208. THUS ILL BESTEDD. There is a similar combat in the old romance _Guy of Warwick_, ix, between the hero and a man-eating dragon.
217. HER SCATTRED BROOD. The poet here follows a belief as old as Pliny that the young of serpents fed on their mother's blood. In this entire passage the details are too revolting for modern taste.
232. THE WHICH THEM NURST. The antecedent of _which_ is _her_. In the sixteenth century _the_ was frequently placed before _which_, which was also the equivalent of _who_. Cf. the Lord's Prayer.
234. HE SHOULD CONTEND, he should have had to contend.
237. BORNE UNDER HAPPY STARRE. Belief in astrology was once common, and Spenser being a Pythagorean would hold the doctrine of the influence of the stars on human destiny.
239. THAT ARMORIE, the armor of the Christian warrior. _Ephesians_, vi, 13.
243. THAT LIKE SUCCEED IT MAY, that like successful adventures may succeed it. The word order is inverted for the sake of the rhyme.
250. TO FREND, as his friend.
254. AN AGED SIRE, the false enchanter, Archimago, or Hypocrisy, who is supposed to represent Pope Sixtus V or King Philip II of Spain. In general he stands for false religion or the Church of Rome. The character and adventure are taken from _Orlando Furioso_, ii, 12, in which there is a hypocritical hermit. The Knight at first takes Archimago to be a palmer, and inquires for the foreign news.
295. TAKE UP YOUR IN, take lodging.
301. A LITTLE WYDE, a little way off.
315. AN AVE-MARY, Hail Mary, a prayer to the Virgin. Cf. _Luke_, i, 28.
317. THE SAD HUMOUR, the heavy moisture, or "slombring deaw."
318. MORPHEUS, the son of Somnus and god of sleep and dreams, who sprinkled the dew of sleep on the brow of mortals from his horn or wings or from a bough dipped in Lethe.
323. HIS MAGICK BOOKES AND ARTES. Monks engaged in scientific investigation, such as Friar Roger Bacon, were popularly supposed to use cabalistic books, and to make compacts with the Devil by means of necromancy, or the black art, as in st. xxxvii. Before the close of the century Marlowe's _Doctor Faustus_ and Greene's _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, both based on the popular belief in magic, were presented on the London stage.
328. BLACKE PLUTOES GRIESLY DAME, Proserpine, the avenger of men, and inflicter of curses on the dead. She is identified with Shakespeare's Hecate, the goddess of sorcery, and with Milton's Cotytto, goddess of lust. To this latter sin the knight is tempted.
332. GREAT GORGON, Demogorgon, whose name might not be uttered, a magician who had power over the spirits of the lower world. The poet is here imitating the Latin poets Lucan and Statius.
333. COCYTUS, the river of wailing, and STYX, the river of hate, both in Hades. There were two others, _Acheron_, the river of sorrow, and _Phlegethon_, the river of fire.
335. LEGIONS OF SPRIGHTS. In this stanza and the preceding Spenser follows Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, xiii, 6-11, where the magician Ismeno, guarding the Enchanted Wood, conjures "legions of devils" with the "mighty name" (l. 332).
339. CHOSE. Imitation of Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_, ii, 15, in which a false spirit is called up by a hypocritical hermit. The description of the House of Sleep in st. xxxix _seq_. is modelled on the same poet, _Orlando Furioso_, ii, 15 _seq_. The influence of Homer's _Odyssey_, xi, 16 is seen in st. xxxix, ll. 348 _seq_.
348. TETHYS, the ocean. In classical mythology she is the daughter of Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth), and the wife of Oceanus.
349. CYNTHIA, the moon. The allusion is to the story of Diana and Endymion. See Lyly's play _Endymion_.
352. WHOSE DOUBLE GATES. Homer, _Odyssey_, xix, 562, and Vergil, _Aeneid_, vi, 893, give the House of Dreams a horn and an ivory gate. Spenser substitutes silver for horn, mirrors being overlaid with silver in his time. From the ivory gate issued false dreams; from the other, true ones.
361. SLUMBER SOFT. This stanza shows Spenser's wonderful technique. His exquisite effects are produced, it will be noticed, partly by the choice of musical words and partly by the rhythmical cadence of the verse phrases. It is an example of perfect "keeping," or adaptation of sound to sense. Cf. Chaucer's description of the waterfalls in the Cave of Sleep in his _Boke of the Duchesse_, 162.
376. WHOSE DRYER BRAINE, whose brain too dry. In the old physiology, a dry brain was the cause of slow and weak perception, and a moist brain of quickness.
378. ALL, entirely, altogether.
381. HECATE, queen of phantoms and demons in Hades, and mistress of witches on earth. See xxxvii.
387. THE SLEEPERS SENT, the sleeper's sense.
405. MOST LIKE TO SEEME, etc.. most likely fit to seem for (represent) Una. _Like_ is an adv. A very awkward inversion.
411. BORNE WITHOUT HER DEW, i.e. created by him in an unnatural manner.
425. FAYRE VENUS, the daughter of Jupiter, or Zeus, and the sea-nymph Dione. She is the same as Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
430. THE GRACES, Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, daughters of Zeus and Aphrodite.
431. HYMEN IÖ HYMEN, refrain of an old Roman nuptial song. Hymen, the son of Apollo and the Muse Urania, was the god of marriage.
432. FRESHEST FLORA, the goddess of flowers. She typified spring.
447. TO PROVE HIS SENSE, etc. To test his perception and prove her feigned truth.
449. THO CAN SHE WEEPE, then did she weep. _Can_ here is the Northern dialect form for the middle English _gan_, past tense of _ginnen_, to begin, which was used as an auxiliary.
454. THE BLIND GOD, Cupid, Eros, or Amor, the god of love.
478. Like other knights of romance, e.g. Sir Galahad and Sir Gareth in Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, iii, 65, etc., the Redcross Knight does not yield to the temptation of the flesh, but overcomes it.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR STUDY
(Canto I)
1. Tell in your own words the story of this canto. 2. Which muse does Spenser invoke? 3. Who were the nine muses? 4. What is the difference between _pastoral_ and _epic_ poetry? 5. Illustrate by _The Shepheards Calender_ and the _The Faerie Queene_. 6. Point out imitations of Homer, Vergil, Lucan, Statius, Ariosto, Tasso, and Chaucer. 7. Explain the reference to the religious questions and politics of Queen Elizabeth's reign. 8. Where does Spenser use classical mythology--mediæval legends? 9. What references to the Bible do you find? 10. Try to make a mental picture of the Knight--of Una--of Error--of Archimago. 11. Is Spenser's character drawing objective or subjective? 12. Is the description of the wood in vii true to nature? Could so many trees grow together in a thick wood? 13. Study the Rembrandt-like effects of light and shade in xiv. 14. What infernal deities are conjured up by Archimago?
15. Paraphrase in your own language ll. 88, 106-107, 116, 267-268.
16. Explain use of _of_ in l. 75. 17. What part of speech is _wandering_ l. 114? _to viewen_ l. 201? parse _which_ l. 232; _him_ and _spend_ l. 233; _you_ and _shew_ l. 276. 18. Find examples of Euphuistic hyperbole in iv, of alliteration in xiv. 19. Explain the use and form of _eyne_, _edified_, _afflicted_, _weeds_, _Hebean_, _impe_, _compeld_, _areeds_, _blazon_, _ycladd_.
CANTO II
I. _The Plot_: Deceived by Archimago's phantoms, the Redcross Knight suspects the chastity of Una, and flies at early dawn with his dwarf. He chances to meet the Saracen Sansfoy in company with the false Duessa. They do battle and Sansfoy is slain. Duessa under the name of Fidessa attaches herself to the Knight, and they ride forward. They stop to rest under some shady trees, On breaking a bough, the Knight discovers that the trees are two lovers, Fradubio and Fraelissa, thus imprisoned by the cruel enchantment of Duessa.
II. _The Allegory_: 1. Hypocrisy under a pious disguise is attractive to Holiness. Truth is also deceived by it, and shamefully slandered. Holiness having abandoned Truth, takes up with Falsehood, who is attended by Infidelity. Unbelief when openly assailing Holiness is overthrown, but Falsehood under the guise of Faith remains undiscovered. The fate of the man (Fradubio) is set forth who halts between two opinions,--False Religion (Duessa) and Heathen Philosophy, or Natural Religion (Fraelissa).
2. The Reformed Church, no longer under the guidance of Truth, rushes headlong into Infidelity, and unwittingly became the defender of the Romish Faith under the name of the True Faith. There is a hint of the intrigues of Mary Queen of Scots and the libels of the Jesuits on Queen Elizabeth designed to bring back the English nation to Romish allegiance.
LINE 1. THE NORTHERNE WAGONER, the constellation Boötes.
2. HIS SEVENFOLD TEME, the seven stars of Ursa Major, or Charles's Wain. THE STEDFAST STARRE, the Pole-star, which never sets.
6. CHEAREFULL CHAUNTICLERE, the name of the cock in the fabliaux and beast epics, e.g. _Roman de Renart_ and _Reineke Fuchs_.
7. PHOEBUS FIERY CARRE, the sun.
11. THAT FAIRE-FORGED SPRIGHT, fair but miscreated spirit (I, xiv). Spenser took suggestions for this stanza from Ariosto and Tasso.
51. FAIRE HESPERUS, the evening star.