Season 4 Podcast 104 Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, Canto 2 C Episode 6 “The Weeping Tree.”

Season 4 Podcast 104 Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, Canto 2 C Episode 6 “The Weeping Tree.” In the previous Podcast, # 101, The Redcross Knight kills Sansfoy and Duessa changes her name to Fidessa, and deceives the Redcross Knight. Having abandoned Una, his true love, The Redcross knight now travels with Fidessa whose only desire is to destroy the Redcross Knight for killing her lover Sansfoy.This epic story is about how the Redcross Knight, who represents the virtue of holiness, becomes St. George. However, the road is very difficult. It is compounded by the fact that he has abandoned Una, who stands for truth, and now he is in the clutches of the Evil Duessa posing as the daughter of an Emperor when in reality she is the evil Duessa, the Whore of Babylon, and represents pure evil. What follows is the first warning to the Redcross Knight that Fidessa is a wicked witch and wishes to destroy him. Without Una the callow youth does not understand the warning. Long time they thus together traveled,Till weary of their way, they came at lastWhere grew two goodly trees, that faire did spredTheir arms abroad, with gray moss overcast,And their green leaves trembling with every blast,Made a calm shadow far in compass round:The fearful Shepherd often there aghastUnder them never sat, ne wont there soundHis merry oaten pipe, but shund th' unlucky ground.Even shepherds won’t go near the cursed ground, but the Redcross Knight, who is fearless, pays no heed. The sun is high in the sky. It is a very hot day, and he seeks rest under the cursed trees.But this good knight soon as he them can spie,For golden Phœbus now ymounted hie,From fiery wheels of his fair chariotHurled his beame so scorching cruell hot,That living creature mote it not abide;And his new Lady it endured not.There they alight, in hope themselves to hideFrom the fierce heat, and rest their weary limbs a tide.The Redcross Knight sees Fidessa as the most beautiful woman he has ever met; therefore he plucks a limb from the tree to make her a garland.  A very strange thing happens. Blood rather than sap drips from the broken branch.Faire seemely pleasaunce each to other makes,With goodly purposes there as they sit:And in his falsed fancy he her takesTo be the fairest wight that lived yit;Which to express he bends his gentle wit,And thinking of those branches green to frameA garland for her dainty forehead fit,He pluckt a bough; out of whose rift there cameSmall drops of gory blood, that trickled down the same.Furthermore, the tree cries out at the Knight begging him not to tear his poor body apart. Then the tree warns the Redcross Knight to fly from Fidessa and get as far away from her as he can. If he doesn’t the same thing will happen to him as happened to the unhappy voice coming from the tree. It turns out that it is not a tree at all but two former unhappy lovers who were turned into trees by Fidessa and her evil powers.Therewith a piteous yelling voice was heard,Crying, O spare with guilty hands to tearMy tender sides in this rough rynd embard,But fly, ah fly far hence away, for fearLeast to you hap, that happened to me hear,And to this wretched Lady, my dear love,O too dear love, love bought with death too dear.Astond he stood, and up his hair did hove,And with that sudden horror could no member move. The Redcross Knight doesn’t know what to make of the strange event. He doubted his own senses. He thought it was a ghost from hell or an evil spirit.