Who, when the shamed shield of slaine Sansfoy
He spide with that same Fary champions page,
Bewraying him that did of late destroy
His eldest brother; burning all with rage,
He to him lept, and that same envious gage
Of victors glory from him snacht away:
But th' Elfin knight, which ought that warlike wage,
Disdaind to loose the meed he wonne in fray;
And, him rencountring fierce, reskewd the noble
pray.

Therewith they gan to hurtlen greedily,
Redoubted battaile ready to darrayne,

And clash the ́r shields, and shake their swords on hy;
That with their sturre they troubled all the traine:
Till that great queene, upon eternall paine
Of high displeasure that ensewen might,
Commaunded them their fury to refraine;
And, if that either to that shield had right,
In equall lists they should the morrow next it fight.

Ioyous, to see his ymage in mine eye,

And greevd, to thinke how foe did him destroy
That was the flowre of grace and chevalrye;
Lo, his Fidessa, to thy secret fa.th I flye."

With gentle wordes he can her fayrely greet,
And bad say on the secrete of her hart:
Then, sighing soft; "I learne that litle sweet
Oft tempred is,"quoth she, "with muchell smart:
For, since my brest was launcht with lovely dart
Of deare Sansfoy, I never loved howre,

But in eternall woes my weaker hart
Have wasted, loving him with all my powre,
And for his sake have felt full many an heavy

stowre.

"At last, when perils all I weened past,
And hop'd to reape the crop of all my care,
Into new woes unweeting I was cast
By this false faytor, who unworthie ware
His worthie shield, whom he with guilefull snare
Entrapped slew, and brought to shamefull grave:
Me silly maid away with him he bare,
And ever since hath kept in darksom cave;
For that I would not yeeld that to Sansfoy I gave.

clowd,

And shameful treason,) who through guile hath slayn" But since faire Sunne hath sperst that lowring
The prowest knight, that ever field did fight,
Even stout Sansfoy, (O who can then refrayn?)
Whose shield he beares renverst, the more to heap
disdayn.

"And, to augment the glorie of his guile,
His dearest love, the faire Fidessa, loe
Is there possessed of the traytour vile;
Who reapes the harvest sowen by his foe,
Sowen in bloodie field, and bought with woe:
That-brothers hand shall dearely well requight,
So be, O queene, who equall favour showe."
Him litle answerd th' angry Elfin knight;

And to my loathed life now shewes some light,
Under your beames I will me safely shrowd
From dreaded storme of his disdainfull spight:
To you th' inheritance belonges by right
Of brothers prayse, to you eke longes his love.
Let not his love, let not his restlesse spright,
Be unreveng'd, that calles to you above
From wandring Stygian shores, where it doth end-
lesse move."

Thereto said he, "Faire dame, be nought dismaid
For sorrowes past; their griefe is with them gone.

He never meant with words, but swords, to plead Ne yet of present perill be affraid:

his right:

But threw his gauntlet, as a sacred pledg,
His cause in combat the next day to try:
So been they parted both, with harts on edg
To be aveng'd each on his enimy.
That night they pas in joy and iollity,
Feasting and courting both in bowre and hall;
For steward was excessive Gluttony,
That of his plenty poured forth to all:
Which doen, the chamberlain Slowth did to rest
them call.

Now whenas darksome Night had all displayd
Her coleblacke cartein over brightest skye;
The warlike youthes, on dayntie couches layd,
Did chace away sweet sleepe from sluggish eye,
To muse on meanes of hoped victory.
But whenas Morpheus had with leaden mace
Arrested all that courtly company,
Uprose Duessa from ber resting place,

For needlesse feare did never vautage none;
And helplesse hap it booteth not to mone.
Dead is Sansfoy, his vitali paines are past,
Though greeved ghost for veugeance deep to

grone:

He lives, that shall him pay his dewties last,
And guiltie Elfin blood shall sacrifice in hast.”

"O, but I feare the fickle freakes," quoth shee,
"Of fortune false, and oddes of armes in field.”
"Why, dame," quoth he, "whatoddes can ever bee,
Where both doe fight alike, to win or yield?
"Yea, but," quoth she, "he beares a charmed
shield,

And eke enchaunted armes, that none can perce;
Ne none can wound the man, that does them
wield."

"Charmd or enchaunted," answerd he then ferce, "I no whitt reck; ne you the like need to reherce. "But, faire Fidessa, sithens fortunes guile,

And to the Paynims lodging comes with silent Or enimies powre, hath now captived you,

CANTO V.

The faithfull knight in equall field
Subdewes his faithlesse foe;
Whom false Duessa saves, and for
His cure to Hell does goe.

THE noble bart that harbours vertuous thought,
And is with childe of glorious great intent,
Can never rest, untill it forth have brought
Th' eternall brood of glorie excellent.
Such restlesse passion did all night torment
The flaming corage of that Faery knight,
Devizing, how that doughtie turnament
With greatest honour be atchieven might:
Still did he wake, and still did watch for dawning
light.

At last, the golden orientall gate

Of greatest Heaven gan to open fayre;
And Phoebus, fresh as brydegrome to his mate,
Came dauncing forth, shaking his deawie hayre;
And hurld his glistring beams through gloomy ayre.
Which when the wakeful Elfe perceiv'd, streightway
He started up, and did him selfe prepayre
In sunbright armes, and battailous array;

For with that Pagan proud he combatt will that
day.

And forth he comes into the commune hall;
Where earely waite him many a gazing eye,
To weet what end to straunger knights may fall.
There many m nstrales maken melody,
To drive away the dull melancholy;

And many bardes, that to the trembling chord
Can tune their timely voices cunningly;
And many chroniclers, that can record

The Sarazin was stout and wondrous strong,
And heaped blowes like yron hammers great;
For after blood and vengeance he did long.
The knight was fiers, and full of youthly heat,
And doubled strokes, like dreaded thunders threat:
For all for praise and honour did he fight.
Both stricken stryke, and beaten both doe beat;
That from their shields forth flyeth firie light,
And helmets, hewen deepe, shew marks of eithers
might.

So th' one for wrong, the other strives for right:
As when a gryfen, seized of his pray,
A dragon fiers encountreth in his flight,
Through widest ayre making his ydle way,
That would his rightfuli ravine rend away:
With hideous horror both together smight,
And souce so sore, that they the Heavens affray:
The wise southsayer, seeing so sad sight,

Th' amazed vulgar telles of warres and mortal fight.

So th' one for wrong, the other strives for right;
And each to deadly shame would drive his foe:
The cruell steele so greedily doth bight
In tender flesh, the streames of blood down flow;
With which the armes, that earst so bright did show,
Into a pure vermillion now are dyde.
Great ruth in all the gazers harts did grow,
Seeing the gored woundes to gape so wyde,
That victory they dare not wish to either side.
At last the Paynim chaunst to cast his eye,
His suddein eye, flaming with wrathfull fyre,
Upon his brothers shield, which hong thereby :
Therewith redoubled was his raging yre,
And said; "Ah! wretched sonne of wofull syre,
Doest thou sit wayling by blacke Stygian lake,
Whylest here thy shield is hangd for victors hyre?

Old loves, and warres for ladies doen by many a And, sluggish german, doest thy forces slake

lord.

Soone after comes the cruell Sarazin,

In woven maile all armed warily;
And sternly lookes at him, who not a pin
Does care for looke of living creatures eye.
They bring them wines of Greece and Araby,
And daintie spices fetch from furthest Ynd,
To kindle heat of corage privily;

And in the wine a solemne oth they bynd
T'observe the sacred lawes of armes, that are assynd.

At last forth comes that far renowmed queene.
With royall pomp and princely maiestie
She is ybrought unto a paled greene,
And placed under stately canapee,

The warlike feates of both those knights to see.
On th' other side in all mens open vew
Duessa placed is, and on a tree
Sansfoy his shield is hangd with bloody hew:
Both those, the lawrell girlonds to the victor dew.

A shrilling trompett sownded from on hye,
And unto battaill bad themselves addresse:
Their shining shieldes about their wrestes they tye,
And burning blades about their heades do blesse,
The instruments of wrath and heavinesse:
With greedy force each other doth assayle,
And str ke so fiercely, that they do impresse
Deepe dinted furrowes in the battred mayle:
The yron walles to ward their blowes are weak and
fraile.

To after-send his foe, that him may overtake?
"Go, caytive Elfe, him quickly overtake,
And soone redeeme from his long-wandring woe:
Goe, guiltie ghost, to him my message make,
That I his shield have quit from dying foe."
Therewith upon his crest he stroke him so,
That twise he reeled, readie twise to fall:
End of the doubtfull battaile deemed tho
The lookers on; and lowd to him gan call [all!"
The false Duessa, "Thine the shield, and I, and

Soone as the Faerie heard his ladie speake,
Out of his swowning dreame he gan awake;
And quickning faith, that earst was woxen weake,
The creeping deadly cold away did shake;
Tho mov'd with wrath, and shame, and ladies sake,
Of all attonce he cast aveng'd to be,

And with so' exceeding furie at him strake,
That forced him to stoupe upon his knee:
Had he not stouped so, he should have cloven bee.

And to him said; "Goe now, proud miscreant,
Thyselfe thy message do to german deare;
Alone he, wandring, thee too long doth want:
Goe say, his foe thy shield with his doth beare."
Therewith his heavie hand he high gan reare,
Him to have slaine; when lo! a darkesome clowd
Upon him fell; he no where doth appeare,
But vanisht is. The Elfe him calls alowd,
But answer none, receives; the darkness him does
shrowd.

"Ah, dame," quoth he, "thou temptest me in vaine |
To dare the thing, which daily yet I rew;
And the old cause of my continued paine
With like attempt to like end to renew.

Is not enough, that, thrust from Heaven dew,
Here endlesse penaunce for one fault I pay;
But that redoubled crime with vengeaunce new
Thou biddest me to eeke? can Night defray
The wrath of thundring love, that rules both Night
and Day?"

“Not so,” quoth she; "but, sith that Heavens king
From hope of Heaven hath thee excluded quight,
Why fearest thon, that canst not hope for thing;
And fearest not that more thee hurten might,
Now in the powre of everlasting Night?
Goe to then, O thou far renowmed sonne
Of great Apollo, shew thy famous might

In medicine, that els hath to thee wonne [donne."
Great pains, and greater praise, both never to be
Her words prevaild: and then the learned leach
His cunning hand gan to his wounds to lay,
And all things els, the which his art did teach :
Which having seene, from thence arose away
The mother of dredd darknesse, and let stay
Aveugles sonne there in the leaches cure;
And, backe retourning, took her wonted way
To ronne her timely race, whilst Phoebus pure
In westerne waves his weary wagon did recure.

The false Duessa, leaving noyous Night,
Returnd to stately pallace of dame Pryde:
Where when she came, she found the Faery knight
Departed thence; albee (his woundes wyde
Not throughly heald) unready were to ryde.
Good cause he had to hasten thence away;
For on a day his wary dwarfe had spyde
Where, in a dungeon deepe, huge nombers lay
Of caytive wretched thralls, that wayled night and
day;

(A ruefull sight as could be seene with eie ;)
Of whom he learned had in secret wise
The hidden cause of their captivitie;
How mortgaging their lives to Covetise,
Through wastfull pride and wanton riotise,
They were by law of that proud tyrannesse,
Provokt with Wrath and Envyes false surmise,
Condemned to that dongeon mercilesse, [nesse.
Where they should live in wo, and dye in wretched-

There was that great proud king of Babylon,
That would compell all nations to adore
And him, as onely God, to call upon;

Till, through celestiall doome thrown out of dore,
Into an oxe he was transformd of yore.
There also was king Croesus, that enhaunst

His hart too high through his great richesse store;
And proud Antiochus, the which advaunst
His cursed hand gainst God, and on his altares daunst.

And, them long time before, great Nimrod was,
That first the world with sword and fire warrayd;
And after him old Ninus far did pas
In princely pomp, of all the world obayd.
There also was that mightie monarch layd
Low under all, yet above all in pride,
That name of native syre did fowle upbrayd,
And would as Ammons sonne be magnifide; [dide.
Till, scornd of God and man, a shamefull death he

All these together in one heape were throwne,
Like carkases of beastes in butchers stall.
And, in another corner, wide were strowne
The antique ruins of the Romanes fall:
Great Romulus, the grandsyre of them all;
Proud Tarquin; and too lord'y Lentulus;
Stout Scipio; and stubborne Hanniball;
Ambitious Sylla; and sterne Marius;
High Caesar; great Pompey; and fiers Antonius.
Proud wemen, vaine, forgetfull of their yoke:
Amongst these mightie men were wemen mixt,
The bold Semiramis, whose sides transfixt
With sonnes own blade her fowle reproches spoke:
Fayre Sthenobea, that her selfe did choke
With wilfull chord, for wanting of her will;
High-minded Cleopatra, that with stroke
And thousands moe the like, that did that dongeon
Of aspes sting her selfe did stoutly kill:

[fill.

Besides the endlesse routes of wretched thralles,
Which thether were assembled, day by day,
From all the world, after their wofull falles
Through wicked pride and wasted welthes decay.
But most, of all which in that dongeon lay,
Fell from high princes courtes, or ladies bowres ;
Where they in ydle pomp, or wanton play,
Consumed had their goods and thriftlesse howres,
And lastly thrown themselves into these heavy
stowres.

Whose case whenas the careful dwarfe had tould,
And made ensample of their mournfull sight
Unto his maister; he no lenger would
There dwell in perill of like painefull plight,
But earely rose; and, ere that dawning light
Discovered had the world to Heaven wyde,
He by a privy posterne tooke his flight,
That of no envious eyes he mote be spyde:
For, doubtlesse, death ensewd if any him descryde.

Scarse could he footing find in that fowle way,
For many corses, like a great lay-stall,
Of murdred men, which therein strowed lay
Without remorse or decent funerall;
[fall,
Which, al through that great princesse Pryde, did
And came to shamefull end: and them besyde,
Forth ryding underneath the castell wall,
A donghill of dead carcases he spyde;
The dreadfull spectacle of that sad House of Pryde.

CANTO VI.

From lawlesse lust by wondrous grace
Fayre Una is releast:
Whom salvage nation does adore,

And learnes her wise beheast.

As when a ship, that flyes fayre under sayle,
An hidden rocke escaped hath unwares,
That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile;
The mariner yet halfe amazed stares
At perill past, and yet in doubt ne dares
To ioy at his foolhappie oversight:
So doubly is distrest twixt ioy and cares
The dreadlesse corage of this Elfin knight,
Having escapt so sad ensamples in his sight.