Who earst1 in flowres of freshest youth was clad.
Tho, when her well of teares she wasted had,
She said; "Ah dearest Lord! what evil starre

On you hath frownd, and pourd his influence bad,
thus berobbed arre,

That of

selfe your

ye

And this misseeming hew your manly lookes doth marre ?

XLIII.

"But welcome now, my Lord, in wele or woe;
Whose presence I have lackt too long a day:
And fye on Fortune mine avowed foe,

Whose wrathfull wreakes3 themselves doe now alay;
And for these wronges shall treble penaunce pay
Of treble good: Good growes of evils priefe."
The chearlesse Man, whom sorrow did dismay,
Had no delight to treaten of his griefe;

His long endured famine needed more reliefe.

XLIV.

"Faire Lady," then said that victorious Knight,
"The things, that grievous were to doe, or beare,
Then to renew, I wote, breeds no delight;
Best musicke breeds delight in loathing eare:
But th' only good, that growes of passed feare,
Is to be wise, and ware of like agein.
This daies ensample hath this lesson deare
Deepe written in my heart with yron pen,
That blisse may not abide in state of mortall men.

1 Earst, before.

2 Tho, then.

3 Wreakes, vengeance.

XLIII. 6.— Good growes of evils priefe.] Good grows out of the proof or experience of evil.

XLIV. 4.

Breeds delight.] Warton proposes to substitute dislike for delight in this line.

XLV.

"Henceforth, Sir Knight, take to you wonted strength, And maister these mishaps with patient might: Loe, where your foe lies stretcht in monstrous length; And loe, that wicked Woman in your sight, The roote of all your care and wretched plight, Now in your powre, to let her live, or die." "To doe her die," quoth Una, "were despight, And shame t' avenge so weake an enimy; But spoile her of her scarlot robe, and let her fly.”

XLVI.

So, as she bad, that Witch they disaraid,
And robd of roiall robes, and purple pall,
And ornaments that richly were displaid;
Ne spared they to strip her naked all.
Then, when they had despoyld her tire and call,1
Such, as she was, their eies might her behold,
That her misshaped parts did them appall;

A loathly, wrinckled hag, ill favoured, old,

Whose secret filth good manners biddeth not be told.

XLVII.

Her crafty head was altogether bald,

And, as in hate of honorable eld,

Was overgrowne with scurfe and filthy scald;
Her teeth out of her rotten gummes were feld,2
And her sowre breath abhominably smeld;
Her dried dugs, lyke bladders lacking wind,
Hong downe, and filthy matter from them weld;
Her wrizled skin, as rough as maple rind,

So scabby was, that would have loathd all womankind.

1 Tire and call, attire and covering of the head. 2 Feld, fallen.

XLVIII.

Her neather parts, the shame of all her kind,
My chaster Muse for shame doth blush to write :
But at her rompe she growing had behind

A foxes taile, with dong all fowly dight:
And eke her feete most monstrous were in sight;
For one of them was like an eagles claw,
With griping talaunts armd to greedy fight;
The other like a beares uneven paw:

More ugly shape yet never living creature saw.

XLIX.

Which when the Knights beheld, amazd they were, And wondred at so fowle deformed wight.

"Such then," said Una, "as she seemeth here,
Such is the face of Falshood; such the sight

Of fowle Duessa, when her borrowed light
Is laid away, and counterfesaunce1 knowne."
Thus when they had the Witch disrobed quight,
And all her filthie feature open showne,

They let her goe at will, and wander waies unknowne.

L.

Shee, flying fast from heavens hated face,

And from the world that her discovered wide,

Fled to the wastfull wildernesse apace,

From living eies her open shame to hide;
And lurkt in rocks and caves, long unespide.

But that faire crew of Knights, and Una faire,

Did in that castle afterwards abide,

To rest themselves, and weary powres repaire : Where store they fownd of al, that dainty was and rare.

1 Counterfesaunce, counterfeiting.

CANTO IX.

His loves and lignage Arthure tells:
The Knights knitt friendly bands:
Sir Trevisan flies from Despeyre,
Whom Redcros Knight withstands.

I.

O! GOODLY golden chayne, wherewith yfere1
The vertues linked are in lovely wize;
And noble mindes of yore allyed were,
In brave poursuitt of chevalrous emprize,
That none did others safety despize,
Nor aid envý to him, in need that stands ;
But friendly each did others praise devize,
How to advaunce with favourable hands,

[bands.

As this good Prince redeemd the Redcrosse Knight from

II.

Who when their powres, empayrd through labor long,

With dew repast they had recured 2 well,

And that weake captive wight now wexed strong;

Them list no lenger there at leasure dwell, But forward fare, as their adventures fell: But, ere they parted, Una faire besought That straunger Knight his name and nation tell; Least so great good, as he for her had wrought, Should die unknown, and buried be in thankles thought.

1 Yfere, together.

2 Recured, restored.

III.

"Faire Virgin," said the Prince, "yee me require
A thing without the compas of my witt:
For both the lignage, and the certein sire,
From which I sprong, from mee are hidden yitt.
For all so soone as life did me admitt

Into this world, and shewed hevens light,
From mother's pap I taken was unfitt,

And streight deliver'd to a Fary Knight,

To be upbrought in gentle thewes1 and martiall might.

IV.

"Unto old Timon he me brought bylive 2;
Old Timon, who in youthly yeares hath beene
In warlike feates th' expertest man alive,
And is the wisest now on earth I weene:
His dwelling is, low in a valley greene,
Under the foot of Rauran mossy hore,
From whence the river Dee, as silver cleene,
His tombling billowes rolls with gentle rore;
There all my daies he traind me up in vertuous lore.

V.

"Thether the great magicien Merlin came,

As was his use, ofttimes to visitt mee ;

For he had charge my discipline to frame,
And tutors nouriture to oversee.

IV. 1..

Thewes, accomplishments.

2 Bylive, immediately.

Unto Old Timon.] In the romance of King Arthur, or Morte d'Arthur, he is represented as having been taken from his mother by the direction of Merlin, and delivered to a knight, called Sir Hector, to be educated.

IV. 1.- Old Timon.] By the name of his tutor, Spenser expresses that Arthur was brought up in the ways of honor.