Washing his bloody wounds, that through the fteele were cleft."

XL.

Therewith the Knight then marched forth in haft,

Whiles Una, with huge heavineffe oppreft, Could not for forrow follow him fo faft; And foone he came, as he the place had gheft, Whereas that Pagan proud himfelfe did rest In fecret shadow by a fountaine fide ;

Even he it was, that earft would have fuppreft Faire Una; whom when Satyrane efpide, With foule reprochfull words he boldly him defide ;

XLI.

And faid; "Arife, thou curfed mifcreaunt, That haft with knightleffe guile, and trecherous train,

Faire knighthood fowly fhamed, and doest

vaunt

That good Knight of the Redcroffe to have flain :

Arife, and with like treafon now maintain

Faire knighthood fowly fhamed, and doeft vaunt] If we fuppofe a word to be left out here either in hafty writing, or by the printer; with much greater fpirit, and with better metre, we may thus read,

"That haft with knightleffe guile, and trecherous train,

Faire knighthood fowly fhamd. And doft thou vaunt "That good Knight of the Redcroffe to have flain ?"

UPTON.

Thy guilty wrong, or els thee guilty yield."
The Sarazin, this hearing, rofe amain,
And, catching up in haft his three-fquare.
fhield

And shining helmet, foone him buckled to the field;

XLII.

And, drawing nigh him, faid; "Ah! misborn

Elfe,

In evill houre thy foes thee hither fent
Anothers wrongs to wreak upon thy felfe:
Yet ill thou blameft me, for having blent
My name with guile and traiterous intent:
That Redcroffe Knight, perdie, I never flew ;
But had he beene, where earft his armes were
lent,

Th' Enchaunter vaine his errour fhould not

rew:

But thou his errour shalt, I hope, now proven " trew."

XLI. 8. his three-fquare Shield] The triangular fhield is faid to be of very high antiquity, and to have been introduced into this country. See Holmes's Academy of Armory, 1680. p. 6; more especially the paragraphs num bered V and VI. and the correfponding engravings. This shield was most commonly used by horfemen. TODD.

XLII. 7. But had he beene, where eart his armes were lent,J But had he been in the place of Archimago, (fee C. iii. ft. 37, 38,) He, and not the Enchaunter, should have rued for it.

UPTON.

XLII. 8. his errour] His own errour, In the next line, his alfo means the Enchanter's. Church.

XLIII.

Therewith they gan, both furious and fell,
To thunder blowes, and fierfly to affaile
Each other, bent his enimy to quell ;

..That with their force they perft both plate and maile,

And made wide furrowes in their fleshes fraile, That it would pitty any living eie:

Large floods of blood adowne their fides did

raile;

But floods of blood could not them fatisfie: Both hongred after death; both chofe to win,

C

or die.

XLIV.

So long they fight, and full revenge pursue, That, fainting, each themselves. to breathen

"The purple blode eke fro the hartis vain
"Doune railid right fast -"

And G. Douglas, Virg. p. 390. ver. 43.

"Quhil al the blude heboundantly furth ralis."

UPTON.

XLIV. 1. and full revenge] So Mr. Upton reads, with the first edition. Mr. Church follows the fecond and every other fubfequent edition, "fell revenge." But the original reading is perhaps to be preferred. The combatants fight long, and battell oft renue, determining to have full, complete, revenge. TODD.

And, ofte refreshed, battell oft renue. As when two bores, with rancling malice mett,

Their gory fides fresh bleeding fiercely frett; Til breathleffe both themselves afide retire, Where, foming wrath, their cruell tufkes they whett,

And trample th' earth, the whiles they may refpire;

Then backe to fight againe, new breathed and

entire.

XLV.

So fierfly, when thefe Knights had breathed

once,

They gan to fight retourne; increasing more Their puiffant force, and cruell rage attonce, With heaped strokes more hugely then before; That with their drery wounds, and bloody gore,

They both deformed, fcarfely could bee known.

By this, fad Una fraught with anguish fore,

XLIV. 4. As when two bores,] This fame comparison the poet has introduced in F. Q. iv. iv. 29. But he feems to have borrowed it from Chaucer, where he defcribes the combat between Palamon and Arcite, Kn. Tale, 1160.

"As wild bores gan they to fight and fmite, "That frothen white as fome for ire wode; Up to the ancle fought they in ther blode." See alfo Euripides, Phæniff. v. 1402, and Statius, Theb. xi. 530.

UPTON.

Led with their noife which through the aire

was thrown,

Arriv'd, wher they in erth their fruitles blood had fown.

XLVI.

Whom all fo foone as that proud Sarazin
Espide, he revive the memory

gan

Of his leud lufts, and late attempted fin; And lefte the doubtfull battel hastily, To catch her, newly offred to his eie : But Satyrane, with strokes him turning, staid, And fternely bad him other business plie Then hunt the fteps of pure unfpotted Maid: Wherewith he al enrag'd these bitter speaches

faid;

XLVII.

O foolish Faeries fonne, what fury mad
Hath thee incenft to haft thy dolefull fate?
Were it not better I that Lady had
Then that thou hadft repented it too late?
Moft fenceleffe man he, that himfelfe doth
hate

To love another: Lo then, for thine ayd,
Here take thy lovers token on thy pate.".

XLVII. 7. Here take thy lovers token on thy pate.] It was ufual for knights of romance to wear, on their helmets or fleeves, prefents or tokens of their miftreffes' favours. The Sarazin fays farcaftically he would give Sir Satyrane his lovers token to wear till his dying day. UPTON.

Compare Abdiel's reply to Satan, Par. Loft, B. vi. 186. "This greeting on thy impious creft receive." ToDр.