The Shorter Poems

by Edmund Spenser

  Julye

  3 shrowde: shelter. Cf. June, 16 and note.

  5 swayne: servant or labourer. Cf. Chaucer, The Reeve’s Tale, 4027.

  6 hyll: cf. Isaiah 40: 4; King (1990), 41–2.

  10 looke alofte: cf. Maye, 124.

  11 reede is ryfe: proverb is common.

  14 trode… tickle: path is not so treacherous.

  16 misse… mickle: loss is not much.

  19 Cuppe: the constellation Crater.

  20 Diademe: Corona Borealis.

  33–40 Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues, 8. 8–14.

  33 thous: you are (thou art).

  36 blere… eyes: blur my eyes, hoodwink or deceive me.

  43 S. Brigets bowre: unidentified.

  45 con… skill: have knowledge of the Muses.

  46 sayne… what: mostly say.

  50 Oliuet: cf. Matthew 21: 1; 24: 3; 26: 30.

  51 Feeding… Dan: cf. Ezekiel 34: 14–15. Dan was one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

  52 which… beget: which He (as God) begot, or which begot Him (in the sense that Christ was born into the nation of Israel).

  55 bloudy sweat: during the agony in Gethsemane ‘his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground’ (Luke 22: 44).

  56 Wolues: in his role of ‘good shepherd’, cf. John 10: 11–14.

  57–68 Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues, 8. 45–9.

  69 foresayd: forbidden, prohibited (a rare usage).

  70 places of delight: for Paradise cf. June, [10].

  71 For… weene: for this reason I believe.

  75 strow my store: spread out or display my stock of examples. Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues, 8. 56–7.

  77 resourse: used loosely in the sense of resort (or recourse), but informed by the underlying sense of ‘renewal’.

  78 haunten rathe: soon, or speedily, resort.

  79–84 In Letters Spenser mentions his ‘Epithalamion Thamesis… setting forth the marriage of the Thames… and… all the Riuers throughout Englande, whyche came to this Wedding’ (Prose, 17). Cf. FQ, 4. 11. 8-53.

  85 Melampode: black hellebore.

  86 Teribinth: the turpentine tree.

  98 old… same: ancient proverb.

  101 Alsoone: as soon (archaic).

  105–12 For the final segregation of sheep and goats cf. Matthew 25: 32–3.

  116 han… yore: have died of old.

  118 goe: gone.

  119 sample: example.

  120 als… soe: that we also might do so.

  124 why… disease: why do we disturb or trouble them.

  125–36 For Abel, the ‘first shepheard’, cf. Mantuan, Eclogues, 7. 14–22.

  126 Algrind: cf. Maye, 75 and note.

  131 in… degree: in every respect.

  145–52 Cf. August, 137–8; S. Stewart (1988).

  148 to deare: too dear.

  151 ouerlayd: overwhelmed, overpowered.

  157–64 Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues, 7. 29–31.

  158 sawe… face: cf. Exodus 33: 11.

  159 His face: either God’s face or that of Moses: ‘the skin of Moses’ face shone’ (Exodus 34: 35).

  160 in place: in his presence, cf. FQ, 1. 5. 36.

  162 cote: coat, signifying his clerical profession. As the founder of the priesthood Aaron was the first ‘man of the cloth’.

  164 that… hote: that I mentioned (or named) formerly.

  165 lowe… lief: humble and amenable or willing.

  170 amend: amended.

  171 nighly wore: niggardly or sparingly worn.

  173 pall: a woollen vestment worn by popes and archbishops.

  174 blist: blessed.

  176 lord it: cf. lines 185–6 and note to Maye, [123].

  181 Palinode: if this is the Palinode of Maye he would seem to have discovered the justice of Piers’s complaints and made a sort of ‘recantation’. It is suggestive that the first edition actually assigns Thomalin’s emblem to ‘Palinode’. Cf. note to SC, Maye, 17.

  184 misusage: abuse or corruption.

  185 leade: lead their lives or behave themselves.

  186 Lordes: cf. similar complaints in The Plowman’s Tale, 701–8.

  187–200 Cf. Marot, Le Complaincte d’un Pastoreau Chrestien, 179–209.

  188 chippes: parings of bread crust.

  chere: fare, proper food.

  191 corne is theyrs: cf. The Plowman’s Tale, ‘Prologue’, 43.

  193 thriftye stockes: thriving livestock.

  199 leany: lean (a rare usage).

  201 misgone: gone astray.

  202 heapen… wrath: cf. Romans 2: 5.

  206 lacke of telling: inadequacy or defect in the relating.

  211 rancke: abundant (but with connotations of corruption).

  234 In… virtus: ‘Virtue resides in the middle’, alluding to the golden mean of Aristotelian philosophy. Cf. FQ, 2. 2. 35–9.

  236 In… fœlicitas: ‘Felicity lies at the summit’, a Platonic adage adapted to worldly ends by Morrell.

  Gloss

  [1] scrypture: cf. Matthew 25: 32–3.

  [9] Clymbe: for the implications of the imagery cf. John 10: 1.

  [12] Seneca: not in Seneca, but cf. Horace, Odes, 2. 10. 10, a passage quoted by E. K. at [91].

  Decidunt… lapsu: ‘Lofty things suffer a heavier fall.’

  [17] sonne: possibly to be understood allegorically as the Son of God in view of the eschatological overtones of the segregation of the sheep from the goats at [1]. At Mark 13: 6–26 Christ predicts wars, earthquakes, unprecedented affliction and the rise of false prophets until ‘they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory’.

  [33] Lurdane: worthless rascal or dullard, from Old French ‘lourdain’, but for E. K.’s etymology cf. Holinshed, Chronicles, 1. 709; 5. 256.

  Feuer Lurdane: disease of laziness.

  [51] Synecdochen: a rhetorical figure whereby the part represents the whole.

  [59] Diodorus Syc.: Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, 17. 7. 6–7, but the primary source is Mantuan, Eclogues, 8. 45–9.

  Ida: Endymion slept on Mount Latmus not Mount Ida. Cf. Epith, 380.

  [64] Endymion: cf. Boccaccio, Genealogia, 4: 16; Comes, Mythologiae, 4: 8.

  [63] follye… thence: cf. Genesis 3: 23–4.

  [73] Synah: (Sinai) where Moses received the commandments, cf. Exodus 19–20.

  [74] Ladyes bowre: angels were said to have transported the house of the Virgin Mary to Loreto in Italy (Mantuan, Eclogues, 8. 52). It was a popular place of Roman Catholic pilgrimage and a common target of Protestant satire.

  [79] Rochester: the topography would be familiar to Spenser in his capacity of secretary to Thomas Young, Bishop of Rochester.

  [85–6] Mantuane: cf. Eclogues, 8. 15–18.

  Theocritus: misquoted from Epigrams, 1. 6: ‘the white he-goat crops the terebinth tree’s outer twigs’.

  [91] Feriuntque… montes: ‘lightning strikes the mountain summits’ (Horace, Odes, 2. 10. 11–12 substituting ‘fulmina’ for ‘fulgura’).

  [127] Abell… Cain: cf. Genesis 4: 2.

  [143] twelue… Iacob: Jacob’s twelve sons are named at Exodus 1: 1–4.

  [146] Hecubas dreame: cf. Hyginus, Fables, 91; Apollodorus, The Library, 3. 12. 5; Boccaccio, Genealogia, 6. 22.

  [147] Venus… Paris: Paris’ choice of Aphrodite (Venus) over Hera and Athene was often allegorized as a preference for love (or lust) over wisdom and virtue. Cf. Comes, Mythologiae, 6. 23; FQ, 3. 9. 33–5.

  [154] Argus… Io: cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1. 588–750. The detail of the hoof print was probably suggested by lines 649–50 (‘instead of words she told the sad tale… with letters traced in the dust with her hoof’) from which commentators extrapolated E. K.’s explanation. Cf. October, [32].

  [161] Decorum: sense of generic and stylistic propriety.

  meanenesse: lowliness.

  [163] Not so true: because Aaron fashioned the idolatrous golden calf (Exodus 32: 1–6).

  [173] In purple
: applied to Rome by E. K. but politically sensitive owing to the continuing controversy concerning the use of clerical vestments within the Anglican Church.

  [177] Chaucer: cf. the pseudo-Chaucerian Plowman’s Tale, 134, 162.

  I. Goore: John Gower (1330?–1408), author of Confessio Amantis (1390).

  [213] Æschylus: cf. Pliny, Natural History, 10. 3. 7. Grindal had used the story in a sermon of 1564. Cf. Remains of Archbishop Grindal (1843), 8.

  Embleme

  sequestred: obliquely glancing at Grindal’s sequestration.

  hys cote: his clerical coat or cloth, as at line 162.

  doctour: unidentified.

  Suorum… humillimus: ‘Christ the humblest of his own.’

  Suorum… altissimus: ‘God the most exalted of his own.’

  August

  This eclogue, like that assigned to June, illustrates the disquietingly symbiotic relationship between the ‘recreatiue’ and ‘plaintiue’ modes of pastoral, between the social powers of art and the isolating forces of distress. Although the theme of unrequited love, common to Perigot and Colin, is handled in radically dissimilar ways, the juxtaposing of apparently discordant forms suggests an unsettling relationship between them. Just as Willye provides an ironic ‘vndersong’ (128) to Perigot’s complaint, so the roundelay constitutes a sort of comic counterpoint to Colin’s lamentation and is, in turn, qualified by it. From the artistic viewpoint with ‘mery thing its good to medle sadde’ (144) and the eclogue provides a dazzling showcase for Spenser’s versatility as he turns from one complex form to another [cf. D. L. Miller (1979)]. As the ‘Argument’ indicates, the singing contest was a staple of the pastoral genre but the addition of Colin’s ‘proper song’ is an original touch. The energies of emotional distress are channelled through a sequence of elaborately patterned and self-reflexive verse forms with the result that grief becomes something of a performing art.

  The opening dialogue reprises the six-line stanza of Colin’s Januarye monologue (rhyming ababcc), but significantly divides it between two speakers. Unlike Colin, Perigot still feels himself to be part of a rustic community. Although confined to couplets for the first twenty-four lines, he grows in confidence with the prospect of the wager and, having acted as mere respondent in the initial verses, takes the initiative in the roundelay. For the first forty-two lines the weight of the exchange is two to one against him, but thereafter the proportions equalize. The roundelay itself is an interactive form which, like a pastoral duet, accommodates both complaint and commentary. Almost imperceptibly its vibrant rhythms modulate the initial tone of grief into a lighter key so that Perigot ends by seeming quite dissimilar to Colin whose complex lament has no ‘undersong’ but the ‘hollow Echo of my carefull cryes’ (160). Dwelling ‘apart / In gastfull groue’ (169–70) he seems to have become increasingly remote from the very community in which his ‘song’ is performed and appreciated [cf. Montrose (1979)]. Yet, in obvious anticipation of November, his poetics of desolation looks certain to win him the pastoral crown (145–6). Even a despondent Colin is ‘the shepheards ioye’ (190). His is a severely formal complaint, a variant of the Provençal sestina, in which the end words of each line are redeployed throughout the poem in a complex pattern (123456, 612345, 561234 etc.) until all six are repeated in a three-line coda in the exact order in which they appear in the opening verse. Though uttered in the ‘wild woddes’ the poem retains the formal sophistication of intensely civilized expression and, through the imagery of the nightingale, reaches for the sympathy of the very community from which it asserts its isolation (187–9). Because Virgil associates the nightingale with Orpheus’ lament for the loss of Eurydice, it may be seen to function here as a metaphor for the transformative powers of art, the distillation of grief into song [cf. Georgics, 4. 511–15]. If it also points, as has been argued, towards an eventual transcendence of sorrow, Colin himself would appear to remain unaware of this possibility [cf. Cheney (1993), 98–100; Tylus (1988)].

  The discussion of love is conducted, ironically, under the sign of Virgo and its ill-effects are more evident than its benefits. The woodcut casts its pastoral figures against an active georgic background, yet Colin tells us in December that ‘my haruest hastened all to rathe: / The eare that budded faire, is burnt and blasted’ (98–9). His sense of alienation is bad for his flock. ‘Neuer knewe I louers sheepe in good plight’ (20), remarks Willye, recalling the ‘ill gouernement’ (45) of Colin’s sheep in Januarye. Cuddie’s judgement of the singing contest is compared to the ill-fated judgement of Paris, and Venus appears in the woodcut holding the golden ball awarded to her by the shepherd that ‘left hys flocke, to fetch a lasse, / whose loue he bought to deare’ [cf. Julye, 147–8; S. Stewart (1988)]. Through this complex network of associations Spenser again activates contemporary anxieties concerning the d’Alençon match and its religious implications. Willye’s ‘mazer’ (26), an object fit for ‘any harvest Queene’ (36), displays a shepherd rushing to save an ‘innocent’ lamb from ‘the Wolues iawes’ (31–3) thereby recalling the concerns of Maye and Julye and anticipating those of September. But the true harvest queen, as the woodcut implies, is Virgo, and Virgo is the birth sign of England’s (still) virgin Queen. Cf. Berger (1988); Hoffman (1977); Mallette (1979).

  Argument

  delectable: delightful.

  Theocritus: cf. Idylls, 5, 6.

  vmpere: umpire, arbiter.

  neatheards: cowherd’s.

  cause: contention, contest.

  proper: excellent (i.e. worthy the name of a song).

  August

  1 game: sport or diversion in the specific sense of a contest.

  2 Wherefore: with which.

  3 renne… frame: run out of order or out of tune.

  5 assayde: afflicted. Cf. FQ, 1. 2. 24.

  6 apayd: contented, at ease.

  16 younglings: young lambs (as Willye’s reply makes clear).

  21 But… if: but if.

  24 dared: daunted, scared (taking up the challenge or ‘dare’ of line 2).

  26–36 Cf. Theocritus, Idylls, 1. 27–56; Virgil, Eclogues, 3. 36–48.

  26 mazer: wooden drinking bowl, such as the ‘Valence Mary Cup’ kept at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge.

  warre: knot, burr.

  30 Yuie: ivy was sacred to Bacchus. Cf. Muiop, 299 and note.

  31 Thereby: adjacent, nearby.

  38 nis… another: there is not such another.

  39 Dambe: dam, mother.

  40 rafte: deprived.

  41 purchast… field: acquired from me openly or fairly (i.e. in a fair contest).

  43 make… brother: i.e. you may expect the same to befall his brother.

  47 But for: because.

  53 holly: holy.

  55 shrieue: shrive, hear confessions and absolve sins.

  56 roundelay: cf. Aprill, [33] and note.

  60 selfe… spill: wasted or ruined himself (by falling in love).

  61 Bellibone: fair maid, bonny lass. Cf. Aprill, [92].

  67 Kirtle: skirt.

  saye: fine quality woollen cloth.

  79 roude: roved, shot (arrows) at random.

  87 lightsome… shroudes: radiant lightning hides itself.

  92 pitteous plight: pathetic effect or state of affairs.

  97 raunch: pluck, pull.

  99 hart roote: inmost heart.

  100 desperate: to be despaired of, incurable.

  104 curelesse: incurable. Echoing the complaint of Oenone to Paris at Ovid, Heroides, 5. 149. For Paris cf. lines 137–8; Julye, [146], [147].

  105 bale: bail, delivery or release, but punning on ‘bale’ or destruction.

  107 Yet… thought: yet this girl would not leave my mind.

  108 to: too.

  110 pinching: cf. Aprill, 18 and note.

  113 gracelesse greefe: grief occasioned by the lack of ‘grace’ or favour.

  120 mocke: sign of derision, but playing on the dual senses of ridicule and (empathic) imitation.

&nbs
p; 125 roundle: roundel or roundelay. Cf. Aprill, [33] and note.

  128 vndersongs: burdens, refrains.

  addrest: applied, directed.

  131 gayned: won, gained the victory.

  133 for: because.

  payned: taken such pains, made such an effort.

  134 wroughten: ornamented, designed.

  139 yshend: put to shame (an archaic usage).

  145 ycrouned: crowned (an archaic usage).

  148 matter… deede: material of his making.

  151–89 As E. K. provides no gloss to Colin’s sestina it may have been added to the poem at a relatively late stage of composition. Its repetitive structure made the sestina an appropriate form for complaint.

  154 make a part: form part of the melody or counterpoint.

  160 Echo: cf. note to June 52; L. S. Johnson (1990), 122.

  161 part: depart.

  164 voyd: leave, withdraw.

  170 gastfull: dreadful, terrible.

  173–4 byrds… death: shriek owls, regarded as harbingers of death.

  174 deadly: deathlike, dismal.

  178 yrksome: distressing, painful.

  183 Nightingale: Philomela, raped by Tereus, was transformed into a nightingale (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 6. 424–674). Her song was regarded as the archetypal lover’s complaint. Cf. November, [141]; Petrarch, Rime Sparse, 311.

  188 apart: at a remove or distance from the singer.

  189 sounder: deep or profound, playing on ‘sound’ at line 187. The ‘sound’ of Colin’s lament ‘sounds’ the depth of their tranquil sleep.

  191 turning: fashioning, with particular reference to the sestina’s intricate rhyme scheme.

  197 Vincenti… victi: ‘The glory of the vanquished goes to the victor’. Cf. Gabriel Harvey, Marginalia (1913), 192.

  199 Vinto… vitto: ‘Vanquished not subdued’.

  201 Felice… può: either ‘Let him be happy who can’ or, as E. K. prefers, ‘He is happy who can’.