4 Was never wight, that heard that shrilling sownd,
But trembling feare did feel in every vaine;
Three miles it might be easy heard arownd,
And ecchoes three answerd it selfe againe :
No false enchauntment, nor deceiptfull traine,
Might once abide the terror of that blast,
But presently was voide and wholly vaine:
No gate so strong, no locke so firme and fast,
But with that percing noise flew open quite, or brast.
5 The same before the geants gate he blew,
That all the castle quaked from the ground,
And every dore of free will open flew.
The gyant selfe dismaied with that sownd,
Where he with his Duessa dalliance fownd,
In hast came rushing forth from inner bowre,
With staring countenance sterne, as one astownd,
And staggering steps, to weet what suddein stowre
Had wrought that horror strange, and dar'd his dreaded
6 And after him the proud Duessa came,
High mounted on her many-headed beast;
And every head with fyrie tongue did flame,
And every head was crowned on his creast,
And bloody mouthed with late cruell feast.
That when the knight beheld, his mightie shild
Upon his manly arme he soone addrest,
And at him fiersly flew, with courage fild,
And eger greedinesse through every member thrild.
7 Therewith the gyant buckled him to fight,
Inflam'd with scornefull wrath and high disdaine,
And lifting up his dreadfull club on hight,
All arm'd with ragged snubbes and knottie graine,
Him thought at first encounter to have slaine.
But wise and wary was that noble pere;
And, lightly leaping from so monstrous maine,
Did faire avoide the violence him nere;
It booted nought to thinke such thunderbolts to beare.
8 Ne shame he thought to shunne so hideous might:
The idle stroke, enforcing furious way,
Missing the marke of his misaymed sight
Did fall to ground, and with his heavie sway
So deepely dinted in the driven clay,
That three yardes deepe a furrow up did throw:
The sad earth wounded with so sore assay,
Did grone full grievous underneath the blow,
And, trembling with strange feare, did like an earthquake
9 As when almightie Jove, in wrathfull mood,
To wreake the guilt of mortall sins is bent,
Hurles forth his thundring dart with deadly food,
Enrold in flames, and smouldring dreriment,
Through riven cloudes and molten firmament;
The fierce threeforked engin making way
Both loftie towres and highest trees hath rent,
And all that might his angry passage stay,
And shooting in the earth, casts up a mount of clay.
10 His boystrous club, so buried in the ground,
He could not rearen up againe so light,
But that the knight him at advantage found;
And, whiles he strove his combred clubbe to quight
Out of the earth, with blade all burning bright
He smote off his left arme, which like a blocke
Did fall to ground depriv'd of native might;
Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stocke Forth gushed, like fresh water streame from riven rocke.
II Dismayed with so desperate deadly wound,
And eke impatient of unwonted paine,
He lowdly brayd with beastly yelling sownd,
That all the fields rebellowed againe :
As great a noyse, as when in Cymbrian plaine
An herd of bulles, whom kindly rage doth sting,
Do for the milky mothers want complaine,
And fill the fields with troublous bellowing:
The neighbour woods around with hollow murmur ring.
12 That when his deare Duessa heard, and saw The evil stownd, that daungerd her estate, Unto his aide she hastily did draw
Her dreadfull beast, who, swolne with blood of late, Came ramping forth with proud presumpteous gate, And threatned all his heades like flaming brands. But him the squire made quickly to retrate, Encountring fierce with single sword in hand; And twixt him and his lord did like a bulwarke stand.
13 The proud Duessa, full of wrathfull spight,
And fierce disdaine, to be affronted so,
Enforst her purple beast with all her might
That stop out of the way to overthroe,
Scorning the let of so unequall foe:
But nathemore would that courageous swayne
To her yeeld passage, gainst his lord to goe;
But with outrageous strokes did him restraine,
And with his body bard the way atwixt them twaine.
14 Then tooke the angrie witch her golden cup,
Which still she bore, replete with magick artes;
Death and despeyre did many thereof sup,
And secret poyson through their inner parts,
Th' eternall bale of heavie wounded harts:
Which after charmes and some enchauntments said,
She lightly sprinkled on his weaker parts;
Therewith his sturdie courage soone was quayd, And all his sences were with suddein dread dismayd.
15 So downe he fell before the cruell beast,
Who on his neck his bloody clawes did seize, That life nigh crusht out of his panting brest: No powre he had to stirre, nor will to rize. That when the carefull knight gan well avise, He lightly left the foe, with whom he fought, And to the beast gan turne his enterprise; For wondrous anguish in his hart it wrought, To see his loved squire into such thraldom brought.
16 And, high advauncing his blood-thirstie blade,
Stroke one of those deformed heades so sore,
That of his puissance proud ensample made;
His monstrous scalpe downe to his teeth it tore,
And that misformed shape misshaped more:
A sea of blood gusht from the gaping wound,
That her gay garments staynd with filthy gore,
And overflowed all the field around;
That over shoes in blood he waded on the ground.
17 Thereat he roared for exceeding paine,
That to have heard great horror would have bred;
And scourging th' emptie ayre with his long traine,
Through great impatience of his grieved hed,
His gorgeous ryder from her loftie sted
Would have cast downe, and trod in durty myre,
Had not the gyant soone her succoured;
Who all enrag'd with smart and franticke yre,
Came hurtling in full fierce, and forst the knight retyre.
18 The force, which wont in two to be disperst,
In one alone left hand he now unites,
Which is through rage more strong then both were erst;
With which his hideous club aloft he dites,
And at his foe with furious rigour smites,
That strongest oake might seeme to overthrow:
The stroke upon his shield so heavie lites,
That to the ground it doubleth him full low:
What mortall wight could ever beare so monstrous blow?
19 And in his fall his shield, that covered was,
Did loose his vele by chaunce, and open flew;
The light whereof, that heavens light did pas,
Such blazing brightnesse through the aier threw,
That eye mote not the same endure to vew.
Which when the gyaunt spyde with staring eye,
He downe let fall his arme, and soft withdrew
His weapon huge, that heaved was on hye
For to have slain the man, that on the ground did lye.
20 And eke the fruitfull-headed beast, amazd
At flashing beames of that sunshiny shield,
Became starke blind, and all his sences dazd,
That downe he tumbled on the durtie field,
And seemd himselfe as conquered to yield.
Whom when his maistresse proud perceiv'd to fall,
Whiles yet his feeble feet for faintnesse reeld,
Unto the gyant loudly she gan call;
O helpe, Orgoglio, helpe, or else we perish all.
21 At her so pitteous cry was much amoov'd
Her champion stout, and for to ayde his frend,
Againe his wonted angry weapon proov'd:
But all in vaine: for he has read his end
In that bright shield, and all their forces spend
Themselves in vaine: for, since that glauncing sight,
He hath no powre to hurt, nor to defend;
As where th' Almighties lightning brond does light, It dimmes the dazed eyen, and daunts the senses quight.
22 Whom when the prince, to battell new addrest
And threatning high his dreadfull stroke, did see,
His sparkling blade about his head he blest,
And smote off quite his right leg by the knee,
That downe he tombled; as an aged tree,
High growing on the top of rocky clift,
Whose hart strings with keene steele nigh hewen be, The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.
23 Or as a castle reared high and round,
By subtile engins and malitious slight
Is undermined from the lowest ground,
And her foundation forst, and feebled quight,
At last downe falles; and with her heaped hight Her hastie ruine does more heavie make, And yields it selfe unto the victours might: Such was this gyants fall, that seemd to shake The stedfast globe of earth, as it for feare did quake.
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