The Shorter Poems

by Edmund Spenser

  See also the notes to TW, sonnets 1–11.

  16 assize: standard measurement.

  21 rayons: rays, beams.

  22 golds enchase: golden inlay, relief or engraving. Cf. SC, August, 27.

  32 leuel: aim, mark. Cf. MHT, 770–72.

  45 chapters: capitals.

  fryses: friezes.

  49 chayre: chariot.

  58 gleame: radiance, brightness. TW has ‘shade’, translating the French ‘umbrage’ (sonnet 5. 2).

  60 Ausonian streame: the Tiber. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, 3. 477–9; RR, 344 and note.

  68 wedge: instrument used for splitting wood and, by extension, the blade of an axe.

  72 two whelpes: Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf ‘oute of whose breastes they… sucked all manner of crueltie’ (TW, fol. 15ν).

  74 wreath’d: turned or twisted away from.

  for… nones: for the moment.

  79 thousand huntsmen: Barbarian invaders

  83 soyle: filthy pool of blood.

  84 spoyle: hide, skin.

  91 haughtie: lofty.

  92 raught: reached.

  94 in… folde: lapped or engulfed in flames.

  103–6 beast… deuoure: cf. the beast from the sea, Revelation 13: 1 .

  104 coure: cower, crouch in fear.

  107 kinde: shape, form.

  109–10 winde… burst: alluding to the Barbarian invasions.

  110 Scithian mew: confinement in Scythia. Cf. RR, 45 and note.

  115 loast: loose, unbound.

  117 belly: bulging side.

  119 creakie: full of creeks (OED).

  aflot: in a state of overflow or submersion (‘afloat’, OED).

  129 outraging: rending, tearing.

  151 siluer dew: probably simony. ‘Ambition begot Simonie. Simonie begot the Pope and the Cardinals’ (TW, fol. 91v).

  155 rayle: flow, gush.

  157 grayle: obsolete form of ‘grail’, gravel. Cf. FQ, 1. 7. 6.

  166 Satyres: representing the bestial in man. Cf. FQ, 3. 10. 43–52. For their association with ruin and desolation cf. Isaiah 34: 14.

  167 ray: pollute, defile.

  170 sad Florentine: Petrarch. Cf. VP, 15–28.

  179 Nereus: a god of the sea and here virtually synonymous with it. Not mentioned in Du Bellay.

  183 gron’d: lamented.

  184–5 Citie… glad: alluding to St John’s vision of the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21–2. Cf. TW, sonnet 15.

  186 sand… built: cf. Matthew 7: 26–7; and Lucifera’s palace, FQ, 1. 4. 5.

  187 rayse: graze, scrape.

  192 Northerne… storme: the Barbarian invasions.

  The Visions of Petrarch

  This brief work is a translation from Petrarch’s Rime Sparse (323), a sequence of six twelve-line meditations on the death of Laura which culminate in a three-line conclusion expressing the speaker’s ‘sweet desire for death’ (‘un dolce di morir desio’). The first five emblems lament the loss of various aspects of Laura’s physical and spiritual beauty, the sixth introduces an image of the lady herself allegorically represented as stung by a snake while walking among flowers. The circumstances of her fall recall those of Eve and Eurydice [cf. Genesis 3: 1–7; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10. 8–10], but her departure for the next world ‘not merely confident but happy’ (‘lieta si dipartio, non che secura’) evokes the prophecy that the Virgin Mary, as the second Eve, will defeat the serpent: ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel’ (Genesis 3: 15). Spenser had contributed an earlier version to A Theatre for Worldlings (1569), working from the French translation of Clément Marot, but possibly with some knowledge of the original. However, whereas Marot had reproduced Petrarch’s twelve-line format, Spenser developed the first and third sections into English sonnets (rhyming ababcdcdefefgg). He now completes that process by casting all six sections in the same form but without achieving consistency in the positioning of the ‘volta’, or turn of thought, which occurs in Petrarch precisely at the midpoint [cf. Bath (1988)]. The insecurity of the new form – which may well be deliberate – is therefore at odds with the clear, dichotomous dynamics of the original structure.

  Marot had expanded Petrarch’s conclusion into a four-line coda, or ‘envoy’, which Spenser reproduced in the earlier version, but it is now developed into a full Spenserian sonnet (rhyming ababbcbccdcdee) which more successfully appropriates the Petrarchan vision to a characteristically Spenserian preoccupation with mutability and contemptus mundi. In particular, as the notes point out, the new echoes of Ecclesiastes serve to underscore the biblical influence informing Spenser’s reading of Petrarch. It is hardly coincidental that in his prefatory address to the reader of Complaints William Ponsonby lists a translation of Ecclesiastes among Spenser’s unpublished works.

  If the ‘faire Ladie’ addressed in the concluding sonnet (and at line 13 of Visions of the worlds vanitie) is Lady Carey, the dedicatee of Muiopotmos, the last four contributions to Complaints may be intended as an extended contemplation, in divergent moods, upon the ultimate ‘vanitie’ of even the most innocent of human aspirations. Cf. J. C. Bondanella (1978); Forster (1969); Roche (1989).

  See also the notes to TW, epigrams 1–6.

  26 ‘All is vanity and vexation of spirit’ (Ecclesiastes 1: 14). Cf. ‘vext with sights’ at line 92.

  85 tickle: mutable, uncertain.

  93 faire Ladie: Lady Carey is the person most recently addressed (in the dedication to Muiop) but the Countess of Pembroke is also possible as the dedicatee of the entire volume.

  DAPHNAÏDA

  Though closely related to Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess, Daphnaïda, written in memory of ‘the noble and vertuous Douglas Howard’, is as strikingly dissimilar in tone and outlook as it is in metre and form. Indeed, by choosing for his stanza a variant of rhyme royal subtly altered to avoid the resolution of the concluding couplet (rhyming ababcbc rather than the traditional ababbcc), Spenser virtually ensured the divergence of the two poems. Chaucer’s swift octosyllabic couplets express life even as they explore death, but Spenser’s slowly measured iambic pentameters evoke a very different mood. Chaucer begins in spring, Spenser in autumn; Chaucer lingers over reminiscences of past happiness, Spenser broods on the sorrows of the moment [cf. Harris and Steffen (1978)]. As a result, Daphnaïda has often been regarded as a particularly morbid exercise in excess, but this is to mistake the nature of its literary conventions.

  As a ‘rufull plaint’ (4) and a ‘meditation / Of this worlds vainnesse and lifes wretchednesse’ (33–4) Daphnaïda announces its kinship to the volume of Complaints published the same year, but its form is that of the pastoral elegy and its fictive strategies function to locate private distress within a wider, and potentially qualifying, context [cf. Martin (1987)]. Alcyon and the narrator are afflicted by a similar malaise – we may even be intended to conclude that they are both widowers (64–6) – but the former is obsessed and inconsolable whereas the latter seeks companionship and desires consolation (554–60). The choice of names is also significant: in Chaucer, in an inset Ovidian episode, the lady Alcyone dies from bereavement (62–214), and Spenser’s transference of a female name to his male protagonist may be intended to suggest the emasculating effects of excessive grief – a common Renaissance topos. In this manner the poem contrives to respond to the depth of Alcyon’s grief while resisting his surrender to it [cf. Pigman (1985), 75–81]. The extreme formality of the complaint assigned to him, moving in seven well-ordered sections of seven stanzas apiece, suggests a sense of disciplined control, and potential consolation, of which the speaker remains unaware [cf. Røstvig (1963); Kay (1990)]. He seems incapable of sharing Daphne’s ‘gladnesse’ in her own death (282), or of responding to her request that he live for their daughter and ‘in lieu of mee / Loue her’ (290–91). The sense of emotional dislocation wrought by his grief is embodied in the work’s structure. The poem’s central stanz
a records Daphne’s assertion, quoted by her grieving husband, that she will dwell eternally amid ‘Saints and Angels in celestiall thrones’ (281–7), but the central stanza of his own lament records his tormented exclusion from that ‘better place’ (366) [cf. Fukuda (1987)]. He regards her death as ‘against all course of kinde: / For age to dye is right, but youth is wrong’ (242–3), but the autumnal setting reminds us that ‘early frosts’ are in the nature of things (28).

  It would therefore appear that Daphnaïda demands a guarded response from its readers. We are provided with a perspective upon Alcyon which he, in his distressed condition, is incapable of sharing. Although he is not consoled within the poem, the starkness of the conclusion illustrates the choice facing his real life counterpart, Sir Arthur Gorges, Douglas Howard’s husband: resignation or death. In this respect the poem may be intended as an oblique caution [cf. Oram (1981)]. In Ovid, Alcyone is transformed into a bird, despair into elevation, and it is noteworthy that in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe Gorges is advised to channel his emotional energies away from sorrow into joyful poetry that ‘may thy Muse and mates to mirth allure’ (391). Within Daphnaïda itself the elaborate artistry of formal complaint makes it possible to articulate ‘that which cannot be tolde’ (72). The relationship between art and grief is thus shown to be potentially transformative: the Fates, it would appear, may serve as Muses after all (11–19). Cf. D. Cheney (1983); DeNeef (1982); Lambert (1976); Sandison (1928).

  The title (meaning ‘Of Daphne’) is both personally and generically appropriate in that Sir Arthur Gorges addressed several poems to his wife under the name of ‘Daphne’ and both Theocritus (Idylls, i) and Virgil (Eclogues, 5) lament the death of characters called ‘Daphnis’.

  Dedication To the right…

  Marquesse of North-hampton: Helena von Suavenberg or Snachenbergh (1549–1635), a Swede, came to England in 1565 and married William Parr, Marquis of Northampton and brother of Queen Catherine Parr. Following his death in 1571 she married Sir Thomas Gorges, Arthur Gorges’s uncle. Her favoured position at court is celebrated at CCH, 508–15. She was the chief mourner at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. Cf. Sjøgren (1978).

  3 Gentlewoman: Douglas Howard (1572–90), wife of Sir Arthur Gorges and daughter of Henry Howard, second Viscount Byndon.

  7 Arthure Gorges: Sir Arthur Gorges (1557–1625) was a cousin and close ally of Sir Walter Ralegh whose exploits at the Azores (1597) he chronicled in his Relation of the… Iland Voyage. He translated Lucan’s Pharsalia (1614) and Bacon’s Wisdom of the Ancients (1619) into English and Bacon’s Essays into French. In The Olympian Catastrophe (1612), an elegy on the death of Prince Henry, he repeats some of the speeches Spenser here assigns to Alcyon. His bereavement is also commemorated at CCH, 384–91.

  13 Howards: like his wife, Sir Arthur Gorges was descended from John Howard, the first Duke of Norfolk (1430–85) whose daughter Anne married Sir Edmund Gorges. Spenser’s genealogy is accurate.

  17 white Lyon: one of the heraldic supporters of the Norfolk arms.

  22 1591: as Douglas Howard died in August 1590 the date is probably new style, taking January not March as the beginning of the year (i.e. the poem was published in 1591 not 1592). Cf. Sandison (1928), 650.

  Daphnaïda

  6 Alcyon: on the death of her husband Ceyx, Alcyone attempted suicide but was transformed into a halcyon (cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11. 384–748). In Chaucer she dies ‘for sorwe’ (cf. Book of the Duchess, 62–214). The alteration from the feminine to the masculine form of the name evokes the common topos of the emasculating effects of excessive grief. Alcyon later compares himself to Ceres (463) and Philomela (475).

  8 who… sense: whoever can experience pleasure.

  16 fatall Sisters: the three Fates, cf. SC, November, [148]. Chaucer invokes Tisiphone at Troilus and Criseyde, 1. 6–14.

  17 direfull: terrible.

  18 bands: threads.

  19 Queene: Proserpina, wife of Hades, or possibly Hecate.

  20 Stygian strands: shores of the infernal River Styx.

  27 opprest: overwhelmed, crushed.

  35 yet: still.

  38–40 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 444–57.

  39 cost: approach.

  41 Iaakob staffe: a pilgrim’s staff, particularly associated, like the scallop shell, with St James (Latin Jacobus).

  crost: held as though making the sign of the cross.

  46–7 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 460–61.

  57–60 Cf. ibid., 502–18.

  57 disguize: strange, unaccustomed dress.

  59 wise: manner.

  67–70 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 548–57.

  67 Griefe… beare: translating the Latin proverb ‘solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris’.

  70 apay: requite, repay.

  78–84 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 721–41.

  78 bent: inclined, resolved.

  80 conuenient: befitting, appropriate.

  88 occasion: cause.

  90 question… of: doubts or questions raised about.

  99–168 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 617–86 where the man in black employs the imagery of chess to signify his loss.

  99 Whilome I vsed: in the past I was accustomed to.

  101 Sabrinaes streame: the River Severn. Sabrina, the illegitimate daughter of King Locrine, was drowned in the Severn by the jealous Queen Guendolen, cf. FQ, 2. 10. 17–19. The allusion is perplexing since the Gorges family held lands in Somerset and Dorset.

  103–5 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 797–802.

  107 Lionesse: the white lion supported the Norfolk (Howard) arms.

  108–9 White… impresse: according to one version of the myth Venus pricked her feet on thorns as she rushed to succour the dying Adonis and her blood dyed the flowers red. More commonly roses were said to spring from Adonis’ own blood. Cf. Bion, ‘Lament for Adonis’, 64–7; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10. 728–39; Comes, Mythologiae, 5. 16.

  111 kindlie wantonnesse: natural exuberance.

  112 staine: obscure, eclipse.

  116 bring to hand: make tame.

  120 handled: treated.

  121 stout: proud, resolute.

  122 auncient… haire: she was sole heir to Henry Howard, Viscount Byndon. The lion is, therefore, heraldically appropriate.

  124 fram’d: disposed, made receptive.

  bent: purpose, design.

  130 if nay: if not required.

  133 warie: carefull, circumspect.

  138 good: both property and well-being.

  140 miscaried: lost or perished.

  or: either.

  146 rude: common, ill-informed.

  tri’de: found by experience, ascertained.

  147 blesse: congratulate, praise (but possibly with the ironic implication of piously warding off harm).

  151 her: the goddess Fortuna (Fortune).

  154 Tragedies: for this concept of tragedy cf. TM, 151–62.

  155 dout: apprehension.

  156 Satyre: representing the negative forces of nature, satyrs are commonly destructive in Spenser. Cf. TM, 268; VB, 166 and notes.

  163–4 spoyle… pray: the terms suggest a contest between earth and heaven for possession of the lady.

  165–6 Lyon… firmament: Hercules slew the Nemean lion which Zeus then placed among the constellations as Leo. Cf. FQ, 7. 7. 36.

  171 abstaine: refrain.

  173 Some… alaid: somewhat abated.

  176–82 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 721–48.

  177 riddle: enigmatic account.

  178 in… skand: when rationally assessed or considered.

  183–4 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 1300–1310.

  185 extreamitie: extreme or utmost suffering.

  188 Reuoked: revived (literally ‘called back’).

  189 drearing: grief (a Spenserian coinage).

  196 dearnelie plained: dismally complained.

  197–539 A formal ‘complaint’ symmetrically organized into seven sections of seven stanzas apiece. For the thematic implications
of the numerological patterns of seven and nine cf. Kay (1990), 49–51.

  199 share: allot, apportion.

  200–201 afflict… transgresse: a biblical topos, cf. Genesis 18: 23.

  200 so sore: as sorely.

  203 oppresse: afflict, crush.

  206 immaculate: spotless, pure.

  208–12 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 484–6.

  214 diuinde: made divine or heavenly.

  218 Astrœa: goddess of justice, whose departure from the earth signalled the onset of corruption. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1. 149–50; MHT, 1–4; VG, 359–60 and notes; FQ, 5. 1. 11.

  225 Elisa: Queen Elizabeth I. Cf. SC, Aprill, 34.

  228 Castaly: a fountain on Mount Parnassus sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Cf. RT, 431; TM, 273 and notes.

  229 Colin: Colin Clout, Spenser’s poetic persona. Cf. SC, Aprill, 33–161.

  230 deifie: honoured as a goddess.

  239 first… spring: she was just nineteen years old.

  240 rinde: bark.

  248 Timon: the famous misanthrope Timon of Athens, cf. Plutarch, Life of Antony, 70; Lucian, Timon, or the Misanthrope.

  251 dropping weares: wastes or drains away drop by drop.

  265 ill… behoue: that might ill become him.

  266 tourne: event, accident.

  268 bridale feast: cf. ‘the marriage supper of the lamb’, Revelation 19: 9. Cf. also Matthew 22: 1–14.

  280 toward: coming, future.

  285–6 Saints… blest: cf. Revelation 7: 9–11.

  288 pledge: token.

  290 Ambrosia: their daughter Ambrosia Gorges, probably named after her godfather Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick.

  297–8 swords… chest: cf. Luke 2: 35.

  299 sugred: dulcet.

  309–15 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 848–54.

  311 trimly: featly, finely.

  314 nigh… astownd: she nearly astounded or astonished.