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, wrong Through avarice, or powre, or guile, or ftrife, That weakens her, and makes her But Juftice, though her dome fhe doe prolong, As by fad Belge feemes; whose wrongs though long And fent redreffe thereof by this brave Briton Knight. 2. Whereof when newes was to that Tyrant brought, A Champion, that had with his Champion fought," Yet, fith he heard but one that did appeare, 3. Natheleffe him felfe he armed all in haft, And forth he far'd with all his many bad, 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, He could his weapon fhift from fide to fyde, 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, 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, 8. Therewith all fraught with fury and disdaine, Of all his hands, and heaved them on hight, 9. Downe ftreight to ground fell his aftonifht fteed, IO. Eftfoones againe his axe he raught on hie, 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. |