To drive away the dull melancholy,

8

And many Bardes, that to the trembling chord So th' one for wrong, the other strives for
Can tune their timely voyces cunningly,
And many Chroniclers that can record

right;

As when a Gryfon seized of his pray,

Old loves, and warres for Ladies doen by A Dragon fiers encountreth in his flight,

many a Lord.

4

Soon 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 fecht 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.

5

At last forth comes that far renowned Queene,
With royal pomp and Princely majestie;
She is ybrought unto a paled greene,2
And placed under stately canapee,

Through widest ayre making his ydle way,
That would his rightfull ravine rend away;
With hideous horror both together smight,
And souce so sore that they the heavens affray:
The wise Soothsayer seeing so sad sight,
Th' amazed vulgar tels? of warres and mor-
tall fight.

9

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 that streames of bloud down
flow,

With which the armes, that earst so bright
did show,

The warlike feates of both those knights to 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.

12

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 cast10 avengd to bee,
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.

13

And to him said, Goe now proud Miscreant,
Thy selfe thy message doe 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 loe 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.

14

So marcheth home, and by her takes the knight,
Whom all the people follow with great glee,
Shouting, and clapping all their hands on
hight,

That all the aire it fils, and flyes to heaven
bright.

17

Home is he brought, and laid in sumptuous bed:

Where many skilfull leaches him abide,
To salve his hurts, that yet still freshly bled.
In wine and oyle they wash his woundes wide,
And softly can1+ embalme on every side.
And all the while, most heavenly melody
About the bed sweet musicke did divide,15
Him to beguile of griefe and agony:

And all the while Duessa wept full bitterly.

[The Knight and the Dwarf escape from the house of Pride, but the Knight is captured by the giant Orgoglio (another impersonator of Pride) and thrown into a dungeon. Meanwhile Una, having escaped from Sansloy, meets the Dwarf, who tells her what has befallen. Just then appears Prince Arthur, seeking the court of the Faerie Queene. He hears their story, fights with Orgoglio, and frees his prisoner. Reunited, the Knight and Una proceed on their way. After further trial in the Cave of Despair, and wholesome discipline at the House of Holiness, they reach the goal of their journeythe wasted kingdom, and the brazen tower where Una's parents are imprisoned by the Dragon.

In haste Duessa from her place arose,
And to him running said, O prowest knight,
That ever Ladie to her love did chose,
Let now abate the terror of your might,
And quench the flame of furious despight,
And bloudie vengeance; lo
th' infernall
Covering your foe with cloud of deadly night,
Have borne him hence to Plutoes balefull | The Knight engages in a desperate conflict with

powres,

bowres.

The conquest yours, I yours, the shield, the glory yours.

15

Not all so satisfide, with greedie eye
He sought all round about, his thristie11 blade
To bath in bloud of faithlesse enemy;
Who all that while lay hid in secret shade:
He standes amazed, how he thence should fade.
At last the trumpets Triumph sound on hie,
And running Heralds humble homage made,
Greeting him goodly with new victorie,

the Dragon, and only on the third day succeeds in conquering him.]

THE DRAGON SLAIN. THE BETROTHAL OF UNA.
FROM BOOK I, CANTO XII.

1

Behold I see the haven nigh at hand,

To which I meane my wearie course to bend; Vere the maine shete, and beare up with the land,

And to him brought the shield, the cause of The which afore is fairely to be kend,

Then gan triumphant Trompets sound on hie,
That sent to heaven the ecchoed report
Of their new joy, and happie victorie
Gainst him, that had them long opprest with
tort,2

And fast imprisoned in sieged fort.
Then all the people, as in solemne feast,
To him assembled with one full consort,
Rejoycing at the fall of that great beast,
From whose eternall bondage now they were
releast.

Forth came
Queene,

5

Unhappie falles that hard necessitie,
(Quoth he) the troubler of my happie peace,
And vowed foe of my felicitie;

Ne I against the same can justly preace: 8
But since that band ye cannot now release,

that auncient Lord and aged Nor doen undo;9 (for vowes may not be vaine),
Soone as the terms of those six yeares shall

Arayd in antique robes downe to the ground,
And sad habiliments right well beseene3;
A noble crew about them waited round
Of sage and sober Peres1, all gravely gownd;
Whom farre before did march a goodly bar 1
Of tall young men, all hable armes to sownd3,
But now they laurell braunches bore in hand;
Glad signe of victorie and peace in all their
land.

cease,

Ye then shall hither backe returne againe,
The marriage to accomplish vowd betwixt
you twain.

20

Which for my part I covet to performe,
In sort as through the world I did proclame,
That whoso kild that monster most deforme,
And him in hardy battaile overcame,
Should have mine onely daughter to his Dame,
And of my kingdome heyre apparaunt bee:
Therefore since now to thee perteines the same,
By dew desert of noble chevalree,

Both daughter and eke kingdome, lo, I yield
to thee.

[Archimago, in a last spiteful effort, comes disguised as a messenger and attempts to prevent the betrothal by producing a letter from Duessa in which she asserts that the Knight is And solemne feast proclaimd throughout the plighted to her. His ruse, however, is exposed.]

Seem'd foul to them, and bade his billows Their snowy foreheads therewithal they