The Faerie Queene (123 page)

25 4
belaccoyle: fair greeting (French: bel accueil).

25 8
beuers: faceguards of helmet.

26 1
auizefull: observing.

26 4–6
See III.2.16-26.

26 8
adaw: wane.

26 9
enhaunced: raised.

28 6
Artegall: we never learn how Scudamour found out Arthegall's name, which the latter would not reveal to him in stanzas 4-5.

38 9
reaue: steal.

40 6
eath: easy.

42 6
congee: French: ‘leave'.

44
Arthegall appears again as hero of V, the Book of Justice.

46 9
by her did set: esteemed her.

C
ANTO
7

2 9
tride: experienced.

3 9
assoyle: set free.

5–7
The figure of Lust is a combination of English wildman (hair, ivy, and oak club) and Ariostan Ore (OP 17.30 ff).

5 4
awhape: terrify.

7 3
was… seene: did seem (Latin: videri).

7 6
beath'd in fire …: i.e., bathed in fire to strengthen as steeL

9 3
soust: cast to ground.

10 5
mister wight: kind of being,

12 7
gainestriue: resist

13 2
sheene: shining.

15–18
Aemylia's story is similar to the plight of Isabella in the robbers' cave (OF 12.89-13.4-14).

I5 1
reherse: tell.

15 7
Squire of low degree: also the title of a Middle English romance.

16 6
willed or nilled: willing or unwilling, willy-nilly.

21 3
Gelt: lunatic. reaued: stolen.

22 8
Myrrh': Myrrha, mother of Adonis, tricked her rather Cinyras into sleeping with her. When he discovered his crime, he tried to kill her, but she fled to Arabia where she was turned into the myrrh tree {Met.10.311-518).

Daphne: Apollo pursued Daphne, who was changed into the laurel (Met. 1.452-567).

22 9
Thracdan Nimphes: Amazons, one-breasted women warriors.

23 5
peares: companions.

23 6
that louely boy: Timias, who was falling in love with Belphoebe at the end of III.5, after she had rescued him from the three wicked foresters.

25 9
on the land: on the ground? on his feet?

26 4
buckler: shield.

28 2
glaue: club.

30 5
Latonaes daughter: Diana. Niobe, the mother of seven sons and seven daughters, belittled Latona for being mother only of Diana and Apollo. Diana and Apollo killed all the children, and Niobe was turned into a rock (Met. 6.146 ff). cruel! kynde: i.e., cruel to Niobe and kind to her own mother, but kynde might also be a noun in apposition with daughter, Le., cruel nature.

30 7
tynde: kindled.

31 7
distraught: pulled asunder.

32 7
admir'd: wondered at (Latin: mirari). oft: some editors emend to eft for sake of rhyme scheme.

34 3
mewed: caged.

35 ff
The story of Belphoebe's banishment of and reconciliation to Timias, told in this and the following canto, may depict the fury of Elizabeth at Ralegh's secret marriage to her lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth Throg-morton. Ralegh was banished from the court, imprisoned in the Tower, and not restored to favour until 1597. For the moral allegory see Roche, Kindly Flame, pp. 142-8.

35 6
stild: fell in drops.

404
sweat out: give off odour of

40 5
concrew: become matted.

40 6
vnshed: imparted.

41 4
pined: wasted.

44 5
aunswere mum: say nothing.

46 4
bestad: beset.

C
ANTO
8

1 1–4
The wise man is Solomon, who writes in Proverbs 16.14: “The king's displeasure is a messenger of death: but a wise man will pacify it.'

1 6
delay: soften, smooth. 3 2 doole: grief. turtle Doue: a symbol of faithful mourning.

3 5
passion: suffering.

4 3
lay: song.

4 4
sensibly compyld: feelingly composed.

6 2
miniments: memorials.

8
The dove's flight and return may be an allusion to the dove Noah sent from the ark (Genesis 8.9).

12 6
glib: thick lock of hair hanging over the face.

12 7
agryz'd: horrified.

13 6
mister wight: kind of man.

14 2
selcouth: strange.

14 3
seemlyhed: comeliness.

14 4
man of place: man of rank.

14 8
ywrake: wreaked.

16 2
sodaine: precipitate, rash? pent: kept within.

17 1
dred: a title of reverence.

17 6
mate: amate, dismay.

18 4–5
Timias does see Arthur again in VI.5.11 ff.

19 5
euill rate: poor supply.

20 6
pretious liquor: this is the same liquid which Arthur gives to Redcross in I.9.19, probably symbolic of grace.

24 8
leasings: lies.

27 8
endur'd: hardened (Latin: durus).

27 9
misfare: sorrow.

28 7
all onely lent: i.e., entirely gave up.

28 8
queane: hag.

29 9
lare: pasture.

31 1–5
Isaiah 11.6: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fading together …'

31 3
tort: wrong.

31 5
stronger pride: i.e., pride of greater strength.

31 6
warre old: i.e., worse old. The older form of world was womld or weorold, hence Spenser's pun, to which the reader is alerted in line 7 (‘Whereof it bight”).

32 Man was created in God's image and likeness as the Elizabethans knew from Genesis 1.26. The same idea is expressed in neo-Platonic language in ‘Hymn to Beauty', 29-56,148-61.

38 7
Dromedare: camel.

42 7
The shield: Arthur's diamond shield has power to blind and subdue enemies when its cover is removed. See notes to I.7.33 and 8.19.

44 3
Mahoune: Mahomet, the Prophet of the Saracens.

45 9
reame: realm.

49 1
Corjiambo: French: ‘heart-flame'.

49 4
Pasana: Latin: poena, ‘penalty'?

50
ff See Aemylia's story in IV.7.13-18.

51 5
laire: lare, pasture.

58 3
eath: easy.

59 9
accoyd: soothed.

61 7
enlarge: release from confinement

64 9
euent: fete.

C
ANTO
9

Arg. 1–2
Although the Squire of low degree (Amyas) is released, it is his friend Placidas who takes Poeana to wife.

1 2
all three kinds of loue: love between parent and child, love between man and wife, love between friends. Spenser includes proper love of man and wife as friendship, since he uses the word friend to describe Aemylia in 9.3.8.

3 1
by tryall: by experience.

4 7
ympt: grafted.

6 2
Rote: violin-like instrument.

9 7
ban: curse.

10 9
whether whether weare: i.e., which was which (Latinism).

11 2
admired: wondered at.

12 4
tortious: unjust.

13 7
fee: revenue.

14 4
corsiue: corrosive, poison. 14 6 thewes: manners, behaviour.

14 8
goodly dyde: of good complexion.

17 1
compylde: settled.

17 3
trauell: travail.

20 6
Those foure: some of those knights who rode in pursuit of Bragga-docchio and False Florimell in IV.s.27-8, although Druon and Claribell are not mentioned earlier. Alastair Fowler, Spenser and the Numbers oj Time, pp. 29-33, discusses the relation of this battle, as well as the tale of the Squire of low degree (Canto 8), to the virtue of friendship. See also Roche, Kindly Flame, pp. 208-9.

23 2
Neptune: reference to Neptune's stealing Aeolus' daughter Arne is made in III.11.42 and is probably derived from Met. 6.115. hent: seized.

26 5
relide: rallied joined forces.

27 3
hawberks: long coats of mail

31 2
emparlance: parley, truce.

31 7
rate: berate, scold.

32 8
surceasse: desist

33 S
stie: float in the air. 33 8 fleet: floated.

35 4
mesprise: misapprehension; also scorn (French: mipris).

36 7
assoyled: acquitted herself.

38 6–9
Scudamour has not seen Amoret, who was riding with Arthur in stanza 20. Upton (Var., p. 215) suggests that Spenser may have intended to use at this point the original ending of III, stanzas 43a-47a.

40 9
apay: please.

C
ANTO
10

1 1–6
The adage that love is a pound of gall and a dram of honey, or more generally, bittersweet, was popular with both classical and later writers. Spenser uses a version of this adage as Thomalin's emblem in ‘March' of The Skepheardes Calender. The source is Plautus, Cistellaria 1.1.70-71. S 6–7Paphos… Cyprus: both places sacred to Venus.

5 9
split: inlaid.

6 7
Corbes: corbels, or corbeils.

6 9
Doricke guize: the Doric, simplest of the three types of Greek column, the others being Ionic and Corinthian.

10 8
read: rede, counsel, advice.

11 2
vtter: outer.

12 5
Janus: Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings. 12 6 ingate: entrance.

14 3
kend: knew.

14 9
render: return (French: rendre).

17 1
Daunger: see the similar figure in III.12.11 and note.

17 5
adward: award.

19 8
glaiue: kind of halbert, spear?, club?

20 9
preuent: anticipate.

22 6
coy and curious nice: i.e., fastidious.

22 8
queint: elaborate, elegant.

23 2
to ghesse: i.e., one might imagine.

23 5
Th'Elysian fields: the fields of the blest in classical Hades.

24 6
disloignd: remote, 25 9 balkt: i.e., ceased.

25–7
In these stanzas Spenser means the true love of man and woman (25-26.2) and friendship (26.3-27), both of which he describes in the love of Aemylia and Amyas and the friendship of Amyas and Placidas (cantos 8-9).

27 1
Hercules and Hyllus: Hylas, Hercules' squire, disappeared during the voyage of the Argonauts.

27 2
Ionathan and Dauid: see 1 Samuel 18.3; 20.11; 23.18.

27 3
Theseus and Pirithous: Theseus rescued Pirithous from hell. See Met. 8.303, 405-6, 12.210 ff and Aen. 6.393. feare: fere, companion.

27 4
Pylodes and Orestes: appear with Theseus and Pirithous as famous friends in Statius, Thebaid 1.476-7.

27 5
Titus and Gesippus: the story of their friendship is told by Boccaccio, Decameron 10.8.

27 6
Damon and Pythias: another famous pair of friends, mentioned in many classical and Renaissance authors.

30 1
Temple of Diane: the other six wonders are the pyramids of Egypt, the gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus at Rhodes, and the lighthouse at Alexandria or the walls of Babylon.

30 6
King of lurie: Solomon, whose temple is described in 1 Kings 6.

31 7
Danisk: Danish.

34 1
deeped: named. reed: language.

34–5
The description of Concord and her works conveys conventional philosophical ideas ultimately derived from Boethius, On the Consolation of Philosophy 2. metre 8, and expanded in Chaucer, ‘Knight's Tale', 2990 ff, and in Spenser's ‘Hymn in Honour of Love' 78-105, where a more neo-Platonic version is given.

38 8
night: assigned.

39 4
durefull: enduring, lasting.

39 9
brickie: brittle, fragile.

40 4
Phidias: it was not Phidias on Paphos but Praxiteles on Cnidus who made the first totally nude statue of Venus, so beautiful that a youth fell in love with it. The story is related by Pliny, Natural History 36.5.21.

40 8–9
snake: the snake, whose tail is held in his mouth, and who is entwined around Venus' legs, is a common symbol of eternity or of the universe; either or both senses may apply here; derived from the first emblem in the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo.

41
The hermaphroditic nature of Venus is repeated in Colin Clouts Come Home Again, 801-2. Earlier sources for Spenser are Catullus, Carmina 68.51, Aen. 2.632 (and comments by Servius), and Macrobius, Saturnalia 3.8.1.

42 2
litle loues: ‘amoretti,' ‘putti', winged babies.

44–7
The hymn to Venus is imitated from the beginning of Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.1-23.

45 1
dxdale: manifold in works, from Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.7.: daeiala tellus.

47 1–2
The idea that Venus made the world does not occur in Lucretius but in Natalis Comes, 4.13.

50 3
desse: desk, lectern.

51 5
ouerthwart: opposite.

52 1
rate: manner.

57 8
that same Ladie: Concord.

58 4–5
Orpheus would pass by the three-headed dog Cerberus in rescuing his wife Eurydice torn hell.

58 5
Stygian Princes: Pluto, ruler of Hades, in which flowed the river Styx.

C
ANTO
11

2 1–3
Proteus carried off Florimel] in IIL8.

2 6
bent: inclination.

4 4
Styx: Hyginus, in the Preface to the Fables, calls Styx the daughter of Erebus and Night, whose house in Hades is described at length in Ly 4 6 seuen months: see III.11.10.8.

4 8
descride: distinguished.

5 1
Marine!!: wounded by Britomart in III.4.5-44. 5 5 pryse: pay for.

5 6
ywroke: wrought.

6 5
Tryphon: see note to III.4.43.7. 6 8 behight: promised.

8 4
Medway and the Thames: the rivers Medway and Thames meet at Rochester where Spenser, after he came down from Cambridge, was secretary to Bishop John Young. The device of writing poetry about the union of two rivers had precedents in John Leland's Cygnea Cantio (1545) and in William Camden's fragmentary De Cotmubia Tamae et Isis, printed in various editions of his Britannia (1586, 1587, 1590, 1599. etc.). Spenser writes of river marriages in Shepheardes Calender, ‘July' 79-84, Colin Clouts Come Home Again, 88-155, and in Vn.6.38-55. Also in die Letter to Harvey, a April 1580.

The procession (11-51) is composed of four sub-processions: (a) Neptune and Amphitrite, preceded by Triton (n-12), are followed by the sea gods (13-14) and the founders of nations (15-16); (b) Ocean and Tethys, preceded by Nereus (18-19) and followed by the rivers of the world (20-21); (c) Arion (23) leads the bridegroom Thames with his parents Tame and Isis and their ‘grooms' (24-6), his tributaries (29), his ‘neighbour floods' (30-39) and the Irish rivers (40-44); (d) the procession of the bride Medway attended by her two pages and handmaids (45-7) and followed by the fifty Nereids (48-51). For interpretations see Roche, Kindly Flame, pp. 167-84; Alastair Fowler, Spenser and the Numbers of Time, pp. 171-5,182-91; and Harry Berger, jr, Texas Studies in Language and Literature 10,1968, 5-25.

10 1
sacred imp: Clio, Muse of history, invoked here as in VII.6.37, to provide ‘historical' accuracy.

11 1
Neptune: ruler of the oceans.

11 6
Amphitrite: daughter of Nereus and wife of Neptune.

11 8
siluer haire: silver was the colour associated with sea goddesses from the time of Homer (Il.1.538).

12 3
Triton: sea god, half man, half fish, son of Neptune, for whom he blows a horn to arouse or calm the sea.

13 1
Phorcys: Phorcus was father of the Graeae, the Gorgons, the Dragon of
the Hesperides and many others dted by Hesiod, Theogpny, 270-336. The heroes of line 2 are Perseus, who slew the gorgon Medusa, Hercules, who slew the Dragon of the Hesperides, and Ulysses, who put out the one eye of the cydops Polyphemus (Phorcus' grandson).

13 3
Glaucus: for his transformation into a sea god see Met. 13.904 ff His prophetic power is treated by Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.131a

13 4
tragicke Inoes son :Melicerta, son of Athamas and Ino, became a sea god when his mad father drove him and Ino into the sea, at which time he took the name Pakemon (Met. 4.416 ff). Natalis Comes, 8.4, states that Palaemon presides over sailors.

13 7
Brontes and Astrceus: Cydops. Astraeus unknowingly defiled his sister Aldppe and out of grief drowned himself.

13 9
Orion: a mighty hunter, now the constellation whose rising brings rain.

14 1
Cteatus and Eurytus: both sons of Neptune. Cteatus is called ‘rich' probably because of the etymology of the name. (Greek: ‘possession, wealth').

14 2
Neleus and Pelias: twin sons of Neptune and the nymph Tyro. Neleus was the father of Nestor, and Pelias sent his kinsman Jason on the quest for the Golden Fleece. 14 3 Chrysaor: along with Pegasus, Chrysaor sprang from the blood of Medusa, fathered by Neptune (Met. 4.792-803).

14 3
Calais: river in Mysia (Met. 2.243; 12.111; 13.278).

14 4
Eurypulus: son of Neptune who gave the Argonaut Euphemus a lump of earth as a pledge of possession of Cyrene (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.1551 ff).

14 5
Euphcemus: one of the Argonauts, who ran so fast that he could go over water without getting wet.

14 7 Eryx
… Akbius: neither of these sea gods has been identified, but see the Eryx, king of Sicily, mentioned in Aen. 1.570 and 5 passim.

14 9
Asopus: river god whose daughter Aegina was seduced by Jove and bore Aeacus, who was to become one of the three judges of the underworld.

15–16
The founders of nations (except for Inachus and Albion) are all named in Natalis Comes, 2.8.

15 4
Ogyges: first ruler of Thebes. Boeotia was called Ogygia after him.

15 5
Incubus: the founder of Argos.

15 6
Phtenix: son of Agenor and founder of Phoenicia.

Aon: son of Neptune after whom Boeotia is named Aonia.

Peksgus: ancestor of the Pelasgians, the earliest inhabitants of Greece.

The Peloponnesus was called Pelasgia after him. 15 7 Belus: the founder of Babylon.

Phceax: ancestor of the Phaeacians, the early inhabitants of Corcyra

(Corfu).

Agenor: son of Neptune and founder of Sidon in Phoenicia.

15 8
Albion: son of Neptune and mythical founder of Britain.

16
The story of Albion's walking dryshod to France (Britain then being connected to the Continent) to'fight Hercules, who slew him, is told
by Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca 5.24.2 ff and by the sixteenth-century chroniclers. Spenser may have got his story from Holiushed, Chronicles (second edition, 1587) 1.3.

16 9
was dight: was come.

17 4
hild: held.

17 6
times: some editors emend to age for the sake of rhyme.

18
Spenser probably took the information about Ocean, Tethys and Nereus from Natalis Comes, 8.a, who quotes Hesiod, Theogony 332 ff.

19 2
ledden: language.

19 4
Tindaridlasse: Helen of Troy, daughter of Leda, the wife of Tyndareus.

20 3
Nile: see I.1.21 and 111.6.8.6–9and notes.

20 4
Rhodanus: the Rhone, long because it rises in the Alps and runs through

France.

20 5
Ister: lower part of Danube.

20 6
Scamander: river of Troy.

20 8
Pactolus: river with bed of golden sand in Lydia. See IV.6.20.

20 9
Tygris: great river in Mesopotamia.

21 1
Ganges: chief river in India.
Euphrates: chief river of Syria.

21 2
Indus: river forming western boundary of India.

Masander: river with many windings, near Miletus.

21 3
Peneus: river flowing through valley of Tempe in Thessaly, whose river-god was the father of Cyrene and Daphne.

Phasides: Phasis, river in Colchis, flowing into Euxine Sea.

21 4
Rhene: the Rhine of Germany.

Alpheus: supposed to flow from the Peloponnesus through the sea to Sicily without any mingling of salt from ocean water.

21 5
Ooraxes: Cyrus crossed the river Araxes to do battle with Comyrus, in which encounter he was slain.

21 6
Tybris: the Tiber of Rome.

21 7
Oranochy: Orinoco, discovered in 1531-2 by Ordaz and explored by Ralegh in 1595.

21 8
huge Riuer: the Amazon, discovered by Orellano in 1540; seeing armed women on its banks, he named the river after them. Ralegh describes both these rivers in The Discoveries of Guiana (1596). See also II. Proem. 2.

22
Spenser is urging the British to follow the constant advice of Ralegh to colonize in South America, but that advice was not taken. Ralegh made his first voyage to Guiana in 1595, but in spite of his more than moderate success the Queen was not persuaded to allow further attempts.

23 3
Arion: see Ovid, Fasti 2.83 ff. Arion, captured by cruel pirates, leaped into the sea with his crown and lyre, on which he played so sweetly that he charmed a dolphin who carried him to safety. See Amoretti 38. 24–39Spenser's description of the English rivers is derived mainly from two
sources: (a) Holinshed, Chronicles (1578), 1.11-16, entitled “The Description of Britain', actually written by William Harrison, and (b) William Camden's Britannia, first edition 1586.

24–5
The rivers Thame and Isis (the Thames above Oxford) come together near Dorchester (Oxfordshire) to form the Thames, the union represented in the orthography of the Latin Tamesis (i.e., Thames + Isis). In actuality the Thame is the lesser of the two rivers, but Spenser may be reversing feet to suit the greater importance of the Thame in the word ‘Thames'. In a letter to Gabriel Harvey, 2 April 1580, Spenser speaks of a work, now lost, called Epithalamion Thamesis, in which he was probably following the tradition begun by the Latin poems of Leland and Camden (see note to 8.4). Isis is joined by the Churne and, at Oxford, by the Cherwell.