CANTO V.

The faithful knight, in equal field,

Subdues his faithless foe;

Whom false Duessa saves,

And for his cure to hell does go.

The noble heart that harbours virtuous thought,
And does expand with glorious great intent,
Can never rest, until it forth have brought
The eternal brood of glory excellent.
Such restless passion did all night torment
The flaming courage of the REDCROSS knight,
Devising how that doughty tournament
With greatest honour be achieved might :
Still did he wake, and still did watch for dawning light.

At last the golden oriental gate

Of greatest heaven gan to open fair;

And Phoebus, fresh as bridegroom to his mate,

Came dancing forth, shaking his dewy hair,

And hurled his glistering beams through gloomy air.
Which when the wakeful knight perceived, straightway
He started up, and did himself prepare

In sun-bright arms and battlesome array;

For with that Pagan proud he combat will that day.

And forth he comes into the common hall,
Where early wait him many a gazing eye,
To learn what end to stranger knights may fall.
There many minstrels make much melody,
To drive away the dull melancholy;

And many bards, who to the trembling chord
Can tune their timely voices cunningly;

And many chroniclers, who can record

Old loves, and wars for ladies done by many a lord.

Soon after comes the cruel Sarazin,

In woven mail all armed warily;
And sternly looks at him, who not a pin
Does care for look of living creature's eye.

They bring them wines of Greece and Araby,
And dainty spices fetch'd from furthest Ind,
To kindle heat of courage privily;

And in the wine a solemn oath they bind
T'observe the sacred laws of arms that are assigned.

1

At last forth comes that far renowned queen,
With royal pomp and princely majesty ;
She is encircled in a fenced green,

And placed under stately canopy,

The warlike feats of both these knights to see.
On th' other side, in all men's open view,
DUESSA placed is; and on a tree

SANSFOY his shield is hung with bloody hue;
Both these the laurel garlands to the victor due.

A shrilling trumpet sounded from on high,
And unto battle bade themselves address:
Their shining shields about their wrists they tie,
And burning blades about their heads do bless, [brandish]
The instruments of wrath and heaviness.
With greedy force each other doth assail,
And strike so fiercely that they do impress
Deep-dinted furrows in the battered mail :

The iron walls to ward the blows are weak and frail.

The Saracen was bold and wondrous strong,
And heaped blows like iron hammers great;
For after blood and vengeance he did long.
The knight was fierce, and full of youthful heat,
And doubled strokes like dreaded thunder's threat;
For all for praise and honour did he fight.

Both striken strike, and beaten both do beat;
That from their shields forth flieth fiery light,

And helmets, deeply hewed, shew marks of either's might.
The one for wrong, the other strives for right:
As when a griffin seized has his prey,
A dragon fierce encountereth in his flight,
Through widest air making his idle way,
That would his rightful ravine rend away;
With hideous horror both together smite,
And strive so sore that they the heavens affray.
The wise soothsayer, seeing so sad a sight,
The amazed vulgar tells of war and mortal fight.

So one for wrong, the other strives for right,
And each to deadly shame would drive his foe:
The cruel steel so greedily doth bite

The tender flesh, that streams of blood do flow;
With which the arms, that erst so bright did show,
Into a deep vermillion now are dyed.

Great ruth in all the gazers hearts did grow,
Seeing the gored wounds to gape so wide,

That victory they dare not wish to either side.

At last the Pagan chanced to cast his eye,
His sudden eye, flaming with wrathful fire,
Upon his brother's shield which hung thereby:
Therewith redoubled was his raging ire,
And said, 'Ah wretched son of woeful sire,
Dost thou sit wailing by black Stygian lake,
'Whilst here thy shield is hung for victor's hire?
'And, sluggish SANSJOY, do thy forces slake
'Thither to send his foe, that him may overtake?'

'Go, caitiff knight, him quickly overtake,
'And soon redeem from his long-wandering woe;
Go, guilty ghost, to him my message make,
'That I his shield have got from dying foe.'
Therewith upon his crest he struck him so,
That twice he reeled, ready twice to fall :
End of the doubtful battle deemed tho [then]
The lookers on; and loud to him did call

The false DUESSA, Thine the shield, and I and all !'

Soon as the knight did hear his lady speak,

Out of his swooning dream he did wake;

And quickening faith, that erst was waxen weak,
The creeping deadly cold away did shake;

Then moved with wrath and shame and ladies' sake,
Of all at once he would avenged be,

And with exceeding fury at him strake, [struck]
That he was forced to stoop upon his knee:
Had he not stooped so, cloven would have been he.

The champion said, ' Go now proud miscreant,
'Thyself thy message take to brother dear;
Wandering alone, too long he doth thee want:
'Go say his foe thy shield with his doth bear.'
Therewith his heavy hand he high did rear,
Him to have slain; when, lo, a darksome cloud,
Upon him fell; he nowhere doth appear,

But vanished is. The knight him calls aloud,
But answer none receives; the darkness him doth shroud.

In haste DUESSA from her place arose,

And to him running said, "O bravest knight,
'That ever lady to her love did chose,
'Let now abate the terror of your might,
'And quench the flame of furious despite,

And bloody vengeance: lo, th infernal powers,
Covering your foe with cloud of deadly night,
Have borne him hence to Pluto's baleful bowers:

'The conquest yours; I yours; the shield and glory yours!'

Not all so satisfied, with greedy eye

He sought, all round about, his thirsty blade
To bathe in blood of faithless enemy,

Who all the while lay hid in secret shade:
He stands amazed how he thence should fade.
At last the trumpets triumph sound on high,
And running heralds humble homage made,
Greeting him goodly with new victory;
And to him brought the shield, the cause of enmity.
Wherewith he goeth to that sovereign queen,
And, falling her before on lowly knee,
To her makes present of his service seen,

Which she accepts with thanks and goodly gree, [pleasure]
Greatly extolling his great chivalry:

She marcheth home, and by her takes the knight,
Whom all the people follow with great glee,

Shouting, and clapping all their hands on height,
That all the air it fills, and flies to heaven bright.

Home is he brought, and laid in sumptuous bed,
Where many skilful surgeons him abide,
To dress his wounds which yet still freshly bled:
With wine and oil they wash the gashes wide,
And softly did embalm on every side;
And all the while most heavenly melody
About the bed sweet musick did divide,
Him to beguile of grief and agony :

And all the while DUESSA wept full bitterly.

As when a weary traveller, that strays
By muddy shore of broad seven-mouthed Nile,
Unsuspicious of the dangerous ways,
Doth meet a cruel crafty crocodile,

Which, in false grief hiding her harmful guile,
Doth weep full sore, and shed deth tender tears;
The foolish man, who pities all this while
Her mournful plight, is swallowed unawares ;
Forgetful of his own, in minding other's cares.

So wept DUESSA until eventide,

When shining lamps in Jove's high house were light :
Then forth she rose, nor longer would abide,
But comes unto the place where heathen knight,
In slumbering swoon nigh void of vital sprite,

Lay covered with enchanted cloud all day:
Whom when she found in such a mournful plight,
To wail his woeful case she would not stay,

But to the eastern coast of heaven makes speedy way;

Where grisly Night, with visage deadly sad,
Which Phoebus' cheerful face durst never view,
And in a foul black pitchy mantle clad,

She finds forth coming from her darksome mew,
Where she all day did hide her hateful hue.
Before the door her iron chariot stood,
Already harnessed for journey new,

And coal-black horses, born of hellish brood,

That on their rusty bits did champ, as they were wood. [mad]

Who, when she saw DUESSA sunny bright,
Adorned with gold and jewels shining clear,
She greatly grew amazed at the sight,
And th' unacquainted light began to fear;
For never did such brightness there appear;
She would have back retired to her cave,
Until the witch's speech she gan to hear,

Saying, Yet, O thou dreaded dame, I crave 'Abide, till I have told the message which I have.'

She stayed; and forth DUESSA did proceed; "O thou most ancient grandmother of all,

'More old than Jove, whom thou at first didst breed, 'Or that great house of gods celestial,

'Who wast begot in Dæmogorgon's hall,

'And sawest the secrets of the world unmade,

'Why sufferest thou thy nephews dear to fall,

'With Christian sword most shamefully betrayed?

Lo, where the stout SANSJOY doth sleep in deadly shade !"

And, him before, I saw with bitter eyes,

"The bold SANSFOY struck down by self-same spear; And still the prey of birds in field he lies,

Nor wailed of friends, nor laid on groaning bier,

'Who was to me before too dearly dear.

6

O what of gods then boots it to be born,

'If old AVEUGLE's sons such evil bear?

'Or who shall not Night's greatest children scorn,

'When two of three her nephews are so foul forlorn ?"

'Up, then; up, dreary dame, of darkness queen;

Go, gather up the relics of thy race;

'Or else, go, them avenge; let it be seen

"That dreaded Night in brightest day hath place, 'And can the children of fair Light deface.' These feeling speeches some compassion moved In heart, and changed that great mother's face ; Yet pity in her heart was never proved

Till then; for evermore she hated, never loved.