“O! who would not recount the strong divorces
Of that great warre, which Troianes oft behelde,
And oft beheld the warlike Greekish forces,
When Teucrian soyle with bloodie rivers swelde, 500
And wide Sigraean shores were spred with corses,
And Simois and Xanthus blood outwelde;
Whilst Hector raged, with outragious minde,
Flames, weapons, wounds, in Greeks fleete to have tynde.

“For Ida selfe, in ayde of that fierce fight, 505
Out of her mountaines ministred supplies;
And like a kindly nourse did yeeld, for spight,
Store of firebronds out of her nourseries
Unto her foster children, that they might
Inflame the navie of their enemies, 510
And all the Rhetaean shore to ashes turne,
Where lay the ships which they did seeke to burne.

“Gainst which the noble sonne of Telamon
Oppos’d himselfe, and thwarting* his huge shield,
Them battell bad; gainst whom appeard anon 515
Hector, the glorie of the Troian field: 
Both fierce and furious in contention
Encountred, that their mightie strokes so shrild
As the great clap of thunder, which doth ryve
The railing heavens and cloudes asunder dryve. 520
  [* Thwarting, interposing.]

“So th’one with fire and weapons did contend
To cut the ships from turning home againe
To Argos; th’other strove for to defend*
The force of Vulcane with his might and maine. 
Thus th’one Aeacide did his fame extend:  525
But th’other ioy’d that, on the Phrygian playne
Having the blood of vanquisht Hector shedd,
He compast Troy thrice with his bodie dedd.
  [* Defend, keep off.]

“Againe great dole on either partie grewe,
That him to death unfaithfull Paris sent; 530
And also him that false Ulysses slewe,
Drawne into danger through close ambushment;
Therefore from him Laertes sonne his vewe
Doth turn aside, and boasts his good event
In working of Strymonian Rhaesus fall, 535
And efte* in Dolons slye surprysall.
  [* Efte, again.]

“Againe the dreadfull Cycones him dismay,
And blacke Laestrigones, a people stout;
Then greedie Scilla, under whom there bay
Manie great bandogs, which her gird about; 540
Then doo the AEtnean Cyclops him affray,
And deep Charybdis gulphing in and out;
Lastly the squalid lakes of Tartarie,
And griesly feends of hell him terrifie.

“There also goodly Agamemnon bosts, 545
The glorie of the stock of Tantalus,
And famous light of all the Greekish hosts;
Under whose conduct most victorious,
The Dorick flames consum’d the Iliack posts. 
Ah! but the Greekes themselves, more dolorous, 550
To thee, O Troy, paid penaunce for thy fall,
In th’Hellespont being nigh drowned all.