Stories from the Faerie Queen, Told to the Children

ilors whose boats are sailing out of the grey night fancy that they see fair ladies floati

sit on the high cliffs where the sea-pinks grow, see

silence the sea-birds harsh cry, and their voices blend with the s

sicians put their songs into their hearts. B

fair to see as the nymph

father, and they

he sea; as blue as th

ng hair is yel

like lutes, and they s

amongst the rocks and loved her for her beauty. Cymo?nt was her name, and the other nymphs c

and as brave as his father, and as beautiful

ights who live on the land,' said Cymo?nt

rom all the ships that had ever been wrecked. And the waves strewed the strand wi

red touch them, for Marinell had beaten a hundred knights in battl

reckless and get killed. Now Neptune, who was king of all the seas,

my Marinell will live, and from what dan

herd of the Seas. 'I can see that a woman will ei

y ladies were sad because handsome Marinell would not speak t

ng sand, he saw a knight in armour that shone as br

Marinell angrily, 'how dare the knigh

y up, and told t

a man's armour and a man's heart. She scorned his

y, leaving Marinell ly

ed the little waves that crept up to see wha

d the little waves.

ll, and the blood dripped and

the sea-birds screamed, 'Marinell is

round which grew nodding yellow daffodils. They were picking the daffodils and making them into gar

t. All her sister nymphs wailed and wept and threw their gay flowers away,

the fair lady with a man's arm

nd asked for her chariot, and all he

en leave a track of white foam behind. Other fishes drew the chariots of the other nymphs, and Neptune, King of all the Seas, was so sorry for the s

ins and other fishes might get bruised and hurt by the rocks and pebbles on the shore. And with

when she had recovered from her faint, she cried and moaned

their soft, silver-fringed mantles they wiped the blood from the wound, and poured in soothing balm and nectar, and bound it up. Then they strewed Cymo?nt's chariot with flowe

laid Marinell, and hastily sent for the doctor of all the folk under the sea, to come and try to cure the dreadful wo

g nothing. He longed to gallop away on his horse, his sword clanking by his side, and see the green woods and grey towers of the land, instead of idling away the hours in

the Shepherd of the Seas, and while Cymo?nt and the other nymphs were there, Marinell wandered about outside. For

ries coming from under a black cliff. And when he liste

make her his wife. But Florimell did not love the old man. She loved only Marinell. So nothing that the shepherd could do would make Flo

nd the loneliness,' he thought, 'and th

ng when Marinell came to the rock, and he heard her say,

l and listened. The

sorrow, yet will I n

his sake I suff

d and cold and hungry. Yet always she would say again, b

eard Florimell's piteous voice, and knew how she loved him, and how much

id to himself, 'poor, bea

, than he began to think of a plan by wh

he would fight with the shepherd, and win her in that way. But that plan he also gave up. 'I will break into her prison, an

n end, and Marinell had to go home with his mother. He looked so

Florimell, shut up in a dreary dungeon from which he could not free her. For want of sleep and food, and because he was

t be rightly healed,' she said. So she

said the doctor. 'This is a new

hat he was chief of all the doctors on the land. When he had

to tell her which of the se

,' she said, 'I shall help yo

ph of the sea that had given his heart a deepe

e lies, a dreary prisoner, in the da

n she knew how much Marinell loved Florimell, she went to Neptune, the King of all the Seas, as

e of Marinell and Florimell

h the seal of the Sea Gods, commanding his shepherd

warrant, and swiftly swam

-folk had to obey Neptune, so he sulkily ope

oved, and looked on her lovely face, she was no longer sorry that Marinell did not wish

Marinell saw Florimell standing blushing beside him, her hand in his mother's, all h

aves that swish on the shore softly murmuring a little song. And perhaps, if your ears are very quick, and the big waves' thund