of the virgin, nor have they words adequate for so great joy; they weep and stretch out their arms, and as it were bereft of speech, utter their feelings not with words but with gesture; they almost die for joy. Then there is the hum of voices as they all talk at once about so marvelous an event, such unlooked for good fortune, and they recall the similar mischance of the daughter of Laomedon, whom, exposed to the sea-monster, the Tirynthian hero, as he passed through the Phrygian borders, gave back to her father unharmed. Also there are some who believe that, in the person of the knight, Alcides is disguised, or Castor, or warlike Pallas, or Mars. But while the city resounds with talk, the victor shouts: 'Now that you are safe, open the gates, rush forth and give thanks to Christ, the author of this benefit.' They obey, throw open the gates, eagerly rush forth-as a torrential stream when from the high valleys it hurries down its mass of swirling waters—, gather around the knight, and with bowed heads reverently adore him. He, when the monster has been removed, bending forward commands silence, and addresses the vast crowd in a loud voice. He recalls the past calamities, declares that the cruel dragon was sent against them by the obscure manes, the lower world conniving, to destroy all their fields and their city, teaches them that the gods whose temples they frequent are cruel, swearing that all the gods whom they, deceived by vain rites, are wont to serve, are hostile to our success, and points out that they are gods in name alone, since they are demons of the infernal court. He proceeds to divulge the mysteries of the great thunderer (God) who made the sea, the earth and the stars, and teaches them that he is a god by nature, not by art, a deity void of all form and immutable. To him alone he assigns altars and sacred rites, to him alone festivals, and he proceeds to The translation may here be open to question. The Latin reads: Alloquiturque alto turbam sermone frequentem. The translation is favored by the fact that in other versions of the story it is customary to speak of the removal of the dead beast. In that case the comma should follow, rather than precede, moto. Fero may, of course, refer to the horse, in which case fero. ... moto means equo .... territe (He, bending forward over his excited steed, commands silence). Or, as the editor of the 1510 edition suggests, populo may be understood, which would give the translation: 'Bending forward on his horse, he commands silence to the excited throng.' tell how love brought the Son of the eternal Father down from the high heavens, and how Christ, assuming mortality, poured into human hearts the heavenly light; how by his death he abolished original sin; how, death conquered, he arose and revealed himself to his own; and how at last as a victor he ascended into the ethereal realms, and consecrated new temples and new honors to the father. And he states that, for aid to the unfortunate, he himself was sent from him who is above the manes of Erebus and the false gods. Uttering such truths with a loud voice, he liberates the people from their ancient error and calling upon the multitude invites them to the (baptismal) water. God is present as the author of this work. From every quarter they go to the font, and they receive the sacred water on their heads. They cast down the old gods and they consecrate the purified temple to the God of thunder. He teaches the rites, and, appointing consecrated ministers, explains the times accommodated to sacred things and divides the seasons into feasts. Finally they cremate the great limbs of the monster on a burning pyre, and paint the likeness of the serpent on the loftiest buildings, that posterity, coming hither, may read of these frightful deeds and that the fame thereof may extend to aftertimes. They also institute games as a memorial of these labors and great achievements, which the populace of the city may celebrate each year, such games as Greece formerly held for Archemorus, for great Alcides, and the thundering father (Jove). The king and the queen then approach, cause Alcyone to bow low at the feet of the saint, and speak as follows: That our fellow citizens, that we and our daughter, survive, this is thy gift, oh saintly victor; that the true gods are revealed to us, this thy supreme virtue has achieved. In fine, thou preservest our bodies and thou preservest our souls, and to thee we owe ourselves and the city itself.' Thus speak the royal couple, and forthwith they place gifts at his feet, sparkling gems, golden vessels encrusted with carvings, as many as for a long time the magnificence of royalty had required to be beaten, and cloaks superb with gold and silver. The city also and the liberated citizens prepare greater gifts. All these the victor gives to Christ, and commands that they shall erect in the heart of the city a great temple of living marble, in the Roman style, to the mother of the gods (the Virgin). Immediately on that spot where the founda tions of the noble structure were destined to be laid, a fountain with most copious sparkling water gushes forth-such a fountain as the Pierides inhabit in Phocis, such as the Graces in Orchomenos, and Arethusa in the Sicanian fields, a draught from which can remove from the entire body all the venom wherewith the monster poisoned the unhappy city. Consequently as many as lay in their abodes infected with this plague sought aid for their bodies from the sacred fountain, and just as the multitude come to drink the waters of Albertus when August returns, so that entire city would visit the fountain on the anniversary of its appearance. And he caused it to flow into the fen, whereby through the rising of the pond, it would overflow the banks, and, by forming a stream, would spread the stagnant deposit through the dry fields. Thus his devotion worked to the advantage of the people and the countryside. Mantuan's poem is an adaptation of the roman d'aventure, written in the metre and heroic style of classical poetry. It is apparently unique in its ambitious treatment of the theme, and would naturally have commanded the attention of a poet who was attempting an immortal work with St. George as the hero of his first book. That Spenser knew Mantuan's poem, either at first hand or through Barclay's translation, is obvious, for he drew upon Mantuan for many of the details in the latter part of his narrative. The watchman upon the wall reporting the struggle, the command to open the brazen gate, the emphasis upon the three social classesthe royal family, the peers, and the populace, the obeisance made to St. George, the proclamation that he was the savior of the city, the common murmur that he was some great hero, divinely sent, the gifts of ivory and gold presented by the king, the reception of the princess by her parents, and the concluding festivities, all of these details seem to find their suggestion in Mantuan. The fights with the dragon also present certain points in common-the manner in which the dragon approaches, half walking and half flying, the smoke from his nostrils which darkens the sun, the death thrust received through the mouth, and the comparison of the hero to Hercules, but with the exception of the last point, these are only the conventional details of dragon fights. An equally important presumptive source for Spenser's St. George is the life written as a so-called tapestry poem by John Lydgate. Three manuscript versions survive, two at Trinity Col lege, one of which was transcribed with the variants by Henry Noble MacCracken for the Early English Text Society (1907), and the other at the Bodleian, transcribed by Miss Eleanor Prescott Hammond and published in Englische Studien (1910-1911). In the Cambridge manuscript the circumstances which occasioned the poem are explained as follows: "Next nowe filowing here bygynneþe þe devyse of a steyned halle of pe lyf of Saint George ymagyned by Daun Johan þe Munk of Bury Lydegate and made with pe balades at be request of parmorieres of London for ponour of peyre broperhode and peyre feest of Saint George." Rather clearly the poem was to interpret a mural decoration, either by having the text or chosen portions thereof accompany the successive pictures, or by having them read when the decoration was unveiled at the feast of St. George. In the opening stanza of the poem, Lydgate addresses his hearers or readers as follows: O yee folk þat heer present be, Wheeche of þis story shal haue Inspeccioun, Of Saint George yee may beholde and see And howe he is protectour and patroun, The second stanza states that the order of the garter was founded by Edward III in honor of St. George. In the third stanza St. George is specifically denominated the knight of holiness, Christ's own knight, peculiarly chosen to fight against the various powers of Satan: þis name George by Interpretacioun Is sayde of tweyne, þe first of hoolynesse, As þat myne Auctour lykepe for to expresse, be feond venqwysshing of manhoode and prowesse, The fourth stanza tells of his birth in Cappadocia and his youthful delight in virtue, and the fifth, of the distinctive character of his knight-errantry as the champion of truth: And Cristes feyth for to magnefye At gretter age his cuntree he forsooke, And thoroughe his noblesse and his chyuallerye be chirche defending with swerd of equytee, The poem then proceeds to the story of the fight with the dragon, which had long terrified the city of Lysseene: A gret dragoun, with scales siluer sheene, To satisfy the hunger of this beast, at first two sheep are sacrificed every day, then men, women and children by lot, until at length the lot falls on the king's daughter. The damsel is sent forth, trembling with fear and leading a sheep. At the critical moment St. George, her own knight, sent from the Lord, appears, accomplishes the liberation of the city, and is acclaimed conqueror with a royal procession in which palms and banners-or, as the Bodleian manuscript has it, with palms and laurels are triumphantly borne. Lydgate tells this part of the story as follows: þat sche most nexst of necessytee Beo so deuowred, helpe may no meede, bis cely mayde quakyng in hir dreed; At hir oute goyng hir fader for þe noones In cloope of golde with gemys and with stoones, Ageynst þe dragoun to make resistence. Saint George it was, oure ladyes owen knyght, Which came to socour þis mayden in hir right, 'Ellas!' quod she, whane she takepe heed, And whane he saughe of hir þe maner, |