The Faerie Queene

by Edmund Spenser

  15 2 precious relicke: Florimell’s girdle.

  17 4 maiden-headed shield: in this tournament Satyrane bears the sign of the Knights of Maidenhead on his shield, as does Guyon in II.1.28.7. Satyrane’s shield in m.7.30.6 bears a satyr’s head.

  17 9 Bruncheual: French: ‘brown horse’.

  18 3 As two fierce Buls: common simile deriving from Am. 12.715–19and Met. 9.46-9.

  18 4 maine: force.

  19 1 Ferramotit: ‘iron mount’? This name and the names of the knights in stanzas 21 and 40 have not been identified or explained.

  22 6 Knights of Maidenhead: Knights devoted to the Faerie Queene, led by Satyrane in this tournament. Other references to this order of knighthood, which Spenser does not develop elaborately, occur in I.7.46; IL2.42 and 9.6; III.847.

  23 5 glode: glided.

  24 1 beamlike speare: spear thick as a wooden beam, from Latin hasta trabalis (Statius, Thebaid 4.6) and telum trabale (Am. 12.294).

  24 9 sound: swoon.

  25 9 to beare the bell: i.e., to wear the bell as leader of a herd.

  27 4 counterfesaunce: imposture.

  29 6 ” cuffing close: fighting at close quarters.

  29 8 As two wild Boares: Spenser uses the same simile in I.6444-9.

  30 3 foundring: stumbling, or falling lame,

  30 7 sowst: struck violently. compast: round, curved.

  32 3 brondiron: sword.

  32 6 toile: trap, net.

  33 2 There as: there where.

  35 7 husband farme: husbanded or tilled farm.

  36 7 gest: deed.

  37 7 somewhile: at times.

  37 8 teemed: restored.

  39 2 reed: recognize.

  39 3 quyent: strange.

  39 6 attrapt: furnished with trappings.

  39 8 word: motto.

  39 9 Saluagesse sans finesse: French: ‘savagery without finish’ or ‘fierceness without guile’.

  40 7 crouper: crupper, i.e., horse’s rump.

  40 8 hote: hight, was named.

  40 9 behote: deemed.

  41 3 brust: broken.

  44 3 Vmbriere: vizor of helmet.

  45 8 feutred: put spear in rest.

  48 8 beauties prize: excellence of beauty.

  CANTO 5

  1 4 reasons spedall priuitie: i.e., for those special secrets of nature known to reason.

  3–6Venus girdle: the girdle of Florimell is here related to the cestus, or ceston, of Venus, mentioned in II. 14.214 if. Spenser, following the mythographers, makes it a symbol of chaste love. The attribute is excluded when Venus is engaged in adulterous pursuits.

  4 4 Lemno: Vulcan’s workshop was in Lemnos. See Muiopotmos, 37a

  4 5 hire: payment, reward.

  5 5 Acidalian mount: a mount near the brook Acidalus, a haunt of the Graces, See VI.10.5-9.

  7 7 from fordonne: i.e., from being defeated.

  10 7 vnheale: uncover.

  12 1 enchace: ornament.

  12 7 Chian: the painter from Chios, Apelles, who used the features of various courtesans to give him a perfect image. Spenser may be referring to Zeuxis’ portrait of Helen in which he combined the best features of the five most beautiful maidens of the city. The source is probably Cicero, De inventione 2.1.1-3.

  13 6 beare the bell away: i.e., win. See note to IV.4.25.9.

  14 3 Phebes: Cynthia, or the moon.

  19 5 let: hindrance.

  22–4Compare the action of Discordia in OF 27.39 ff

  25–6See OF 27.103-7.

  28 3 reau’d: taken away.

  28 6 else: elsewhere. The story is not told.

  30 3 assoyle: remove.

  30 7–9See canto 1.46-54.

  33 5 sallowes: willows.

  33 7 ranke: strong.

  34 3 wefrish: wizened.

  36 4 soused: struck.

  37 2 Bronteus, or Pyramon: Brontes and Pyracmon were Cyclops in Vulcan’s smithy. Spenser has in mind the visit of Thetis to Vulcan in Il. 18.410 ff and especially Aen. 8.41s ff.

  37 3 Lipari: island off Sicily; home of Vulcan’s smithy in some traditions, but see canto 5.4.

  42 9 apayd: pleased.

  46 9 a went: a journey.

  CANTO 6

  1 8 gride: pierce.

  8 5 abie: pay for.

  9 9 recure: recover, remedy, restore.

  10 2 fewter: put spear in rest.

  12 4 Thrust to: leap at.

  13 4 blest: protected.

  13 8 chynd: broke the chine or back. sell: saddle.

  17 5 The maker selfc resembling: resembling God in that she was created in his image and likeness (Genesis 1.26).

  17 7 defeature: defeat.

  18 5 decrewed: decreased.

  19 3 ventayle: lower movable part of helmet. shard: sheared, cut.

  20 8 Pactolus: river in Lydia with golden sand.

  20 9 riuage: banks.

  25 2 assoyle: remove.

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

  25 8 beuers: faceguards of helmet.

  26 1 auizefull: observing.

  26 4–6See 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.

  CANTO 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.

  15–18Aemylia’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.

  CANTO 8

  1 1–4The 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 4–5Timias 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 1–5Isaiah 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.

  CANTO 9

  Arg. 1–2Although 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 6–9Scudamour 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.

  CANTO 10

  1 1–6The 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.

  25–7In 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.

  34–5The 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.<
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  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 8–9snake: 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.

  44–7The 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 1–2The 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.

  CANTO 11

  2 1–3Proteus 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.