Crown ye God Bacchus* with a coronal,

And Hymen also crown with wreaths of vine;
And let the Graces dance unto the rest,

For they can do it best:

The whiles the maidens do their carol sing,

To which the woods shall answer, and their echo ring.

15. Ring ye the bells, ye young men of the town,

And leave your wonted labors for this day:

This day is holy: Do ye write it down,
That ye forever it remember may.

This day the sun is in its chiefest height
With Barnaby the bright,

From whence declining daily by degrees,
He somewhat loseth of his heat and light,
When once the crab behind his back he sees.
But for this time it ill ordained was,

To choose the longest day in all the year,

And shortest night, when longest fittest were.
Yet never day so long but it would pass.
Ring ye the bells, to make it wear away,
And bonefires make all day,

And dance about them, and about them sing,

That all the woods may answer, and your echo ring.

16. Ah! when will this long weary day have end
And lend me leave to come unto my love?
How slowly do the hours their number spend!
How slowly does sad time his feathers move!
Haste thee, O fairest planet, to thy home
Within the western foam!

Thy tired steeds long since have need of rest.
Long though it be, at last I see it gloom,

And the bright evening star with golden creast
Appear out of the east.

Fair child of beauty! Glorious lamp of love!
That all the host of heaven in ranks dost lead,

And guidest lovers through the night's sad dread,

* Bacchus, the god of wine. He is said to have taught men how to cultivate the vine and spoil grapes by turning them into an intoxicating drink.-Graces, the three handmaids of the Cyprian queen, Aglaia, Euphrosune, and Thalia. See handmaids, Index, Lat. Gratia.Chiefest height. St. Barnabas' Day was June 22 (June 11, O. S.), 1594. This, then, was the marriage day of Spenser. About this time the sun reaches the solstice. Who is Barnaby? See Acts xiv., 12.--Crab (Gr. Kápaßos; Kapκivos: D. krab, A. S. crabba, a crab), Cancer, one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, somewhat resembling a crab in form, and denoting the northern limit of the sun's course in summer. The sun enters it about the 21st or 22d of June, the longest day of the year.-Bonefires (W. bàn, high; banffagl, a lofty blaze; or fr. Fr. bon, Lat. bonus, good; or fr. Dan, baun, a beacon; Gr. #up, fire; Láz. pyra, A. S. fyr; Ger. feuer; Fr. feu. See Grimm's Law), bonfires.-Planet (Gr. #Aaváw, I wander; darnrns: Lat. planeta, a wandering body), the sun.-Creast (Lat. crescere, to grow; Lat. crista; A. S. crasta; Fr. crête), crest.

How cheerfully thou lookest from above

And seemst to laugh atween* thy twinkling light,
As joying in the sight

Of these glad many, which for joy do sing,

That all the woods them answer, and their echo ring!

17. Now cease, ye damsels, your delights forepast;"
Enough it is that all the day was yours.

Now day is done and night is nighing fast;
Now bring the bride into the bridal bowers.
The night is come; now soon her disarray,
And in her bed her lay;

Lay her in lilies and in violets,

And silken curtains over her display,
And ordered sheets and arras coverlets.
Behold, how goodly fair my love does lie
In proud humility!

Like unto Maia, whenas Jove her took

In Tempe, lying on the flowery grass

"Twixt sleep and wake, after she weary was

With bathing in the Acidalian brook.

Now it is night, ye damsels may be gone

And leave my love alone,

And leave likewise your former lay to sing.

The woods no more shall answer, nor your echo ring.

19. Let no lamenting cries, nor doleful tears

Be heard all night within, nor yet without.
Ne let false whispers, breeding hidden fears,
Break gentle sleep with misconceived doubt.
Let no deluding dreams, nor dreadful sights
Make sudden sad affrights.

Ne let house fires, nor lightning's helpless harms,
Ne let the ponke nor other evil sprites

Ne let mischievous witches with their charms,

Ne let hob-goblins, names whose sense we see not,

* Atween, between. A, as a prefix, is explained subsequently. See apace, Index. Treen is A. S. twegan, tireonan, twa; Gr. 8vo, Lat, duo, two; Ger. zwei.-Nighing, approaching. See neighbors, Index.-Arras (so called because first made at Arras in France in the 14th century), tapestry, or hangings for rooms; woven stuffs decorated with a simple pattern.— Maia, one of the Pleiades, daughter of Atlas. She became the mother of Mercury.-Tempe, a most delightful vale in ancient Thessaly.-Acidalian, belonging to Acidalia, a fountain at Orchoměnus, in ancient Boeotia. This fountain was sacred to Venus, and in it the Graces were wont to bathe.-Ponke (an erroneous form of pouke, for puck; Scot, puck; Sw. puke, a nocturnal demon). Puck, Robin Goodfellow, a merry fiend in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream; called also Pug, Friar Rush, etc., in old ballads and legends-Sprites (Lat. spiritus, breath, spirit; from spiro, to breathe), spirits, ghosts, apparitions.-Hobgoblin (Hob, abbre viated from Robin or Robin Goodfellow goblin fr. Gr. Kóßados; L. Lat. gobelinus, knave; Ger. kobold, knave, evil spirit; Eng. cobalt, the poisonous and troublesome metal), phantom, hob goblin.-Mischievous. Acc. 2d syl. This accentuation is still sometimes heard, though it is obsolescent." Explain the superstitions alluded to in this stanza.

Fray us with things that be not.

Let not the screech-owl nor the stork be heard,
Nor the night raven, that still deadly yells;
Nor damned ghosts, called up with mighty spells,
Nor grisly vultures, make us once afeard.

Ne let the unpleasant choir of frogs still croaking
Make us to wish they're choking!

Let none of these their dreary accents sing;

Ne let the woods them answer, nor their echo ring.

20. But let still Silence true night-watches keep,
That sacred Peace may in assurance reign,

And timely Sleep, when it is time to sleep,

May pour his limbs forth on your pleasant plain;
The whiles an hundred little winged Loves,

Like divers-feathered doves,

Shall fly and flutter round about the bed,

And, in the secret dark that none reproves,

Their pretty stealths shall work, and snares shall spread

To filch away sweet snatches of delight,

Concealed through covert night.

Ye sons of Venus, play your sports at will;

For greedy Pleasure, careless of your toys,
Thinks more upon her paradise of joys
Than what ye do, albeit good or ill.
All night therefore, attend your merry play,
For it will soon be day.

Now none doth hinder you, that say or sing;

Ne will the woods now answer, nor your echo ring.

21. Who is the same, which at my window peeps ?
Or whose is that fair face that shines so bright?

Is it not Cynthia, she that never sleeps,

But walks about high heaven all the night?
O fairest goddess, do not thou envy

My love with me to spy!

22. And thou, great Juno, which with awful might
The laws of wedlock still dost patronize;
And the religion of the faith first plight
With sacred rites hast taught to solemnize,

* Fray us (affray, frighten; Fr. effrayer, to scare; Lat. frigus, cold, a cold shudder; Gr. piytov, colder, more awful, more chilling with fear), frighten us.--Afeard (A. S. afaran, faran, to frighten; faran, to impress fear), afraid.-Choking! Is it possible that Spenser ventures to be facetious?-Sons of Venus. Cupids. Simonides makes Eros or Cupido (Love) to have been the son of Venus and Mars.-Albeit (all be it, i. e., be it all, grant that it is all so), although, whether it be.-Cynthia, the same as Phabe, st. 9.-Juno, wife of Jove.

23. And ye high heavens, the temple of the gods,
In which a thousand torches flaming bright
Do burn, that to us wretched earthly clods
In dreadful darkness lend desired light;
And all ye powers which in the same remain,
More than we men can feign;

Pour out your blessing on us plenteously,

And happy influence upon us rain,

That we may raise a large posterity,

Which from the earth, which they may long possess

With lasting happiness,

Up to your haughty palaces may mount;
And for the guerdon of their glorious merit,

May heavenly tabernacles there inherit,

Of blessed saints for to increase the count.

So let us rest, sweet love, in hope of this,

And cease till then our timely joys to sing;
The woods no more us answer, nor our echo ring.

Song! made in lieu of many ornaments,

With which my love should duly have been deckt,

Which cutting off through hasty accidents,

Ye would not stay your due time to expect,

But promised both to recompense;

Be unto her a goodly ornament,

And for short time an endless monument!

* Called art of, art called by.-Hebe (Gr. 'H8, youth), Hebe, goddess of youth, daughter of Jupiter. Clods (A. S. clud, rock, stone; Ger, klosz, clod, clump), lumps of earth or turf; dolts, gross or stupid fellows.-Influence (Lat. influere, to flow upon). This word carries us back to astrology. It was believed that the stars shed forth a mysterious and mighty power, which flowed down upon men and controlled their dispositions and destinies. One born under the influence of Jupiter (i. e., when this planet was high in heaven), would be jovial; born under that of Mercury, he would be mercurial; under Saturn, saturnine, etc.-Haughty (Lat, altus, high; alere, to nourish, feed; Fr. haut, high; formed fr. O. Fr. hault, halt), high, loftyGuerdon (O. Fr. guerdon, guerredon; Ger. wider, again, and Lat. donum, gift; or fr. O. Ger. widarlon, recompense; A. S. widherlean), reward.-Tabernacles (Lat. fabula, a board, plank; Lat. taberna, a hut, a shed, a slightly built habitation), tents, temples, mansions.

Write a brief life of Spenser; an essay on his office-seeking: on his moral character; ou his poetic genius; on the literary activity of the Elizabethan age; on the Faerie Queene; on this marriage hymn; on alliteration in poetry; on the changes in the English language between the times of Chaucer and Spenser; on the Spenserian stanza; on Spenser's connection with Sidney and Raleigh. Write some account of Robin Hood. (See Scott's Ivanhoe; Prof. F. J. Child's Introduction to 5th vol. Eng. and Scot. Ballads; Ritson's Robin Hood, a Collection, etc.` Write an essay on Astrology; one on the long-prevalent superstitions in regard to fairies, hobgoblins, etc.; one on the characters from heathen mythology named in this poem. 6