He so disseized of his griping gross," The Knight his thrillant1 spear again assayed

In his brass-plated body to emboss,"1 And three men's strength unto the stroke he laid;

Wherewith the stiff beam quaked, as afraid,

And, glancing from his scaly neck, did glide

Close under his left wing; then, broad displayed,

The piercing steel there wrought a wound full wide,

That with the uncouth12 smart the monster loudly cried.

And quite asunder broke: forth flowèd

fresh

A gushing river of black gory blood,

Yet so extremely did the buff him quell That from thenceforth he shunned the like to take,

plyes,1

That to the ground he is perforce constrained

To throw his rider, who can quickly rise From off the earth, with dirty blood distained,

For that reproachful fall right foully he disdained;

found.

Then, full of grief and anguish vehement,
He loudly brayed that like was never heard,
And from his wide devouring oven sent
A flake of fire, that, flashing in his beard,
Him all amazed, and almost made afeard ;
The scorching flame sore singèd all his face,
And through his armor all his body seared,"
That he could not endure so cruel case,

4

It fortuned (as fair it then befell)

Behind his back, unweeting where he stood,

Of ancient time there was a springing well,

That happy land, and all with innocent

blood

Defiled those sacred waves, it rightly hot The Well of Life, ne yet his virtues had forgot.

For unto life the dead it could restore, And guilt of sinful crimes clean wash away;

Those that with sickness were infected

sore

It could recure, and aged-long decay
Renew as one were born that very day.
Both Silo this and Jordan did excel,
And th' English Bath, and eke the Ger-
man Spa;

Ne can Cephise nor Hebrus match this well.

Into the same the Knight, back overthrowen, fell.

Now gan the golden Phoebus for to steep
His fiery face in billows of the west,
And his faint steeds watered in ocean deep,
Whiles from their journal labors they did
rest,

When that infernal monster, having kest10
His
weary
foe into that living well,
Can high advance his broad discolored
breast

Above his wonted pitch with countenance fell,

Full of great virtues and for med'cine good;

Whylome, before that cursed dragon got

Before.

• Determined 'Formerly.

dwell.

Which when his pensive Lady saw from

far,

Great woe and sorrow did her soul assay,"

That to the earth him drove as stricken

And, gathering up himself out of the mire, With his uneven wings did fiercely fall

dead,

hott;1

The mortal sting his angry needle shot Quite through his shield, and in his shoul

der seased,2

Where fast it stuck, ne would thereout be got:

The grief thereof him wondrous sore diseased,

Ne might his rankling pain with patience be appeased.

But yet, more mindful of his honor dear Than of the grievous smart which him. did wring,

From loathed soil he gan him lightly rear, And strove to loose the far-infixèd sting, Which, when in vain he tried with struggeling,

Inflamed with wrath, his raging blade he heft,3

And strook so strongly that the knotty string

Of his huge tail he quite asunder cleft; Five joints thereof he hewed, and but the stump him left.

The other foot, fast fixèd on his shield, Whenas no strength nor strokes mote him

constrain

To loose, ne yet the warlike pledge to yield, He smote thereat with all his might and

main,

That nought so wondrous puissance might

sustain ;

Upon the joint the lucky steel did light, And made such way that hewed it quite in twain;

3 Raised. 5 Determined.