The Faerie Queene: Book III: Canto VII Summary & Analysis

Long after Florimell is safe from the foster, she keeps fleeing. Her white horse continues to carry her as fast as it can go for a while, but eventually it reaches a point where it can go no further. As she gets off and continues on foot, she sees smoke coming out over the trees and goes to investigate, coming across a little cottage.

Inside the cottage is an old hag. The hag asks angrily why Florimell is there, and she begins to cry. The evil hag gets the idea for a scheme. Soon after, the hag’s son comes home and is shocked to see the beautiful Florimell there. Despite immediately falling in love with Florimell, however, the son can’t vocalize his desires. Instead, he brings her little forest animals and garlands of flowers as gifts.

Eventually, Florimell feels she’d like to leave the cottage. She knows the hag or the hag’s son might try to stop her, so she tries to sneak off on her white horse. When the son realizes she’s gone, he is distraught, scratching and biting himself, so the hag tries, unsuccessfully, to cure his broken heart with charms and herbs.

Eventually, the hag summons forth a hideous beast that looks like a deformed hyena, which feeds on women’s flesh. It goes chasing after Florimell. Florimell sees the ugly creature and fears for her life. The monster slays and eats her white horse. Florimell flees towards the sea, feeling that she’d rather drown herself than get caught. Luckily, when she gets to the shore, she finds a boat there and climbs aboard.

The hyena-like monster can’t follow Florimell in her boat, but it stands on the shore watching. While the monster is there, Sir Satyrane happens to come wandering by on his own adventure. Seeing Florimell’s situation, he begins attacking the monster.

The beast is fearsome and won’t go down. Finally, Sir Satyrane manages to restrain it with a gold belt taken from Florimell’s waist (which Satyrane found lying in the forest earlier). After tying the beast up, Satyrane sees a giantess (Argante) riding off on a horse with a bound squire (the Squire of Dames) as her prisoner, pursued by a knight (Britomart). Satyrane leaves the beast to chase the giantess.

As Sir Satyrane approaches the giantess, she prepares for battle with her heavy iron mace. She strikes hard and hits Satyrane on the helmet, stunning him. The giantess grabs Satyrane and is going to take him away, but when the knight pursuing her gets closer, she decides to drop Satyrane instead.

Sir Satyrane wakes on the ground, disappointed about how the battle went. It turns out that the giantess also dropped the squire she was holding. The handsome squire tells how he fell into the hands of the giantess, whose name is Argante. The giantess is so lusty that she has sex with beasts, and she roams the country for young men to quench her desires. The giantess captured the squire with the intention of forcing him to serve her.

The squire, who asks to be called the Squire of Dames, goes on to explain how the knight chasing Argante is actually a virgin woman paladin (meaning Britomart). He explains that he got his nickname because in order to win the love of his lady, she asked him to “do service unto gentle Dames.” The squire did just that, finding favor in the hearts of 300 different dames. But when the squire goes back to his own dame, she is angry and punishes him to instead find 300 chaste dames who will refuse his advances.

The Squire of Dames tells about how he’s tried to find 300 dames who will refuse him, but so far, he’s only found three. Sir Satyrane listens to the squire’s plight before heading back to where he left the hyena-monster, which has broken free and gone back to tell the hag about Florimell.