Long time they thus together traveiled;
Til weary of their
way they came at last,
Where grew two goodly trees, that faire did fpred
Their armes abroad, with gray moffe overcaft;
And their greene leaves trembling with every blast
Made a calme shadowe far in compaffe round:
The fearefull shepheard, often there aghast,
Under them never fat, ne wont there found
His mery oaten pipe; but fhund th'unlucky ground.
XXIX.
But this good knight, foone as he them can spie,
For the coole shade him thither hastly got :
For golden Phoebus, now ymounted hie,
From fiery wheeles of his faire chariot
Hurled his beame so scorching cruell hot,
That living creature mote it not abide ;
And his new lady it endured not.
There they alight, in hope themselves to hide
From the fierce heat, and reft their weary limbs a tide.
Faire-feemely pleasaunce each to other makes,
With goodly purposes, thereas they fit:
And in his falfed fancy he her takes
To be the fairest wight, that lived yit;
Which to expreffe, he bends his gentle wit:
And thinking of those braunches greene to frame
A girlond for her dainty forehead fit,
He pluckt a bough; out of whofe rifte there came
Smal drops of gory bloud, that trickled down the fame.
Therewith a piteous yelling voice was heard,
Crying, Ofpare with guilty hands to teare
My tender fides in this rough rynd embard;
But fly, ab! fly far hence away, for feare
Leaft to you hap, that happened to me heare,
And to this wretched lady, my deare love
O too deare love, love bought with death too deare!
Aftond he stood, and up his heare did hove;
And with that fuddein horror could no member move.
At laft whenas the dreadfull paffion
Was overpaft, and manhood well awake;
Yet musing at the ftraunge occafion,
And doubting much his fence, he thus befpake,
What voice of damned ghoft from Limbo lake,
Or guilefull fpright wandring in empty aire,
(Both which fraile men doe oftentimes mistake)
Sends to my doubtful eares these fpeaches rare,
And ruefull plaints, me bidding guiltlesse blood to fpare?
XXXIII.
Then groning deep, Nor damned ghost, quoth he,
Nor guileful Sprite to thee thefe words doth speake;
But once a man Fradubio, now a tree;
Wretched man, wretched tree! whofe nature weake
A cruell witch, her curfed will to wreake,
Hath thus transformd, and plaft in open plaines,
Where Boreas doth blow full bitter bleake,
And scorching funne does dry my fecret vaines ;
For though a tree I feeme, yet cold and beat me paines.
XXXIV.
Say on, Fradubio, then, or man or tree,
Quoth then the knight, by whofe mischievous arts
Art thou misshaped thus, as now I fee?
He oft finds med cine, who his griefe imparts;
But double griefs afflict concealing harts
So doubly lov'd of ladies unlike faire,
Th'one feeming fuch, the other fuch indeede ;
One day in doubt I caft for to compare,
Whether in beauties glorie did exceede :
A rofy girlond was the victors meede.
Both feemde to win, and both feemde won to bee ;
So hard the difcord was to be agreede.
Fracliffa was as faire, as faire mote bee,
And ever falfe Dueffa feemde as faire as fbee.
XXXVIII.
The wicked witch now seeing all this while
The doubtfull ballaunce equally to fway,
What not by right, fhe caft to win by guile ;
And by her bellish science raifd freight way
A foggy mift, that overcaft the day,
And a dull blast, that breathing on ber face
Dimmed her former beauties fhining ray,
And with foule ugly forme did her difgrace:
Then was fhe fayre alone, when none was faire in place.
Then cride fhe out, Fye, fye, deformed wight,
Whofe borrowed beautie now appeareth plaine
To have before bewitched all mens fight:
O leave her foone, or let her foone be flaine!
Her loathly vifage viewing with disdaine,
Eftfoones I thought her fuch as fhe me told,
And would have kild her; but with faigned paine
The falfe witch did my wrathfull hand with-bold:
So left her, where she now is turnd to treen mould,
Thensforth I tooke Duella for my dame,
And in the witch unweeting ioyd long time ;
Ne ever wift, but that he was the fame:
Till on a day (that day is everie prime,
When witches wont do penance for their crime)
I chaunft to fee her in her proper hew,
Bathing her felfe in origane and thyme :
A filthy foule old woman I did vew,
That ever to have toucht her I did deadly rew.
XLI.
Her neather partes misshapen, monftruous,
Were bidd in water, that I could not fee;
But they did feeme more foule and hideous,
Then womans shape man would beleeve to bee.
Thensforth from her most beaftly companie
I gan refraine, in minde to flipp away,
Soone as appeard fafe opportunitie :
For danger great, if not affurd decay,
I faw before mine eyes, if I were knowne to fray.
XLII.
The divelifh bag, by chaunges of my cheare,
Perceiv'd my thought; and drownd in fleepie night,
With wicked herbes and oyntments did befmeare
My body all; through charmes and magicke might
That all my fenfes were bereaved quight :
Then brought she me into this defert waste,
And by my wretched lovers fide me pight;
Where now enclofd in wooden wals full faßte,
Banifht from living wights, our wearie daies we wafte.
But how long time, faid then the elfin knight,
Are you in this misformed hous to dwell?
We may not chaunge, quoth he, this evill plight,
Till we be bathed in a living well;
That is the terme prescribed by the spell.
O how, fayd he, mote I that well out find,
That
may restore you to your wonted well?
Time and fuffifed fates to former kynd
Shall us reftore, none elfe from hence may us unbynd.
The falfe Dueffa, now Fideffa hight,
Heard how in vaine Fradubio did lament,
And knew well all was true. but the good knight
Full of fad feare and ghaftly dreriment,
When all this speech the living tree had spent,
The bleeding bough did thrust into the ground,
That from the blood he might be innocent,
And with fresh clay did close the wooden wound:
Then turning to his lady, dead with feare her fownd.
XLV.
Her feeming dead he fownd with feigned feare,
As all unweeting of that well she knew;
And paynd himselfe with bufie care to reare
Her out of careleffe fwowne. her eylids blew,
And dimmed fight with pale and deadly hew,
At laft the up gan lift; with trembling cheare
Her up he tooke, (too fimple and too trew,)
And oft her kift. at length all paffed feare,
He fet her on her fteede, and forward forth did beare.
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