48 5 Monarch: Alexander the Great, who claimed Jove (Ammon) as his father.
48 7 natiue syre: natural father.
49 The early Romans cited in this stanza are drawn from the time between the founding of the city and the end of the Republic. They are examples of how pride destroys nations, and all play a part in Plutarch’s history.
49 5 Romulus: legendary co-founder of Rome, who cast scorn upon the city built by his brother Remus by leaping over its walls.
49 6 Tarquin: Tarquinius Superbus, the last legendary king of Rome. Lentulus: name of a proud Roman family.
49 7 Scipio: Scipio Africanus Major, who defeated Hannibal at the battle of Zama, 202 bc.
49 8 Sylla: Sulla, who achieved greatness from humble beginnings. Marius: Sulla’s rival.
49 9 Ccesar: Julius Caesar, whose pride and ambition led him to be assas- sinated.
Pompey: Pompeius Magnus, Caesar’s great rival. He was defeated in battle and fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated.
Antonius: Mark Antony, who gave up the empire for Cleopatra.
50 2 yoke: i.e., proper submission to their husbands.
50 3 Semiramis: Boccaccio, De darts mulieribus, says that Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, was most valiant and ruled well after her husband’s death. Her honour was destroyed by her lasciviousness. She seduced her son, who later killed her.
50 S Sthenobaa: loved Bellerophon, who spurned her. She tried to revenge herself by lying about him to her husband. On hearing of Bellerophon’s marriage to another, she killed herself.
50 7 Cleopatra: killed herself after the death of Mark Antony so that she would not be captured by Augustus Caesar.
51 1 routs: crowds.
52 7 Posterne: gate.
53 2 Lay-stall: rubbish or dung heap. 53 9 spectacle: example.
CANTO 6
1 3 bewaile: forced usage or error by Spenser (OED 3b). 1 8 dreadlesse: fearless.
2 3 dreed: object of awe or reverence. OED cites this line,
2 7 bad: would have.
3 6 treatie: entreaty.
4 9 t’efforce: to force.
3 2 And subtile engine sbet from batteree: imagery ofbattle used to describe the sexual contest: i.e., his clever war devices were beaten down from their assault.
6 7 implyes: covers (Latin: implicate, ‘to enfold’).
7 I exceeding thought: i.c, transcending human thought.
7 7 Fames and Satyres: mythological figures, half-man, half-goat, associated with woods and glades. They are lustful, often in rather a benevolent manner.
7 9 Syluanus: god of fauns and satyrs. He is sometimes confused with Bacchus.
8 5 incontinent: at once (Latin: continents).
9 3 blubbred: swollen from weeping. 11 6 horror: roughness.
119 teach… obay. i.e., teach them to obey her humbly,
12 2 single: solitary, truth: honesty,
12 4 learnd: taught.
13 1 guise: appearance.
13 5 Prime: early morning, or springtime.
14 8 stadle: staff.
15 2 Or Bacchus merry fruit: i.e., either the wine of Bacchus …
15 3 Cybeles franticke rites: the Corybantes, priests of Cybele, or Shea, celebrated her rites with wild dances and music. See Ovid, Fasti 4.201 ff for origin of the rites.
15 8 Dryope: Aen. 10.551 makes Dryope the wife of Faunus, another wood god. Spenser may not have distinguished between Sylvanus, Faunus, and Pan, because Pholoe is a nymph loved by Pan in Statius, Silvae 2.3.8-11. The pun {‘Pholoe fowle’) may explain Spenser’s use of the name.
16 9 buskins: boots.
17 2 Cyparisse: according to Natalis Comes, 5.10, and Boccaccio, Gen.
13.17, Cyparissus was loved by Sylvanus, for which he was changed into a cypress tree (Latin: cyparissus). Sylvanus ever after carried a cypress branch, which accounts for the ‘Cypresse stadle’ of 14.8. In Met. 10.106 ff, Apollo loved the boy. Ovid uses the story to explain why cypress groves are places of sorrow.
17 9 annoy: sorrow.
18 1 Hamadryades: spirits of trees whose lives ended with the life of the tree they inhabited.
18 3 Naiades: nymphs of rivers or springs.
18 8 woody kind: inhabitants of forest, such as satyrs, fauns, nymphs,
21 4 Thyamis: Greek: ‘passion’. Labryde: Greek: ‘turbulent, greedy’.
21 6 Therion: Greek: ‘wild beast’.
22 5 venery: hunting, with pun an venereal spotting.
23 7 aspire: grow up.
23 8 noursled vp: reared.
24 1 ymp: Satyrane’s education is like that of Achilles, who was taught by the centaur Chiron. Spenser probably has in mind a similar passage in OF 7.57, describing the education of Ruggiero.
25 6 learne: teach.
25 8 Iibbard: leopard.
26 4 Pardale: panther or leopard.
28 3 reuokt: called back (Latin: revocatus).
29 5 haught: high, haughty.
30 4 ofspring: origin. 30 7 habiliment: attire.
30 9 redound: flow.
31 7 hurtlesse: harmless.
32 9 arise: depart.
33–48The action of the rest of this canto is intended to recall the first two cantos of OF, in which Rinaldo and Sacripante fight over Angelica. The outcome of the fight between Sansloy and Satyrane is characteristically withheld, although Sansloy appears again in IL2 and Satyrane in m.7. We hear about Sansjoy’s wounds in great detail; but whether they were healed by Aesculapius we never learn, nor is the reader likely to ask the question unless it is pointed out to him.
35 7 Jacobs staffe: pilgrim’s staff, symbol of St James, whose shrine at Santiago de Compostela was one of the greatest centres of pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. The symbolism is derived from Jacob’s staff in Genesis 32.10-13.
35 9 scrip: bag.
37 8 processe: account.
38 7 imbrew: soak in blood.
39 2 wonne: fought. 39 8 Foreby: close by.
41 2 knightlesse: unknightly. train: deceit.
41 8 three square: triangular.
42 1 misborne: base born. 42 4 blent: blemished.
42 7–8Sansloy is referring to his encounter with Archimago disguised as Redcross, I.3.33-9.
44 9 entire: whole, unbroken, intact. 46 4 doubtfull: undedded. 48 1 leasing: lie.
CANTO 7
1 1 ware: wary, wise. 1 2 descry: perceive, see through.
2 7 foreby: near.
3 1 bayes: bathes.
3–8These stanzas are crucial to understanding the moral condition of Redcross and to the correct reading of Spenser’s figures in general. The lines describing this meeting of Redcross and Duessa have been interpreted a s simple physical fornication (although the sexual loosenes s is never specified) and at the other extreme as spiritual fornication (the whoring after strange gods of the Old Testament). The myth about the nymph who ‘Sat downe to rest in middest of the race’, recalls Paul’s running of the race in I Cor. 9.24. The nymph’s spiritual sloth, in physical terms, taints the waters of the well and thereby Red cross. For an excellent discussion of this passage and the complications of reading Spenser see Paul Alpers, The Poetry of the Faerie Queene, pp. 137-59; also D. Douglas Waters, Duessa as Theological Satire (University of Missouri Press, 1970).
4–7An analogue is the spring in the myth of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus in Met. 4.285 ff. See Alastair Fowler, Silent Poetry, pp. 141-51.
6 2 graile: gravel; OED cites this line.
6 8 chearefull: lively, life-giving.
7 8 looser make: sexually looser companion.
8–10Orgoglio’s parentage links him to earthquakes, which the Elizabethans thought were caused by winds moving under the surface of the earth. S. K. Heninger, jr, (ELH 26, 1959, 171-87) suggests that Orgoglio is associated with the earthquake at the coming of the Last Judgement (Rev. 6.1-8.1; 8.2-11.19; 16.11-21) and that Duessa, as Antichrist, is thus an appropriate companion. He is, as his Italian name suggests, Pride, the chiefest of all the sins. Vernon Torczon (Texas St
udies in Lang, and Lit. 3, 1961, 123-8) further specifies Orgoglio as presumption, that form of pride most commonly paired with its opposite, despair, so explaining the placement of the Orgoglio and Despair episodes together. Many critics think that Spenser is duplicating Ludfera in Orgoglio. Tuve observes: ‘We keep meeting the Beast’s shapes, but only in that sense of Leviathan himself. There is no repetition in Book I except as men eternally repeat the First sin, never recognizing it again when they see it – surely one of Spenser’s points’ (Allegorical Imagery, p. 108).
10 7 Oke: oak, commonly associated win physical strength and force.
11 2 mayne: strength.
12 1 maynly: mightily.
12 4 pouldred: crushed, powdered, pulverized.
13 The cannon is imitated from OF 9.28 ff and 91. Cf. Milton, PL 6. 484-90.
13 9 th’onely breath: i.e., the blast alone.
14 7 do him not to dye: do not cause him to die.
16 See note to I.2.13.1 ff for the significance of Duessa’s clothes.
17–18Duessa’s beast is derived from Rev. 17.3, associated with the devil in Rev. 12.3-4:’… for behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads: And his tail drew the third part of the stars of Heaven, and cast them to the earth …’ The rest of chapter 17 allegorizes the heads and horns as seven kings and ten kings, which the Genevan Bible glosses as the emperors of Rome and ‘divers nations’ such as Goths, Vandals, Huns. The seven heads become in this association the seven hills of Rome. 19 5 missing most at need: i.e., missing when most needed.
19 7 poynant: sharp.
20 4 let: prevent.
26 5 treen mould: shape of a tree. 28 4 All as: just as. assynd: pointed out.
28 7 bet: beaten.
29 8 bauldrick: belt worn over shoulder to carry sword.
29–36This is the first appearance of Prince Arthur, whom Spenser describes in the Letter to Ralegh: ‘So in the person of Prince Arthure I sette forth magnificence in particular, which vertue for that (according to Aristotle and the rest) it is the perfection of all the rest, and conteineth in it them all…’ Since Aristotle does not mention a virtue of magnificence, commentators have been concerned about this virtue. Tuve, Allegorical Imagery, pp. 57-143, traces the development of this Christian virtue through its many medieval commentators. Arthur does not appear often in the poem; he does appear when the titular knight of the book has reached the limits of resources allowed to that particular virtue (II.8; IV.7; V.8; VI.6). Arthur tells the story of his birth and love for the Faerie Queene in I.9.4 ff.
30 2 mights: magical powers.
30 3 Ladies head: Faerie Queene’s.
30 4 Hesperus: the evening star, the planet Venus, lesser lights: stars.
30 7 slights: designs.
31 1 horrid: bristling (Latin: horridus). 316 beuer: faceguard of helmet.
32 5 Like to an Almond: Marlowe uses these lines in 2 Tamberlaine 4.3.119 ff.
33 Arthur’s diamond shield is a more powerful version of Redcross’s shield of faith, which is based upon Ephesians 6.16. So Fido in Phineas Fletcher’s The Purple Island 12.24 has a shield of ‘one pure diamond, celestiall fair’. The shield is also related to Atlante’s shield, OF 2.55-6, which is not pure diamond, but has some of the dazzling powers of Arthur’s shield when properly used. D. C. Allen (JEGP 36, 1937, 234-43) claims that the shield is repentance.
34 6 attaint: make dim or pale.
34 9 magicke arts constraint: magicians were believed to be able to eclipse the moon.
37 1 A gentle youth: called Timias (Greek: ‘honoured’) in III, IV, VL 37 6 canon bit: smooth, round bit for horse’s mouth. 37 9 rowels: ends of the bit.
38 4 distraine: afflict. 41 8 paire: impair.
43 8–9Phison… Euphrates… Gehons:… three of the four rivers of Para dise. See Genesis 2.10-14.
44 3 Tartary: Tartarus, hell.
46 4 order… of Maidenhed: order of knights in Faeryland, equivalent to the Knights of the Garter, the highest order of knighthood in England. They wore a figure of St George slaying the dragon. See 11.2.4a; IV.4 and V.4.29.
46 7 Cleopolis: the city of glory, capital of Faeryland.
47 5 vnregarded: not respected.
48 7 deare: harm.
48 9 tosse: wield, handle. 51 4 mall: club.
CANTO 8
3 5 home of bugle: literally, a horn of a wild ox. This horn is related to the horn of Astolfo in OF 15.14, where Logistilk (reason) bestows upon Astolfo gifts of a book and a horn. The commentators interpret these gifts as wisdom (by which we know the truth) and eloquence (by which we proclaim that wisdom). Spenser may also have in mind Romans 10.13-18, where Paul, discussing dissemination of the word of Christ by preachers, quotes Psalm 19.4: “Their line is gone forth through all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world’.
4 7 presently: at once.
6 2 beast: see note to I.7.17-18.
7 4 snubbes: snags, stubs.
7 S Him thought: i.e., he thought that he would slay him at once.
7 6 Pere: rival.
7 7 maine: strength.
8 2 idle: useless.
9 3 food: feud.
9 6 engin: weapon.
10 1 boystrous: roughly massive, bulky.
11 5 Cymbrianplaine: probably Wales, from a conflation of Cymru (Welsh: ‘Wales’) and Cambria (Latin: ‘Wales’).
12 5 ramping: rearing.
13 4 That stop: i.e., Timias.
13 5 the let: hindrance.
14 1 golden cup: Spenser finally mentions the Scarlet Whore’s golden cup, which was ‘full of abominations and filtbiness of her fornications’ (Rev. 17.4). The Genevan Bible glosses ‘abominations’ as ‘false doctrines and blasphemies’. The image is general, but some critics would like to particularize the cup as the chalice used in the Roman Catholic Mass, with (to Protestant eyes) its abominable doctrine of transubstantiation.
14 8 quayd: subdued,
16 1–5A direct reference to Rev. 13.3: ‘And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death.’ 18 2 In one alone left hand: i.e., the one hand left to him.
18 4 dites: lifts, raises; erroneous usage by Spenser (OED 16).
19 Arthur’s shield uncovered has the same effect as Ruggiero’s in OF 22.84-6. Here it is God’s grace intervening.
21 2 trend: lover.
22 3 blest: brandished.
22 5 as an aged tree: a simile with classical precedents; cf. especially Aen. 2.626-31, where the fall of Troy is compared to the falling of a tree.
23 2 slight: device.
25 3 crowned mitre: the triple tiara of the Popes.
271 fresh bud: i.e., Timias, Arthur’s squire.
31 s trace: walk.
31 9 Ignaro: ignorance.
32 2 as beseemed well: as was proper.
34 2 doted: stupid, foolish, in second childhood.
34 9 empeach: hinder.
35 2 arras: tapestry.
35 6–9Probably a reference to Herod’s massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2.16). Traditionally these children were interpreted as the first sacrifices or martyrs for Christ.
36 Rev. 6.9-10: ‘And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were killed for the word of God, and for the testimony which they maintained. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy and true, dost not thou judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’ The Genevan Bible glosses: “The continual persecution of the Church is noted by the fifth seal. The souls o tthe Saints are under the altar which is Christ, meaning that they are in his safe custody in the heavens.’
The prisoners in Orgoglio’s castle, captives of Ignaro (ignorance) and Orgoglio (pride), with the help of Duessa (the power of Antichrist, here the Church of Rome), are meant to signify the faithful kept from the true faith by the corruption of doctrine and power in the English Church while it maintained allegiance to Rome.
36 4 doen to dye: caused to die.
37 9 enlargen: set free.
40 2 noyous: noxious.
40 3 nicer: too fastidious.
40 8 pined: wasted.
41 3 better bits: food.
41 4 deceiued: deprived, but Spenser’s use refers to the deception of Redcross by Duessa, which deprived him of spiritual food.
41 6 bowrs: muscles.
42 9 misseeming hew: unbecoming appearance.
43 4 wreakes: revenges.
43 6 priefe: testing, proving.
44 6 ware: wary.
44 8 yron pen: Jortin (Var., p. 262) cites Job 19.23-4: ‘O that my words were written. .. that they were graven with an iron pen.’
45 7 To do her dye: to cause her to die.
45 9 spoile: despoil.
46 The stripping of Duessa imitates the revelation of Alciaa to the rescued Ruggiero (OP 7.71-3). In using Alcina as a model Spenser is once more using physical action to figure spiritual meaning. He carefully avoids bringing in the destruction of the Scarlet Whore (Rev. 17.16), which Una’s mercy countermands (stanza 45).
46 2 pall: cloak.
46 5 tire and call: headdress and caul, the netted substructure of a wig.
47 3 scald: scabby disease.
47 4 feld: fallen.
48 3–9Upton (Var., p. 263), citing Rev. 13.2, suggests that the foxtail signifies craftiness and that the eagle’s claw and bear’s paw signify Duessa’s rapacious nature.
49 6 counterfesaunce: deceit.
50 Duessa’s exit, in nakedness and desolation, is indebted to Rev. 17. 16.
CANTO 9
Arg. 1 Ugnage: lineage.
1 1 goodly golden chaine: the image of the golden chain begins with Il. 8.18-27, where Zeus asserts his superiority to the other gods:
He spake, and all the Gods gave eare: heare how I stand inclind -That God nor Goddesse may attempt t’infringe my soveraigne mind, But all give suffrage, that with speed I may these discords end.
… then shall he know from thence
How much my power, past all the Gods, hath soveraigne eminence. Indanger it the whiles and see let downe our golden chaine, And at it let all Deities their utmost strengths constraine To draw me to the earth from heaven: you never shall prevaile Though with your most contention ye dare my state assaile. But when my will shall be disposd to draw you all to me, Even with the earth it selfe and seas ye shall enforced be. Then will I to Olympus’ top our vertuous engine bind And by it everie thing shall hang by my command inclind. So much I am supreme to Gods, to men supreme as much.
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