And therewithall astonce at him let fly
Their fluttring arrowes, thicke as flakes of snow,
And round about him flocke impetuously,
Like a great water-flood, that tombling low
From the high mountaines, threates to overflow,
With suddein fury, all the fertile playne,
And the sad husbandman's long hope doth throw
Adowne the streame, and all his vowes make vayne;
Nor bounds, nor banks, his headlong ruine may
[sustayne.
Upon his shield their heaped hayle he bore,
And with his sword disperst the raskall flockęs,
Which fled asonder, and him fell before;
As withered leaves drop from their dryed stockes, When the wroth western wind does reave their locks: " And underneath him his courageous steed,
The fierce Spumador, trode them downe like docks; The fierce Spumador! borne of heavenly seed; Such as Laomedon of Phœbus' race did breed.
Which suddeine horrour and confused cry
Whenas their capteine heard, in haste he yode
The cause to weet, and fault to remedy;
Upon a tygre swifte and fierce he rode,
That as the winde ran underneath his lode,
Whiles his long legs nigh raught unto the ground:
Full large he was of limbe, and shoulders brode;
But of such subtile substance and unsound,
That like a ghost he seem'd, whose grave-clothes
were unbound:
And in his hand a bended bow was seene,
And many arrowes under his right side,
All deadly daungerous, all cruell keene,
Headed with flint, and fethers bloody dide;
Such as the Indians in their quivers hide:
Those could he well direct, and streight as line,
And bid them strike the marke which he had eyde;
Ne was there salve, ne was there medicine,
That mote recure their wounds; so inly they did
As pale and wan as ashes was his looke;
His body leane and meagre as a rake;
And skin all withered like a dryed rooke;
Thereto as cold and drery as a snake;
That seemd to tremble evermore and quake:
All in a canvas thin he was bedight,
And girded with a belt of twisled brake:
Upon his head he wore an helmet light,
Made of a dead man's skull, that seemd a ghastly
Maleger was his name: and after him
There follow'd fast two wicked hags,
With hoary lockes all loose, and visage grim;
Their feet unshod, their bodies wrapt in rags,
And both as swifte on foote as chaced stags;
And yet the one her other legge had lame,
Which with staffe all full of little snags
She did support, and Impotence her name :
But th' other was Impatience, armd with raging
flame.
Soone as the carle from far the prince espyde
Glistring in armes and warlike ornament,
His beast he felly prickt on either syde,
And his mischievous bow full readie bent,
With which at him a cruell shaft he sent :
But he was warie, and it warded well
Upon his shield, that it no farther went,
But to the ground the idle quarrell fell:
Then he another and another did expell.
Which to prevent, the prince his mortall speare
Soone to him raught, and fierce at him did ride,
To be avenged of that shot whyleare:
But he was not so hardy to abide
That bitter stownd, but turning quick aside
His light foot-beast, fled fast away for feare:
Whom to poursue, the infant after hide
So fast as his good courser could him beare;
But labour lost it was to weene approch him neare.
For as the winged wind his tigre fled,
That vew of eye could scarse him overtake,
Ne scarse his feet on ground were seene to tred;
Through hils and dales he speedy way did make,
Ne hedge ne ditch his readie passage brake,
And in his flight the villeine turn'd his face
(As wonts the Tarter by the Caspian lake,
Whenas the Russian him in fight does chace,)
Unto his tygre's taile, and shot at him apace.
Apace he shot, and yet he fled apace,
Still as the greedy knight nigh to him drew;
And oftentimes he would relent his pace,
That him his foe more fiercely should poursew:
But, when his uncouth manner he did vew,
He gan avize to follow him no more,
But keep his standing, and his shaftes eschew,
Untill he quite had spent his perlous store,
And then assayle him fresh, ere he could shift for
[more. But that lame hag, still as abroad he strew His wicked arrowes, gathered them againe, And to him brought fresh batteill to renew; Which he espying, cast her to restraine From yielding succour to that cursed swaine, And her attaching, thought her hands to tye; But soone as him dismounted, on the plaine, That other hag did far away espye
Binding her sister, she to him ran hastily;
And catching hold of him, as downe he lent,
Him backeward overthrew, and downe him stayd
With their rude handes and gryesly graplement;
Till that the villein, comming to their ayd,
Upon him fell, and lode upon him layd:
Full litle wanted, but he had him slaine,
And of the battell balefull end had made,
Had not his gentle squire beheld his paine,
And commen to his reskew ere his bitter bane.
So greatest and most glorious thing on ground
May often need the helpe of weaker hand;
So feeble is man's state, and life unsound,
That in assuraunce it may never stand,
Till it dissolved be from earthly band!
Proofe be thou, Prince! the prowest man alyve,
And noblest borne of all in Briton land;
Yet thee fierce Fortune did so nearely drive,
That had not Grace thee blest, thou shouldest not
[survive. The squyre arriving, fiercely in his armes Snatcht first the one, and then the other jade, His chiefest letts and authors of his harmes, And them perforce withheld with threatned blade, Least that his lord they should behinde invade; The whiles the prince, prickt with reprochful shame, As one awakte out of long slombring shade, Revivyng thought of glory and of fame,
United all his powres to purge himselfe from
Like as a fire, the which in hollow cave
Hath long bene under-kept and down supprest,
With murmurous disdayne doth inly rave
And grudge, in so streight prison to be prest,
At last breakes forth with furious unrest,
And strives to mount unto his native seat;
All that did earst it hinder and molest,
Yt now devoures with flames and scorching heat,
And carries into smoake with rage and horror great.
SPENSER. VOL. III.
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