Thus long they trac’d and traverst to and fro,

And tryde all waies, how each mote entrance make

Into the life of his malignant foe;

They hew’d their helmes, and plates asunder brake,

As they had potshares bene; for nought mote slake

Their greedy vengeaunces but goary blood,

That at the last like to a purple lake

Of bloudy gore congeal’d about them stood,

Which from their riven sides forth gushed like a flood (VI. i. 37)

For Spenser’s diction is habitually overloaded.