In milder terms, as list them 1 to devise;

Mongst which the cause of their so cruel heat
He did them ask; who all that passèd gan repeat;

15 And told at large how that same errant knight, To weet,2 fair Britomart, them late had foiled In open tourney, and by wrongful fight Both of their public praise had them despoiled, And also of their private loves beguiled; Of two full hard to read3 the harder theft. But she that wrongful challenge soon assoiled,5 And shewed that she had not that lady reft,7 (As they supposed,) but her had to her liking. left.

16 To whom the prince thus goodly well replied:

8

"Certes, Sir knights, ye seemen9 much to blame
To rip up wrong that battle once hath tried;
Wherein the honor both of arms ye shame,
And eke the love of ladies foul defame;

To whom the world this franchise 10 ever yielded,
That of their loves' choice they might freedom
claim,

And in that right should by all knights be shielded : Gainst which, me seems, this war ye wrongfully have wielded." 11

1 List them, they pleased.

2 To weet, to wit.

3 Read, declare.

4 Challenge, charge, accusation.

5 Assoiled, cleared herself of.

6 That lady; that is, the false Florimell.

7 Reft, taken away.

8 Certes, certainly.

9 Seemen, seem.

10 Franchise, liberty.

11 Wielded, waged.

17 "And yet," quoth she, "a greater wrong remains : For I thereby my former love have lost;

Whom seeking ever since with endless pains
Hath me much sorrow and much travel1 cost:
Aye me, to see that gentle maid so tossed!"
But Scudamour then, sighing deep, thus said:
"Certes her loss ought me to sorrow 2 most,
Whose right she is, wherever she be strayed,
Through many perils won, and many fortunes waide3:

18"For from the first that I her love professed,
Unto this hour, this present luckless hour,
I never joyèd happiness nor rest;

But thus turmoiled 5 from one to other stowre 6
I waste my life, and do my days devour
In wretched anguish and incessant woe,
Passing the measure of my feeble power;
That, living thus a wretch and loving so,
I neither can my love ne yet my life forego."

19 Then good Sir Claribell him thus bespake:
"Now were it not, Sir Scudamour, to you
Dislikeful pain so sad a task to take,
Mote we entreat you, sith this gentle crew 9
Is now so well accorded all anew,

1 Travel, labor.

2 Sorrow, grieve.

3 Waide, weighed; esteemed.

4 Joyed, enjoyed.

5 Turmoiled, disquieted.

6 Stowre, disturbance.

7 Dislikeful, disagreeable.

8 Mote we, i.e. we should like to.

9 Gentle crew, noble company.

That, as we ride together on our way,
Ye will recount to us in order due

All that adventure which ye did assay

For that fair lady's love: past perils well appay." 1

20 So gan the rest him likewise to require 2:

But Britomart did him impórtune hard

To take on him that pain; whose great desire
He glad to satisfy, himself prepar'd
To tell through what misfortune he had far'd
In that achievement, as to him befell,
And all those dangers unto them declar'd;
Which sith they cannot in this canto well
Comprisèd be, I will them in another tell.

Where Amoret was all this while it is not easy to guess. Doubtles Prince Arthur left her in some place of safety while he joined in the struggle just described. In the following canto canto X, book IV - Scudamour tells how he gained the hand of his lovely wife. This is the last that we hear of Amoret. Had Spenser finished the "Faery Queene" we may believe that he would have described the happy reunion of this sorely tried pair.

1 Appay, please, satisfy.

2 Require, request.

XIV.

The poet goes back in his narrative to tell of the education of Artegall, the knight of Justice. Artegall starts out to deliver Irena from the giant Grantorto. After a number of adventures, the young knight frees Sir Terpin from the Amazons and has an encounter with Radigurd, the Amazonian queen.

I THOUGH virtue then were held in highest price,
In those old times of which I do intreat,1

Yet then likewise the wicked seed of vice
Began to spring; which shortly grew full great,
And with their boughs the gentle plants did beat :
But evermore some of the virtuous race

Rose up, inspirèd with heroic heat,

That cropped the branches of the sient 2 base,

And with strong hand their fruitful rankness did deface.

2 Such first was Bacchus, that with furious might
All th' east, before untamed, did overrun,
And wrong repressèd, and established right
Which lawless men had formerly fordone3:
There Justice first her princely rule begun.
Next Hercules his like ensample showed,
Who all the west with equal conquest won,
And monstrous tyrants with his club subdued;
The club of justice dread, with kingly pow'r endued.

3 And such was he of whom I have to tell,
The champion of true justice, Artegall1:
Whom (as ye lately mote remember well)
An hard adventure, which did then befall
Into redoubted peril forth did call;
That was, to succour a distressèd dame
Whom a strong tyrant did unjustly thrall,2
And from the heritage which she did claim

Did with strong hand withhold; Grantorto3 was his

name.

4 Wherefore the lady, which Irena1 hight,5
Did to the Faery Queen her way address,
To whom complaining her afflicted plight,
She her besought of gracious redress :
That sovereign queen, that mighty emperesse,
Whose glory is to aid all suppliants pore,
And of weak princes to be patroness,

Chose Artegall to right her to restore;

For that to her he seemed best skilled in righteous. lore.

5 For Artegall in justice was upbrought Even from the cradle of his infancy,

And all the depth of rightful doom was taught

1 Artegall. Spenser was secretary to Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The poet was a warm friend and admirer of Lord Grey's, and expressed his admiration by portraying his character in the knight of Justice, Artegall.

2 Thrall, imprison.

3 Grantorto, i.e. great wrong.
4 Irena. Irena, or Irene, is an
anagram of Ierne, the ancient name
of Ireland. Church.

5 Hight, was called.
6 Pore, poor.
7 Doom, judgment.