Exceeding rage inflamed the furious beast
To be avenged of so great despite,
For never felt his impierceable breast
So wondrous force from hand of living
wight,

Yet had he proved the power of many a puissant knight.

Then, with his waving wings displayed wide,

Himself up high he lifted from the ground, And with strong flight did forcibly divide

The yielding air, which nigh too feeble found

Her flitting' parts and element unsound
To bear so great a weight; he, cutting

He so disseizèds of his griping gross," The Knight his thrillant10 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 quakèd, 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 úncouth12 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 con

strained

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,

When that infernal monster, having kest1o His weary foe into that living well,

Can high advance his broad discolored breast

Above his wonted pitch with countenance fell,

11

Full of great virtues and for med'cine

good;

Whylome,' before that cursed dragon got

1 Before.

• Determined

7 Formerly.

dwell.

Which when his pensive Lady saw from

far,

Great woe and sorrow did her soul assay,'

12

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

That to the earth him drove as stricken

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 fixed 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.