique in offering an insight
into modern romantic suffering and the specific conditions which bring
about this routine emotional experience. However, she does this from
within particular registers, localities and anchored in majority norms.
The chapters in this volume engage with and critique Illouz’s theory of
the grand transformation in love and here are organised under the follow-
ing sections. It is important to note that many of the chapters discuss
themes that cut across these sections, and this we highlight later. The sec-
tion headings below follow Illouz’s (2012) in Why Love Hurts.
‘The great transformation of love’ deals with some of the underlying
assumptions of Illouz’s argument, in particular her conceptualisation of
6 J. Carter and L. Arocha

choice, commitment and rationality. In Chap. 2, Rachel Thwaites, focus-


ing on heterosexual relationships in Western societies specifically, argues
that Illouz’s theorisation of choice does not go far enough to explain the
tensions and ambiguities within this notion of choice, leaving its under-
lying political and gendered dynamics largely unexplored and under-­
theorised. Choice is also a key component in Chap. 3 by Lara McKenzie.
She finds that in conversations with age-dissimilar couples undertaken in
Perth, Western Australia, choice is emphasised in relation to family obli-
gation and commitment, complicating ‘free choice’ decisions on whom
to partner with. As a resolution, McKenzie suggests that ‘free choice’ on
intimate relationships is co-constituted alongside commitment and obli-
gation of family relations, and these need not necessarily be in tension. In
the final chapter of this section, Julia Carter and Daniel Smith explore
the limits to ‘choice’ by paying attention to the meanings behind the
exchange of wedding gifts in conversations with couples and individuals
in England. The authors take issue with Illouz’s conceptualisation of
choice and in particular the notion of its reversibility which—the authors
argue—finds its limits within intimate consumption practices such as the
exchange of wedding gifts.
‘Sexual abundance and emotional inequalities’ explores in some detail
gender differences in dating and emotional competence. In the first chap-
ter of this section, McQueen and Osborn engage with Illouz’s conceptu-
alisation of the therapeutic ethos which—as Illouz states—has seen a
convergence in emotional competence between middle-class men and
women and divergence between middle- and working-class men. To the
contrary, McQueen and Osborn find no class differences in positive ori-
entations towards emotional disclosure among men, regardless of their
class position, and instead confirm differences in emotional openness
between men and women among the Scottish heterosexual men and
women they interviewed. Differences in the aspirations, strategies, desires
and feelings between men and women are further explored by Jenny van
Hooff and Lauren Palmer, who both focused on the role of Tinder, a digi-
tal application for dating. Illouz (as well as Beck and Beck-Gernsheim
2014 and Horvat 2015, among others) posits that dating technologies
have enabled and promoted short-termism in relationships (or ‘commit-
ment phobia’ in men) because of the appearance of abundant choice. In
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And did all winter as in sommer bud,
Spredding pauilions for the birds to bowre,
Which in their lower braunches sung aloud;
And in their tops the soring hauke did towre,
Sitting like King of fowles in maiesty and powre.

And at the foote thereof, a gentle flud vii


His siluer waues did softly tumble downe,
Vnmard with ragged mosse or filthy mud,
Ne mote wylde beastes, ne mote the ruder clowne
Thereto approch, ne filth mote therein drowne:
But Nymphes and Faeries by the bancks did sit,
In the woods shade, which did the waters crowne,
Keeping all noysome things away from it,
And to the waters fall tuning their accents fit.

And on the top thereof a spacious plaine viii


Did spred it selfe, to serue to all delight,
Either to daunce, when they to daunce would faine,
Or else to course about[558] their bases light;
Ne ought there wanted, which for pleasure might[559]
Desired be, or thence to banish bale:
So pleasauntly the hill with equall hight,
Did seeme to ouerlooke the lowly vale;
Therefore it rightly cleeped was mount Acidale.

They say that Venus, when she did dispose ix


Her selfe to pleasaunce, vsed to resort
Vnto this place, and therein to repose
And rest her selfe, as in a gladsome port,
Or with the Graces there to play and sport;
That euen her owne Cytheron, though in it
She vsed most to keepe her royall court,
And in her soueraine Maiesty to sit,
She in regard hereof refusde and thought vnfit.

Vnto this place when as the Elfin Knight x


Approcht, him seemed that the merry sound
Of a shrill pipe he playing heard on hight,
And many feete fast thumping th’hollow ground,
That through the woods their Eccho did rebound.
He nigher drew, to weete what mote it be;
There he a troupe of Ladies dauncing found
Full merrily, and making gladfull glee,
And in the midst a Shepheard piping he did see.

He durst not enter into th’open greene, xi


For dread of them vnwares to be descryde,
For breaking of their daunce, if he were seene;
But in the couert of the wood did byde,
Beholding all, yet of them vnespyde.
There he did see, that pleased much his sight,
That euen he him selfe his eyes enuyde,
An hundred naked maidens lilly white,
All raunged in a ring, and dauncing in delight.

All they without were raunged in a ring, xii


And daunced round; but in the midst of them
Three other Ladies did both daunce and sing,
The whilest the rest them round about did hemme,
And like a girlond did in compasse stemme:
And in the middest of those same three, was placed
Another Damzell, as a precious gemme,
Amidst a ring most richly well enchaced,
That with her goodly presence all the rest much graced.

Looke how the Crowne, which Ariadne wore xiii


Vpon her yuory forehead that same day,
That Theseus her vnto his bridale bore,
When the bold Centaures made that bloudy fray,
With the fierce Lapithes, which did them dismay;
Being now placed in the firmament,
Through the bright heauen doth her beams display,
And is vnto the starres an ornament,
Which round about her moue in order excellent.

Such was the beauty of this goodly band, xiv


Whose sundry parts were here too long to tell:
But she that in the midst of them did stand,
Seem’d all the rest in beauty to excell,
Crownd with a rosie girlond, that right well
Did her beseeme. And euer, as the crew
About her daunst, sweet flowres, that far did smell,
And fragrant odours they vppon her threw;
But most of all, those three did her with gifts endew.

Those were the Graces, daughters of delight, xv


Handmaides of Venus, which are wont to haunt
Vppon this hill, and daunce there day and night:
Those three to men all gifts of grace do graunt,
And all, that Venus in her selfe doth vaunt,
Is borrowed of them. But that faire one,
That in the midst was placed parauaunt,
Was she to whom that shepheard pypt alone,
That made him pipe so merrily, as neuer none.

She was to weete that iolly Shepheards lasse, xvi


Which piped there vnto that merry rout,
That iolly shepheard, which there piped, was
Poore Colin Clout (who knowes not Colin Clout?)
He pypt apace, whilest they him daunst about.
Pype iolly shepheard, pype thou now apace
Vnto thy loue, that made thee low to lout:
Thy loue is present there with thee in place,
Thy loue is there aduaunst to be another Grace.

Much wondred Calidore at this straunge sight, xvii


Whose like before his eye had neuer seene,
And standing long astonished in spright,
And rapt with pleasaunce, wist not what to weene;
Whether it were the traine of beauties Queene,
Or Nymphes, or Faeries, or enchaunted show,
With which his eyes mote haue deluded beene.
Therefore resoluing, what it was, to know,
Out of the wood he rose, and toward them did go.

But soone as he appeared to their vew, xviii


They vanisht all away out of his sight,
And cleane were gone, which way he neuer knew;
All saue the shepheard, who for fell despight
Of that displeasure, broke his bag-pipe quight,
And made great mone for that vnhappy turne.
But Calidore, though no lesse sory wight,
For that mishap, yet seeing him to mourne,
Drew neare, that he the truth of all by him mote learne.

And first him greeting, thus vnto him spake, xix


Haile iolly shepheard, which thy ioyous dayes
Here leadest in this goodly merry make,
Frequented of these gentle Nymphes alwayes,
Which to thee flocke, to heare thy louely layes;
Tell me, what mote these dainty Damzels be,
Which here with thee doe make their pleasant playes?
Right happy thou, that mayst them freely see:
But why when I them saw, fled they away from me?

Not I so happy[560], answerd then that swaine, xx


As thou vnhappy, which them thence didst chace,
Whom by no meanes thou canst recall againe,
For being gone, none can them bring in place,
But whom they of them selues list so to grace.
Right sory I, (saide then Sir Calidore,)
That my ill fortune did them hence displace.
But since things passed none may now restore,
Tell me, what were they all, whose lacke thee grieues so sore.

Tho gan that shepheard thus for to dilate; xxi


Then wote thou shepheard, whatsoeuer thou bee,
That all those Ladies, which thou sawest late,
Are Venus Damzels, all within[561] her fee,
But differing in honour and degree:
They all are Graces, which on her depend,
Besides a thousand more, which ready bee
Her to adorne, when so she forth doth wend:
But those three in the midst, doe chiefe on her attend.

They are the daughters of sky-ruling Ioue, xxii


By him begot of faire Eurynome,
The Oceans daughter, in this pleasant groue,
As he this way comming from feastfull glee,
Of Thetis wedding with Æacidee,[562]
In sommers shade him selfe[563] here rested weary.
The first of them hight mylde Euphrosyne,
Next faire Aglaia, last Thalia merry:
Sweete Goddesses all three which me in mirth do cherry.

These three on men all gracious gifts bestow, xxiii


Which decke the body or adorne the mynde,
To make them louely or well fauoured show,
As comely carriage, entertainement kynde,
Sweete semblaunt, friendly offices that bynde,
And all the complements of curtesie:
They teach vs, how to each degree and kynde
We should our selues demeane, to low, to hie;
To friends, to foes, which skill men call Ciuility.

Therefore they alwaies smoothly seeme to smile, xxiv


That we likewise should mylde and gentle be,
And also naked are, that without guile
Or false dissemblaunce all them plaine may see,
Simple and true from couert malice free:
And eeke them selues so in their daunce they bore,
That two of them still froward[564] seem’d to bee,
But one still towards shew’d her selfe afore;
That good should from vs goe, then come in greater store.
Such were those Goddesses, which ye did see; xxv
But that fourth Mayd, which there amidst them traced,
Who can aread, what creature mote she bee,
Whether a creature, or a goddesse graced
With heauenly gifts from heuen first enraced?
But what so sure she was, she worthy was,
To be the fourth with those three other placed:
Yet was she certes but a countrey[565] lasse,
Yet she all other countrey lasses farre did passe.

So farre as doth the daughter of the day, xxvi


All other lesser lights in light excell,
So farre doth she in beautyfull array,
Aboue all other lasses beare the bell,
Ne lesse in vertue that beseemes her well,
Doth she exceede the rest of all her race,
For which the Graces that here wont to dwell,
Haue for more honor brought her to this place,
And graced her so much to be another Grace.

Another Grace she well deserues to be, xxvii


In whom so many Graces gathered are,
Excelling much the meane of her degree;
Diuine resemblaunce, beauty soueraine rare,
Firme Chastity, that spight ne blemish dare;
All which she with such courtesie doth grace,
That all her peres cannot with her compare,
But quite are dimmed, when she is in place.
She made me often pipe and now to pipe apace.

Sunne of the world, great glory of the sky, xxviii


That all the earth doest lighten with thy rayes,
Great Gloriana, greatest Maiesty,
Pardon thy shepheard, mongst so many layes,
As he hath sung of thee in all his dayes,
To make one minime of thy poore handmayd,
And vnderneath thy feete to place her prayse,
That when thy glory shall be farre displayd
To future age of her this mention may be made.

When thus that shepherd ended had his speach, xxix


Sayd Calidore; Now sure it yrketh mee,
That to thy blisse I made this luckelesse breach,
As now the author of thy bale to be,
Thus to bereaue thy loues deare sight from thee:
But gentle Shepheard pardon thou my shame,
Who rashly sought that, which I mote not see.
Thus did the courteous Knight excuse his blame,
And to recomfort him, all comely meanes did frame.

In such discourses they together spent xxx


Long time, as fit occasion forth them led;
With which the Knight him selfe did much content,
And with delight his greedy fancy fed,
Both of his words, which he with reason red;
And also of the place, whose pleasures rare
With such regard his sences rauished,
That thence, he had no will away to fare,
But wisht, that with that shepheard he mote dwelling share.

But that enuenimd sting, the which of yore, xxxi


His poysnous point deepe fixed in his hart
Had left, now gan afresh to rancle sore,
And to renue the rigour of his smart:
Which[566] to recure, no skill of Leaches art
Mote him auaile, but to returne againe
To his wounds worker, that with louely dart
Dinting his brest, had bred his restlesse paine,
Like as the wounded Whale to shore flies from the maine.

So taking leaue of that same gentle swaine, xxxii


He backe returned to his rusticke wonne,
Where his faire Pastorella did remaine:
To whome in sort, as he at first begonne,
He daily did apply him selfe to donne[567]
All dewfull seruice voide of thoughts impure[568]:
Ne any paines ne perill did he shonne,
By which he might her to his loue allure,
And liking in her yet vntamed heart procure.

And euermore the shepheard Coridon, xxxiii


What euer thing he did her to aggrate,
Did striue to match with strong contention,
And all his paines did closely emulate;
Whether it were to caroll, as they sate
Keeping their sheepe, or games to exercize,
Or to present her with their labours late;
Through which if any grace chaunst to arize
To him, the Shepheard streight with iealousie did frize.

One day as they all three together went xxxiv


To the greene wood, to gather strawberies,
There chaunst to them a dangerous accident;
A Tigre forth out of the wood did rise,
That with fell clawes full of fierce gourmandize,
And greedy mouth, wide gaping like hell gate,
Did runne at Pastorell her to surprize:
Whom she beholding, now all desolate
Gan cry to them aloud, to helpe her[569] all too late.

Which Coridon first hearing, ran in hast xxxv


To reskue her, but when he saw the feend,
Through cowherd feare he fled away as fast,
Ne durst abide the daunger of the end;
His life he steemed dearer then his frend.
But Calidore soone comming to her ayde,
When he the beast saw ready now to rend
His loues deare spoile, in which his heart was prayde,
He ran at him enraged in stead of being frayde.

He had no weapon, but his shepheards hooke, xxxvi


To serue the vengeaunce of his wrathfull will,
With which so sternely he the monster strooke,
That to the ground astonished he fell;
Whence ere he could recou’r, he did him quell,
And hewing off his head, <he>[570] it presented
Before the feete of the faire Pastorell;
Who scarcely yet from former feare exempted,
A thousand times him thankt, that had her death preuented.

From that day forth she gan him to affect, xxxvii


And daily more her fauour to augment;
But Coridon for cowherdize reiect,
Fit to keepe sheepe, vnfit for loues content:
The gentle heart scornes base disparagement.
Yet Calidore did not despise him quight,
But vsde him friendly for further intent,
That by his fellowship, he colour might
Both his estate, and loue from skill of any wight.

So well he wood her, and so well he wrought her, xxxviii


With humble seruice, and with daily sute,
That at the last vnto his will he brought her;
Which he so wisely well did prosecute,
That of his loue he reapt the timely frute,
And ioyed long in close felicity:
Till fortune fraught with malice, blinde, and brute,
That enuies louers long prosperity,
Blew vp a bitter storme of foule aduersity.

It fortuned one day, when Calidore xxxix


Was hunting in the woods (as was his trade)
A lawlesse people, Brigants hight of yore,
That neuer vsde to liue by plough nor spade,
But fed on spoile and booty, which they made
Vpon their neighbours, which did nigh them border,
The dwelling of these shepheards did inuade,
And spoyld their houses, and them selues did murder;
And droue away their flocks[571], with other much disorder.

Amongst the rest, the which they then did pray, xl


They spoyld old Melibee of all he had,
And all his people captiue led away,
Mongst which this lucklesse mayd away was lad,
Faire Pastorella, sorrowfull and sad,
Most sorrowfull, most sad, that euer sight,
Now made the spoile of theeues and Brigants bad,
Which was the conquest of the gentlest Knight,
That euer liu’d, and th’onely glory of his might.

With them also was taken Coridon, xli


And carried captiue by those theeues away;
Who in the couert of the night, that none
Mote them descry, nor reskue from their pray,
Vnto their dwelling did them close conuay.
Their dwelling in a little Island was,
Couered with shrubby woods, in which no way
Appeard for people in nor out to pas,
Nor any footing fynde for ouergrowen gras.

For vnderneath the ground their way was made, xlii


Through hollow caues, that no man mote discouer
For the thicke shrubs, which did them alwaies shade
From view of liuing wight, and couered ouer:
But darkenesse dred and daily night did houer
Through all the inner parts, wherein they dwelt,
Ne lightned was with window, nor with louer,
But with continuall candlelight, which delt
A doubtfull sense of things, not so well seene, as felt.

Hither those Brigants brought their present pray, xliii


And kept them with continuall watch and ward,
Meaning so soone, as they conuenient may,
For slaues to sell them, for no small reward,
To merchants, which them kept in bondage hard,
Or sold againe. Now when faire Pastorell
Into this place was brought, and kept with gard
Of griesly theeues, she thought her self in hell,
Where with such damned fiends she should in darknesse dwell.

But for to tell the dolefull dreriment, xliv


And pittifull complaints, which there she made,
Where[572] day and night she nought did but lament
Her wretched life, shut vp in deadly shade,
And waste her goodly beauty, which did fade
Like to a flowre, that feeles no heate of sunne,
Which may her feeble leaues with comfort glade.[573]
But[574] what befell her in that theeuish wonne,
Will in an other Canto better be begonne.

FOOTNOTES:
[556] ii 8 report. 1596
[557] 9 in] on 1596
[558] viii 4 course-about 1609
[559] 5 might, 1596
[560] xx 1 happy 1596
[561] xxi 4 within] with in 1596
[562] xxii 5 AEcidee 1596: Aecidee, 1609
[563] 6 selfe] felfe 1596
[564] xxiv 7 froward] forward 1596, 1609: corr. 1612-13
[565] xxv 8 counrtey 1596
[566] xxxi 5 Whch 1596
[567] xxxii 5 donne, 1596
[568] 6 impare 1596
[569] xxxiv 9 her] ere Drayton (teste Collier)
[570] xxxvi 6 <he> om. 1596, 1609
[571] xxxix 9 flocke 1609
Cant. XI.

The theues fall out for Pastorell,


Whilest Melibee is slaine:
Her Calidore from them redeemes,
And bringeth backe againe.

The ioyes of loue, if they should euer last, i


Without affliction or disquietnesse,
That worldly chaunces doe amongst them cast,
Would be on earth too great a blessednesse,
Liker to heauen, then mortall wretchednesse.
Therefore the winged God, to let men weet,
That here on earth is no sure happinesse,
A thousand sowres hath tempred with one sweet,
To make it seeme more deare and dainty, as is meet.

Like as is now befalne to this faire Mayd, ii


Faire Pastorell, of whom is now my song,
Who being now in dreadfull darknesse layd,
Amongst those theeues, which her in bondage strong
Detaynd, yet Fortune not with all this wrong
Contented, greater mischiefe on her threw,
And sorrowes heapt on her in greater throng;
That who so heares her heauinesse, would rew
And pitty her sad plight, so chang’d from pleasaunt hew.

Whylest thus she in these hellish dens remayned, iii


Wrapped in wretched cares and hearts vnrest,
It so befell (as Fortune had ordayned)
That he, which was their Capitaine profest,
And had the chiefe commaund of all the rest,
One day as he did all his prisoners vew,
With lustfull eyes,[575] beheld that louely guest,
Faire Pastorella, whose sad mournefull hew
Like the faire Morning clad in misty fog did shew.

At sight whereof his barbarous heart was fired, iv


And inly burnt with flames most raging whot,
That her alone he for his part desired
Of all the other pray, which they had got,
And her in mynde did to him selfe allot.
From that day forth he kyndnesse to her showed,[576]
And sought her loue, by all the meanes he mote;
With looks, with words, with gifts he oft her wowed;
And mixed threats among, and much vnto her vowed.

But all that euer he could doe or say, v


Her constant mynd could not a whit remoue,
Nor draw vnto the lure of his lewd lay,
To graunt him fauour, or afford him loue.
Yet ceast he not to sew and all waies proue,
By which he mote accomplish his request,
Saying and doing all that mote behoue;
Ne day nor night he suffred her to rest,
But her all night did watch, and all the day molest.

At last when him she so importune saw, vi


Fearing least he at length the raines would lend
Vnto his lust, and make his will his law,
Sith in his powre she was to foe or frend,
She thought it best, for shadow to pretend
Some shew of fauour, by him gracing small,
That she thereby mote either freely wend,
Or at more ease continue there his thrall:
A little well is lent, that gaineth more withall.

So from thenceforth, when loue he to her made, vii


With better tearmes she did him entertaine,
Which gaue him hope, and did him halfe perswade,
That he in time her ioyaunce should obtaine.
But when she saw, through that small fauours gaine,
That further, then she willing was, he prest,
She found no meanes to barre him, but to faine
A sodaine sickenesse, which her sore opprest,
And made vnfit to serue his lawlesse mindes behest.

By meanes whereof she would not him permit viii


Once to approch to her in priuity,
But onely mongst the rest by her to sit,
Mourning the rigour of her malady,
And seeking all things meete for remedy.
But she resolu’d no remedy to fynde,
Nor better cheare to shew in misery,
Till Fortune would her captiue bonds vnbynde,
Her sickenesse was not of the body but the mynde.

During which space that she thus sicke did lie, ix


It chaunst a sort of merchants, which were wount
To skim those coastes, for bondmen there to buy,
And by such trafficke after gaines to hunt,
Arriued in this Isle though bare and blunt,
T’inquire for slaues; where being readie met
By some of these same theeues at the instant[577] brunt,
Were brought vnto their Captaine, who was set
By his faire patients side with sorrowfull regret.

To whom they shewed, how those marchants were x


Arriu’d in place, their bondslaues for to buy,
And therefore prayd, that those same captiues there
Mote to them for their most commodity
Be sold, and mongst them shared equally.
This their request the Captaine much appalled;
Yet could he not their iust demaund deny,
And willed streight the slaues should forth be[578] called,
And sold for most aduantage not to be forstalled.

Then forth the good old Melibœ was brought, xi


And Coridon, with many other moe,
Whom they before in diuerse spoyles had caught:
All which he to the marchants sale did showe.
Till some, which did the sundry prisoners knowe,
Gan to inquire for that[579] faire shepherdesse,
Which with the rest they tooke not long agoe,
And gan her forme and feature to expresse,
The more t’augment her price, through praise of comlinesse.

To whom the Captaine in full angry wize xii


Made answere, that the Mayd of whom they spake,
Was his owne purchase and his onely prize,
With which none had to doe, ne ought partake,
But he himselfe, which did that conquest make;
Litle for him to haue one silly lasse:
Besides through sicknesse now so wan and weake,
That nothing meet in marchandise to passe.
So shew’d them her, to proue how pale and weake she was.

The sight of whom, though now decayd and mard, xiii


And eke but hardly seene by candle-light,
Yet like a Diamond of rich regard,
In doubtfull shadow of the darkesome night,
With starrie beames about her shining bright,
These marchants fixed eyes did so amaze,
That what through wonder, and what through delight,
A while on her they greedily did gaze,
And did her greatly like, and did her greatly praize.
At last when all the rest them offred were, xiv
And prises[580] to them placed at their pleasure,
They all refused in regard of her,
Ne ought would buy, how euer prisd with measure,
Withouten her, whose worth aboue all threasure
They did esteeme, and offred store of gold.
But then the Captaine fraught with more displeasure,
Bad them be still, his loue should not be sold:
The rest take if they would, he her to him would hold.

Therewith some other of the chiefest theeues xv


Boldly him bad such iniurie forbeare;
For that same mayd, how euer it him greeues,
Should with the rest be sold before him theare,
To make the prises[581] of the rest more deare.
That with great rage he stoutly doth denay;
And fiercely drawing forth his blade, doth sweare,
That who so hardie hand on her doth lay,
It dearely shall aby, and death for handsell pay.

Thus as they words amongst them multiply, xvi


They fall to strokes, the frute of too much talke,
And the mad steele about doth fiercely fly,
Not sparing wight, ne leauing any balke,
But making way for death at large to walke:
Who in the horror of the griesly night,
In thousand dreadful shapes doth mongst them stalke,
And makes huge hauocke, whiles the candlelight
Out quenched, leaues no skill nor difference of wight.

Like as a sort of hungry dogs ymet xvii


About some carcase by the common way,
Doe fall together, stryuing each to get
The greatest portion of the greedie pray;
All on confused heapes themselues assay,
And snatch, and byte, and rend, and tug, and teare;
That who them sees, would wonder at their tray,
And who sees not, would be affrayd to heare.
Such was the conflict of those cruell Brigants there.

But first of all, their captiues they doe kill, xviii


Least they should ioyne against the weaker side,
Or rise against the remnant at their will;
Old Melibœ is slaine, and him beside
His aged wife, with many others wide,
But Coridon escaping craftily,
Creepes forth of dores, whilst darknes him doth hide,
And flyes away as fast as he can hye,
Ne stayeth leaue to take, before his friends doe dye.

But Pastorella, wofull wretched Elfe, xix


Was by the Captaine all this while defended,
Who minding more her safety then himselfe,
His target alwayes ouer her pretended;[582]
By meanes whereof, that mote not be amended,
He at the length was slaine, and layd on ground,
Yet holding fast twixt both his armes extended
Fayre Pastorell, who with the selfe same wound
Launcht through the arme, fell down with him in drerie swound.

There lay she couered with confused preasse xx


Of carcases, which dying on her fell.
Tho when as he was dead, the fray gan ceasse,
And each to other calling, did compell
To stay their cruell hands from slaughter fell,
Sith they that were the cause of all, were gone.
Thereto they all attonce agreed well,
And lighting candles new, gan search anone,
How many of their friends were slaine, how many fone.

Their Captaine there they cruelly found kild, xxi


And in his armes the dreary dying mayd,
Like a sweet Angell twixt two clouds vphild:
Her louely light was dimmed and decayd,
With cloud of death vpon her eyes displayd;
Yet did the cloud make euen that dimmed light
Seeme much more louely in that darknesse layd,
And twixt the twinckling of her eye-lids bright,
To sparke out litle beames, like starres in foggie night.

But when they mou’d the carcases aside, xxii


They found that life did yet in her remaine:
Then all their helpes they busily applyde,
To call the soule backe to her home againe;
And wrought so well with labour and long paine,
That they to life recouered her at last.
Who sighing sore, as if her hart in twaine
Had riuen bene, and all her hart strings brast,
With drearie drouping eyne lookt vp like one aghast.

There she beheld, that sore her grieu’d to see, xxiii


Her father and her friends about her lying,
Her selfe sole left, a second spoyle to bee
Of those, that hauing saued her from dying,
Renew’d her death by timely death denying:
What now is left her, but to wayle and weepe,
Wringing her hands, and ruefully loud crying?
Ne cared she her wound in teares to steepe,
Albe with all their might those Brigants her did keepe.

But when they saw her now reliu’d[583] againe, xxiv


They left her so, in charge of one the best
Of many worst, who with vnkind disdaine
And cruell rigour her did much molest;
Scarse yeelding her due food, or timely rest,
And scarsely suffring her infestred wound,
That sore her payn’d, by any to be drest.
So leaue we her in wretched thraldome bound,
And turne we backe to Calidore, where we him found.

Who when he backe returned from the wood, xxv


And saw his shepheards cottage spoyled quight,
And his loue reft away, he wexed wood,
And halfe enraged at that ruefull sight,
That euen his hart for very fell despight,
And his owne flesh he readie was to teare,
He chauft, he grieu’d, he fretted, and he sight,
And fared like a furious wyld Beare,
Whose whelpes are stolne away, she being otherwhere.

Ne wight he found, to whom he might complaine, xxvi


Ne wight he found, of whom he might inquire;
That more increast the anguish of his paine.
He sought the woods; but no man could see there:[584]
He sought the plaines; but could no tydings heare.
The woods did nought but ecchoes vaine rebound;
The playnes all waste and emptie did appeare:
Where wont the shepheards oft their pypes resound,
And feed an hundred flocks, there now not one he found.

At last as there he romed vp and downe, xxvii


He chaunst one comming towards him to spy,
That seem’d to be some sorie simple clowne,
With ragged weedes, and lockes vpstaring hye,
As if he did from some late daunger fly,
And yet his feare did follow him behynd:
Who as he vnto him approched nye,
He mote perceiue by signes, which he did fynd,
That Coridon it was, the silly shepherds hynd.

Tho to him running fast, he did not stay xxviii


To greet him first, but askt where were the rest;
Where Pastorell? who full of fresh dismay,
And gushing forth in teares, was so opprest,
That he no word could speake, but smit his brest,
And vp to heauen his eyes fast streming threw.
Whereat the knight amaz’d, yet did not rest,
But askt againe, what ment that rufull hew;

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