386 ST. MARK’S REST

subdues him partly, yet is shattered, having done so much, and of no help in perfecting the victory or in reaping its reward of joy. But at the Saint’s “loins, girt about with truth,” there hangs his holier weapon-the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

226. The Dragon* is bearded like a goat,† and essentially a thorny ‡ creature. Every ridge of his body, wings, and head, bristles with long spines, keen, sword-like, of an earthy brown colour or poisonous green. But the most truculent-looking of all is a short, strong, hooked one at the back of his head, close to where the spear-point protrudes.§ These thorns are partly the same vision-though seen with even clearer eyes, dreamed by a heart yet more tender-as Spenser saw in the troop of urchins coming up with the host of other lusts against the Castle of Temperance.¹ They are also symbolic as weeds whose deadly growth brings the power of earth to waste and chokes its good. These our Lord of spiritual husbandmen must for preliminary task destroy. The agricultural process consequent on this first step in tillage we shall see in the next picture, whose subject is the triumph of the ploughshare sword, as the subject of this one is the triumph of the pruninghook spear.|| To an Italian of Carpaccio’s time, further, spines-etymologically connected in Greek and Latin, as in English, with the backbone-were an acknowledged symbol of the lust of the flesh, whose defeat the artist has here set himself to paint. The mighty coiling tail, as of a giant

* It should be noticed that St. George’s dragon is never human-headed, as often St. Michael’s.

† So the Theban dragon on a vase, to be afterwards referred to [p. 399].

‡ The following are Lucian’s words concerning the monster slain by Perseus, “Kai to men epeisi pefrikoV taiV akanqaiV kai dedittomenon iw xasmati.”

§ I do not know the meaning of this here. It bears a striking resemblance to the crests of the dragon of Triptolemus on vases. These crests signify primarily the springing blade of corn. That, here, has become like iron.

|| For “pruning-hooks” in our version, the Vulgate reads “ligones”-tools for preparatory clearance.

¹ [Faerie Queene, ii. xi. 13.]

² [De Domo, § 22.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]