More horror from Edmund Spencer

I posted a little from The Faerie Queene a while back, but have just lately returned to my reading of it. And since the first two cantos are packed with supernatural and horrific occurrences, I may as well quote another of them.

This one provides an early citation of the now familiar image of the bleeding tree. A knight and maiden have taken refuge from the heat in the shade of a tree:

And thinking of those branches green to frame

A garland for her dainty forehead fit,

He plucked a bough; out of whose rift there came

Small drops of gory blood that trickled down the same.

Therewith a piteous yelling voice was heard,

Crying, "O! spare with guilty hands to tear

My tender sides in this rough rind embarred...."