Most ioyfully fhe them did entertaine;

Where goodly glee and feast to them she made,
To fhew her thankefull mind and meaning faine,
By all the meanes fhe mote it beft explaine:
And after all, unto fir Calidore

She freely gave that castle for his paine,

And herfelfe bound to him for evermore;

So wondrously now chaung'd from that she was afore.

XLVII.

But Calidore himselfe would not retaine

Nor land nor fee for hyre of his good deede,
But gave them ftreight unto that squire againe,
Whom from her fenefchall he lately freed,
And to his damzell, as their rightfull meed,
For recompence of all their former wrong:
There he remaind with them right well agreed,
Till of his wounds he wexed hole and ftrong,
And then to his first quest he paffed forth along.

CANTO

W

CANTO II.

Calidore fees young Triftram flay
A proud difcourteous knight :

He makes him fquire, and of him learnes
His ftate and prefent plight.

I.

HAT vertue is fo fitting for a knight,

Or for a ladie whom a knight should love,

As curtefie, to beare themselves aright

To all of each degree as doth behove?
For whether they be placed high above
Or low beneath, yet ought they well to know
Their good, that none them rightly may reprove
Of rudeneffe, for not yeelding what they owe:
Great skill it is fuch duties timely to bestow.

II.

Thereto great helpe dame Nature felfe doth lend:
For fome fo goodly gratious are by kind,
That every action doth them much commend,
And in the eyes of men great liking find;
Which others that have greater skill in mind,
Though they enforce themselves, cannot attaine:
For everie thing to which one is inclin'd

Doth best become and greatest grace doth gaine:
Yet praise likewise deserve good thewes enforft with paine.
III.

That well in courteous Calidore appeares ;

Whofe every deed and word that he did fay,
Was like enchantment, that through both the
And both the eares did fteale the hart away.
He now againe is on his former way

To follow his first queft, whenas he spyde

A tall young man, from thence not farre away,
Fighting on foot, as well he him defcryde,

eyes

Against an armed knight that did on horfebacke ryde.

IV. And

IV.

And them befide a ladie faire he faw
Standing alone on foot in foule array;
To whom himselfe he hastily did draw
To weet the cause of fo uncomely fray,
And to depart them, if so be he may :
But ere he came in place, that youth had kild
That armed knight, that low on ground he lay;
Which when he faw, his hart was inly child

With great amazement, and his thought with wonder fild.

Buskins he wore of coftlieft cordwayne,

Pinckt upon gold, and paled part per part,
As then the guize was for each gentle swayne;
In his right hand he held a trembling dart,
Whofe fellow he before had fent apart;
And in his left he held a sharpe bore-speare,
With which he wont to launch the salvage hart
Of many a lyon and of many a beare,

That first unto his hand in chase did happen neare.
VII.

Whom Calidore awhile well having vewed,

At length befpake; What meanes this, gentle fwaine?
Why bath thy hand too bold itfelfe embrewed
In blood of knight, the which by thee is flaine,
By thee no knight; which armes impugneth plaine?
Certes, faid he, loth were I to have broken
The law of armes; yet breake it should againe,
Rather then let myselfe of wight be stroken,
So long as these two armes were able to be wroken.

VOL. II.

Y

VIII. For

VIII.

For not I him, as this his ladie here
May witneffe well, did offer firft to wrong,
Ne furely thus unarm'd I likely were;

But he me first through pride and puissance frong
Affayld, not knowing what to armes doth long.
Perdie great blame, then faid fir Calidore,
For armed knight a wight unarm'd to wrong:
But then aread, thou gentle chyld, wherefore
Betwixt you two began this ftrife and sterne uprore.
IX.
declare.

That shall I footh, faid he, to you

I, whofe unryper yeares are yet unfit
For thing of weight or worke of greater care,
Doe fpend my dayes and bend my carelesse wit
To falvage chace, where I thereon
may bit
In all this forrest and wyld woodie raine :
Where, as this day I was enraunging it,

I chaunft to meete this knight who there lyes flaine,
Together with this ladie, paffing on the plaine.

X.

The knight, as ye did fee, on horfebacke was,
And this his ladie, that him ill became,
On her faire feet by his horfe-fide did pas
Through thicke and thin, unfit for any
dame:
Yet not content, more to incrcafe his shame,
Whenfo fhe lagged, as fhe needs more fo,
He with his fpeare (that was to him great blame)
Would thumpe her forward and inforce to goe,
Weeping to him in vaine and making piteous woe.

XI.

Which when I faw, as they me paffed by,
Much was I moved in indignant mind,
And gan to blame him for fuch cruelty
Towards a ladie, whom with ufage kind
He rather fhould have taken up behind:
Wherewith he wroth and full of proud difdaine
Tooke in foule fcorne that I fuch fault did find,
And me in lieu thereof revil'd againe,
Threatning to chaflize me, as doth t'a chyld pertaine.

XII. Which

XII.

Which I no leffe difdayning, backe returned
His fcornefull taunts unto his teeth againe,
That he freightway with haughtie choler burned,
And with his fpeare ftrooke me one ftroke or twaine;
Which I, enforft to beare though to my paine,
Caft to requite; and with a flender dart,
Fellow of this I beare, throwne not in vaine,
Strooke him, as feemeth, underneath the hart,
That through the wound his fpirit fhortly did depart.

XIII.

Much did fir Calidore admyre his fpeach

Tempred fo well, but more admyr'd the ftroke
That through the mayles had made so strong a breach
Into his hart, and had so sternely wroke

His wrath on him that firft occafion broke:
Yet refted not, but further gan inquire

Of that fame ladie, whether what he spoke
Were foothly fo, and that th' unrighteous ire

Of her owne knight had given him his owne due hire.

XIV.

Of all which whenas fhe could nought deny,

But cleard that ftripling of th'imputed blame,
Sayd then fir Calidore, Neither will I

Him charge with guilt, but rather doe quite clame:
For what he spake, for you he spake it, dame;

And what he did, he did himselfe to fave:

Against both which that knight wrought knightlesse shame :
For knights and all men this by nature have,

Towards all women-kind them kindly to behave.

XV.

But fith that he is gone irrevocable,
Pleafe it you, ladie, to us to aread,
What cause could make him so dishonourable
To drive you fo on foot, unfit to tread,
And lackey by him, gainft all womanhead?
Certes, fir knight, fayd fhe, full loth I were
To rayfe a lyving blame against the dead:
But fince it me concernes myfelfe to clere,
I will the truth difcover as it chaunft whylere.
Y 2

XVI. This