Classic Poem

Now while Rogero learns the arms and name
Of every British lord, behold a rout
Of citizens and folk of all sorts came,
Some with delight, and some with dread and doubt,
To see a beast so strange, so strong, so tame,
And wondering much they compassed him about.
They thought it was a strange and monstrous thing,
To see a horse that had a griffon's wing.

Wherefore, to make the people marvel more,
And, as it were, to sport himself and play,
He spurred his beast, who straight aloft did soar,
And bare his master westward quite away;
And straight he was beyond our English shore,
Meaning to pass the Irish seas that day;
Saint George his Channel in a little while
He passed, and after saw the Irish isle.

Where men do tell strange tales, that long ago
Saint Patrick built a solitary cave,
Into the which they that devoutly go,
By purging of their sins their souls may save;
Now whether this report be true or no,
I not affirm, and yet I not deprave.
Crossing from hence to islandward he found
Angelica unto the rock fast bound;

Naked and bound at this same Isle of Woe,
For Isle of Woe it may be justly called,
Where peerless pieces are abused so,
By monster vile to be devoured and thralled;
Where pirates still by land and sea do go,
Assaulting forts that are but weakly walled;
And whom they take by flattery or by force,
They give a monster quite without remorse.

I did declare, not many books before,
If you the same in memory do keep,
How certain pirates took her at a shore,
Where the chaste hermit lay by her asleep;
And how at last, for want of other store,
Although their hearts did melt and eyes did weep,
Moved with a helpless and a vain compassion,
Perforce they bound her on this woeful fashion.

And thus the caitiffs left her all forlorn;
With nothing but the rocks and seas in sight,
As naked as of nature she was born,
Void of all succour and all comfort quite.
No veil of lawn as then by her was worn,
To shade the damask rose and lilies white,
Whose colours were so mixed in every member,
Fragrant alike in July and December.

Rogero at the first had surely thought,
She was some image made of alablaster,
Or of white marble, curiously wrought,
To show the skilful hand of some great master.
But viewing nearer he was quickly taught,
She had some parts that were not made of plaster;
Both that her eyes did shed such woeful tears,
And that the wind did wave her golden hairs.

To see her bound, to hear her mourn and plain,
Not only made that he his journey stayed,
But caused that he from tears could scant abstain,
Pity and love his heart so sore assayed.
At last, with words to mitigate her pain,
Thus much to her in loving sort he said:
‘O lady, worthy only of those bands,
Wherewith love binds the hearts and not the hands,

‘And far unfit for these or any such,
What wight was found so cruel and unkind,
Quite to expel humanity so much,
Those polished ivory hands in chains to bind;
About that corps, whom none can worthily touch,
With hurtful hands unworthy bands to wind?’
This said, she blushed, seeing those parts were spied,
The which, though fair, yet nature strives to hide.

Fain would she with her hand have hid her eyes,
But that her hands were bound unto the stone;
Which made her oft to break to woeful cries,
Sole remedy where remedy is none.
At last with sobbing voice she doth devise
To tell the knight the cause of all her moan;
But from the sea a sudden noise was heard,
That this her speech and all the matter marred.

Behold, there now appeared the monster great,
Half underneath and half above the wave,
As when a ship, with wind and weather beat,
Doth hasten to the haven, itself to save.
So doth the monster haste, in hope to eat
The dainty morsel he was wont to have;
Which sight so sore the damsel did appal,
Rogero could not comfort her at all.

Yet with his spear in hand, though not in rest,
The ugly Ork upon the brow he strake.
(I call him Ork, because I know no beast,
Nor fish, from whence comparison to take).
His head and teeth were like a boar, the rest
A mass, of which I know not what to make.
He gave him on the brow a mighty knock,
But pierced no more, than if it were a rock.

And, finding that his blow so small hurt brings,
He turns again, on fresh him to assay:
The Ork, that saw the shadow of great wings
Upon the water up and down to play,
With fury great and rage away he flings,
And on the shore doth leave the certain prey;
The shadow vain he up and down doth chase,
The while Rogero layeth him on apace.

Even as an eagle, that espies from high
Among the herbs a parti-coloured snake,
Or on a bank sunning herself to lie,
Casting the elder skin, a new to make,
Lies hovering warily, till she may spy
A vantage sure, the venomed worm to take;
Then takes him by the back, and beats her wings,
Maugre the poison of his forked stings:

So doth Rogero, both with sword and spear,
The cruel monster warily assail,
Not where he fenced is with grisly hair,
So hard as that no weapon could prevail;
But sometime pricks him near unto his ear,
Sometime his sides, sometimes his ugly tail.
But nature had with such strong senses armed him,
As all his blows but small or nothing harmed him.

So have I seen, ere this, a silly fly
With mastiff dog in summer's heat to play,
Sometime to sting him in his nose or eye,
Sometime about his grisly jaws to stay,
And buzzing round about his ears to fly:
He snaps in vain, for still she whips away,
And oft so long she dallies in this sort,
Till one snap comes, and marreth all her sport.

But now Rogero doth this sleight devise:
Sith that by force he cannot make him yield,
He means to dazzle both the monster's eyes,
By hidden force of his enchanted shield;
And, being thus resolved, to land he flies,
And, from all harm the lady fair to shield,
He puts the precious ring upon her hand,
Whose virtue was enchantments to withstand.

That ring that worthy Bradamant him sent,
When she from false Brunello had it ta'en,
With which Melissa into India went,
And wrought his freedom and Alcina's bane;
That ring he lends the damsel, with intent
To save her eyes by virtue of the same:
Then takes he forth the shield, whose light so dazed
The lookers-on, they fall down all amazed.

The monster, now approaching to the shore,
Amazed at this, resistance none did make:
Rogero hews upon him more and more,
But his hard scales no harm thereby did take.
‘O Sir,’ said she, ‘unloosen me, before
Out of this maze the monster do awake,
And let your sword slay me this present hour,
So as this monster may not me devour.’

These woeful words moved so Rogero's mind,
That straight he did unloose the lady fair,
And caused her by and by to get behind
Upon his horse; then mounting in the air,
He leaves his Spanish journey first assigned,
And unto Little Britain doth repair;
But by the way be sure he did not miss
To give her many a sweet and friendly kiss.