OF JUSTICE.

CANTO XI.

Prince Arthure overcomes the great

Gerioneo in fight:

Doth flay the Monster, and restore

Belge unto her right.

I.

T often fals, in courfe of common life,
That right long time is overborne of

wrong

Through avarice, or powre, or guile, or ftrife,

That weakens her, and makes her
party ftrong;

But Juftice, though her dome fhe doe prolong,
Yet at the last she will her owne cause right:

As by fad Belge feemes; whose wrongs though long
She fuffred, yet at length fhe did requight,

And fent redreffe thereof by this brave Briton Knight.

2.

Whereof when newes was to that Tyrant brought,
How that the Lady Belge now had found

A Champion, that had with his Champion fought,"
And laid his Senefchall low on the ground,
And eke him felfe did threaten to confound;
He gan to burne in rage, and friefe in feare,
Doubting fad end of principle unfound:

Yet, fith he heard but one that did appeare,
He did him felfe encourage and take better cheare.

3.

Natheleffe him felfe he armed all in haft,

And forth he far'd with all his many bad,
Ne stayed step, till that he came at last
Unto the Castle which they conquerd had :
There with huge terrour, to be more ydrad,
He fternely marcht before the Castle gate,
And with bold vaunts and ydle threatning bad
Deliver him his owne, ere yet too late,

To which they had no right, nor any wrongfull ftate.

4.

The Prince ftaid not his aunswere to devize,

But, opening ftreight the Sparre, forth to him came, Full nobly mounted in right warlike wize; And asked him, if that he were the fame, Who all that wrong unto that wofull Dame So long had done, and from her native land Exiled her, that all the world spake shame? He boldly aunfwerd him, he there did ftand. That would his doings juftifie with his owne hand.

5.

With that fo furiously at him he flew,

A Champion, that had with his Champion fought.] He ought to have given it, "A Champion, that had with his Champions fought," viz. the three knights mentioned C. x. St. 34 [vol. iii. p. 474]. UPTON.

hew

As if he would have overrun him ftreight; And with his huge great yron axe gan So hideously uppon his armour bright, As he to peeces would have chopt it quight; That the bold Prince was forced foote to give To his first rage, and yeeld to his defpight; The whileft at him fo dreadfully he drive,b That feem'd a marble rocke afunder could have rive.

6.

Thereto a great advauntage eke he has

Through his three double hands thrise multiplyde,
Befides the double ftrength which in them was:
For ftil, when fit occafion did betyde,

He could his weapon fhift from fide to fyde,
From hand to hand; and with such nimblesse fly
Could wield about, that, ere it were efpide,

с

The wicked ftroke did wound his enemy Behinde, befide, before, as he it lift apply.

7.

Which uncouth ufe when as the Prince perceived,
He gan to watch the wielding of his hand,
Leaft by fuch flight he were unwares deceived;
And ever, ere he saw the ftroke to land,
He would it meete and warily withstand.

bfo dreadfully be drive.] i. e. he drove or drave. Spenfer undoubtedly, as Church contends, ufes " drive" here as the past tense: he does the fame in F. Q. B. i. C. ix. St. 38; vol. ii. p. 15. In the next line we have "rive" used for riven; but the folio 1611 gives the line thus:

:

"That seem'd a marble rocke afunder could not rive." Drayton, in his copy of this impreffion, left the text unamended. C. c Could wield about.] It may be doubted whether here we ought not to receive" wield" in the fenfe of wheel: the giant could wheel about with fuch artful nimbleness. According to the quarto edits. of "Richard III." A. iv. Sc. 4, Shakespeare speaks of justice as " wheeling about;" but the folios have "whirl'd about." In the next stanza wielding" seems to be used by Spenser in its ordinary meaning. C.

One time, when he his weapon faynd to shift,

As he was wont, and chang'd from hand to hand,
He met him with a counterstroke so swift,
That quite fmit off his arme as he it up did lift.

8.

Therewith all fraught with fury and disdaine,
He brayd aloud for very fell despight;
And fodainely, t' avenge him felfe againe
Gan into one affemble all the might

Of all his hands, and heaved them on hight,
Thinking to pay him with that one for all:
But the fad fteele feizd not, where it was hight,
Uppon the childe," but fomewhat fhort did fall,
And lighting on his horfes head him quite did mall.

9.

Downe ftreight to ground fell his aftonifht fteed,
And eke to th' earth his burden with him bare;
But he him felfe full lightly from him freed,
And gan him felfe to fight on foote prepare:
Whereof when as the Gyant was aware,
He wox right blyth, as he had got thereby,
And laught fo loud, that all his teeth wide bare
One might have seene enraung'd disorderly,
Like to a rancke of piles that pitched are awry.

IO.

Eftfoones againe his axe he raught on hie,
Ere he were throughly buckled to his geare,
And can let drive at him fo dreadfullie,
That had he chaunced not his fhield to reare,
Ere that huge stroke arrived on him neare,
He had him furely cloven quite in twaine:

d Uppon the childe.] It was not unusual, in romances, to apply the word child to Squires and others who had not yet been received into the order of knighthood: it was also given to knights, as here, and elsewhere to Prince Arthur. C.