The ioyous day gan early to appeare ;
And fayre Aurora from the deawy bed
Of aged Tithone gan herselfe to reare
With rosy cheekes, for shame as blushing red :
Her golden locks, for hast, were loosely shed
About her eares, when Una her did marke
Clymbe to her charet, all with flowers spred,
From heven high to chace the chearelesse darke ;
With mery note her lowd salutes the mounting
larke.
Then freshly up arose the doughty Knight,
All healed of his hurts and woundes wide,
And did himselfe to battaile ready dight;
Whose early Foe awaiting him beside
To have devourd, so soone as day he spyde,
When now he saw himselfe so freshly reare,
As if late fight had nought him damnifyde,
He woxe dismaid, and gan his fate to feare;
Nathlesse with wonted rage he him advaunced
And in his first encounter, gaping wyde,
He thought attonce him to have swallowd quight, And rusht upon him with outragious pryde; Who him rencounting fierce, as hauke in flight, Perforce rebutted back: The weapon bright, Taking advantage of his open iaw,
Ran through his mouth with so impórtune might, That deepe emperst his darksom hollow maw, And, back retyrd, his life blood forth withall did draw.
So downe he fell, and forth his life did breath,
That vanisht into smoke and cloudës swift;
So downe he fell, that th' earth him underneath
Did grone, as feeble so great load to lift;
So downe he fell, as an huge rocky clift,
Whose false foundacion waves have washt away,
With dreadfull poyse is from the mayneland rift,
And, rolling downe, great Neptune doth dismay:
So downe he fell, and like an heaped mountaine
lay.
The Knight himselfe even trembled at his fall,
So huge and horrible a masse it seemd ;
And his deare Lady, that beheld it all,
Durst not approch for dread which she misdeemd;
But yet at last, whenas the direfull Feend
She saw not stirre, off-shaking vaine affright
She nigher drew, and saw that ioyous end:
Then God she praysd, and thankt her faithfull
That had atchievde so great a conquest by his
Fayre Una to the Redcrosse Knight
Betrouthed is with ioy:
Though false Duessa, it to barre,
Her false sleightes doe imploy.
BEHOLD I see the haven nigh at hand,
To which I meane my wearie course to bend ;
Vere the maine shete, and beare up with the land,
The which afore is fayrly to be kend,
And seemeth safe from storms that may offend:
There this fayre Virgin wearie of her way
Must landed bee, now at her iourneyes end;
There eke my feeble barke a while may stay,
Till mery wynd and weather call her thence
Scarsely had Phoebus in the glooming east
Yett harnessed his fyrie-footed teeme,
Ne reard above the earth his flaming creast;
When the last deadly smoke aloft did steeme,
That signe of last outbreathed life did seeme
Unto the watchman on the castle-wall,
Who thereby dead that balefull Beast did deeme,
And to his Lord and Lady lowd gan call,
To tell how he had seene the Dragons fatall fall.
Uprose with hasty ioy, and feeble speed,
That aged syre, the Lord of all that land,
And looked forth, to weet if trew indeed
Those tydinges were, as he did understand:
Which whenas trew by tryall he out fond,
He badd to open wyde his brasen gate,
Which long time had beene shut, and out of hond
Proclaymed ioy and peace through all his state;
For dead now was their Foe, which them forrayed
late.
Then gan triumphant trompets sownd on hye,
That sent to heven the ecchoed report
Of their new ioy, and happie victory
Gainst him, that had them long opprest with tort,
And fast imprisoned in sieged fort.
Then all the people, as in solemne feast,
To him assembled with one full consórt,
Reioycing at the fall of that great Beast,
From whose eternall bondage now they were releast.
Forth came that auncient Lord, and aged Queene,
Arayd in antique robes downe to the grownd,
And sad habiliments right well beseene:
A noble crew about them waited rownd
Of sage and sober peres, all gravely gownd;
Whom far before did march a goodly band
Of tall young men, all hable armes to sownd,
But now they laurell braunches bore in hand;
Glad signe of victory and peace in all their land.
Unto that doughtie Conquerour they came,
And, him before themselyes prostrating low,
Their Lord and Patrone loud did him proclame,
And at his feet their lawrell boughes did throw.
Soone after them, all dauncing on a row,
The comely virgins came, with girlands dight,
As fresh as flowres in medow greene doe grow,
When morning deaw upon their leaves doth light;
And in their handes sweet timbrells all upheld on
hight.
And, them before, the fry of children yong
Their wanton sportes and childish mirth did play,
And to the maydens sownding tymbrels song
In well attuned notes a ioyous lay,
And made delightfull musick all the way,
Untill they came, where that faire Virgin stood :
As fayre Diana in fresh sommers day
Beholdes her nymphes enraung'd in shady wood, Some wrestle, some do run, some bathe in christall flood;
So she beheld those maydens meriment
With chearefull vew; who, when to her they came, Themselves to ground with gracious humblesse And her ador'd by honorable name,
Lifting to heven her everlasting fame :
Then on her head they sett a girlond greene,
And crowned her twixt earnest and twixt game:
Who, in her self-resemblance well beseene,
Did seeme, such as she was, a goodly Maiden
Queene.
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