slightly, with the sources and literary analogues of the work would lead us far beyond the scope of the present chapter[135].  With regard to the latter, it must suffice to note that among the works to which incidents can be directly traced are Tasso’s Gerusalemme, Montemayor’s Diana, and Fletcher’s Faithful Shepherdess, while a more general indebtedness may in particular be observed to Chaucer, Piers Plowman, and the Faery Queen.  The plot involves two more or less connected threads of action, the one dealing with the adventures of the swains and shepherdesses, the other concerned with the progress of Thetis and her court.  This latter recalls the poetic geography of Drayton’s Polyolbion.  The principal episodes in the former are the loves of Celandine and Marina, and the allegorical story of Fida and Aletheia, each of which leads to numerous ramifications.  Indeed, so far as the pastoral action is concerned, the whole is one string of barely connected episodes.

Celandine loves the shepherdess Marina, who is readily brought to return his affection.  To the love thus easily won he soon becomes indifferent, and Marina in despair seeks to end her sorrows in a stream.  Saved by the god of the fountain, she is carried off to Mona, and there imprisoned in a cave by the monster Limos (hunger).  With her loss, Celandine’s love revives, and in his search for her he is led to visit the faery realm, where he finds Spenser lying asleep.  The poem ends abruptly in the midst of his adventures.  The story of Fida centres round the slaughter of her pet hind by the monster Riot.  From the mangled remains of the animal rises the beautiful form of Aletheia (truth).  The new-transformed nymph is the daughter of Chronos (time), born, Pallas-like, without a mother.  The narrative of her rejection by the world gives occasion for some biting satire on the ill-living of the religious orders, the vanity of the court, and the dishonesty of the crafts.  Meanwhile Riot, who from this point ceases to be an embodiment of cruelty, and comes to typify fallen humanity—­the Humanum Genus of the moralities—­passing successively by Remembrance, Remorse, and Repentance, is purged of his foul shape, and appears as the shepherd Amyntas, finally to be united in marriage with Aletheia.  With these adventures is interwoven the progress of Thetis, who comes to view her dominions.  From the Euxine and the Hellespont her train sweeps on by Adriatic and Atlantic shores, past lands which call up the names of a long line of poets—­Vergil, Ovid, Ariosto, Petrarch, Tasso, Du Bartas, Marot, Ronsard—­till ultimately she arrives off the coast of Devon—­the Devon of Browne and Drake.  Here the shepherds assemble to do her honour, from Colin Clout down to Browne’s immediate circle, Brooke, Davies, and Wither, and here the poet entertains her with the tale of Walla and Tavy, which forms a charming incidental piece.  The nymph Walla loved the river-god Tavy,