The patron of true holiness,
Foul error doth defeat;
Hypocrisy, him to entrap,
Doth to his home entreat.
A GENTLE knight was prancing on the plain,
Arrayed in mighty arms and silver shield,
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain,
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
Yet arms till that time did he never wield:
His angry steed did chide his foaming bit,
As much disdaining to the curb to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemed, and fair did sit,
As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit.
And on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd:
Upon his shield the like was also scor'd,
For sovereign hope, which in his help he had;
Right faithful, true, he was in deed and word:
But did in aspect seem too solemn sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad. [dreaded]
Upon a great adventure he was bound,
Which greatest GLORIANA to him gave,
That greatest glorious Queen of Fairyland,
To win him worship, and her grace to have,
Which of all earthly things he did most crave:
And ever as he rode, his heart did yearn
To prove his puissance in battle brave
Upon his foe, and his new force to learn;
Upon his foe, a dragon horrible and stern.
A lovely lady rode him fair beside,
Upon a lowly ass more white than snow,
Yet she much whiter; but the same did hide
Under a veil, that flowed down full low;
And over all a black robe she did throw,
As one that inly mourned; so was she sad,
And heavy sat upon her palfrey slow;
Seemed in heart some hidden care she had;
And by her in a line a milk-white lamb she lad. [led]
So pure and innocent, as that same lamb,
She was in life and every virtuous lore;
And by decent from royal lineage came
Of ancient kings and queens, that had of yore
Their sceptres stretched from east to western shore,
And all the world in their subjection held';
Till that infernal fiend with foul uproar
Much wasted all their land, and them expelled;
Whom to avenge she had this knight from far compelled.
Behind her far away a dwarf did lag,
That lazy seemed, in being ever last,
Or wearied with bearing of her bag
Of needments at his back. Thus as they past,
The day with clouds was suddenly o'ercast;
And angry Jove a hideous storm of rain
Did pour upon the wide champaign so fast,
That every man to shelter did constrain;
And this fair couple too to shroud themselves were fain.
Enforced to seek some covert nigh at hand,
A shady grove not far away they spied,
That promised aid the tempest to withstand;
Whose lofty trees, beclad in summer's pride,
Did spread so broad, that heaven's light did hide,
Not pervious to the power of any star;
And all within were paths and alleys wide,
With footing worn, and leading inward far:
Fair harbour that, it seems; so in they entered are.
And forth they pass, with pleasure forward led,
Joying to hear the birds' sweet harmony,
Which, therein shrouded from the tempest dread,
Seemed in their song to scorn the cruel sky.
Much do they praise the trees so straight and high;
The sailing pine; the cedar proud and tali;
The vine-prop elm; the poplar never dry;
The builder oak, sole king of forests all;
The aspen, good for staves; the cypress funeral;
The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors
And poets sage; the fir that weepeth still;
The willow, worn of forlorn paramours;
The yew, obedient to the bender's will;
The birch for shafts; the sallow for the mill;
The myrrh, sweet-bleeding in the bitter wound;
The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill;
The fruitful olive; and the plane-tree round;
The carver holm; the maple, seldom inward sound.
Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
Until the blustering storm is overblown;
When, wishing to return, whence they did stray,'
They cannot find that path which first was shewn,
But wander to and fro in ways unknown;
Furthest from end then, when they nearest wean, [think]
That makes them doubt their wits be not their own:
So many paths, so many turnings seen,
That which of them to take, in diverse doubt they been.
At last, resolving forward still to fare,
Till that some end they find, or in or out,
That path they take that beaten seemed most bare,
And like to lead the labyrinth about;
Which when by track they hunted had throughout,
At length it brought them to a hollow cave
Amidst the thickest woods. The champion stout
Forthwith dismounted from his courser brave,
And to the dwarf awhile his needless spear he gave.
'Be well aware,' quoth then that lady mild,
'Lest sudden mischief you too rash provoke;
‹ The danger hid, the place unknown and wild,
'Breeds dreadful doubts: oft fire is without smoke,
And peril without shew; therefore your stroke,
'Sir knight, withhold, till further trial made.'
'Ah lady,' said he, shame were to revoke,
The forward footing for a hidden shade :
'Virtue gives herself light through darkness for to wade.'
'Yea, but,' quoth she, the peril of this place
I better know than you: though now too late
To wish you back return with foul disgrace,
"Yet wisdom warns while foot is in the gate,
To stay the step, ere forced to retreat.
This is the Wandering Wood, this ERROR's Den,
A monster vile, whom God and man do hate:
'Therefore I say beware.' Fly, fly,' quoth then
The fearful dwarf, this is no place for living men.'
But, full of fire and greedy hardiment,
The youthful knight could not for aught be stayed;
But forth unto the darksome hole he went,
And looked in; his glistering armour made
A little glooming light, much like a shade;
By which he saw the ugly monster plain,
Half like a serpent horribly display'd,
But th' other half did woman's shape retain ;
Most loathsome, filthy, foul, and full of vile disdain..
And as she lay upon the dirty ground,
Her huge long tail her den all overspread,
Yet was in knots and many folds upwound,
Pointed with mortal sting; of her there bred
A thousand young ones, which she daily fed,
Sucking upon her poisonous dugs; each one'
Of sundry shapes, yet all ill-favoured:
Soon as that unknown light upon them shone,
Into her mouth they crept, and suddenly were gone.
Their dam upstarted from her den afraid,
And rushed forth, hurling her hideous tail
About her cursed head; whose folds display'd
Were now stretch'd forth at length without entrail. [twist] She looked about, and seeing one in mail,
Armed to point, sought back to turn again :
For light she hated as the deadly bale, [evil]
Aye wont in desert darkness to remain,
Where plain none might her see, nor she see any plain.
Which when the valiant knight perceived, he leap'd,
As lion fierce, upon the flying prey,
And with his trenchant blade her boldly kept
From turning back, and forced her to stay:
Therewith enraged, she loudly gan to bray,
And turning fierce, her speckled tail advanced,
Threatening her angry sting, him to dismay;
Who, nought aghast, his mighty hand enhanced;
The stroke down from her head unto her shoulder glanced.
Much daunted with that dint, her sense was dazed; [confused] Yet kindling rage, herself she gathered round,
And all at once her beastly body raised
With doubled forces high above the ground;
Then, wrapping up her wreathed tail around,
Leap'd fierce upon his shield, and her huge train
All suddenly about his body wound,
That hand or foot to stir he strove in vain.
God help the man so wrapt in ERROR's endless train!
His lady, sad to see his sore constraint,
Cried out, Now, now, sir knight, shew what ye be;
'Add faith unto your force, and be not faint;
Strangle her, else she sure will strangle thee.'
That when he heard, in great perplexity,
His gall did grate for grief and high disdain;
And knitting all his force, got one hand free,
Wherewith he gripp'd her gorge with so great pain,
That soon to loose her wicked bands did her constrain.
Therewith she spewed out of her filthy maw
A flood of poison horrible and black,
Full of great lumps of flesh and gobbets raw,
Which stunk so vilely, that it forced him slack'
His grasping hold, and from her turn him back:
Her vomit full of books and papers was,
With loathsome frogs and toads, which eyes did lack,
And creeping sought way in the weedy grass:
Her filthy vomit all the place defiled has.
'As when old father Nilus gins to swell
With timely pride above the Egyptian vale,
His fatty waves do fertile slime outwell,
And overflow each plain and lowly dale:
But, when his later spring gins to avale, [subside]
Huge heaps of mud he leaves, wherein there breed
Ten thousand kinds of creatures, partly male,
And partly female, of his fruitful seed;
Such ugly monstrous shapes elsewhere may no man read.
The same so sorely has annoyed the knight,
That, well nigh choked with the deadly stink,
His forces fail; he can no longer fight.
Whose courage when the fiend perceived to shrink,
She poured forth, out of her hellish sink,
Her fruitful cursed spawn of serpents small;
Deformed monsters, foul, and black as ink,
Which swarming all about his legs did crawl,
And him encumbered sore, but could not hurt at all.
As gentle shepherd, in sweet eventide,
When ruddy Phoebus gins to sink in west,
High on a hill, his flock to view full wide,
Marks which do bite their hasty supper best,
A cloud of cumbrous gnats do him molest,
All striving to infix their feeble stings,
That from th' annoyance he no where can rest;
But with his clownish hands their tender wings
He brusheth oft, and oft doth mar their murmurings :
Thus ill bested, and fearful more of shame
Than of the certain peril he stood in,
Half furious unto his foe he came,
Resolved in mind all suddenly to win,
Or soon to lose, before he would give in;
And struck at her with more than manly force,
That from her body, full of filthy sin,
He reft her hateful head without remorse:
A stream of coal-black blood forth gushed from her corse.
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