37 9 extold: raised, stellified.
38 7 paire of waights: the scales of Libra. assoyle: determine.
38 9 scann’d: measured.
39 2 noule was totty of the must: i.e., head was dizzy from die new wine. 39 3 wine-fats see: sea of the wine vats.
39 4 gust: taste. 39 5 frollick: joyful.
39 6–8Vpon… Orion: in anger at Orion’s boasts of his skill as a hunter Diana sent a scorpion to kill him. In remorse she had both Orion and the scorpion stellified.
40 3 a fatting hogs: fattening or butchering hogs. 40 5 breem: cold, chill, rough, harsh.
40 7 not easie was to deeme: i.e., it was not easy to think about.
40 9 Spenser’s description of Chiron the centaur has not been satisfactorily explained. He is more usually the son of Saturn and Philyra, but he also was called the son of Magnes and Nais (Greek: ‘water nymph1). See Fowler, Spenser and the Numbers of Time, pp. 231-3.
41 5 1609 reads ‘rode’, although some editors emend to ‘rade’.
41 6–7Dan Ioue… th’Idfran mayd: Jupiter was sent to Amalthea, ‘th’Idaean mayd’, who nursed him. She is sometimes represented as a goat nursing Jupiter, who later stellified her as the goat Capricorn. See note to 50-53.
41 9 health: toast.
42 3 like to quell: as if he might die.
42 8 Earth-pot steane: earthen pottery urn.
42 9 Romane floud: die Tiber? The details are unclear, but Spenser probably has in mind the common picture of an ancient man holding or lying near an urn that pours form a flood of water. See The Visions ofBellay, 9’ The image is appropriate for the water-carrier Aquarius.
43 3 two fishes: the sign of Pisces. for the season fitting: fit for the season of Lent, when meat was prohibited’
43 8 hasting Prime: hastening spring. burgein: to bud.
44 Spenser uses only two rhymes in this stanza as in VIL7.28.
44 2 with equall pase: abreast.
44 3 Palfrey: a small saddle horse.
44 4 vncomely: unattractive.
44 7 trace: dance.
45 I Howres: the Hours, whose parentage may be a Spenserian invention, for they are more commonly the daughters of Jupiter and Themis (law). Their guarding Heaven’s gate is derived from fl. 5.748-50. 45 s-6 That might… mighty Ioue: i.e., that might cause them to neglect the charge ordained for them by mighty Jupiter.
45 9 euen turnes: equal turns.
46 4 Ne ought… weene: i.e., and nothing to see but one would think him a mere shade.
47 7 in one stay: in one place.
48 3 of: by. disseise: deprive.
50–53In her final attack Mutability tries to show that even the gods themselves are under her control. Once more she follows an orderly outline, beginning with the moon and working up through the spheres (see introductory note), but she changes the order of Jupiter and Saturn. This may be either for rhetorical effect or, as Fowler suggests, to provide further evidence for the reader of the interrelationship of Jupiter and Saturn in the planetary week (pp. 231-2). For Fowler the transposition also occurs in the myths attached to November and December. Sagittarius is the House of Jupiter, but Spenser relates his November sign to Saturn. Capricorn is the House of Saturn, but Spenser relates December to Jupiter’s nursing by Amalthea. Her main point is the irregularity of the gods’ planetary courses, whose elliptical paths were announced by Kepler in the very year that the Cantos were published. Before Kepler elaborate cycles and epicycles had to be postulated to account for the movement of the planets. See V. Proem 8.8-9.
50 2 whom so much ye make: i.e., whom the rest of you gods make.
50 4 Cynthus hill: a hill on Delos, the birthplace of Diana and Apollo.
50 5 how-so ye crake: however you brag.
50 9 vse to: are accustomed.
51 5 Paragone: model of excellence, with a sneer at her loves.
51 7 lightsome: radiant.
52 7 Sir Saturne: ‘Sir’ used contemptuously here.
52 8 sterne aspect: Saturn was a malevolent planetary influence.
53 1 Dan: ‘Master’, used contemptuously here. 53 3 misfare: mishap.
S3 S-6 Crete … other-where: there are many versions of Jupiter’s birthplace. Mutability’s point is that Jupiter is earth-bred.
53 9 ne other can appeare: nor can it appear otherwise.
54 4 power and vertue: see VII.7.48.7 and VII.7.49.4.
54 9 obliquid: directed obliquely.
55 2 clerkes: learned men.
55 5 starrie skie: the sphere of the fixed stars above the planets.
55 7 Movement initiated by the primum mobile.
55 9 This is Latinate word order: therefore I prove both you and them subject to me.
56 3 by transuerse: in a haphazard way. 56 4 let: prevent.
56 5 Trophee: sign of victory.
56 8 addoom: give a judgement.
57 2 to or fro: to one side or the other.
57 9 speeches: words.
58 4 estate: original nature.
58 5 dilate: expand, extend, perfect.
58 7 so by fate: see Hawkins for the philosophical niceties of her speech.
59 6 whist: silenced.
59 7 imperial] see: seat, throne.
THE VIII. CANTO, VNPBHFITB
1–2There have been so many attempts to read these last two stanzas either as a pessimistic renunciation of life or as a too easy acceptance of Christian consolation that their superb appropriateness as conclusion has been obscured. Spenser is not trying to escape the vagaries of this ‘life so tickle’; he is praying to be able to use them properly so that this changing life will have earned him the right to that nnrhanging life to come.
1 6 tickle: unstable, inconstant
2 5 contrayr: contrary to.
2 8 God of Sabbaoth: Hebrew: ‘armies’, ‘hosts’, retained untranslated in the English New Testament (as in the original Greek and Vulgate) and the Te Deum, in the designation “The Lord of Sabaoth’; in translating Old Testament passages the English versions have the rendering “The Lord of Hosts’.
2 9 Sabbaoth God…Sabaoths sight: much scholarly effort has been expended on the two spellings of Sabbaoth in this line. Some critics think that Spenser meant to write Sabbath sight, that is, day of rest or eternal rest, and so emend the second occurrence of the word. The point is that Spenser is calling upon the God of the universe, the Lord of Hosts, both heavenly and earthly, to grant him that seventh-day rest not merely as the cessation of earthly labours but the perfection of them in the full knowledge of the beatific vision. D. C. Allen (MLN64,1949, 93-4) paraphrases the last two lines: ‘All shall eventually obtain permanent repose with him who is the God of Quiet; but until then, O God of the Great Sabbath (the envisioned day of the Eternal quiet) grant that I may see, when I have left this world and come to dwell in the shelter of Your constancy, the great panorama of the Creation as You see it from Your immovable center.’ L. S. Friedland (MLQ 17, 1956, 199-203) cites the last chapter of the last book of St Augustine’s City of God: ‘Of the eternal felicity of the City of God, and the perpetual sabbath’, in which St Augustine writes:
‘There shall be perfected the saying, Be at rest and see that I am God [Psalm 46.10] because there shall be the most great Sabbath having no evening… Then shall we know this thing perfectly, and we shall perfectly rest and shall perfectly see that He is God.’
The point is important and may account for the numbering of these cantos. As Hawkins suggests:
In Canto VI, the sixth age of trial and confusion, Mutabilitie appears to mean flux, disorder, and decay. But in the next Canto, the pageant of the months reveals the beauty of constancy within the wheel of change. This is the seventh canto of the seventh book, and the number – itself a symbol of God’s immutability and of eternal rest – recalls the stability and repose which completed the labours of creation and pronounced it good.Then, in the eighth Canto, we look beyond creation and its weeks to the sabbath which is both the seventh day of rest and the eighth day
of resurrection, the glory of which Gloriana’s feast is but a type.
(Nelson, W., ed., Form and Convention, p. 99)
COMMON WORDS
abray: awake
address: make ready, array, arm
aduise, auise: look at, consider, perceive, resolve
al, all: although
albe: although
algates: altogether, entirely, at all
amain: violently, vehemently
amate: dismay, cast down, daunt
anon: immediately, soon
appease: cease
aread, arede, areed: advise, consider, counsel, make known, utter, tell
assay: (noun) value, quality, affliction, attack
assay: (verb) attempt, assault, afflict
astoned, astonied: astonished, stunned
awfull: full of awe
ay: always
beheast: command
behight, behote, behott: call, name, promise, grant, ordain
beliue, biliue, byliue, bliue: quickly, fast, at once
bespeak: speak
bewray: disclose, reveal, tell
to boot: to avail, to be of use
bootless: useless
buffe: blow, stroke
buxome: yielding, compliant, submissive
can: (as auxiliary verb) did
carle: churl, base fellow
cast, cast for: plan, determine
caytive: (noun) captive; (adj.) base
certes: certainly
cheare, cheere, chiere: expression
close: secret
convay: carry on, remove
corps, corse: body, corpse
couch: lower spear for attack
crime: accusation, sin, evil
darrayne: challenge, wage war
debonaire: gracious, courteous
derived: taken away
dight: decked, adorned, arranged
dint: blow, stroke
discoloured: of various colours
dispiteous: unpitying
disport: entertainment
doome: judgement
doughty: valiant, brave
dreriment: gloom, sorrow
durst: dared
earne: yearn
earst, erst: at first, lately, previously
eft: again, afterwards, then
eftsoones: soon after, at once
eeke, eke: also
eld: age
embay: bathe, pervade, suffuse
emprise: enterprise, undertaking
equall: impartial, equitable
errant: wandering
fain: eager, glad
faitour: cheat, villain
fealtie: loyalty
fell: fierce, savage
fillet: headband
fond: foolish
for thy, forthy: therefore
fbrwarn: prevent
forwearied: weary, tired out
frame: make
fray: (noun) battle; (verb) frighten
free: noble
fro: from
front: forehead
gainsaid: opposed
gan: did, began
gay: bright
guerdon: reward
habergeon: sleeveless coat of mail
(armour)
hard, hardly; with difficulty
heben: ebony
hew: see
hight: called, named
hove: rise hue
hew: appearance, complexion, colour
humblesse: humility
impart: share, make known
iolly: gallant, brave
kind: nature kind,
kindly: natural
leman: lover
leuer, liefer: rather, preferable
liefe: beloved, love, lover
lin: cease
list: wish, desire, like, choose
lout: bow
louely: loving, lovingly
lowre: frown
make: lover, mate
manner: kind of
mauger, maulgre: in spite of, reluctantly
meed: reward
meet: proper
mell: meddle
ment, meynt: joined mickle
muchell: much
moe: more
mortal: deadly
mote: might, must, may
natheless: nevertheless
nathemore: neverthemore, none the more
ne: nor, not
neather: lower
nigh: nearly, almost
nill: will not
nor… nor: neither… nor
n’ote: could not
n’ould: would not or
… or: either… or
pain: care
paynim: pagan
pelfe: wealth
perdy: indeed, truly; literally ‘by God’ (French)
perforce: of necessity, forcibly
pight: placed, pitched
plaint: complaint, lamentation playn,
pleyn: complain prick: ride fast, spur a horse
priuy: secret
priuily: within
proue: try, test
prowe: brave
puissance: power
purfled: decorated
purpose: conversation
puruey: provide
purueyance: provision, preparation
quit, quitten, quight: return, requite, rescue
raught: reached; taken away
read, rede, reed: see aread
recreant: (noun) coward; (adj.) cowardly
redoubted: reverenced, dreaded, feared
renowmed: renowned
repining: angry rew
rue: cause to pity
ruth: pity
sad: serious,
strong salvage: savage
saue: except
scath: harm
science: knowledge
secret: inner,
hidden seuerall: of various kinds
shend: Teproach, put to shame
seely, silly: simple, innocent, harmless
sith, sithens: since
smart: woe, injury
sooth: truth
sted: place, situation
steep: moisten, saturate
still: always
stound, stownd: state of being stunned; pain; moment
stoure, stowre: tumult, disturbance
surquedry: pride, arrogance, presumption
swowne: swoon
tho: then
thrall: slave
thrill: pierce
trayne: trick, deceit
triall: experience
vncouth: strange, unknown
vndight: see dight
vneath: with difficulty, scarcely, hardly
vnkind: see kind
vnweening: unknowing
vnwonted: unaccustomed
vassal: subject
visage: face
vouchsafe: grant
wain: chariot
ward: (noun) guard; (verb) guard, repel, ward off
ween: deem, think, intend
weet, wot, wote: know, discover, learn
to weet: to wit, truly, to be sure, namely
welkin: (noun) sky; (adj.) heavenly wex, wexed, wox, woxen: grow,
become, became
whenas: when
whereas: where
whether: which
whileare: some time ago, before, lately
whilome: formerly, once
wight: human being, creature
wise: manner, guise
wist: knew won,
wonne: dwell; dwelling
wood: mad
wont: accustomed
wot, wote: know
wreake: avenge, carry out
wroth: angry
y-, as prefix, denotes past tense
yeed, yede: go
yfere: together
ymp: child, offspring, scion
yode, yod: went
yrksome: troublesome
ywis: certainly
* Four pages missing from the mi
crofilm of the copytext have been supplied from the Armour-Osgood copy in Firestone Library (Ex 3940.332.1596), providing text for I.7.44–50and IV.3.45.5-9-52.1-4.
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