Note 1564 — THE INDVCTION.[1487]
Reading edition
Instead of the 74th stanza the four following are substituted by Niccols, who has so closely imitated his author that Warton has given the first two stanzas as genuine.
Thence did we passe the three-fold emperie, To th’ vtmost bounds, where Radamanthus raignes, Where proud folke waile there woefull miserie, Where dreadfull din of thousand dragging chaines, And balefull shriekes of ghosts in deadly paines Tortur’d eternally are heard most brim Through silent shades of night so darke and dim. From hence vpon our way we forward passe, And through the groues and vncoth paths we goe, Which leade vnto the Cyclops walles of brasse: And where that maine-broad flood for aye doth floe, Which parts the gladsome fields from place of woe, Whence none shall euer passe t’Elizium plaine, Or from Elizium euer turne againe. With Sorrow for my guide, as there I stood, A troope of men the most in armes bedight, In tumult clustred ’bout both sides the flood; ’Mongst whom, who were ordaind t’eternall night, Or who to blissefull peace and sweet delight I wot not well, it seem’d that they were all Such as by death’s vntimely stroke did fall. Some headlesse were, some body, face and hands, With shamefull wounds despoil’d in euery part. Some strangled, some that dide in captiue bands, Some smothred, drown’d, some stricken through the hart With fatall steele, all drown’d in deadly smart: Of hastned death, with shrikes, sobs, sighs and teares, Did tell the woes of their forepassed yeares.