The Faerie Queene (51 page)

Great store of treasure, therewith him to tempt;

But he on it lookt scornefully askew,

As much disdeigning to be so misdempt,

Or a war-monger to be basely nempt;

And said; thy offers base I greatly loth,

And eke thy words vncourteous and vnkempt;

I tread in dust thee and thy money both,

That, were it not for shame, So turned firom him wroth.

30
But
Trompart,
that his maisters humor knew,

In lofty lookes to hide an humble mind,

Was inly tickled with that golden vew,

And in his eare him rownded close behind:

Yet stoupt he not, but lay still in the wind,

Waiting aduauntage on die pray to sease;

Till
Trompart
lowly to the ground inclind,

Besought him his great courage to appease,

And pardon simple man, that rash did him displease.

31
Bigge looking like a doughtie Doucepere,

At last he thus; Thou clod of vilest clay,

I pardon yield, and with thy rudenesse beare;

But weete henceforth, that all that golden pray,

And all that else the vaine world vaunten may,

I loath as doung, ne deeme my dew reward:

Fame is my meed, and glory vertues pray.

But minds of mortall men are muchell mard,

And mou'd amisse with massie mucks vnmeet regard.

32
And more, I graunt to thy great miserie

Gratious respect, thy wife shall backe be sent,

And that vile knight, who euer that he bee,

Which hath thy Lady reft, and knighthood shent,

By
Sanglamort
my sword, whose deadly dent

The bloud hath of so many thousands shed,

I sweare, ere long shall dearely it repent;

Ne he twixt heauen and earth shall hide Ms hed,

But soone he shall be found, and shortly doen be ded.

33
The foolish man thereat woxe wondrous blith,

As if the word so spoken, were halfe donne,

And humbly thanked him a thousand sith,

That had from death to life him newly wonne.

Tho forth the Boaster marching, braue begonne

His stolen steed to thunder furiously,

As if he heauen and hell would ouerronne,

And all the world confound with cruelty,

That much
Malbecco
ioyed in his iollity.

34
Thus long they three together traueiled,

Through many a wood, and many an vncouth way,

To seeke his wife, that was farre wandered:

But those two sought nought, but the present pray,

To weete the treasure, which he did bewray,

On which their eies and harts were wholly set,

With purpose, how they might it best betray;

For sith the houre, that first he did them let

The same behold, therewith their keene desires were whet.

35
It fortuned as they together far'd,

They spide, where
Paridell
came pricking fast

Vpon the plaine, the which himselfe prepar'd

To giust with that braue straunger knight a cast,

As on aduenture by the way he past:

Alone he rode without his Paragone;

For hauing filcht her bels, her vp he cast

To the wide world, and let her fly alone,

He nould be clogd. So had he serued many one.

36
The gentle Lady, loose at randon left,

The greene-wood long did walke, and wander wide

At wilde aduenture, like a forlorne weft,

Till on a day the
Satyres
her espide

Straying alone withouten groome or guide;

Her vp they tooke, and with them home her led,

With them as housewife euer to abide,

To milke their gotes, and make them cheese and bred,

And' euery one as commune good her handeled.

37
That shortly she
Malbecco
has forgot,

And eke Sir
Paridell,
all were he deare;

Who from her went to seeke another lot,

And now by fortune was arriued here,

Where those two guilers with
Malbecco
were:

Soone as the oldman saw Sir
Paridell,

He fainted, and was almost dead with feare,

Ne word he had to speake, his griefe to tell,

But to him louted low, and greeted goodly well.

38
And after asked him for
Hellenore,

I take no keepe of her (said
Paridell)

She wonneth in the forrest there before.

So forth he rode, as his aduenture fell;

The whiles the Boaster from his loftie sell

Faynd to alight, something amisse to mend;

But the fresh Swayne would not his leasure dwell,

But went his way; whom when he passed kend.

He vp remounted light, and after faind to wend.

39
Perdy nay (said
Malbecco)
shall ye not:

But let him passe as lightly, as he came:

For litle good of him is to be got,

And mickle perill to be put to shame.

But let vs go to seeke my dearest Dame,

Whom he hath left in yonder forrest wyld:

For of her safety in great doubt I am,

Least saluage beastes her person haue despoyld:

Then all the world is lost, and we in vaine haue toyld.

40
They all agree, and forward them addrest:

Ah but (said craftie
Trompart)
weete ye well,

That yonder in that wastefull wilderncsse

Huge monsters haunt, and many dangers dwell;

Dragons, and Minotaures, and feendes of hell,

And many wilde woodmen, which robbe and rend

All trauellers; therefore aduise ye well,

Before ye enterprise that way to wend:

One may his iourney bring too soone to euill end.

41
Malbecco
stopt in great astonishment,

And with pale eyes fast fixed on the rest,

Their counsell crau'd, in daunger imminent.

Said
Trompart,
you that are the most opprest

With burden of great treasure, I thinke best

Here for to stay in safetie behind;

My Lord and I will search the wide forrest.

That counsell pleased not
Malbeccoes
mind;

For he was much affraid, himselfe alone to find.

42
Then' is it best (said he) that ye doe leaue

Your treasure here in some securitie,

Either fast closed in some hollow greaue,

Or buried in the ground from ieopardie,

Till we returne againe in safetie:

As for vs two, least doubt of vs ye haue,

Hence farre away we will blindfolded lie,

Ne priuie be vnto your treasures graue.

It pleased: so he did. Then they march forward braue.

43
Now when amid the thickest woods they were,

They heard a noyse of many bagpipes shrill,

And shrieking Hububs them approching nere,

Which all the forrest did with horror fill:

That dreadfull sound the boasters hart did thrill,

With such amazement, that in haste he fled,

Ne euer looked backe for good or ill,

And after him eke fearefull
Trompart
sped;

The old man could not fly, but fell to ground halfe ded.

44
Yet afterwards close creeping, as he might,

He in a bush did hide his fearefull hed,

The iolly
Satyres
full of fresh delight,

Came dauncing forth, and with them nimbly led

Faire
Helenore,
with girlonds all bespred,

Whom their May-lady they had newly made:

She proud of that new honour, which they red,

And of their louely fellowship full glade,

Daunst liuely, and her face did with a Lawrell shade.

45
The silly man that in the thicket lay

Saw all this goodly sport, and grieued sore,

Yet durst he not against it doe or say,

But did his hart with bitter thoughts engore,

To see th'vnkindnesse of his
Hellenore.

All day they daunced with great lustihed,

And with their horned feet the greene grasse wore,

The whiles their Gotes vpon the brouzes fed,

Till drouping
Phœbus
gan to hide his golden hed.

46
Tho vp they gan their merry pypes to trusse,

And all their goodly heards did gather round,

But euery
Satyre
first did giue a busse

To
Hellenore:
so busses did abound.

Now gan the humid vapour shed the ground

With perly deaw, and th'Earthes gloomy shade

Did dim the brightnesse of the welkin round,

That euery bird and beast awarned made,

To shrowd themselues, whiles sleepe their senses did inuade.

47
Which when
Malbecco
saw, out of his bush

Vpon his hands and feete he crept full light,

And like a Gote emongst the Gotes did rush,

That through the helpe of his faire homes on bight,

And misty dampe of misconceiuing night,

And eke through likenesse of his gotish beard,

He did the better counterfeite aright:

So home he marcht emongst the homed heard,

That none of all the
Satyres
him espyde or heard

48
At night, when all they went to sleepe, he vewd,

Whereas his louely wife emongst them lay,

Embraced of a
Satyre
rough and rude,

who all the night did minde his ioyous plays

Nine times he heard him come aloft ere day,

That all his hart with gealosie did swell;

But yet that nights ensample did bewray,

That not for nought his wife them loued so well,

When one so oft a night did ring his matins bell.

49
So closely as he could, he to them crept,

When wearie of their sport to sleepe they fell,

And to his wife, that now full soundly slept,

He whispered in her eare, and did her tell,

That it was he, which by her side did dwell,

And therefore prayd her wake, to heare him plaine.

As one out of a dreame not waked well,

She turned her, and returned backe againe:

Yet her for to awake he did the more constraint

50
At last with irkesome trouble she abrayd;

And then perceiuing, that it was indeed

Her old
Malbecco,
which did her vpbrayd,

With loosenesse of her loue, and loathly deed,

She was astonisht with exceeding dreed,

And would haue wakt the
Satyre
by her syde;

But he her prayd, for mercy, or for meed,

To saue his life, ne let him be descryde,

But hearken to his lore, and all his counsell hyde.

51
Tho gan he her perswade, to leaue that lewd

And loathsome life, of God and man abhord,

And home returne, where all should be renewd

With perfect peace, and bandes of fresh accord,

And she receiu'd againe to bed and bord,

As if no trespasse euer had bene donne:

But she it all refused at one word,

And by no meanes would to his will be wonne,

But chose emongst the iolly
Satyres
still to wonne.

52
He wooed her, till day spring he espyde;

But all in vaine: and then turnd to the heard,

Who butted him with homes on euery syde,

And trode downe in the durt, where his hore beard

Was fowly dight, and he of death afeard.

Early before the heauens fairest light

Out of the ruddy East was fully reard,

The heardes out of their foldes were loosed quight,

And he emongst the rest crept forth in sory plight.

53
So soone as he the Prison dare did pas,

He ran as fast, as both his feete could beare,

And neuer looked, who behind him was,

Ne scarsely who before: like as a Beare

That creeping close, amongst the hiues to reare

An hony combe, the wakefull dogs espy,

And him assayling, sore his carkasse teare,

That hardly he with life away does fly,

Ne stayes, till safe himselfe he see from ieopardy.

54
Ne stayd he, till he came vnto the place,

Where late his treasure he entombed had,

Where when he found it not (for
Trompart
bace

Had it purloyned for his maister bad:)

With extreme fury be became quite mad,

And ran away, ran with himselfe away:

That who so straungely had him seene bestad,

With vpstart haire, and staring eyes dismay,

From Limbo lake him late escaped sure would say.

55
High ouer hilles and ouer dales he fled,

As if the wind him on his winges had borne,

Ne banck nor bush could stay him, when he sped

His nimble feet, as treading still on thorne:

Griefe, and despight, and gealosie, and scorne

Did all the way him follow hard behind,

And he himselfe himselfe loath'd so forlorne,

So shamefully forlorne of womankind;

That as a Snake, still lurked in his wounded mind.

56
Still fled he forward, looking backward still,

Ne stayd his flight, nor fearefull agony,

Till that he came vnto a rockie hill,

Ouer the sea, suspended dreadfully,

That liuing creature it would terrify,

To looke adowne, or vpward to the hight:

From thence he threw himselfe dispiteously,

All desperate of his fore-damned spright,

That seem'd no helpe for him was left in liuing sight

57
But through long anguish, and selfe-murdring thought

He was so wasted and forpined quight,

That all his substance was consum'd to nought,

And nothing left, but like an aery Spright,