"The morrow next, so soone as Phoebus Lamp"
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| Back once again for the Renegade Master |
"Fond is the feare, that finds no remedie;"
His marriage is doomed. Paridell pulls a lot of creppy bullshit to get with Hellinore;
"..He sigh'd. he sobd, he swownd, he perdy dyde,
And cast himselfe on ground her fast besyde:
Tho when againe he him bethought to live,
He wept, and wayld, and false laments belyde,
Saying but if she Mercie would him give
That he mote algates dye, yet did his death forgive."
All of this works and Hellinore forms a plan;
"..She to his closet went, where all his wealth
Lay hid: thereof the countlesse summes did reare,
Thw which she meant away with her to beare;
The rest she fyr'd for sport, or for despight;
As Hellene when she saw aloft appeare
The Trojan flames, and reach to heavens hight
Did clap her hands, and joyed at that dolefull sight."
She then acts like Paridell is abducting her and halls for help. Malbecco sees his teasure on fire and quite literally doesn't know which way to turn;
"Ay when to him she cryde, to her he turnd,
And left the fire; love money overcame:
But when he marked, how his money burnd,
He left his wife; money did love disclame:
Both was he loth to loose his loved Dame,
And loth to leave his liefest pelfe behind,
Yet sith he n'ote save both, he sa'd that same,
Which was the dearest to his donghill mind,
The God of his desire, the joy of misers blind."
Hellinore and Paridell run for it. Malbecco fights the flames and when the dust settles and he sees 'how his loss did lye', he has a minor breakdown;
"Full deepe emplonged was, and drowned nye,
Twixt inward doole and felonous despight"
Eventually he decides to search for Hellinore, takes some treasure, leaves the rest in the ground and searches 'farre and nere', 'But all in vaine'. He can find neither of them.
Eventually he spies someone;
"Well weened he, that those the same mote bee,
And as he better did their shape avize,
He seemed more their manner did agree;
For th'one was armed all in warlike wize,
Whom, to be Paridell he did devize;
And th'other all yclad in garmets light,
Discolour'd like to womanish disguise,
He did resemble to his Ladie bright;
And ever his faint hart much earned at the sight."
But..
".. it was scornefull Braggadoccio,
That with his servant Trompart hoverd there,"
Braggadoccio awes Malbecco with his warlike nature. Trompart gets him to tell his griefe and show is smart. After Malbecco explains what has happened he begs for help and;
"With that out of his bouget forth he drew
Great store of treasure, therewith him to tempt;
But he on it lookt scornefully askew,
As much disdeigning to be so misdempt,
Or a war-monger to be basely nempt;
And said; thy offers base I greatly loth,
And eye thy words uncurteous and unkempt;
I tread in dust thee and they money both,
That, were it not for shame, So turned from him wroth."
Trompart knows;
"that his maisters humor knew
In lofty lookes to hide an humble mind,"
And persuades Braggadocio to change his mind and embark on the quest to retrieve Hellinore;
"Bigge looking like a doughty Doucepere,
At last he thus; Thou clod of vilest clay,
I pardon yield, and with thy rudenesse beare;
But weete henceforth, that all that golden pray,
And all that else the vine world vaunten may,
I loath as doung, ne deeme my dew reward:
Fame is my meed, and glory vertues pray.
But minds of mrtall men are muchell mard,
And mov'd amisse with massie mucks unmeet regard."
I love it when Braggadocioloses himself in the character. He swears by Sanglamort, his sword, to fulfill the quest, and off they go.
They wander the world for the standard chivalric unit of indeterminite time, then they see Paridell, alone!;
"For having flicht her bels, her up he cast
To the wide world, and let her fly alone,
He nould be clogd. So had he served many one."
Malbecco nearly faints with fear, Braggadoccio pretends to do something with the horses, Malbecco asks about Hellinore;
"I take no keepe of her (said Paridell)
She wonneth in the forrse there before.
So forth he rode, as his adventure fell."
And thats literally all he says to them.
Malbecco still wants to find Hellinore and so to search the forest. Tormpart warns him about its dangers and advises him to bury his treasure somewhere first, he and Braggadocio will go somewhere off and blindfold themselves to maintain security.
So in they go. Though terrified by 'shrieking Hububs' they do in fact find Hellinore, she is romping with Satyrs as their May Queen.
They dance all day and then, as 'Phoebus gan to hide his golden hed.';
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| D4 damager, power to the people |
And all their goodly herds did gather round,
But every Satyr first did give a busse
To Hellinore: so busses did abound.
Now gan the humid vapour shed the ground
With perly deaw, and th'Earthes gloomy shade
Did dim the brightness of the welkin round,
That every bird and beast awarned made,
To shrowd themselves, whiles sleepe their senses did invade.
Which when Malbecco saw, out of his bush
Upon his hands and feete he crept full light,
And like a GOte emongst the Gotes did rush,
That through the helpe of his faire hornes on hight,
And misty dampe of misconceiving night,
And eke through likeness of his gotish beard,
He did the better conterfeite aright:
So home he marcht emongst the horned heard,
That none of all the Satyres hem espyde or heard."
He finds Hellinore and whispers to her all night, promising that they can go back and things will be as before;
"But she it all refused at one word,
And by no meanes would to his will be wonne,
But chose amongst the jolly Satyrs still to wonne.
Eventually he is butted by the waking heard and, before morning comes, runs for it, not looking behind him;
"Ne stayd he, till he came unto the place,
Where late his treasure he entombed had,
Where when he found it not (for Trompart bace
Had it purloyned for his miaster bad:)
With extreme fury he became quite mad,
And ran away, rean with himselfe away:
That who so straungely had hom seene bestad,
With upstart haire, and staring eyes dismay,
From Limbo lake him late escaped sure would lay."
The last part of the Canto really is magnificent and I advise reading or listening to it yourself, this is one of the good ones. Eventually Malbecco comes to a cliff and hurls himself off it to die, but;
".. through long anguish, and selfe-murdring thought
he was so wasted and forpined quight,
That all his substance was consume'd to nough,
And nothing left, but likke and aery Spright,
That on the rockes he fell so flit and light,
That he thereby receiv'd no hurt at all,"
He climbs into a hole in the cliff and lairs there, never sleeping, in continual fear, feeding on toads and frogs which turn his blood to poison and bile, neither dying nor living;
"There dwels he ever, miserable swaine,
Hatefull both to him selfe, and every wight;
Where he through privy griefe, and horrour vaine,
Is woxen so deform'd, that he has quight
Forgot he was a man, and Gealosie is hight."
It was an origin story! Catch Gealosie in his next shared-universe appearance, Shakespeares Othello, in only 14 years time!
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