Aftond he stood," and up his heare did hove;

And with that fuddein horror could no member move.

32.

At laft whenas the dreadfull paffion

Was overpast, and manhood well awake,
Yet mufing at the ftraunge occafion,

And doubting much his fence, he thus bespake : "What voice of damned Ghost from Limbo lake, Or guilefull spright wandring in empty aire, Both which fraile men doe oftentimes mistake, Sends to my doubtful eares these speaches rare, And ruefull plaints," me bidding guiltleffe blood to spare?" 33.

Then, groning deep; "Nor damned Ghoft," (qd. he,) "Nor guileful fprite to thee these words doth speake ; But once a man, Fradubio, now a tree;

Wretched man, wretched tree! whofe nature weake
A cruell witch, her curfed will to wreake,
Hath thus transformd, and plast in open plaines,
Where Boreas doth blow full bitter bleake,
And scorching Sunne does dry my secret vaines;

For though a tree I feme, yet cold and heat me paines."

n

Aftond he stood.] "Aftond" means more than aftonied or astonished: he was funned, and so affected as to be unable to move. In Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," edit. Marsh, fol. 105, we are told, “The good gentleman, hearing this ftraung cafe, was aftonned like one that had been ftroken with a flash of lightening." R. Johnson, in his "Seven Champions," edit. 1608, pt. 2, uses aftonied for stunned: She " gave him fo ftrong a blow upon the burgonet, that he fell aftonied to the earth, without any feeling." Again, on the fame page, "She stroke the Magitian fo furiously that she made him once againe to fall to the ground all aftonied." With reference to the last clause of the line, "and up his heare did hove," Upton quotes, 'Optal dè τpixes Eσrav, from Hom. Il. 359, which Chapman rather metaphraftically renders, "Upright upon his languishing head his hair stood." C.

• And ruefull plaints.] In the 4to. 1590,“ ruefull plaints" is tuefull plants; but in the lift of errata we are told that tuefull ought to be "ruefull," but no correction is made of plants. The neceffary emendation is derived from later impreffions. C.

34.

Say on, Fradubio, then, or man or tree,"

Qd. then the Knight; "by whofe mifchievous arts
Art thou misshaped thus, as now I fee?
He oft finds med'cine who his griefe imparts,
But double griefs afflict concealing harts,
As raging flames who ftriveth to fuppreffe."
"The author then," (faid he) " of all my smarts,
Is one Dueffa, a falfe forcereffe,

That many errant knights hath broght to wretchedneffe. 35.

"In prime of youthly yeares, when corage hott

The fire of love, and joy of chevalree,
First kindled in my breft, it was my lott
To love this gentle Lady, whome ye fee
Now not a Lady, but a feeming tree;
With whome, as once I rode accompanyde,
Me chaunced of a knight encountred bee,
That had a like faire Lady by his syde;
Lyke a faire Lady, but did fowle Duessa hyde.
36.

"Whofe forged beauty he did take in hand
All other Dames to have exceeded farre :
I in defence of mine did likewise stand,
Mine, that did then shine as the Morning starre.
So both to batteill fierce arraunged arre;

In which his harder fortune was to fall

Under my speare: fuch is the dye of warre.
His Lady, left as a prise martiall,

Did yield her comely person to be at my call.

37.

"So doubly lov'd of ladies, unlike faire,

Th' one feeming fuch, the other fuch indeede,
One day in doubt I caft for to compare
Whether in beauties glorie did exceede:

A Rofy girlond was the victors meede.

Both feemde to win, and both feemde won to bee,
So hard the difcord was to be agreede.

Fræliffa was as faire as faire mote bee,

And ever falfe Dueffa feemde as faire as fhee.

38.

"The wicked witch, now seeing all this while
The doubtfull ballaunce equally to fway,
What not by right she caft to win by guile;
And by her hellish science raifd ftreight way
A foggy mift that overcaft the day,
And a dull blast, that breathing on her face
Dimmed her former beauties fhining ray,
And with foule ugly forme did her difgrace:

Then was she fayre alone, when none was faire in place.

39.

"Then cride she out, Fye, fye! deformed wight,
Whose borrowed beautie now appeareth plaine
To have before bewitched all mens fight:
'O! leave her foone, or let her foone be slaine.'
Her loathly visage viewing with disdaine,
Eftfoones I thought her fuch as fhe me told,
And would have kild her; but with faigned paine
The falfe witch did my wrathfull hand with-hold:
So left her, where she now is turnd to treen mould.P
40.

"Thensforth I tooke Dueffa for my Dame,

And in the witch unweeting joyd long time;

P now is turnd to treen mould.] "Treen," from tree, was formerly not an unusual adjective, and sometimes it is the plural substantive. We meet with it much earlier, and in Spenser's time in the "Par. of Dainty Devices," edit. 1578, Sign. A iiij.

"At homely boord his quiet foode, his drinkes in treene be tane, "When oft the proud in cuppes of gold with wine receive their

bane."

He took his drink from wooden veffels and not from golden cups. C.

Ne ever wift but that she was the fame;
Till on a day (that day is everie Prime,"
When Witches wont do penance for their crime,)
I chaunft to see her in her proper hew,
Bathing her felfe in origane and thyme:"
A filthy foule old woman I did vew,

That ever to have toucht her I did deadly rew.

4I.

"Her neather partes misfhapen, monftruous,
Were hidd in water, that I could not fee;
But they did feeme more foule and hideous,
Then womans shape man would beleeve to bee.
Thensforth from her most beaftly companie
I gan refraine, in minde to flipp away,
Soone as appeard fafe opportunitie:
For danger great, if not affurd decay,

I faw before mine eyes, if I were knowne to ftray.

42.

"The divelish hag by chaunges of

my cheare

Perceiv'd my thought; and, drownd in fleepie night,
With wicked herbes and oyntments did befmeare
My body all, through charmes and magicke might,
That all my fenfes were bereaved quight:

Till on a day (that day is everie Prime.] Prime is used by Spenfer in different fignifications, (often for morning ;) here, for the spring, or beginning of the year; or, it may mean the prime of the moon, at the first appearing of the new moon, called the Prime: and this explanation has reference to Hecate, who is the fame as the moon, and prefides over witchcraft. UPTON.

▾ Bathing her felfe in origane and thyme.] For this "filthy foule old woman," in the more minute defcription which the poet gives of her, F. Q. i. viii. 47, is described with "a scabby skin ;" and origane, or baftard marjoram, is more especially mentioned as a cure for fuch unseemly disorders: "Organie healeth fcabs, itchings, and scuruinesse, being vfed in bathes." Gerarde's "Herball," fol. 1597. p. 542. Thyme is deemed of fimilar virtue with organie in Langham's "Garden of Health," 2nd. ed. 1633, p. 453. TODD.

Then brought fhe me into this defert waste, And by my wretched lovers fide me pight; Where now, enclofd in wooden wals full faste, Banifht from living wights, our wearie daies we waste." 43.

"But how long time," said then the Elfin knight, "Are you in this misformed hous to dwell?" "We may not chaunge," (quoth he,) "this evill plight, Till we be bathed in a living well :

That is the terme prescribed by the spell."

"O! how," fayd he, "mote I that well out find, That may restore you to your wonted well?"

"Time and fuffifed fates to former kynd

Shall us reftore; none elfe from hence may us unbynd."

44.

The falfe Dueffa, now Fideffa hight,

Heard how in vaine Fradubio did lament,

And knew well all was true. But the good knight,
Full of fad feare and ghaftly dreriment,

When all this fpeech the living tree had spent,
The bleeding bough did thrust into the ground,
That from the blood he might be innocent,

And with fresh clay did close the wooden wound: Then, turning to his Lady, dead with feare her fownd. 45.

Her seeming dead he fownd with feigned feare,

As all unweeting of that well she knew;
And paynd himselfe with busie care to reare
Her out of careleffe fwowne. Her eyelids blew,
And dimmed fight, with pale and deadly hew,
At last she up gan lift: with trembling cheare
Her up he tooke, (too fimple and too trew)
And oft her kift. At length, all paffed feare,

He fet her on her steede, and forward forth did beare.