The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene &c., &c., &c., ed. for popular perusal with current illustrations and explanatory notes, by D. Laing Purves.

500 THE FAERIE QUEEN. [BOOK V.
Unto his horses gave his guests for meat, And, leading th' ever burning lamp astray,
Till he himself was made their greedy prey, This lower world nigh all to ashes brent,7
And torn in pieces by Alcides great; And left their scorched path8 yet in the firmaSo thought the Soldan, in his folly's threat, ment.
Either the Prince in pieces to have tornuch was the fury of these headstrong steeds,
With his sharp wheels, in his first rage's heat, Soon as the Infant's 9 sunlike shield they saw,
Or under his fierce horses' feet have borne, That all obedience both to words and deeds
And trampled down in dust his thoughts' dis- They quite forgot, and scorn'd all former law:
dained scorn. Through woods, and rocks, and mountains they
Arthur leapt aside before the chariot's swift did draw
advance, shunning also a dart which the Paynim The iron chariot, and the wheels did tear,
threw at him. Vainly the Prince tried with his And toss'd the Paynim without fear or awe;
spear point to reach his enemy, seated so high From side to side they toss'd him here and there,
and whirled so fast by his coursers; and he was Crying to them in vain that n'ould 10 his crying
wounded by a more successful dart launched by hear.
the Soldan. Yet still the Prince pursued him close behind,
Much was he grieved with that hapless throe, Oft making offer him to smite, but found
That open'd had the well-spring of his blood; No easy means according to his mind:
But much the more, that to his hateful foe At last they have all overthrown to ground
He might not come to wreak his wrathful mood: Quite topside-turvy, and the Pagan hound,
That made him rave, like to a lion wood,1 Amongst the iron hooks and grapples keen,
Which, being wounded of the huntsman's hand, Torn all to rags, and rent with many a wound;
Cannot come near him in the covert wood, That no whole piece of him was to be seen,
Where he with boughs hath built his shady But scatter'd all about, and strow'd upon the
stand, green.
And fenc'd himself about with many a flaming Like as the cursed son of Theseus,l
brand. That, following his chase in dewy morn,
At last, despairing of attaining the Soldan by To fly his stepdame's love outrageous,
natural or human means, the Prince resorted to Of his own steeds was all to pieces torn,
supernatural; 2 he drew from his shield the And his fair limbs left in the woods forlorn;
cover that always veiled its dazzling brightness, That for his sake Diana did lament,
and, coming full before his enemy's horses, And all the woody nymphs did wail and mourn:
showed the shield to them. So was this Soldan rapt and all to-rent,
That of his shape appear'd no little monumentl
Like lightning flash that hath the gazer burn'd,hat of his shape appear'd no little monument.
So did the sight thereof their sense dismay, Only his shield and armour, which there lay,
That back again upon themselves they turn'd, Though nothing whole, but all to-bruis'd and
And with their rider ran perforce away: broken,
Nor could the Soldan them from flying stay He up did take, and with him brought away,
With reins or wonted rule, as well he knew: That might remain for an eternal token
Naught feared they what he could do or say, To all'mongstwhom this story should be spoken,
But th' only fear that was before their view; How worthily, by Heaven's high decree,
From which like mazed deer dismayfully they Justice that day of wrong herself had wroken; 13
flew. That all men, which that spectacle did see,
Fast did they fly as them their feet could bear, By like ensample might for ever warned be.
High over hills, and lowly over dales, Arthur hanged the arms on a tree before the
As they were follow'd of their former fear: tyrant's door; and at sight of them the tyrant's
In vain the Pagan bans, and swears, and rails, Lady, wild with rage, ran with knife in hand to
And back with both his hands unto him hales revenge herself on the maiden messenger, SamiThe resty 3 reins, regarded now no more: ent, still a prisoner.
I He to them calls and speaks, yet naught avails; Like raging Ino, when with knife in hand
They hear him not, they have forgot his lore, She threw her husband's murder'd infant out;
But go-which way they list; their guide they Or fell Medea, when on Colchic strand
have forlore.4 Her brother's bones she scatter'd all about;
As when the fiery-mouthed steeds, which drew Or as that madding mother,'mongst the rout
The Sun's bright wain to Phaethon's decay, Of Bacchus' priests, her own dear flesh did tear:
Soon as they did the monstrous Scorpion view, Yet neither Ino, nor Medea stout,
With ugly craples 5crawling in their way, Nor all the Menades so furious were
The dreadful sight did them so sore affray, As this bold woman, when she saw that damsel
That their well-knowen courses they forwent; 6 there.
1 Furious. 7 Burned. 8 The Milky Way.
2 An admission that the defeat of King Philip's 9 Prince's. See note 3, page 390.
Armada might not have been achieved, but for the 10 Would not.
supernatural aid of the winds and waves. 11 Hippolytus. See page 331.
3 Restive. 4 Lost. 12 Not even the least memorial.
5 Claws. 6 Forsook, strayed from. 13 Avenged.