THE LEGEND OF THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSS, OR OF HOLINESS.*
The patron of true Holiness
Foul Error doth defeat;
Hypocrisy him to entrap,
Doth to his home entreat.
A GENTLE knight was pricking on the plain,
All clad in mighty arms and silver shield,
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain,
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
Yet arms till that time did he never wield:
His angry steed did chide his foaming bit,
As much disdaining to the curb to yield:
Full jolly knight he seem'd, and fair did sit,
As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit.
In Canto X. the Red Cross Knight is explained to be St. George.
And on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd ;
Upon his shield the like was also scor❜d,
For sovereign hope, which in his help he had.
Right faithful true he was in deed and word;
But of his cheer did seem too solemn sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.*
Upon a great adventure he was bound,
That greatest Gloriana to him gave
(That greatest glorious Queen of Faery lond),
To win him worship, and her grace to have,
Which of all earthly things he most did crave
And ever as he rode, his heart did yearn
To prove his puissance in battle brave
Upon his foe, and his new force to learn ;
Upon his foe, a dragon horrible and stern.
A lovely lady rode him fair beside,
Upon a lowly ass more white than snow;
Yet she much whiter; but the same did hide
Under a veil, that wimpled† was full low;
And over all a black stole she did throw,
As one that inly mourn'd; so was she sad,
And heavy sat upon her palfrey slow;
Seemed in her heart some hidden care she had;
And by her in a line a milk-white lamb she lad.
Wimpled, brought over the face.
So
pure
She was in life and every virtuous lore,
and innocent, as that same lamb,
And by descent from royal lineage came
Of ancient kings and queens, that had of yore
Their sceptres stretcht from east to western shore,
And all the world in their subjection held;
Till that infernal fiend with foul uproar
Forwasted all their land, and them expel'd;
Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far compell'd.
Behind her far away a dwarf did lag,
That lazy seem'd, in being ever last,
Or wearied with bearing of her bag
Of needments at his back. Thus as they past,
The day with clouds was sudden overcast,
And angry Jove an hideous storm of rain
pour into his lemans lap so fast,
That every wight to shroud it did constrain;
And this fair couple eke to shroud themselves were fain.
Enforst to seek some covert nigh at hand,
A shady grove not far away they spied,
That promis'd aid the tempest to withstand;
Whose lofty trees, all clad with summers pride
Did spread so broad, that heavens light did hide,
Not pierceable with power
of any star;
And all within were paths and alleys wide,
With footing worn, and leading inward far:
Fair harbor that them seems; so in they entred are.
And forth they pass, with pleasure forward led,
Joying to hear the birds sweet harmony,
Which therein shrouded from the tempest dread,
Seem'd in their song to scorn the cruel sky.
Much can they praise the trees so straight and high,
The sailing pine; the cedar proud and tall :
The vine-prop elm; the poplar never dry;
The builder oak, sole king of forests all;
The aspen good for staves; the cypress funeral ; *
The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors
And poets sage; the fir that weepeth still;
The willow, worn of forlorn paramours;
The yew, obedient to the benders will;
The birch for shafts; the sallow for the mill;
The myrrhe sweet-bleeding in the bitter wound;
The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill;
The fruitful olive; and the platane round;
The carver holm; the maple, seldom inward sound.
Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
Untill the blustring storm is overblown ;
When, weening† to return, whence they did stray,
They cannot find that path, which first was shown,
But wander to and fro in ways unknown,
Furthest from end then, when they nearest ween,
That makes them doubt their wits be not their own,
So many paths, so many turnings seen,
That which of them to take in diverse doubt they been.
* This descriptive enumeration of trees is imitated from Chaucer † Weening, thinking.
At last resolving forward still to fare,
Till that some end they find, or in or out,
That path they take, that beaten seem'd most bare,
And like to lead the labyrinth about;
Which when by tract they hunted had throughout,
At length it brought them to a hollow cave
Amid the thickest woods. The champion stout
Eftsoons dismounted from his courser brave,
And to the dwarf awhile his needless spear he
"Be well aware," quoth then that lady mild,
"Lest sudden mischief ye too rash provoke:
The danger hid, the place unknown and wild,
Breeds dreadful doubts: oft fire is without smoke,
And peril without show; therefore your stroke,
Sir Knight, with-hold, till further trial made.”
"Ah, Lady," said he, "shame were to revoke
The forward footing for an hidden shade:
Virtue gives her self light through darkness for to wade."
"Yea, but," quoth she, "the peril of this place
I better wot than you: Though now too late
To wish you back return with foul disgrace,
Yet wisdom warns, whilst foot is in the gate,*
To stay the step, ere forced to retrate.
This is the Wandring Wood, this Error's Den,
A monster vile, whom God and man does hate :
Therefore I readt beware." "Fly, fly," quoth then
The fearful dwarf; "this is no place for living men."
† Read, advise.
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