Fradu´bio

[ i.e. Brother Doubt ]. In his youth he loved Fræli a, but riding with her one day they encountered a knight accompanied by Due a ( false faith ), and fought to decide which lady was the fairer. The stranger knight fell, and both ladies being saddled on the victor, Due a changed her rival into a tree. One day Fradubio saw Due a bathing, and was so shocked at her deformity that he determined to abandon her, but the witch anointed him during sleep with herbs to produce insensibility, and then planted him as a tree beside Fræli a. The Red Cro Knight plucked a bough from this tree, and seeing with horror that blood dripped from the rift, was told this tale of the metamorphosis.—Spenser, Faëry Queen , i. 2 (1590).