5.
The courtly loue Antinous did make:
Antinous that fresh and iolly knight,
Which of the gallants that did vndertake
To win the widdow, had most wealth and might,
Wit to perswade, and beautie to delight:
The courtly loue he made vnto the Queene,
Homer forgot, as if it had not beene.
6.
Sing then Terpischore, my light Muse sing
His gentle art, and cunning curtesie;
You lady can remember euery thing,
For you are daughter of Queene Memorie;
But sing a plaine and easy melodie:
For the soft meane that warbleth but the ground,
To my rude eare doth yeeld the sweetest sound.
7.
One onely night's discourse I can report,
When the great Torch-bearer of Heauen was gone
Downe in a maske vnto the Ocean's Court,
To reuell it with Thetis[184] all alone;
Antinous disguisèd and vnknowne,
Like to the Spring in gaudie ornament,
Vnto the Castle of the Princesse went.
8.
The soueraine Castle of the rockie Ile,
Wherein Penelope the Princesse lay;
Shone with a thousand lamps, which did exile
The shadowes darke,[185] and turn'd the night to day;
Not Ioue's blew tent, what time the sunny ray
Behind the Bulwarke of the Earth retires,
Is seene to sparkle with more twinckling fires.
9.