Season 4 Podcast 140 Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, Book I, Canto 7 Pt II Episode 18 “King Arthur

Season 4 Podcast 140 Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, Book I, Canto 7 Pt II Episode 18 “King Arthur

 

In last week’s episode, The Redcross Knight is seduced by Duessa and captured by the giant Orgoglio and put into a dungeon.  In this podcast we continue with the adventures of the Redcross Knight who is languishing in the dungeon of the giant Orgoglio. The dwarf witnessed the Red Cross Knight’s capture. He picks up all of the mournful armor of the Redcross Knight and sadly leaves to tell his tale to Una.

The woeful Dwarfe, which saw his masters fall,

Whiles he had keeping of his grazing steed,

 

And valiant knight become a caytive thrall,

When all was past, took up his forlorn weed, 

His mighty armor, missing most at need;

His silver shield, now idle masterless;

His poignant spear, that many made to bleed,

 

The rueful moniments of heaviness,

And with them all departs, to tell his great distress.

Notice that the Red Cross Knight did not wear his armor when he most needed it. For example, the Red Cross Knight did not have his armor on when Duessa seduced him; therefore, he fell to her salacious charms. The Red Cross Knight did not have his armor on when the giant Orgoglio, who was three times bigger than he was, attacked him. The Red Cross Knight had never lost a battle before because he always wore his armor. When he most needed it he had placed it out of his reach.

Soon the dwarf met Una head hung heavy in sorrow for she thought her knight had been killed. She was still fleeing from the pagan Sansloy who was in a bloody battle with her hero the Satyrane. When she saw the dwarf carrying the armor of the Red Cross Knight, she fell to the ground in a swoon for it confirmed her fears.

He had not traveled long, when on the way

He woeful Lady, woeful Una met,

Fast flying from that Paynims greedy pray,

 

Whilest Satyrane him from pursuit did let:

Who when her eyes she on the Dwarf had set,

And saw the signs, that deadly tydings spake,

She fell to ground for sorrowful regret,

And lively breath her sad breast did forsake,

 

Yet might her piteous heart be seen to pant and quake.

The dwarf who loved Una nearly died for pity at seeing her fall. He rubs her temples and strokes her chin and brings her out of her faint. Still thinking her knight is dead, she grieves her great loss. With great difficulty the dwarf coaxes Una back to life.

The messenger of so unhappy news,

Would faine have died: dead was his hart within,

Yet outwardly some little comfort shewes:

At last recovering hart, he does begin

 

To rub her temples, and to chaufe her chin,

And every tender part does toss and turn.

So hardly he the flitted life does win,

Unto her native prison to retourne:

Then gins her grieved ghost thus to lament and mourne.

Una laments as she sees the armor of her fallen knight. She wants to die for her life and love were wrapped up in the Red Cross Knight.  She wanted eternal night to cover the sad sight.

Ye dreary instruments of dolefull sight,

That doe this deadly spectacle behold,

Why do ye longer feed on loathed light,

Or liking find to gaze on earthly mould,

Sith cruel fates the careful threads unfold,

 

The which my life and love together tide?

Now let the stony dart of senseless cold

Perce to my hart, and pas through every side,

And let eternal night so sad sight from me hide.