Could ever loofse but suffred deadly doole:
So alfo did this Monster ufe like flight

To many a one which came unto her schoole, Whom she did put to death, deceived like a foole. 26.

She comming forth, when as the first beheld

The armed Prince with fhield fo blazing bright
Her ready to affaile, was greatly queld,

And much dismayd with that dismayfull fight,
That backe she would have turnd for great affright;
But he gan her with courage fierce affay,
That forft her turne againe in her defpight

To fave her felfe, least that he did her flay;
And fure he had her flaine, had fhe not turnd her way.

27.

Tho, when she saw that she was forft to fight,

She flew at him like to an hellish feend,

And on his shield tooke hold with all her might,

As if that it fhe would in peeces rend,

Or reave out of the hand that did it hend:"
Strongly he ftrove out of her greedy gripe
To loose his shield, and long while did contend;
But when he could not quite it, with one stripe
Her Lions clawes he from her feete away did wipe.

28.

With that aloude fhe gan to bray and yell,

And fowle blafphemous fpeaches forth did cast,
And bitter curfes, horrible to tell;

That even the Temple, wherein she was plast,
Did quake to heare, and nigh asunder brast:
Tho with her huge long taile fhe at him strooke,

• the band that did it hend.] i. e. ftrictly the hand that did it take. (See vol. ii. p. 108); but here we must, for the sake of the rhyme, receive "hend" as bold or fuftain. C.

That made him ftagger and stand halfe agast

With trembling joynts, as he for terrour fhooke; Who nought was terrifide, but greater courage tooke.

29.

As when the Maft of fome well timbred hulke
Is with the blaft of fome outragious storme
Blowne downe, it shakes the bottome of the bulke,
And makes her ribs to cracke as they were torne ;
Whileft still she stands, as stonisht and forlorne : P
So was he stound with stroke of her huge taile;
But ere that it she backe againe had borne,
He with his fword it ftrooke, that without faile
He joynted it, and mard the fwinging of her flaile.
30.

Then gan fhe cry much louder than afore,
That all the people there without it heard,
And Belge felfe was therewith ftonied fore,
As if the onely found thereof fhe feard.

But then the feend her felfe more fiercely reard
Uppon her wide great wings, and strongly flew
With all her body at his head and beard,

That had he not foreseene with heedfull vew, And thrown his fhield atween, fhe had him done to rew. 31.

But, as the preft on him with heavy fway,

Under her wombe his fatall fword he thrust,

And for her entrailes made an open way

To iffue forth; the which, once being brust,
Like to a great Mill damb forth fiercely gusht,
And powred out of her infernall finke
Moft ugly filth; and poyfon therewith rusht,

Pas ftonifht and forlorne.] All old impreffions make "as ftonifht" two separate words; but in fome modern impreffions they are united, aftonisht. It may deserve remark that in " England's Parnaffus," 1600, a very ill printed book, "as stonisht" is altered to aftonisht, p. 462. C.

That him nigh choked with the deadly stinke. Such loathly matter were small luft to speake or thinke.

32.

Then downe to ground fell that deformed Masse, Breathing out clouds of fulphure fowle and blacke, In which a puddle of contagion was,

More loathd then Lerna, or then Stygian lake, That any man would nigh awhaped make:9 Whom when he saw on ground, he was full glad, And ftreight went forth his gladnesse to partake With Belge, who watcht all this while full fad, Wayting what end would be of that fame daunger drad. 33.

Whom when she saw so joyously come forth,

She gan rejoyce and fhew triumphant chere,
Lauding and prayfing his renowmed worth
By all the names that honorable were.
Then in he brought her, and her fhewed there
The prefent of his paines, that Monsters spoyle,
And eke that Idoll deem'd fo costly dere,
Whom he did all to peeces breake, and foyle
In filthy durt, and left fo in the loathely foyle.

34.

Then all the people which beheld that day
Gan fhout aloud, that unto heaven it rong;
And all the damzels of that towne in ray
Came dauncing forth, and joyous carrols fong :
So him they led through all their streetes along
Crowned with girlonds of immortall baies;
And all the vulgar did about them throng
To fee the man, whofe everlasting praise
They all were bound to all pofterities to raise.

would nigh awhaped make.] We have had " awhape" already, B. iv. C. 7. St. 5 (vol. iii. p. 195) in the fame fenfe that it here bears, viz. terrified. Chaucer ufes "awhaped," and Lydgate couples it with amate awhaped and amate." C.

35.

There he with Belga' did awhile remaine

Making great feast and joyous merriment,
Untill he had her fettled in her raine
With fafe affuraunce and establishment:
Then to his first emprize his mind he lent,
Full loath to Belgæ and to all the rest;
Of whom yet taking leave thenceforth he went,
And to his former journey him addrest ;

On which long way he rode, ne ever day did rest.
36.

But turne we now to noble Artegall;

Who, having left Mercilla, ftreight way went
On his first queft, the which him forth did call,
To weet, to worke Irenaes franchisement,
And eke Grantortoes worthy punishment.
So forth he fared, as his manner was,
With onely Talus wayting diligent,

Through many perils; and much way did pas, Till nigh unto the place at length approcht he has. 37.

There as he traveld by the way, he met

An aged wight wayfaring all alone,

Who through his yeares long fince afide had fet
The use of armes, and battell quite forgone:
To whom as he approcht, he knew anone
That it was he which whilome did attend

On faire Irene in her affliction,

When first to Faery court he saw her wend,

Unto his foveraine Queene her fuite for to commend. 38.

Whom by his name faluting, thus he gan :

There be with Belga.] Here again (fee vol. iii. p. 467) Spenfer reverts to the diphthong in the name of Belgæ or Belge. We have had a third variety, Belgee, in the Argument of C. 10.

C.

"Haile, good Sir Sergis, trueft Knight alive,
Well tride in all thy Ladies troubles than
When her that Tyrant did of Crowne deprive;
What new occafion doth thee hither drive,
Whiles she alone is left, and thou here found?
Or is fhe thrall, or doth she not survive?"

To whom he thus: "She liveth fure and found, But by that Tyrant is in wretched thraldome bound : 39.

"For fhe prefuming on th' appointed tyde,
In which ye promift, as ye were a Knight,
To meete her at the falvage Ilands fyde,
And then and there for triall of her right
With her unrighteous enemy to fight,

Did thither come; where fhe, afrayd of nought,
By guilefull treafon and by fubtill flight
Surprized was, and to Grantorto brought,

Who her imprisoned hath, and her life often fought.

40.

"And now he hath to her prefixt a day,
By which if that no champion doe appeare,
Which will her caufe in battailous array
Against him juftifie, and prove her cleare
Of all thofe crimes that he gainst her doth reare,
She death fhall fure aby." Thofe tidings fad
Did much abash Sir Artegall to heare,

And grieved fore that through his fault she had
Fallen into that Tyrants hand and usage bad.

4I.

Then thus replide: "Now fure and by my life,
Too much am I to blame for that faire Maide,

s She death fhall fure aby.] This line is defective in the 4to. 1596: it wants two fyllables which are fupplied in all fubfequent impreffions, and "She death fhall by" is amended to "She death fhall fure aby." The fenfe is precisely the fame, while the measure is amended. C.