What you make here, and the ladies all?
Truely, quod I, over this stormy flowde
We woulde have passage nowe in speciall.
Tary, she sayde, it were to you not good:
There is a serpent evill, ryght fierce and woode,
On the other syde, whiche will you devoure.
Nay then, quod I, my name is Graunde Amoure:
I have disconfited the giauntes terrible,
For La Bell Pucell the most fayre ladye;
And for her sake shalbe invincible
Of this great monster to have the victory.
You have, quod they, demeaned you nobly,
And we anone to our lady Pacience
Will geve of you perfyte intelligence.
Thus they departed, and to their boate they went,
And the royall shyppe, yclipped Perfitenes,
They dyd aborde and then incontinent
Unto dame Pacience they gan to expresse
Myne name, mine actes, and all my prowes.
Ha, ha! quod she, howe glad may I nowe be,
Whiche in this place may him both heare and se.
And in great haste she made them rowe agayne
Towarde the lande, with all due reverence
For to receyve me and the ladies certayne.
And so we then, with all our diligence,
Entred the boate without resistence,
And did aborde then perfitenes so sure,
Whiche the great waves might ryght well endure.
And Pacience, with great solemnitie,
Did me receyve, and the ladies also.
Welcome! she sayd, by hye aucthoritie,
I am ryght gladde that it hath happened so,
That La Bell Pucell must redresse your wo,
And on your selfe, with your worthy dedes,
Of fame and her hath wonne ryght hie medes.
And then their anker they weyed in haste,
And hoyst their sayle, when many a clarion
Began to blowe; the mornyng was past,
But Afrycus Auster made surreccion,
Blowyng his bellowes by great occasion;
So forthe we sayled right playne southwest,
On the other syde where the serpent did rest.
HOWE GRAUNDE AMOURE DISCOMFITED THE WONDERFULL MONSTER OF THE SEVEN METALLES, MADE
AND at the lande we aryved than,
With all the ladies in my company,
Whiche for to pray for me sodaynly began
To the God Mars, lodestarre of chyvalrye.
I toke my leave of them full gentylly,
And ryght anone to fynde out my fo,
This mortall dragon, I went to and fro.
Tyll at the last, beside a craggy roche,
I sawe the dragon whiche did me espie,
And nere and nere, as I gan to approche,
I behelde his head with his great body,
Which was mishaped ful right wonderly;
Of gold so shene was both his head and face;
Full lyke a mayden; it was a mervaylous cace!
His necke silver, and thicke as a bull;
His breste stele, and like an olyphant;
His forelegges latyn, and of fethers full;
Ryght lyke a grype was every tallaunt;
And as of strength he nothing did want,
His backe afore, lyke brystles of a swyne,
Of the fine copper did moost clerely shyne.
His hinder legges was like to a catte,
All of tynne, and like a scorpion;
He had a tayle wyth a head therat,
All of leade, of plyaunt facion;
His herte stele, without menission.
Toward me he came, roring like the thonder,
Spyttyng out fyre, for to se greate wonder.
In his forehead, with letters of Grewe,
Was wrytten: My name is Malyce prevy,
That olde debate can full sone renewe
Betwene true lovers wyth colour crafty.
Agaynst Graund Amoure I shall so fortefy
My evell subtell power, and cursed courage,
To let hym trulye of his hye passage.
I toke my boxe, as Pallas commaunded,
And my sworde and sheld, with al my armure, In every place I right well anoynted,
To hardines she toke my herte in cure;
Makinge me redy, and whan I thought me sure, I toke my swerde, and with an hardy herte Towarde the dragon I began to sterte.
And as I gan my grete stroke to charge,
He blew out so much fyre innumerable,
That on the ground I did my might discharge;
The smoke was derke, full gretely domageable,
And the hote fyre was so intollerable,
Above me fleying, that unneth I might
Through my visure cast abrode my sight.
But the swete oyntmente had suche a vertue,
That the wilde fyre might nothing endomage
Me through hete, for it did extue
The magikkes arte with greate advantage,
Causing the fyre right wel to asswage;
And wyth my swerde, as nothing agast,
Upon the serpente I did stryke full fast.
His body was great as any tunne,
The devyll about did his body beare;
He was as egre as grype or lyon,
So was his tallantes he did my herneys tere,
That ofte he put me in a mortall fere.
Tyll at the last I did his body perce
With my good swerde, he might it not reverce.
Ryght ther wythall the dragon to-brast,
And out there flew, ryght blacke and tedyous,
A foule Ethyope, which such smoke did cast,
That all the ylond was full tenebrous;
It thondred loude wyth clappes tempestious.
Then all the ladyes were full sore adred,
They thought none other but that I was ded.
The spiryte vanished, the ayre wexed clere;
Then did I loke and beholde aboute
Wher was the toure of my lady so dere;
Tyll at the last I had espyed it oute,
Set on a rocke right hie, without doubte,
And all the ladies, wyth Perseveraunce,
To me did come with joye and pleausaunce.
Forsoth, quod they, you are muche fortunate,
So to subdue the serpent venimous,
Which by sorcery was surely ordinate
You for to sle with fyre so vicious.
Blessed be Pallas, the goddes glorious,
Which that thou taught a perfyte remedy,
For to devoyde the crafte of sorcery.
It was no wonder though that I was glad,
After the payne and tribulacion
That in many places I right often had,
For to attayne the hye promocion
Of La Bell Pucelles dominacion;
Considering in my passage daungerous
All I subdued to me contrarious.
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