9 9 earner Holme: holm oak, used for carving bowls, etc.
11 5 tract: traces.
12 7 shame were: it would be shame to.
12 8 forward footing for: i.e., going forward for fear of.
14 1 hardiment: courage, boldness.
15 3 boughtes: coils.
16 1 dam: mother.
16 4 without entraile: without coiling.
16 5 mayle: armour.
16 6 Armed to point: fully armed.
16 7 bale: death and conflagration (OED 1 and 3).
17 1 Elfe: inhabitant of Faeryland.
17 3 trenchand: sharp.
17 8 enhaunst: raised.
19 3 force: not merely physical force but fortitude as in French force. See R. Tuve, Allegorical Imagery, p. 120 ff. Cf. I. 1.3.8 and 1.24.6.
19 8 gorge: throat.
20 1 maw: stomach.
20 3 gobbets: lumps.
20 6 bookes and papers: theological books, tracts, and pamphlets, debating often violently the nature of the one, true Church, that is, theological controversy which involves men in Error’s den.
20 7 frogs: Rev. 16.13: ‘And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.’ Cf. Exodus 8.2-7.
20 9 parbreake: vomit.
21 1 Nilus: the river Nile. Spenser often uses the Latin forms of proper names as here.
21 9 reed: to see, only in Spenser (OED, ‘read’ 7). Cf. IH.9.2.3. 23 2 Phoebus: sun. welke: fade.
23 8 clownish: rustic.
24 1 bestedd: situated.
26 2 vnkindly Impes: unnatural children.
27 5 Armorie: armour.
28 7 to frend: as friend.
29 2 weedes: garments; cf. OF 2.12-13, where Angelica meets the hypo- critical old hermit. 29 9 knockt his brest: in reciting the confiteor, the act of confession in the Roman Mass, the pious would touch the right hand to the heart thrice as a sign of penitence at the words ‘mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa’ (through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault).
30 2 faire him quited: responded similarly.
30 7 Bidding his beades: saying his rosary beads, prayers, trespas: sins.
30 9 sits not: is not proper.
32 1 wastfull: like a waste.
32 5 later: recent.
32 9 baite: refresh.
34 4 a little wyde: a little apart.
34 s edifyde: built.
34 7 holy things: the prayers for matins and evensong, or perhaps more specifically the monastic offices of Roman Catholicism.
35 3 Rest is their feast, and all things at their will: i.e., rest is entertainment to them, and because they desire nothing, they have ‘all things at their will’. 35 7 file his tongue: i.e., make his words persuasive.
35 9 Aue-Mary: ‘Hail, Mary’, the salutation of the archangel Gabriel to Mary announcing the conception of Christ (Luke 1.26 ff). The salutation was adopted as a prayer by the Roman Church and became the principal prayer in the Rosary.
36 2 humour: moisture.
36 3 Morpheus: god of sleep.
36 5 riddes: dispatches.
37 4 Plutoes griesly Dame: Pluto’s wife Proserpina, queen of hell. Cf. I.5.20 ff.
37 8–9Gorgon: Demogorgon, the mythological invention of Boccaccio as the progenitor of all the gods, whose power is so great that even mention of his name makes the rivers of hell (Cocytus and Styx) tremble. Faustus swears by him in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus 1.3. See also I.5.22 ff.
38 4 A-waite whereto: i.e., wait to see where he will use their services.
39 1 He: i.e., the first spirit.
39 3 Morpheus house: god of sleep; derived mainly from Met. 11.592 ff and Statius, Thebaid 10.84 ff. Cf. Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, 155 ff.
39 6 Tethys: wife of Oceanus and queen of rivers.
39 7 Cynthia: a name for the moon, associated with the goddess Diana. See VIl.6.3.3 and VII.6.37.5, and below, note to I.43.3.
40 1 double gates: The Gates of Sleep are from Od. 19.562 ff and Am. 6.893 ff. True dreams pass through the gate of horn, which Spenser does not mention except to say that they are encased in silver; false dreams pass through the gate of ivory.
40 9 keepe: notice.
41 3 loft: air, sky, upper region (OED 1).
42 7 dryer braine: i.e., not moistened by the dew of sleep.
43 3 Hecate: three-headed goddess of witches, identified -with Diana on earth, Cynthia or Luna in heaven, and Proserpina in hell.
43 6 Archimago: the old hermit, already associated with hypocrisy, is called now by his rightful name, ‘the great master of the false image’, at the moment at which his power in hell has been established.
44 2 diuerse: another.
44 4 carefull carke: concern.
45 3 fram’d of liquid ayre: Latin: liquidus, ‘clear, bright, pure’; the hellish spirit must be given a tangible body. 45 4 liuely: lifelike. 45 5 weaker sence: i.e., physical senses. 45 6 maker selfe: i.e., Archimago.
45 9 Vna: Una,’ one’, is not named until the duplicate, false image has been created.
46 1 ydle: baseless, insubstantial. 46 4 fantasy: imagination.
46 5 In sort as: as.
47 7 Then seemed him: then it seemed to him. 47 8 false winged boy: Cupid.
47 9 Dame pleasures toy: love-making.
48 2 Venus: not the Venus of the Proem (the Venus of’faithfull loues’), but the Venus of lechery.
48 7 Graces: the three Graces, daughters of Jove and Eurynome, handmaids of Venus. Aglaia (Greek: ‘bright’), Euphrosyne (Greek:’ good cheer’), Thalia (Greek: ‘festive”). See II.3.25 and VI.10.9 ff 48 8 Hymen id Hymen: retrain from Greek hymn to wedded love, therefore ironic in context.
48 9 Flora: goddess of spring and flowers, but identified as a harlot by E. K. in his gloss to ‘Marche’ 16, The Shepheardes Calender.
49 6 bayted hooke: see note to I.4.25.9.
51 4 blind God: Cupid.
52 3 bereaue: rob.
53 1 deare: dire.
53 5 redoubted: reverenced, dreaded, feared, but with a pun on ‘doubtful’.
54 3 hold me: i.e., consider myself.
55 2 light: wanton.
55 8 he: i.e., Archimago.
CANTO 2
1 1 Northerne wagoner: the constellation BoStes (Greek: ‘waggoner’). M. Y. Hughes (MLN 63, 1948, 543) points out that Boethius uses the same configuration of stars in the Consolation of Philosophy, Book 4, Metre 6. Spenser may want us to be aware of the magnificent assertion of Providence in Boethius’s hymn. See Fowler, Spenser and the Numbers of Time, p. 71, and Nohrnberg, Analogy of The Faerie Queene, pp. 37-8. Cf. I.3.1
1 2 seuenfold teme: seven bright stars in Ursa Major, called the Big Dipper(USA), The Plough or Charles’s Wain (UK). stedfast starre: the North star.
I 6 Chauntidere: the cock.
1 7 Phoebus fiery carre: the sun, imaged as a fiery chariot driven by Apollo.
2 7 Proserpines: queen of hell.
3 3 seeming body: the false body given to the spirit by Archimago.
6 6 Hesperus: name for planet Venus when it appears as evening star. Venus is also the morning star.
7 2 Tithones: husband of Aurora, goddess of dawn, granted immortality but not eternal youth, and hence eternally ageing.
7 4 Titan: the sun.
9 4 Th’end of his drift: i.e., the purpose of his plan.
10 4 Proteus: a sea-god who could change himself into any shape. See Od. 4.456–8and Virgil, Georgics 4.387-95, 406-10.
11 1 the person to put on: i.e. to disguise himself as Redcross. 11 6 bounch of haires discolourd: many-coloured plume.
11 7 Cf. L1.1.8.
11 9 Saint George: Redcross, who is revealed as Saint George, the patron saint of England in the next stanza and in I.10.61, here imitated by Archimago.
12 6 Sarazin: Saracen, a pagan or infidel. arm’d to point: fully armed. 12 7 gay: bright.
12 8 Sansfoy: �
��Faithless’ (French: sansfot).
13 iff Duessa here makes her initial appearance as the Scarlet Whore of Babylon, associated by Protestant commentators with the faithless religion of Rome, Rev. 17.3-4: ‘And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, which had seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold, and precious stones and pearls, and had a cup of gold in her hand, full of abominations and ulthiness of her fornication.’ Her full identity is revealed in I.7.16 ff.
13 4 Persian mitre: Persia, always associated with opulent, false show is here associated with the falsity oi Roman Catholicism, represented by the mitre, a bishop’s hat.
13 5 owches: brooches.
13 8 tinsell: gaudy.
13 9 bosses: studs.
14 1 disport: entertainment, pleasures.
I5 5 daunted: overcome.
15 9 rebut: recoil.
16 3 fronts: foreheads (Latin:fions).
16 6 hanging: undecided.
17 4 others: the other’s.
17 5 spies: glances? weapons?
18 2 bitter fit: i.e., death.
18 9 blame: harm. blest: preserved, protected.
19 2 natiue vertue: power or natural strength. 19 4 riue: cut through.
19 s cleft: cut off
19 7 grudging: complaining.
20 5 scowre: run, pursue.
21 4 humblesse: humility.
21 8 Much rueth me: it causes me to pity.
22 4 Before that: before.
22 7–9Emperour: Duessa’s father as Emperor of the West stands opposed to Una and her father, whose realm extends from East to West. See L1.5. The throne set upon the banks of the Tiber allusively links the Emperor of the West to the Pope as he figured Antichrist to the Protestant community.
23 6 day of spousall: marriage day.
24 2 conuaid: removed.
25 4 Fort: metaphor for virginity.
25 6–9Sansfoy: the three Sans brothers are the sons of old Aveugle (blind- ness). They are descendants of Night (cf. I.5.20 ff). They represent the progressive deterioration of the human soul through spiritual blindness. One is first without faith (Sansfoy) and then without law (Sansloy) and finally ends in spiritual death or joylessness (Sansjoy). Redcross’s and Una’s encounters with these three brothers in cantos 2-6 present an account of the Christian life in its battle against the forces of spiritual blindness. Redcross meets Sansfoy immediately after he has broken faith with Una by leaving her. He has broken his ‘troth’ and wandered off from ‘truth’. See Tuve, Allegorical Imagery, p. 125.
26 2 Fidessa: ‘Faithful’ (Latin-.fides), here used ironically.
27 9 so dainty they say maketh derth: this proverb is not entirely clear.
It may be a simple moral warning: ‘Who dainties love shall beggars prove.’ Some editors relate it to ‘Fastidiousness brings poverty’, and interpret that Duessa’s coy withholding of herself increases Redcross’s desire. In either case, the ironic thrust of this clinching proverb seems pointed towards the fastidiousness of Redcross, who refrains from pursuing his advantage, ‘feining seemely mirth’.
29 9 a tide: a while.
30 3 falsed: misled.
31 1 ff Spenser uses the ‘flashback myth’ or exemplum often, as a way of specifying the moral significance of an action. Redcross, in abandoning Una and taking up Duessa, is making the same mistake as Fradubio (‘Brother Doubt’). Similar transformations of a man into a tree can be found in Aen. 3.20 ft, Dante, Inferno 13 and OF 6.26.
31 3 embard: imprisoned.
31 8 houe: rise.
31 9 member: part of his body.
32 2 ouerpast: passed. manhood well awake: i.e., reason controlled the senses.
33 5 Limbo lake: not the Christian limbo. Maclean suggests it is a phrase taken from Phaer’s translation of the Aeneid (editions from 1562).
33 3 Fradubio: see note to I.2.31 ff.
33 7 Boreas: the north wind.
34 7 author: instigator.
35 1 prime… youthly; i.e., in the springtime of my youth. corage: heart (OED, ‘courage’ 1, but see OED 3e: sexual vigour, lust).
36 1 did take in hand: undertake.
36 8 prise martiall: prize of war.
37 4 whether: which.
37 8 Frcelissa: frailty (Italian: fralezza).
38 2 doubtfull ballaunce: i.e., the balance of decision was in doubt.
39 S visage: face.
39 9 treeu mould: form of a tree.
40 1 for my Dame: as my lady.
40 4 Prime: spring. See Milton, PL 10.572 ff.
40 7 origane and thyme: marjoram (oregano) and thyme, used to cure itching and scabs.
41 8 decay: destruction.
42 8 in wooden wals full faste: i.e., fast within the tree.
43 1 Elfin: faery.
43 4 in a liuing well: grace. See John 4.13–14and Rev. 22.1.
43 6 out find: find out, discover.
43 7 wonted well: i.e., usual state of nature or health; well-being.
43 8 suffised: satisfied.
44 4 dreriment: gloom, sorrow.
45 4 carelesse swowne: unconscious swoon. 45 6 vp gan lift: i.e., began to lift herself.
CANTO 3
Arg. 3 mart: bargaining, traffic.
Arg. 4 kachour: lecher, i.e., Sansloy.
2 5 true as touch: true as a touchstone.
2 9 deriu’d: taken away.
3 3 prease: press, gathering. 3 8 wastnesse: wilderness.
3 9 wished: wished for.
4 2 vnhastie: slow.
5 2 ramping: raging.
Lyon: the trrening of the lion is still a vexed question. It was long ago pointed out that the story of the lion tamed by the sight of beauty or of royalty had parallels in earlier romances; but Tuve cautions against reading the poem too ‘morally’ {Allegorical Imagery, p. 123). Nevertheless, Tuve’s case for her candidate (some form of pride) is no more convincing than Upton’s argument for the Church of England or Henry VIII {Variorum, p. 207) or Fowler’s for sol iustitiae {Spenser and
the Numbers of Time, pp. 67 ff) or Hankins’s for the irascible passions {Source and Meaning in Spenser’s Allegory, pp. 124-5). The lion is a common attribute of Fortitude, a virtue that Una exemplifies in this canto. Nohrnberg, Analogy of The Faerie Queene, p. 213, suggests 2 Kings 17.25.
8 1 Redounding: overflowing.
8 3 constraint: distress.
8 7 brood: ancestry.
8 9 attaine: overtake.
9 5 watch and ward: guard. 10 5 tract: trace.
10 6 hore: hoary, grey.
10 8 slow footing: walking slowly.
10 9 Details in this description of Abessa, first named in stanza 18, relate her to often allegorized passages in the Bible. Her pot of water is meant to recall the Samaritan woman at the Well, to whom Christ speaks: ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never be more athirst’ (John 4.13). The distinction is between the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit. The elaboration of the allegory is summarized in D. W. Robertson, jr, Preface to Chaucer, pp. 320-21.
The fact that Abessa ‘could not heare, nor speake, nor vnderstand’ is an allusion to Christ’s words to his disciples:
… He that hath ears to hear, let him hear… To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things be done in parables. That they seeing, may see, and not discern: and they hearing, may hear, and not understand, lest at any time they should turn, and their sins should be forgiven them (Mark 4.9-12).
11 9 cast in deadly hew: i.e., made her turn pale.
12 2 vpon the wager lay: Le., were at stake.
13 2 wicket: door.
137 beades: rosary beads.
13 8 Pater nosters: the Lord’s Prayer.
13 9 Aues: Hail Marys. See note to I.1.35.9.
14 2 ashes: symbol of penitence.
14 3 sackclo
th: symbol of penitence.
14 4 fast from any bit: i.e., not eat any bite of food.
14 9 she rest her may: i.e., she might rest herself.
15 6 late: recent.
16 1 Aldeboran: a star in the constellation Taurus.
16 2 Cassiopeias chaire: Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda, was transformed into the constellation that bears her name. In 1572 the most brilliant nova ever recorded broke out in this constellation and was observed by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The appearance of a new star in the unchanging heavens had great significance for the abandonment of the ancient Ptolemaic theory of the universe and the acceptance of the Copernican theory, which placed the sun rather than the earth at the centre of the universe. For a description of the Ptolemaic universe see headnote to ‘Mutabilitie Cantos’. FowJer, Spenser and the Numbers of Time, p. 71 n, suggests that the sun is in a summer sign, possibly Leo.
16 4 fere: come. See Matthew 7.7.
16 8 seuerall: of various kinds.
16 9 purchase criminall: robbery.
17 3 poore mens boxes: alms boxes. 17 5 vestiments: garments.
17 7 spoild: despoiled, robbed. habiliments: religious vestments.
17 9 in at the window crept: John 10.1-2: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up another way, he is a thief and a robber. But he that goeth in by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep.’ Cf. Milton, Lycidas 115, echoing Spenser, Shepheardes Calender, ‘Maye’ 136 and PL 4.183 ff.
18 4 Abessa: Maclean points out the similarity to abbess, the head of a female monastery, and cites Ephesians 4.17–18in reading her as an instance of Spenser’s view of the Church of Rome. Within the context of the poem she is related to Fidessa and Duessa. Fidessa is Duessa (doubleness or duplicity) masking as Faith or the One Truth (Una). Abessa is the daughter of Corceca (blind heart), or superstition, which fosters a particular kind of faithlessness. Kirkrapine (church robbery) can be associated with monastic abuses, but he should also, in this context, be associated with all those who use the Church and rob as in John 10.1-2.
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