32 Such when as hartlesse Trompart her did vew,
He was dismayed in his coward mind,
And doubted, whether he himselfe should shew,
Or fly away, or bide alone behinde:
Both feare and hope he in her face did finde,
When she at last him spying thus bespake;
Hayle, groome; didst not thou see a bleeding hind, Whose right haunch earst my stedfast arrow strake? If thou didst, tell me, that I may her overtake.
33 Wherewith reviv'd, this answere forth he threw;
O goddesse, (for such I thee take to bee)
For neither doth thy face terrestriall shew,
Nor voyce sound mortall; I avow to thee,
Such wounded beast, as that, I did not see,
Sith earst into this forrest wild I came.
But mote thy goodlyhed forgive it mee,
To weete, which of the gods I shall thee name,
That unto thee due worship I may rightly frame.
34 To whom she thus; But ere her words ensewed,
Unto the bush her eye did suddein glaunce,
In which vaine Braggadocchio was mewed,
And saw it stirre: she lefte her piercing launce,
And towards gan a deadly shaft advaunce,
In mind to mark the beast. At which sad stowre,
Trompart forth stept, to stay the mortall chaunce,
Out crying, O whatever hevenly powre,
Or earthly wight thou be, withhold this deadly howre.
35 O stay thy hand, for yonder is no game
For thy fierce arrowes, them to exercize,
But loe my lord, my liege, whose warlike name
Is farre renowmd through many bold emprize;
And now in shade he shrowded yonder lies.
She staid: with that he crauld out of his nest,
Forth creeping on his caitive hands and thies,
And standing stoutly up, his loftie crest
Did fiercely shake, and rowze, as comming late from rest.
36 As fearfull fowle, that long in secret cave
For dread of soring hauke herselfe hath hid,
Not caring how, her silly life to save,
She her gay painted plumes disorderid,
Seeing at last herselfe from daunger rid,
Peeps foorth, and soone renewes her native pride;
She gins her feathers fowle disfigured
Prowdly to prune, and sett on every side,
So shakes off shame, ne thinks how erst she did her hide.
37 So when her goodly visage he beheld,
He gan himselfe to vaunt: but when he vewed
Those deadly tooles, which in her hand she held,
Soone into other fits he was transmewed,
Till she to him her gratious speach renewed;
All haile, sir knight, and well may thee befall,
As all the like, which honor have persewed
Through deeds of armes and prowesse martiall;
All vertue merits praise, but such the most of all.
38 To whom he thus; O fairest under skie,
True be thy words, and worthy of thy praise,
That warlike feats doest highest glorifie.
Therein I have spent all my youthly daies,
And many battailes fought and many fraies
Throughout the world, wherso they might be found, Endevoring my dreadded name to raise
Above the moone, that fame may it resound
In her eternall trompe with laurell girland cround.
39 But what art thou, O ladie, which doest raunge
In this wilde forest, where no pleasure is,
And doest not it for joyous court exchaunge,
Emongst thine equall peres, where happy blis
And all delight does rainge much more then this?
There thou maist love, and dearely loved bee,
And swim in pleasure, which thou here doest mis;
There maist thou best be seene, and best maist see:
The wood is fit for beasts, the court is fit for thee.
40 Whoso in pompe of prowd estate (quoth she) Does swim, and bathes himselfe in courtly blis, Does waste his daies in darke obscuritee,
And in oblivion ever buried is:
Where ease abounds, yt's eath to do amis;
But who his limbs with labours, and his mind
Behaves with cares, cannot so easie mis.
Abroad in armes, at home in studious kind
Who seekes with painfull toile, shall honor soonest find.
41 In woods, in waves, in warres she wonts to dwell, And wil be found with perill and with paine;
Ne can the man, that moulds in idle cell,
Unto her happie mansion attaine:
Before her gate high God did sweat ordaine,
And wakefull watches ever to abide:
But easie is the way and passage plaine
To Pleasures pallace; it may soone be spide,
And day and night her dores to all stand open wide.
42 In Princes Court,-The rest she would have sayd,
But that the foolish man, fild with delight
Of her sweet words that all his sence dismaid,
And with her wondrous beautie ravisht quight,
Thought in his bastard armes her to embrace.
With that she swarving backe, her javelin bright
Against him bent, and fiercely did menace:
So turned her about, and fled away apace.
43 Which when the pesaunt saw, amazd he stood,
And grieved at her flight; yet durst he not
Pursew her steps through wild unknowen wood;
Besides he feard her wrath, and threatned shot,
Whiles in the bush he lav, not yet forgot:
Ne car'd he greatly for her presence vaine,
But turning said to Trompart, What fowle blot
Is this to knight, that lady should againe
Depart to woods untoucht, and leave so proud disdayne?
44 Perdie, (said Trompart) lett her passe at will,
Least by her presence daunger mote befall.
For who can tell (and sure I feare it ill)
But that she is some powre celestiall?
For, whiles she spake, her great words did apall
My feeble courage, and my hart oppresse,
That yet I quake and tremble over all.
And I, (said Braggadocchio) thought no lesse, When first I heard her horn sound with such ghastlinesse.
45 For from my mothers wombe this grace I have
Me given by eternall destine,
That earthly thing may not my corage brave
Dismay with feare, or cause on foote to flie,
But either hellish feends, or powres on hie:
Which was the cause, when earst that horn I heard,
Weening it had been thunder in the skie,
I hid my selfe from it as one affeard;
But when I other knew, my self I boldly reard.
46 But now, for feare of worse that may betide,
Let us soone hence depart. They soone agree;
So to his steed he got, and gan to ride,
As one unfit therefore, that all might see
He had not trayned bene in chevalree,
Which well that valiaunt courser did discerne;
For he despysd to tread in dew degree,
But chaufd and fom'd with courage fierce and sterne,
And to be easd of that base burden still did erne.
Guyon does Furor bind in chaines,
And stops Occasion:
Delivers Phedon, and therefore
By Strife is rayld upon.
1 IN brave pursuit of honorable deed,
There is I know not what great difference
Betweene the vulgar and the noble seed,
Which unto things of valorous pretence
Seemes to be borne by native influence;
As feates of armes, and love to entertaine,
But chiefly skill to ride seemes a science
Proper to gentle blood; some others faine
To menage steeds, as did this vaunter; but in vaine.
2 But he the rightfull owner of that steed,
Who well could menage and subdew his pride,
The whiles on foot was forced for to yeed,
With that blacke palmer, his most trusty guide;
Who suffred not his wandring feet to slide.
But when strong passion, or weake fleshlinesse,
Would from the right way seeke to draw him wide,
He would through temperance and stedfastnesse,
Teach him the weak to strengthen, and the strong suppresse.
3 It fortuned forth faring on his way,
He saw from farre, or seemed for to see,
Some troublous uprore or contentious fray,
Whereto he drew in haste it to agree.
A mad man, or that feigned mad to bee,
Drew by the haire along upon the grownd
A handsom stripling with great crueltee,
Whom sore he bett, and gor'd with many a wownd,
That cheekes with teares, and sides with blood, did all abound.
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