12 5 did in compasse stemme: encircled.
13 Spenser conflates two myths: (1) Ariadne, who helped Theseus escape the labyrinth of Minos, was deserted by Theseus and received her wedding crown from Bacchus, who later transformed it into the constellation. (2) The battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths took place at the marriage of Firithous and Hippodamia {Met. 8.172 ff and 12.210 ff). See Cheney, Spenser’s Image of Nature, pp. 232-6; Kathleen Williams, Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’: The World of Glass, pp. 217-18; and Tonkin, Spenser’s Courteous Pastoral, pp. 129-31.
13 1 Looke how: like; commonly used to introduce a simile: see Samuel Daniel, Complaint of Rosamond, 113, 582.
15 1 Graces: see stanza 22 and note and IV.5.5.
15 7 parauaunt: most prominently.
16 The woman at the centre of the one hundred dancing maidens and the three Graces is Colin Clout’s love. Some critics identify her as the Rosalind of the Shepheardes Calender, in which Spenser first identified himself as Colin Clout. Other critics identify her as Elizabeth I, an identification that Colin himself refutes by his apology to Elizabeth in stanza 28. These critics generally cite Shepheardes Calender, ‘Aprill’ 113-I7, in which Elizabeth is advanced to be a fourth Grace. Still others identify her as Elizabeth Boyle, whom Spenser married in 1594 and for whom he wrote the Amoretti and Epithalamion (1595). The difficulty of trying to specify one historical identification for this ‘lass’ is resolved by referring to Amoretti 74, in which Spenser gives praise in one figure to the three Elizabeths who were important to him: his mother, his wife, and his Queen. The ‘lass’ is love, wife, Queen, and source of inspiration.
18 4–5Colin’s breaking of his pipe is an allusion to his similar gesture in Shepheardes Calender, ‘Januarye’ 72. It may also be a suggestion that he is breaking off his poem before his grand scheme, outlined in the Letter to Ralegh, is finished.
19 3 make: making.
20–28Colin’s explanation of the vision of the dance is the most self-conscious artistic act in Renaissance poetry. Critics have often noted that Frospero’s speech ‘Our revels now are ended’ (Tempest 4.1.148 ff) is in reality Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage, but Spenser, under his mask of Colin Clout, not only cuts off his vision because of the intrusion of Calidore but also explains its meaning, relating the vision to the source of civilization, ‘Ciuility’.
22 Spenser follows Hesiod, Theogony, 907-11, in making Jove and Eury-nome (Greek: ‘wide rule’) parents of the Graces. Cf. also Natalis Comes, 4.15. Spenser is responsible for making the occasion of this mating the return of Jove from the marriage of Thetis and Peleus (Æacidee), thus combining the conception of the Graces with the occasion that precipitated the Trojan War. See note to III.9.36. For etymology of the names of the Graces see note to I.1.48.7.
22 9 cherry: make cheerful.
23 9 Ciuility: social order, and the kind of behaviour which perpetuates social order.
24 7–9The problem of these lines is whether two Graces are facing toward or away from the viewer; this apparently simple problem, however, lies at the heart of Spenser’s courtesy and any possible interpretation of the poem, because of the iconographic traditions of depicting the Graces. The pertinent critics are DeWitt T. Starnes and E. W. Talbert, Classical Myth and Legend in Renaissance Dictionaries (Chapel Hill, I9S5) and Starnes’s two earlier articles, PQ 21,1942, 268–82and SP 39, 1942, 143-59; Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, second edition (Harmondsworth, 1967), pp. 28 ff; Tonkin, Spenser’s Courteous Pastoral, pp. 248 ff. Seneca, De benefidis, 1.3, states that the circling dance of the Graces symbolizes the three phases of liberality: offering, accepting, and returning benefits. Servius, in his commentary on Aen. 1.720, says that one Grace is pictured from the back while two are shown facing front because for one benefit issuing from us two are supposed to return. E. K. in his gloss on Shepheardes Calender,’ Aprill’ 109 ff, reproduces much of the Senecan and Servian iconography:
The Graces be three sisters, the daughters of Jupiter, (whose names are Aglaia, Thalia, Euphrosyne, and Homer onely addeth a fourth, s. Pasithea) otherwise called Charites, that is thanks, whom the Poetes feyned to be the Goddesses of al bountie and comelines, which therefore (as sayth Theodontius) they make three, to wete, that men first ought to be gracious and bountiful to other freely, then to receiue benefits at other mens hands curteously, and thirdly to requite them thankfully: which are three sundry Actions in liberalitye. [Seneca] And Boccace saith, that they be painted naked, (as they were indeede on the tombe of C. Iulius Caesar) the one hauing her backe toward vs, and her face fromwarde, as proceeding from vs: the other two toward vs, noting double thanke to be due to vs for the benefit, we haue done [Servius],
In addition to this late classical iconography, which continued into the Renaissance as E. K.’s gloss shows, there was another specifically Christian tradition, which allegorized the Graces as the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity, because of the etymology of their Greek name Charites. This etymological allegory is reinforced in English by the coincidence of the name Graces and the theological meaning of the word grace, which produced another visual image of two Graces pictured from the back and one facing forward. Since faith and hope are virtues related to the afterlife, they are pictured facing away from the viewer; charity as a virtue directed to action in this life is pictured as facing toward the viewer. This double iconographic tradition is the basis for interpreting Spenser’s lines. Most editors emend ‘forward’ as printed in 1596 and 1609 to ‘froward’ to conform with the late classical iconography. But Spenser always uses ‘froward’ in its negative sense of ‘evilly disposed, perverse, adverse’. Line 8, in which the third Grace is described as ‘afore’ (viewed frontally), is another reason given for emendation. If, however, one interprets the ‘forward’ of line 7 as meaning that two Graces are nearer the viewer without specifying that they are dorsally or frontally displayed, this difficulty is solved. Spenser is trying to accommodate both iconographic traditions verbally; his language insists that we read the lines both ways; he is being genuinely ambiguous. The ‘then’ of line 9 can be read in both ways: either as the late classical view that good should from us go, then come in greater store, or in the spirit o f Christian charity: greater good should from us go than come in greater store.
24 8 afore: frontally.
25 a traced: danced.
25 5 enraced: implanted.
26 4 beare the bell: win the prize, lead the crowd.
27 3 meane: norm, median.
28 6 minime: short musical note.
30 7 regard: observation.
31 1 sting: i.e., the wound of Cupid’s arrow (VI.9.11). 31 5 Leaches: doctor’s.
31 8 Dinting: striking.
31 9 maine: deep sea.
33 2 aggrate: please.
34 5 gourmandize: gluttony.
35 5 steemed: esteemed, valued.
35 8 prayde: captured as booty.
37 1 affect: have a preference for.
37 8 colour: disguise.
37 9 skill: knowledge.
39 See VI.8.35.
42 7 louer: louvre, an opening in the roof.
43 2 watch and ward: guard.
44 7 glade: make cheerful or glad.
CANTO 11
1 8–9cf. Shepheardes Calender, ‘Marche’, Thomalin’s emblem, 2 ff Spenser bases this episode on the story of Isabel in OF 12.91 ff.
4 8 wowed: wooed.
5 3 lay: song.
6 3 will: passion, particularly sexual passion. See Shakespeare, Sonnets 135 and 136.
6 4 she was to foe or frend: i.e., she was to be either foe or friend.
6 5 shadow: pretence.
9 2 sort: group.
9 3 bondmen: slaves.
97 at the instant brunt: suddenly.
10 4 commodity: profit.
12 6 silly: weak, helpless.
13 3 regard: appearance.
15 9 aby: pay. handsell: reward.
16 4 balke: unploughed ridge o
f land.
16 9 leaues… wight: i.e., makes it impossible to distinguish between merchants and pirates.
17 1 sort: group.
18 5 wide: round about.
19 4 target: shield. pretended: covered (Latin: pmetendere).
20 1 preasse: crowd.
23 8 steepe: bathe, wet.
26 6 Spenser again echoes the refrain from Epithalamion as he did in VI.10.10.5.
27 9 hynd: rustic
29 9 doe feare away: expel fear.
31 4 hent: seized.
34 3 source: fountain-head (i.e., he stopped crying).
34 9 Hues threed: the thread of life spun out by the Fates (see I.7.22.5 and IV.2.48.5).
35 8 wrought with meed: i.e., worked with promise of reward. 39 2 purpose gan to faine: i.e., began to invent conversation.
39 6 mister men: kind of men.
40 6 earnest tooke: i.e., received an initial payment for their services.
41 4 entrayles: minds.
43 1 fast: securely dosed.
47 2 breath’d: rested.
47 5 say: assay, temper.
48 8 brond: sword.
CANTO 12
1 4 let: hindered.
3–22The recognition of Pastorella by her parents through the agency of Melissa uses a common motif in romance: a lost child found. Cf. Tasso, Rinaldo 11.89-90, Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato 2.27.25 ff, and Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale 5.1 and Shakespeare’s source in Robert Greene’s Pandosto; for possible historical identifications see Var., pp. 262-4.
3 3 Belgard: French: ‘good protection’ or ‘loving look’.
3 4 Bellamoure: French: ‘beautiful love’.
4 1 Claribett: French: ‘bright beauty’. 4 6 PicteUmd: Scotland.
4 9 fere: companion, mate.
6 8 hyre: payment.
7 8 mold: mole.
11 6 durance: suffering.
12 2 forlore: forsaken.
12 8 loos: a variant spelling of’lose’, fame, reputation.
14 8 Melissa: Greek: ‘bee’. Melissa is also a prophet in OF 3 and 7.
15 7 kest: cast.
16 2 conceiptfull: clever, imaginative.
18 8 prieue: prove.
19 9 faine: imagine.
21 4 descriue: describe.
22 9 tract: trail.
23 ff Spenser is making a distinction between the secular clergy, those who were pastors to the people, and monks, those who had retired from the world. The fact that Henry VIII had dissolved the monasteries in England does not alter the point Spenser is making: no one escapes the Blatant Beast.
24 3 dortours: sleeping rooms.
24 9 heast: vow.
26 6 pecke: a great number (of teeth).
26 9 Orcus: Hell.
27 1 empight: implanted.
27 4 wrawling: mewing.
28 3 gere: corrupt, foul matter, pus.
28 7 Kesars: rulers.
29 7 former: situated more forward.
29 8 rampt: seized.
32 1–2Hydra: the many-headed monster whom Hercules (Alcides) slew as one of his twelve labours.
34 4 mured: closed (Latin: mums, ‘wall’).
35 1–8Tirynthian swaine: Hercules, who was born in Tiryns, brought
Cerberus out of hell (Met. 7.408-15).
35 6 Pluto: god of the underworld.
36 1 repine: show discontent.
39 6–7Sir Pelleas… Sir Lamoracke: both characters in Malory, but neither of them pursues the beast in that work.
40 7 rate: scold, assault verbally.
41 3 all: although. clearest: most free. Some editors emend to cleanest for the sake of the rhyme.
41 4 wite: blame.
41 6 Feres: Burleigh’s. See Dedicatory Sonnet, IV.Proem.i and V.s.43. 41 7 endite: censure.
NOTES TO MUTABILITIE CANTOS
HEADNOTE 3
Although the ‘Mutabilitie Cantos’ first appeared in the folio of 1609, they were undoubtedly intended by Spenser as part of the uncompleted poem. They are based on the ancient cosmology of Ptolemy, which postulated a universe made up of a series of concentric spheres with the earth as centre. Beyond the earth was the sphere of the moon and beyond that the spheres of Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, in that order (the so-called ‘celestial’ spheres). Beyond these were the sphere of the fixed stars, the crystalline sphere, and the primum mobile, the sphere that imparted motion to all the others. From the time of Aristotle to the beginning of the seventeenth century it was generally believed that everything below the sphere of the moon was subject to change (mutability) and that from the sphere of the moon to the primum mobile everything was unchanging. The whole system participated in time, and beyond it was the timeless world of eternity, hence the Neoplatonic division of the universe into three worlds: below the sphere of the moon (the sublunary world), in time and mutable; from the sphere of the moon to the primum mobile (the celestial world), in time and immutable; and the supra-celestial world, out of time and immutable. Against the background of this philosophic-scientific system Spenser dramatizes the claims of his invented goddess Mutability, who maintains that nothing is unchanging or permanent in the universe except the continuing flux of which she should be recognized as mistress. The sweep of her claim calls into question not only Renaissance cosmology but also the value and dignity of human life within the Christian scheme. See Sherman Hawkins in Form and Convention in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser, ed. William Nelson, New York, 1961, pp. 76-102.
CANTO 6
I 2 sway: have power over.
1 6 Which that to all …: i.e., so that it may appear more dearly to all…
2 6 Titans: the Titans were the offspring of Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Gaea) and constitute a generation of gods older than the reigning Olympians (Jupiter, etc.). The most important of them was Saturn, who had dethroned his father Uranus. Because Earth prophesied that Saturn would be dethroned in turn by one of his sons, he devoured each of his children immediately after birth. IBs wife managed to preserve one, Jupiter, by sending him off to Crete. Jupiter lived to fulfil the prophecy and not only dethroned but also emasculated Saturn. Thus began the reign of the Olympian gods. Saturn’s brothers and sisters, offended at Jupiter’s presumptions, contended with him for supremacy. The victorious Jupiter thrust the Titans into the pit of Tartarus. Mutability is a descendant of the Titans and bases her claim on the legal right derived from her lineage. See Vn.6.26-7.
2 7 regiment: rule.
3 3 Hecati: a Titaness, the infernal aspect of the triple goddess Hecate-Diana-Cynthia. See I.1.43.3 and note.
3 7 Bellona: a Titaness, goddess of war.
4 3 admire: wonder at.
4 4 twaine: i.e., Hecate and Bellona.
5 8 prouide: prepare, with overtones of Providential ordering.
5 9 still: continuously.
6 2 Policie: good government. 6 8 that curse: the fall of man.
6 9 our Nurse: nature, or earthly life.
7 4 T’attempt: to take by force.
7 6 region of the ayre: the atmosphere.
7 7 And of the fire: it was believed that a sphere of fire enclosed the atmosphere. Cf. Hymn of Heavenly Beauty, 36-42, and Donne, The First Anniversary, 205 ff. 7 8 contraire: oppose, thwart
7 9 prepaire: provide, furnish.
8 1 Circle of the Moone: see introductory note for the place of the moon in Ptolemaic cosmology.
8 2 Cynthia: the moon, also called Phoebe, VII.6.21. 8 7 liefe or sory: willing or not.
8 8 stage: level. scand: climbed.
9 6 intend: call.
10 7 tortious: wrongful, illegal.
10 9 wained: Zitner suggests ‘drawn’ as in ‘moved by a wain’; but it may also mean ‘waned, diminished’.
11 9 condigne: worthy, deserving. ?
12 6 her horned browes: the crescent moon is often an attribute of Cynthia.
13 7 Moones bright wagon: see VU.6.9.
14 6 Chaos: the undifferentiated mass of warring elements before the impositi
on of form by Love (cf. Hymn in Honour of Love, 57-63); often identified with the ‘void’ of Genesis 1.
14 8 Mercury: nearest planet to the moon. Mercury is also the traditional messenger of the gods.
15 8 Typhon: a giant imprisoned by Jupiter under Mount Aetna for joining with the Titans in their war against him.
15 9 him… feared: i.e., frightened Jupiter.
16 1 sonne oi Maia: Mercury, son of Jupiter and Maia. 16 4 forslowe: make go more slowly, delay.
16 7 Him to attache: to seize him.
16 9 prest: quickly.
17 1 The wingd-foot God: winged sandals are an attribute of Mercury. 17 4 hardinesse: boldness.
17 6 to doe his charge: to carry out Jupiter’s command.
18 a snaky-wreathed Mace: the caduceus, the wand of peace and attribute of Mercury. See II.12.41.
19 1 Heauens Herald: Mercury as messenger of the gods. 19 5 congregate: gathered.
19 6 Hermes: Mercury.
20 2 since: when. th’Earths cursed seed: the Titans. ao 5 deed: acts.
21 5 If that: if only.
21 9 deuise: contrive.
22 2 beck: nod. 22 3 vow: will.
22 5 degrees: hierarchical order.
22 7 nought did reck: did not care about.
23 5 extasie: bewildered state.
24 6 to aby: to remain.
24 9 encheare: give cheer to.
25 8 now make: now do.
26 4 -9 Mutability is the daughter of Earth and Titan, Saturn’s elder brother.
27 4 Corybantes slight: at the birth of Jupiter his mother Cybele urged the Corybantes, a group of fanatically wild women devoted to her, to make a great uproar to drown the cries of the new-born child. She then presented Saturn with a stone, which he duly ate, thinking it to be Jupiter. This whole passage seems to refer to an alternate version of the war between Jupiter and the Titans. According to Natalis Comes, 9.5, Titan, the elder brother of Saturn, was persuaded to abdicate the throne on condition that Saturn should kill all his children so that he might have no descendants to succeed him. As a result of this original compact between Titan and Saturn and Mutability’s relation to Titan, Jupiter might be considered a usurper and Mutability the legal heir, as a result of the Corybantes’ trick.
286 sort of Steeres: herd of steers.
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