Informed by Talus, Artegall's servant, of his master's sad plight, Britomart sets out to deliver her lover. The treachery of Dolon and Britomart's combat with his sons.
I SOME men, I wote, will deem in Artegall
Great weakness, and report of him much ill,
For yielding so himself a wretched thrall
To th' insolent command of women's will;
That all his former praise doth foully spill1:
But he, the man that say or do so dare,
Be well advised that he stand steadfast still;
For never yet was wight so well aware,
But he at first or last was trapped in women's snare.
2 Yet in the straitness 2 of that captive state
This gentle knight himself so well behaved,
That notwithstanding all the subtile bait,
With which those amazons his love still craved,
To his own love his loyalty he saved:
Whose character 5 in th' adamantine mould
Of his true heart so firmly was engraved,
That no new love's impression ever could
Bereave it
thence such blot his honour blemish
2 Straitness, narrowness, re
8 Gentle, high-born, noble.
4 Subtile, sly, artful.
3 Yet his own love, the noble Britomart,
Scarce so conceived in her jealous thought,
What time sad tidings of his baleful smart
In woman's bondage Talus to her brought;
Brought in untimely hour, ere it was sought:
For, after that the utmost date assigned
For his return she waited had for nought,
She gan to cast 1 in her misdoubtful 2 mind
A thousand fears, that love-sick fancies fain3 to find.
4 Sometime she feared lest some hard mishap
Had him misfall'n in his adventurous quest;
Sometime lest his false foe did him entrap
In traitrous traine, or had unawares opprest ;
But most she did her troubled mind molest,
And secretly afflict with jealous fear,
Lest some new love had him from her possessed;
Yet loath she was, since she no ill did hear,
To think of him so ill; yet could she not forbear.
5 One while she blamed herself; another while
She him condemned as trustless and untrue :
And then, her grief with error to beguile,
She fained to count the time again anew,
As if before she had not counted true :
For hours, but days; for weeks that passèd were,
She told but months, to make them seem more few :
Yet, when she reck'ned them still drawing near,
Each hour did seem a month, and every month a year.
2 Misdoubtful, apprehensive.
6 But, when as yet she saw him not return,
She thought to send some one to seek him out;
But none she found so fit to serve that turn
As her own self, to ease herself of doubt.
Now she devised, amongst the warlike rout
Of errant knights, to seek her errant knight;
And then again resolved to hunt him out
Amongst loose ladies lappèd in delight :
And then both knights envíed,1 and ladies eke did spite.
7 One day whenas she long had sought for ease
In every place, and every place thought best,
Yet found no place that could her liking please,
She to a window came, that opened west,
Towards which coast her love his way addressed
There looking forth she in her heart did find
Many vain fancies working her unrest;
And sent her wingèd thoughts more swift than wind
To bear unto her love the message of her mind.
8 There as she lookèd long, at last she spied
One coming towards her with hasty speed;
Well weened she then, ere him she plain descried,
That it was one sent from her love indeed :
Who when he nigh approached, she mote aread 2
That it was Talus, Artegall his groom3:
Whereat her heart was filled with hope and dread;
1 Envied, felt a grudge against, hated.
2 Mote aread, could perceive.
3 Artegall his groom, i.e. Artegall's servant.
Ne would she stay till he in place could come,
But ran to meet him forth to know his tidings' sum.
9 Even in the door him meeting, she begun :
And where is he thy lord, and how far hence?
Declare at once: and hath he lost or won?"
The iron man, albe he wanted sense
And sorrow's feeling, yet, with conscience1
Of his ill news, did inly chill and quake,
And stood still mute, as one in great suspense ;
As if that by his silence he would make
Her rather read his meaning then himself it spake.2
10 Till she again thus said: "Talus, be bold,
And tell whatever it be, good or bad,
That from thy tongue thy heart's intent doth hold."
To whom he thus at length: "The tidings sad,
That I would hide, will needs, I see, be rad.3
My lord, your love, by hard mishap doth lie
In wretched bondage, wofully bestad."4
"Ay me," quoth she, "what wicked destiny!
And is he vanquished by his tyrant enemy?
II "Not by that tyrant, his intended foe 5;
But by a tyranness," he then replied,
"That him captivèd hath in hapless woe."
Cease, thou bad news-man; badly dost thou hide Thy master's shame,
1 Conscience, consciousness.
2 Then himself it spake, than himself disclose it.
4 Bestad, bestead, beset.
5 His intended foe, i.e. Grantorto from whose power he was to release Irena.
With that in rage she turned from him aside,
Forcing in vain the rest to her to tell;
And to her chamber went like solitary cell.
12 There she began to make her moanful plaint
Against her knight for being so untrue;
And him to touch with falsehood's foul attaint,
That all his other honour overthrew.
Oft did she blame herself, and often rue,1
For yielding to a stranger's love so light,
Whose life and manners strange she never knew;
And evermore she did him sharply twight 2
For breach of faith to her, which he had firmly
plight.
13 And then she in her wrathful will did cast
How to revenge that blot of honour blent,3
To fight with him, and goodly die her last :
And then again she did herself torment,
Inflicting on herself his punishment.
Awhile she walked, and chauft 4; awhile she threw
Herself upon her bed and did lament :
Yet did she not lament with loud alew, 5
As women wont, but with deep sighs and singulfs
14 Like as a wayward child, whose sounder sleep Is broken with some fearful dream's affright, With froward will doth set himself to weep,
1 Rue, grieve, repent.
2 Twight, twit, reproach.
8 Blent, stained.
4 Chauft, chafed.
5 Alew, halloo, outcry.
6 Singulfs, singults, sobs.
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