Having her thus difarmed of her shield,
Upon her helmet he againe her strooke,
That downe she fell upon the graffie field
In fenceleffe fwoune, as if her life forfooke,
And pangs of death her spirit overtooke:
Whom when he saw before his foote proftrated,
He to her lept with deadly dreadfull looke,
And her fun-shynie helmet foone unlaced,
Thinking at once both head and helmet to have raced.
XII.
But whenas he discovered had her face,
He saw, his senses ftraunge astonishment,
A miracle of natures goodly grace
In her faire visage voide of ornament,
But bath'd in bloud and fweat together ment;
Which in the rudenesse of that evill plight
Bewrayd the fignes of feature excellent:
Like as the moone in foggie winters night,
Doth feeme to be herfelfe, though darkned be her light.
XIII.
At fight thereof his cruell minded hart
Empierced was with pittifull regard,
That his sharpe sword he threw from him apart,
Curfing his hand that had that visage mard:
No hand fo cruell, nor no hart so hard,
But ruth of beautie will it mollifie.
By this upstarting from her fwoune fhe ftar'd
Awhile about her with confused eye;
Like one that from his dreame is waked fuddenlye.
Soone as the knight she there by her did spy,
Standing with emptie hands all weaponleffe,
With fresh affault upon him fhe did fly,
And gan renew her former cruelneffe:
And though he still retyr'd, yet nathelesse
With huge redoubled ftrokes fhe on him layd;
And more increast her outrage mercileffe,
The more that he with meeke intreatie prayd
Her wrathful hand from greedy vengeance to have ftayd.
Like as a puttocke having spyde in fight
A gentle faulcon fitting on an hill,
Whofe other wing, now made unmeete for flight,
Was lately broken by fome fortune ill;
The foolish kyte, led with licentious will,
Doth beat upon the gentle bird in vaine,
With many idle ftoups her troubling ftill:
Even fo did Radigund with bootlesse paine
Annoy this noble knight, and forely him conftraine.
XVI.
Nought could he do but shun the dred despight
Of her fierce wrath, and backward ftill retyre;
And with his fingle field, well as he might,
Beare off the burden of her raging yre;
And evermore he gently did defyre
To stay her stroks, and he himselfe would yield:
Yet nould the hearke, ne let him once refpyre,
Till he to her delivered had his shield,
And to her mercie him fubmitted in plaine field.
XVII.
So was he overcome, not overcome,
But to her yeelded of his owne accord ;
Yet was he iuftly damned by the doome
Of his owne mouth, that fpake fo wareleffe word,
To be her thrall and fervice her afford:
For though that he first victorie obtayned,
Yet after by abandoning his fword,
He wilfull loft that he before attayned :
No fayrer conqueft then that with goodwill is gayned.
Tho with her sword on him she flatling ftrooke,
In figne of true fubiection to her powre,
And as her vaffall him to thraldome tooke:
But Terpine, borne to a more unhappy howre,
As he on whom the luckleffe ftarres did lowre,
She caufd to be attacht, and forthwith led
Unto the crooke t'abide the balefull ftowre,
From which he lately had through refkew fled :
Where he full shamefully was hanged by the hed.
But when they thought on Talus hands to lay,
He with his yron flaile amongst them thondred,
That they were fayne to let him scape away,
Glad from his companie to be fo fondred;
Whose presence all their troups fo much encombred
That th' heapes of those which he did wound and slay,
Besides the rest dismayd, might not be nombred:
Yet all that while he would not once affay
To reskew his owne lord, but thought it iuft t'obay.
Then tooke the Amazon this noble knight,
Left to her will by his owne wilfull blame,
And caused him to be disarmed quight
Of all the ornaments of knightly name,
With which whilome he gotten had great fame :
Instead whereof fhe made him to be dight
In womans weedes, that is to manhood shame,
And put before his lap an apron white,
Instead of curiets and bases fit for fight.
So being clad she brought him from the field,
In which he had bene trayned many a day,
Into a long large chamber, which was field
With moniments of many knights decay,
By her fubdewed in victorious fray:
Amongst the which she caufd his warlike armes
Be hang'd on high, that mote his shame bewray;
And broke his fword for feare of further harmes,
With which he wont to stirre up battailous alarmes.
XXII.
There entred in, he round about him faw
Many brave knights whose names right well he knew,
There bound t'obay that Amazons proud law,
Spinning and carding all in comely rew,
That his bigge hart loth'd fo uncomely vew :
But they were forft through penurie and pyne
To doe those workes to them appointed dew:
For nought was given them to fup or dyne,
But what their hands could earne by twisting linnen twyne.
VOL. II.
Amongst them all fhe placed him moft low,
And in his hand a distaffe to him gave,
That he thereon should spin both flax and tow;
A fordid office for a mind fo brave:
So hard it is to be a womans slave!
Yet he it tooke in his owne felfes defpight,
And thereto did himselfe right well behave
Her to obay, fith he his faith had plight
Her vaffall to become if the him wonne in fight.
XXIV.
Who had him feene imagine mote thereby
That whylome hath of Hercules bene told,
How for Iolas fake he did apply.
His mightie hands the distaffe vile to hold
For his huge club, which had fubdew'd of old
So many monsters which the world annoyed;
His lyons skin chaungd to a pall of gold,
In which forgetting warres he onely ioyed
In combats of sweet love, and with his mistreffe toyed.
XXV.
Such is the crueltie of womenkynd,
When they have shaken off the shamefast band,
With which wife nature did them ftrongly bynd
T'obay the heasts of mans well-ruling hand,
That then all rule and reason they withstand
To purchase a licentious libertie :
But vertuous women wifely understand,
That they were borne to base humilitie,
Unleffe the heavens them lift to lawfull foveraintie.
Thus there long while continu'd Artegall,
Serving proud Radigund with true fubiection:
However it his noble heart did gall
T'obay a womans tyrannous direction,
That might have had of life or death election:
But having chofen now he might not chaunge.
During which time the warlike Amazon,
Whose wandring fancie after luft did raunge,
Gan cast a secret liking to this captive straunge.
Which long concealing in her covert brest,
She chaw'd the cud of lovers carefull plight ;
Yet could it not fo thoroughly digest,
Being fast fixed in her wounded spright,
But it tormented her both day and night:
Yet would she not thereto yeeld free accord
To ferve the lowly vaffall of her might,
And of her fervant make her foverayne lord:
So great her pride that she fuch baseneffe much abhord.
XXVIII.
So much the greater still her anguish grew,
Through ftubborne handling of her love-ficke hart;
And ftill the more fhe ftrove it to fubdew,
The more she still augmented her owne smart,
And wyder made the wound of th' hidden dart.
At laft when long fhe struggled had in vaine,
She gan to ftoupe, and her proud mind convert
To meeke obeyfance of loves mightie raine,
And him entreat for grace that had procur'd her paine.
XXIX.
Unto herselfe in fecret she did call
Her nearest handmayd, whom she most did trust,
And to her faid, Clarinda, whom of all
I truft alive, fith I thee foftred firft;
Now is the time that I untimely must
Thereof make tryall in my greatest need:
It is fo hapned that the heavens uniuft,
Spighting my happie freedome, have agreed
To thrall my loofer life, or my laft bale to breed.
With that she turn'd her head, as halfe abashed,
To hide the blush which in her visage rose,
And through her eyes like fudden lightning flashed,
Decking her cheeke with a vermilion rofe:
But foone she did her countenance compose,
And to her turning, thus began againe ;
This griefes deepe wound I would to thee difclofe,
Thereto compelled through hart-murdring paine ;
But dread of fame my doubtfull lips doth ftill reftraine.
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