THE PLAN PROPOSED.--"The beginning of my history," he says, "should be in
the twelfth booke, which is the last; where I devise that the Faerie
Queene kept her Annual Feaste XII days; uppon which XII severall days the
occasions of the XII severall adventures hapned, which being undertaken by
XII severall knights, are in these XII books handled and discoursed."
First, a tall, clownish youth falls before the queen and desires a boon,
which she might not refuse, viz. the achievement of any adventure which
might present itself. Then appears a fair lady, habited in mourning, and
riding on an ass, while behind her comes a dwarf, leading a caparisoned
war-horse, upon which was the complete armor of a knight. The lady falls
before the queen and complains that her father and mother, an ancient king
and queen, had, for many years, been shut up by a dragon in a brazen
castle, and begs that one of the knights may be allowed to deliver them.
The young clown entreats that he may take this adventure, and
notwithstanding the wonder and misgiving of all, the armor is found to fit
him well, and when he had put it on, "he seemed the goodliest man in all
the company, and was well liked by the lady, and eftsoones taking on him
knighthood, and mounting on that strounge courser, he went forth with her
on that adventure; where beginneth the First Booke.
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