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  • Title: Faerie Queene (Selection)
  • Author: Edmund Spenser
  • Editor: Michael Best

    • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Editor: Michael Best
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Faerie Queene (Selection)

    But O, the greedy thirst of royal crown
    That knows no kindred, nor regards no right,
    Stirred Porrex up to put his brother down;
    Who, unto him assembling foreign might,
    190Made war on him, and fell himself in fight;
    Whose death t'avenge, his mother merciless,
    Most merciless of women, Wyden hight,
    Her other son fast sleeping, did oppress
    And with most cruel hand him murdered pitiless.
    195Here ended Brutus' sacred progeny,
    Which had seven hundred years this scepter borne
    With high renown and great felicity.
    The noble branch from th'antique stock was torn
    Through discord, and the royal throne forlorn.
    200Thenceforth this realm was into factions rent
    Whilst each of Brutus boasted to be born,
    That in the end was left no monument
    Of Brutus, nor of Briton's glory ancient.
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