The Faerie Queene (119 page)

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Authors: Edmund Spenser

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26 7
fond: past of'find, find heart to'.

27 8
shallop: a light boat.

28 2
forward hope: too eager hope.

29 8
i.e., but enjoyed to be himself rather than to seem something else.

29 9
labour lich: identical work.

30 1
Sir Satyrane: first appeared in I.6.20 ffto rescue Una from the satyrs.

30 4
vnfilde: unpolished!

31 4
betide: happen.

31 7
magnifide: praised.

34 2
enclose: some editors emend to containe to correct the rhyme scheme.

34 5
Maine: ocean.

34 9
idle boone: useless gift or sacrifice.

36
The symbolism of the girdle is explained in IV.5.3.

36 6
pray: i.e., the action of preying.

39 2
Culuer: dove.

39 9
bannes: curses.

41 4–9
marble Pillour: Spenser erroneously places on Mt Olympus the pillar used to mark the course in the Olympic games.

42 3
martelled: hammered (French: marteler).

45 5
cbeuisaunce: enterprise.

47 2 Atgante: Argante and her twin brother Ollyphant were begot by
Typhoeus, whom Spenser thought one of the Titans, the arch-rebels of classical mythology; their mother was Earth (Tellus). Their birth is opposed to the chaste birth of Belphoebe and Amoret in the preceding canto. Argante and Ollyphant represent unnatural abuses of love. Ollyphant appears again briefly in canto 11.3 if.

47 4
The Titans (or Giants) rebelled against Jove's newly acquired authority and threatened to pile Mount Ossa on Mount Pelion to scale the walk of Olympus (Met. 1.151 ff). The Olympians finally defeated the Titans at Phlegra.

51 7
plighted haue: have pledged.

51 8
mistreth: is necessary.

51 9
Squyre of Dames: represents the social abuse of love. His story is imitated from OF 28.

52 6
Palladine: a knight who does not appear again in the poem. Her name, derived from Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom, suggests that she might have been the knight hero of an unwritten book of the poem on wisdom.

54
a saue, or spill: spare or kill.

58 4
lane: jane, a coin.

58 7
Chappellane: chaplain, confessor.

60 1
Safe: except for (French: sauf).

61
a hent: taken.

61 4
Akides: Hercules, whose labours to accomplish the seemingly impossible had become proverbial.

C
ANTO
8

1 8
find: decide.

1 9
repriefe: reproof

4 3
mew: den.

5–9
The witch's creation of the False Florimell links the adventures of Florimell to the myth of the false Helen, a story told by many commentators (see Roche, Kindly Flame, pp. 152-67). In this version Helen did not go to Troy. Paris in fear of pursuit sailed to Egypt where Proteus the king demanded that Helen be left. A new Helen fashioned of clouds sailed on to Troy with Paris, while the real Helen stayed with Proteus, from whom Menelaus recovered her at the end of the war.

6 4
Riphcean hils: the Riphaean mountains in northern Scythia.

6 8
vermily: vermilion.

6 9
sanguine: blood.

7 Spenser parodies the sonnet conventions in describing the hair and eyes of False Florimell. Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 130.

7 3
arret: entrust.

7 7
thrise: i.e., by a third.

8 7
gest: bearing.

8 8
counterfeisance: counterfeiting, deception.

11 8
Braggadocchio: the braggart warrior, who first appeared in II3.

“55

11 9
repose: rest. credit: reputation.

13 4
Tromparts: Braggadocchio's wily henchman.

14 4
glozing: flattering.

14 9
reaue: steal.

15 3
An armed knight: Sir Ferraugh, first named in IV.2.4, derived from Ferrau in OF 1.77-81, one of the many knights who pursue Angelica.

15 4
lay: lea, land.

15 6
Capons: emasculated roosters, i.e., cowards.

16 3
as he mote, on high: as loudly as he could.

16 4
excheat: property, belonging by right to the lord of a manor.

16 s
hide him battell: stay and endure battle with him. treat: entreaty, discussion

20 6
Queene: i.e., Fortune.

21 6
Dan Aeolus: Master Aeolus, god of winds.

22 2
drouer: boat.

22 8
extasie: madness.

24 4
cock-bote: small boat.

26
The fisherman's attempted rape is based on OF 8.30-50.

27 6–9
The apostrophe to absent knights is imitated from OF 8.68.

28 1
Sir Satyran: Satyrane from 1.6 and III.7.

28 2
Sir Peridure: mentioned in the chronicle of kings, II. 10.44.9, does not appear elsewhere in the poem.

28 8
Sir Cdidore: hero of VI, the knight of courtesy.

29 8
Proteus: see note to 1.2.10.4.

30 3
frowy: froughy, musty, dank.

30 8
Phocas: Greek and Latin: phoca, ‘seal'.

31 2
carde: map.

32 2
raid: smeared, defiled.

32 7
feet: deed. assoyld: rescued.

33 4
attached neare: nearly caught

35 2
ftory: frosty.

36 5
aggrate: please.

37 9
Panope: Greek: ‘all-seeing', traditionally one of the fifty Nereids. See IV.11.49.8.

42 5
remoue: i.e., leave her love. Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 116: Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove.

45 6
Paridell: Spenser's version of Paris.

46 4
mine: fall.

47 s
doubt: fear.

47 7
knights of Maydenhead: see note to I.7.46.

48 s
of report: i.e., of news you have heard.

50 2
soothsay: prediction.

50 9
speed: fortune.

51 8
relate: bring back (Latin: relatus).

C
ANTO
9

1–3
Based on OF 28.1-3.

1 2
leuell: direct,

2 2
by paragone: by comparison,

2 4
attone: together.

3 8
priuitie: privacy.

4 1
mucky pelfe: filthy wealth.

4 2
masse: wealth.

5 5
other blincked eye: one eye is blind (37.6); the other blinks.

5 8
mewes: hides.

6 1
Malbecco: Italian: ‘Evil-horn'; the horn is the sign of the cuckold.

Hellenore: Helen was taken from her husband Menelaus by Paris. The ensuing conflict between the Greeks and Trojans resulted in the destruction of Troy. Hellenore is Helen writ small.

7 3
Argus: the hundred-eyed monster whom the jealous Juno set to watch over Io to prevent her union with Jove.

9 6
mesprise: scorn.

11–18
Imitation of Statius, Thebaid 1.401–81and OF 32.65 ff. In OF Brada-mante fights three knights outside the castle of Tristano, and having entered the castle, reveals that she is a woman.

13 8
liefe or loth: willing or not.

14 5
grate: fret.

14 7
rate: angrily drive back.

16 3
affiret: encounter.

17 5
hire: reward.

19 9
plight: health,

20 4
tramels: plaits.

20 6–9
Imitated from OF 32.80. See also GL 4.29 and Met. 14.767-9.

20 8
vaded: vanished.

20 9
persant: piercing.

22 1–6
Minerua: The 1590 text reads ‘Bellona', the goddess of war whom E. K. in the gloss to ‘October' 114, identifies with Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom – or Minerva. The battle of the giants was the occasion of Jupiter's victory over the Titans, forces of disorder. Minerva is said to have flattened Enceladus by hitting him with the island of Sicily while he was fleeing. Haemus Hill is the scene of Jove's victory over Typhon.

22 8
Gorgonian: Minerva's shield bore the Gorgon Medusa's snaky-haired head, which had been cut off by Perseus {Met. 4.790-803).

25 5
try: experience.

25 6
dight: prepared.

26 2
causen: explain.

26 3
erased: weak.

27 7
demeasnure: behaviour, demeanour.

28 2
embassage: message.

29 5
gryde: pierce.

30 3
Bacchus: god of wine.

30 9
sacrament prophane: wine is the outward and visible sign of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Paridell is misusing and profaning it.

31 8–9
i.e., they made a fool of Malbecco. The phrase is derived from Chaucer. Upton (Var., p. 280) notes that fools used to carry apes on their shoulders.

33–7
Paridell's story of Troy and its destruction because of Paris' love of Helen is the appropriate prelude to the adventures soon to occur at Malbecco's castle, which will be destroyed by the spiritual descendants of Paris and Helen. Paridell's story omits all the morally incriminating details of Paris' choice of Helen, which were well known in the Renaissance.

34 7
Lacedcemon: Lacaedemon or Sparta was the home of Menelaus and Helen.

35 6
Scamander: a river of Troy.

35 9
Xanthus: a river of Troy.

36 3–4
Paris, a shepherd on Mount Ida, was in love with the nymph Oenone.

Ate, goddess of discord, furious at not having been invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, interrupted the feast and tossed in a golden apple inscribed ‘To the fairest'. Juno, Minerva, and Venus all claimed the prize and held a contest to be judged by Paris. Juno promised power, Minerva wisdom, and Venus love, in the person of Helen. Paris' morally wrong choice of Venus was the cause of the Trojan war and of the eventual destruction of Troy. Oenone was abandoned, but some commentators say she bore a child, Corythus, whose name Spenser changes to Parius.

36 7
Priams: Priam, king of Troy.

36 9
Paros: island in the Aegean.

37 2
Nausa: Greek: ‘ship'.

37 9
see wing: pursuing.

38 s
feet: deed.

38 7
extract: descended.

38 9
Troynouant: London; often called New Troy in the sixteenth century.

41
Paridell omits all reference to Dido, whose kingdom suffered because of her love for Aeneas.

41 4
fatal! errour: wandering ordained by fate.

41 6
Lybicke: Libyan, African.

42 1
Latium: the home of the Latins ruled by King Latinus, who gave his daughter Lavinia as wife to Aeneas. This brought war by the leader of the Rutulians, Turnus, to whom Lavinia had been promised. Aeneas finally killed Turnus, married Lavinia, and restored peace.

43 2
part: divide.

43 4
Into their names the title to conuart: i.e., each tried to have the kingdom named for himself..

43 7
long Alba: Alba Longa, a town in Latium on the slopes of Mt Albanus, south-east of Rome and its precursor as capital.

43 9
Romulus: the founder of Rome.

44
Rome was often considered the second Troy, and the Tudors, because of their supposed descent from Brutus, saw London as the third Troy. See III.3.22 ff.

46 2
meare: boundary.

46 9
Albion: ancient name of Britain.

47 4
Mnemon: Greek: ‘memory'.

48 1
he: i.e., Mnemon. aduaunce: praise.

48 2
Syluius his sonne: the son of Silvius. Stanzas 48–51are derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1.13-17.

50 3
Goemagot: Gogmagog, a giant killed by Corineus. See Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1.16. See II.10.10.8 and note.

50 4
Coulin of Debon: Coulin jumped across a great pit. Devonshire is named after Debon. No source for Brutus' story has been found, but seell.1o.11.

51 2
There is no source for Brutus' founding Lincoln.

53 3
attent: attention.

52 9
belgardes: loving glances.

53 5
halfendeale ybrent: half burned.

C
ANTO
10

Arg. 4
tume: i.e., return.

1 5
same Faerie knight: i.e., Satyrane.

2 5
wanting measure: lacking control.

3 1
abie: endure.

5 2–3
i.e., he deceived Malbecco's faulty vision.

7 8
if : unless.

8 5
Bransles: dances. virelayes: short song with but two rhymes.

9 2–3
sewed At hand: in attendance.

9 5
indewed: took in.

10 3
dispuruayance: failure of supplies.

10 5
Peace: i.e., castle, the ‘fort' of line 1.

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