University of Virginia Library

CANTO IX.

The happy day (that Lovers long expect)
Is now obtain'd, to give desire rest:
And all the honours Hymen can effect,
He frank bestows to grace the Wedding feast.
For Athelstone and his renowned Queen,
At this great Nuptial in their pomp were seen:
The Nobles rich and costly attire,
With worthy Knights and Gentlemen beside,
Ladies of Honour (as their lives require)
Attend upon the beautious fair-fac'd Bride.
There wanted nothing (wit of man could find)
To please the eye, or to content the mind.
Masques, mid-night Revels, Tilt and Turnament,
Acting of ancient Stories, stately Shows,
Banquets might give great Jupiter content;
Where Cups of Nectar plenty overflows,
Abundant all things, with a plenty hand,
As if a King himself should feast the Land.
Soon after all these things were consummate,
Earl Roband (Phælice worthy Father) dies;
And to his Son bequeaths the whole Estate
Of Earldom, Lordship, all his Land is Guy's;
Who is created Earl of VVarwick then,
In Honour's rank, with England's Noble men,
But in the Glory of his high applaud,
Enjoying all that did partake delight;
When every tongue his Fame and Fortune's laud,
Himself converts the Sun shine days to night;
Bethinking what the world may judge be thought,
And deeming all but vain that he had sought.
Oft would he sit and meditate alone,
In looking back what steps his youth had trod:
Then to himself with sighs and grievious grone,
Cry Pardon me, thou just incensed God;
I have done nothing for to purchase Grace,
But spent my time about a womans face.
For Beauty bloody through the world I ran,
In pride of heart preferring Phælice Feature:
For beauty I have ended many a man,
Hating all other for one mortal creature:
For Beauty I have pawn'd my utmost power;
But for my sins not spent one weeping hour.
My Nunquam sera I will now begin,
And vow to spend the remnant of my days
In contrite penance for my former sin,
That God may pardon all the erring ways
Which flesh and body were deceived by;
Unto the world I will go learn to dye.
Let me be censur'd even as mortals please,
I'le please my God in all things may be done:
Ambitious pride hath been my youths disease;
I'le teach Age meekness e're my Glass be run:
And change my voice, wealth, beauty, world, farewel,
To purchase Heaven I will go pass through Hell.
Phælice perceives his melancholly state,
And coming to him, doth most mildly woo;
My Lord (quoth she) why are you chang'd of late?
As I share joy, let me bear sorrow too:
If I in ought have mov'd you to offence,
I will with tears perform due recompence.
No, my dear Love (quoth Guy) no cause in thee,
'Tis with my self I discontented strive:
By light of Grace my Nature's faults I see,
That am as dead, although I seem alive:
Phælice, my sins, my countless sins appear,
Crying Repent, thy guilty conscience clear.
I must deal with thee as Bavarus dealt
(A Prince of Rome) with Sygunda his wife,
Who (from a deep impression he felt)
Vow'd Chastity perpetual all his life.
Intreating thee (even as thou lov'st my soul)
To pardon me, not urging by controul.
Hast thou not heard what Ethelfrida did,
A Christian woman sometimes Englands Queen;
Is Edelthrudis act of chast life hid,
A Princess likewise, and matchless doth seem;
The first with child, no more of lust would tast,
The second caus'd two husbands both live chast.
And canst not thou (the Phœnix of a Realm)
By imitation win immortal praise;
Leaving thy Vertues and admired Theam,
To the succeeding Age of Iron-days?
I know thou canst, thy greater part's Divine,
Where most is carnal, 'twill to flesh incline.
Thou didst procure (although I do excuse it)
My pride by Conquests to attain thy love:
God gave me valour, I did vain abuse it;
My heart and thoughts aspired far above
The Crowns and Scepters of most potent Kings,
I held their Diadems inferior things.
But now I gather in a total sum,
Such follies, and condemn them all to die:
A man of other fashion I'le become;
Some better travels for my soul to try,
Not as before, in armour on my Steed,
But in a Gown of gray, a Palmers weed.
Obscure my journey, for I'le take no leave,
But only leave my endless love to thee:
Here is my ring, this memory receive,
And swear the same, to make thee think on me,
Let me have thine which for thy sake I'le keep,
Till death close up these eyes with his dead sleep,
When this was spoke, how she did wring her hands
With sighs and tears, may be well deemed much;
Yet wondrous meekly, nothing countermands;
For the devotion of that age was such,
To hold them blessed, could themselvs retire
To solitude, and leave the worlds desire.
Now is his Princely Clothing laid away,
Wherein he glitter'd like the glorious sun;
And his best habit, homely Countery-gray,
Such as the poor plain people term home-spun,
A Staff, a Scrip, a Scollop-shell in's hat,
Not to be known, nor once admired at.
And thus with pensive heart, and doleful tears,
He leaves the fairest Creature England had;
Who in her Face a Map of sorrow wears,
A countenance compos'd all mournful, sad;
Like unto one had banish'd all delight,
Wishing for slumbers of eternal night.
Guy journeys, towards the sanctified Ground,
Whereas sometimes the Jews fair City stood:
In which our Saviour's Sacred Head was crown'd,
And where for sinful men he shed his blood:
To see the Sepulcher was his intent,
The Tomb that Joseph unto Jesus lent.
With tedious miles he tir'd his weary feet,
And passed desart places full of danger;
At last with a most wosul Wight did meet,
A man that unto sorrow was no stranger,
For he had fifteen Sons made captive all
To slavish bondage in extreemest Thrall.
Who in a castle, which he held and chain'd them,
Guy question'd where; and understands at length.
The place not far; lend me thy sword (quoth he)
I'le lend my man-hood all thy Sons to free.
With that he goes, and lays upon the door,
Like him that says, I must and will come in:
The Giant never was so rouz'd before,
For no such knocking at his gate had been;
So takes his Club and Keys, and cometh out,
Staring with ireful Countenance about.
Sirrah (quoth he) what business hast thou here?
Art come to feast the Crows about these Walls?
Didst never hear, no ransom could him clear,
That in the compass of my fury falls?
For making me to take a Porters pains,
With this same Club I will dash out thy brains.
Sirrah (quoth Guy) y' are quarrelsome I see,
Choler and you seem very near of kin:
Dangerous at the Club be-like you be,
I have been better arm'd, though now go thin.
But shew thy utmost hate, enlarge thy sprite,
Here is a weapon that must do me right.
So draws his sword, salutes him with the same
About the head, the shoulders, and the side,
While his erected Club did death proclaim,
Standing with huge Colossus spacious stride:
Putting forth vigour to his knotty beam,
That like a furnace he did smoak extream:
But on the ground he spent his strokes in vain,
For Guy was nimble to avoid them still:
And ever e're he heav'd his Club again,
Did brush his plated Coat against his will:
At such advantage he would never fail
To bang him soundly in his shirt of Mail.
At length through thirst Amarant feeble grew,
And said to Guy, As th' art of humane race,
Shew it in this, Give Nature's wants their due;
Let me but go and drink in yonder place:
Thou canst not yield unto a smaller thing,
Than to grant life that's given by the spring.
I grant thee leave (Quoth Guy) go drink thy last
To pledge the Dragon, and the Savage Boar:
Succeed the Tragedies which they have past,
But never think to drink cold water more,

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A woodcut illustration appears here in the text with the following caption:

A Giant called Amarant,
Guy valiantly destroyes;
VVhereby wrong'd Ladies, captive Knights,
Their liberty enjoys.

Drink deep to death, and after that Carouse,
Bid him receive thee in his earthen house.
So to the spring he goes, and slakes his thirst,
Taking the water in extreamly, like
A wrecked Ship, that on some Rock is burst,
When forced bulk against the Stones doth strike;
Scooping it in so fast with both his hands
That Guy admiring to behold it stands.
Come on (quoth he) let us to work again,
Thou art about thy Liquor over long,
The fish that in the River do remain,
Will want thereby, thy drinking doth them wrong;
But I would see their satisfaction made,
With Giants blood they must and shall be paid.
Villian (quoth Amarant) I'le crush thee straight,
Thy Life shall pay thy daring tongues offence;
This Club (which is about an hundred weight)
Is Deaths Commission to dispatch thee hence,
Dress thee for Ravens diet I must needs,
And break thy bones as they were made of reeds.
Incensed much by these bold Pagans boasts,
Which worthy Guy could ill indure to hear:
He hews upon those big supporting posts,
That like two pillars did the body bear;
Amarant (for them wounds) in choler grows,
And desperately at Guy his Club he throws.
Which did directly on his body light;
So violent, and weighty therewithall,
That down to ground on sudden came the Knight,
And e're he could recover from the fall,
The Giant got a Club, again in's fist,
And struck a stroke that wonderfully mist.
Traytor (quoth Guy) thy falsehood I'le repay,
This Coward-act, to intercept my blood;
Says Amarant, I'le murther any way,
With enemies all vantages are good;
Oh! Could I poyson in thy nostrils blow,
Thou should'dst be sure I would dispatch thee so.
'Tis well (said Guy) thy honest thoughts appear,
Within that beastly bulk do Devils dwell,
Which are thy Tenants while thou livest here,
But will be Land-lords when thou com'st in Hell:
Vile miscreant, prepare thee for their Den;
Inhuman Monster, hateful unto men.
But breathe thy self a time, while I go drink,
For flaming Phœbus with his fiery eye
Torments me so with burning heat, I think
My thirst would serve to drink an Ocean dry:
Forbear a little, as I dealt with thee.
Quoth Amarant, thou hast no fool of me;
No silly Wretch, my Father taught more wit,
How I should use such enemies as thou:
By all my gods I do rejoyce at it,
To undestand that thirst constrains thee now:
For all the treasure that the world contains,
One drop of water shall not cool thy veins.
Relieve my Foe! it were a mad mans part,
Refresh an adversary to my wrong!
If thou imagîne this, a child thou art:
No fellow, I have known the world too long
To be so simple; now I know thy want,
A minutes space of breathing I'le not grant.
And with these words heaving aloft his Club,
Into the air he swings the same about;
Then shakes his locks, and doth his temples rub,
And like the Cyclops in his pride did strut.
Sirrah (said he) I have you at a lift,
You now are come unto your latest shift.
Perish for ever, with this stroke I send thee,
(A medicine will do thy thirst much good)
Take thou no care for drink before I end thee,
And then we'l have carouses of thy blood;
Here's at thee with a Butcher's down-right blow,
To please my fury with thine ovethrow.
Infernal, false, obdurate Fiend (Guy said)
That seem'st an Imp of cruelty from Hell;
Ingrateful Monster, since thou hast deny'd,
The things to me wherein I us'd thee well:
With more revenge than e're my sword did make.
On thy accursed head revenge I'le take.
Thy Giants longitude shall shorter shrink,
Except thy Sun scorcht skin be weapon-proof;
Farewel my thirst, I do disdain to drink;
Streams keep your water to your own behoof:
Or let wild beasts be welcome thereunto,
With those pearl-drops I will not have to do.
Hold Tyrant, take a taste of my good will,
For thus I do begin my bloody bout;
You cannot chuse but like the greeting ill,
It is not that same Club will bear you out;
And take this payment on thy shagged crown;
A blow that brought him with a veng'ance down.
Then Guy set foot upon the Monsters brest,
And from his shoulders did his head divide;
Which with a yawning mouth did gape, unblest,
No Dragons jaws were ever seen more wide
To open and to shut, till life was spent;
So Guy took's keys, and to the Castle went.
Where many woful captives he did find,
That had been tryed with extremities,
Whom he in friendly manner did unbind,
And reason with them of their miseries:
Each told a tale with tears and sighs, and cryes,
All weeping to him with complaining eyes:
There tender Ladies in dark Dungeon lay,
That were surprised in the desert Wood;
And had no other diet every day,
Than flesh of humane creatures for their food:
Some with their Lovers bodies had been fed,
And in their Wombs, their Husbands buried.
Now he bethinks him of his coming there,
T'enlarge the wronged brethren from their woes;
And as he searched, both great clamours hear,
By which sad sounds directon, on he goes,
Untill he finds a darksome obscure Gate,
Arm'd strongly over all with iron-plate:
That he unlocks, and enters, where appears
The strangest object that he ever saw,
Men, that with famishment of many years,
Were like deaths picture which the Painters draw.
Divers of them were hanged by each thumb,
Others head downward, by the middle some.
With diligence he takes them from the walls,
With Liberty their Thraldom to acquaint:
Then the perplexed Knight, their Father calls,
And says, Receive thy sons, though poor and faint,
I promis'd you their lives, accept of that,
But did not warrant you they should be fat.
The Castle I do give thee, here's the keys,
Where Tyranny for many years did dwell:
Procure the gentle tender Ladies ease.
For pity sake use wronged women well.
Men eas'ly may revenge the deeds men do,
But poor weak women have no strength thereto.
The good old man, even overjoy'd with this,
Fell on the ground, and would have kist Guy's feet,
Father (quoth he) refrain so base a kiss,
Fot age to honour youth I hold unmeet:
Ambitious pride hath hurt me all it can,
I go to mortifie a sinful man.