The Faerie Queene (104 page)

16 4
without entraile: without coiling.

16 5
mayle: armour.

16 6
Armed to point: fully armed.

16 7
bale: death and conflagration
(OED
1 and 3).

17 1
Elfe: inhabitant of Faeryland.

17 3
trenchand: sharp.

17 8
enhaunst: raised.

19 3
force: not merely physical force but fortitude as in French
force.
See R. Tuve,
Allegorical Imagery,
p. 120 ff. Cf. I. 1.3.8 and 1.24.6.

19 8
gorge: throat.

20 1
maw: stomach.

20 3
gobbets: lumps.

20 6
bookes and papers: theological books, tracts, and pamphlets, debating often violently the nature of the one, true Church, that is, theological controversy which involves men in Error's den.

20 7
frogs: Rev. 16.13: ‘And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.' Cf. Exodus 8.2-7.

20 9
parbreake: vomit.

21 1
Nilus:
the river Nile. Spenser often uses the Latin forms of proper names as here.

21 9
reed: to see, only in Spenser
(OED,
‘read' 7). Cf. IH.9.2.3. 23 2
Phoebus:
sun. welke: fade.

23 8
clownish: rustic.

24 1
bestedd: situated.

26 2
vnkindly Impes: unnatural children.

27 5
Armorie: armour.

28 7
to frend: as friend.

29 2
weedes: garments; cf.
OF
2.12-13, where Angelica meets the hypo- critical old hermit. 29 9 knockt his brest: in reciting the
confiteor,
the act of confession in the
Roman Mass, the pious would touch the right hand to the heart thrice as a sign of penitence at the words
‘mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa'
(through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault).

30 2
faire him quited: responded similarly.

30 7
Bidding his beades: saying his rosary beads, prayers, trespas: sins.

30 9
sits not: is not proper.

32 1
wastfull: like a waste.

32 5
later: recent.

32 9
baite: refresh.

34 4
a little wyde: a little apart.

34 s
edifyde: built.

34 7
holy things: the prayers for matins and evensong, or perhaps more specifically the monastic offices of Roman Catholicism.

35 3
Rest is their feast, and all things at their will: i.e., rest is entertainment to them, and because they desire nothing, they have ‘all things at their will'. 35 7 file his tongue: i.e., make his words persuasive.

35 9
Aue-Mary:
‘Hail, Mary', the salutation of the archangel Gabriel to Mary announcing the conception of Christ (Luke 1.26 ff). The salutation was adopted as a prayer by the Roman Church and became the principal prayer in the Rosary.

36 2
humour: moisture.

36 3
Morpheus:
god of sleep.

36 5
riddes: dispatches.

37 4
Plutoes
griesly Dame: Pluto's wife Proserpina, queen of hell. Cf. I.5.20 ff.

37 8–9
Gorgon:
Demogorgon, the mythological invention of Boccaccio as the progenitor of all the gods, whose power is so great that even mention of his name makes the rivers of hell (Cocytus and Styx) tremble. Faustus swears by him in Marlowe's
Doctor Faustus
1.3. See also I.5.22 ff.

38 4
A-waite whereto: i.e., wait to see where he will use their services.

39 1
He: i.e., the first spirit.

39 3
Morpheus
house: god of sleep; derived mainly from
Met.
11.592 ff and Statius,
Thebaid
10.84 ff. Cf. Chaucer,
The Book of the Duchess,
155 ff.

39 6
Tethys:
wife of Oceanus and queen of rivers.

39 7
Cynthia:
a name for the moon, associated with the goddess Diana. See VIl.6.3.3 and VII.6.37.5, and below, note to I.43.3.

40 1
double gates: The Gates of Sleep are from
Od.
19.562 ff and
Am.
6.893 ff. True dreams pass through the gate of horn, which Spenser does not mention except to say that they are encased in silver; false dreams pass through the gate of ivory.

40 9
keepe: notice.

41 3
loft: air, sky, upper region (OED 1).

42 7
dryer braine: i.e., not moistened by the dew of sleep.

43 3
Hecate:
three-headed goddess of witches, identified -with Diana on earth, Cynthia or Luna in heaven, and Proserpina in hell.

43 6
Archimago: the old hermit, already associated with hypocrisy, is called now by his rightful name, ‘the great master of the false image', at the moment at which his power in hell has been established.

44 2
diuerse: another.

44 4
carefull carke: concern.

45 3
fram'd of liquid ayre: Latin:
liquidus,
‘clear, bright, pure'; the hellish spirit must be given a tangible body. 45 4 liuely: lifelike. 45 5 weaker sence: i.e., physical senses. 45
6
maker selfe: i.e., Archimago.

45 9
Vna:
Una,' one', is not named until the duplicate, false image has been created.

46 1
ydle: baseless, insubstantial. 46 4 fantasy: imagination.

46 5
In sort as: as.

47 7
Then seemed him: then it seemed to him. 47 8 false winged boy: Cupid.

47 9
Dame pleasures toy: love-making.

48 2
Venus:
not the Venus of the Proem (the Venus of'faithfull loues'), but the Venus of lechery.

48 7
Graces:
the three Graces, daughters of Jove and Eurynome, handmaids of Venus. Aglaia (Greek: ‘bright'), Euphrosyne (Greek:' good cheer'), Thalia (Greek: ‘festive”). See II.3.25 and VI.10.9 ff 48 8
Hymen id Hymen:
retrain from Greek hymn to wedded love, therefore ironic in context.

48 9
Flora:
goddess of spring and flowers, but identified as a harlot by E. K. in his gloss to ‘Marche' 16,
The Shepheardes Calender.

49 6
bayted hooke: see note to I.4.25.9.

51 4
blind God: Cupid.

52 3
bereaue: rob.

53 1
deare: dire.

53 5
redoubted: reverenced, dreaded, feared, but with a pun on ‘doubtful'.

54 3
hold me: i.e., consider myself.

55 2
light: wanton.

55 8
he: i.e., Archimago.

C
ANTO
2

1 1
Northerne wagoner: the constellation BoStes (Greek: ‘waggoner'). M. Y. Hughes
(MLN
63, 1948, 543) points out that Boethius uses the same configuration of stars in the
Consolation of Philosophy,
Book 4, Metre
6.
Spenser may want us to be aware of the magnificent assertion of Providence in Boethius's hymn. See Fowler,
Spenser and the Numbers of Time,
p. 71, and Nohrnberg,
Analogy of The Faerie Queene,
pp. 37-8. Cf. I.3.1

1 2
seuenfold teme: seven bright stars in Ursa Major, called the Big Dipper(USA), The Plough or Charles's Wain (UK). stedfast starre: the North star.

I 6
Chauntidere: the cock.

1 7
Phoebus
fiery carre: the sun, imaged as a fiery chariot driven by Apollo.

2 7
Proserpines:
queen of hell.

3 3
seeming body: the false body given to the spirit by Archimago.

6 6
Hesperus:
name for planet Venus when it appears as evening star. Venus is also the morning star.

7 2
Tithones:
husband of Aurora, goddess of dawn, granted immortality but not eternal youth, and hence eternally ageing.

7 4
Titan:
the sun.

9 4
Th'end of his drift: i.e., the purpose of his plan.

10 4
Proteus:
a sea-god who could change himself into any shape. See
Od.
4.456–8and Virgil,
Georgics
4.387-95, 406-10.

11 1
the person to put on: i.e. to disguise himself as Redcross. 11
6
bounch of haires discolourd: many-coloured plume.

11 7
Cf. L1.1.8.

11 9
Saint George:
Redcross, who is revealed as Saint George, the patron saint of England in the next stanza and in I.10.61, here imitated by Archimago.

12 6
Sarazin: Saracen, a pagan or infidel. arm'd to point: fully armed. 12 7 gay: bright.

12 8
Sansfoy:
‘Faithless' (French:
sansfot).

13 iff
Duessa here makes her initial appearance as the Scarlet Whore of Babylon, associated by Protestant commentators with the faithless religion of Rome, Rev. 17.3-4: ‘And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, which had seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold, and precious stones and pearls, and had a cup of gold in her hand, full of abominations and ulthiness of her fornication.' Her full identity is revealed in I.7.16 ff.

13 4
Persian
mitre: Persia, always associated with opulent, false show is here associated with the falsity oi Roman Catholicism, represented by the mitre, a bishop's hat.

13 5
owches: brooches.

13 8
tinsell: gaudy.

13 9
bosses: studs.

14 1
disport: entertainment, pleasures.

I5 5
daunted: overcome.

15 9
rebut: recoil.

16 3
fronts: foreheads (Latin
:fions).

16 6
hanging: undecided.

17 4
others: the other's.

17 5
spies: glances? weapons?

18 2
bitter fit: i.e., death.

18 9
blame: harm. blest: preserved, protected.

19 2
natiue vertue: power or natural strength. 19 4 riue: cut through.

19 s
cleft: cut off

19 7
grudging: complaining.

20 5
scowre: run, pursue.

21 4
humblesse: humility.

21 8
Much rueth me: it causes me to pity.

22 4
Before that: before.

22 7–9
Emperour: Duessa's father as Emperor of the West stands opposed to Una and her father, whose realm extends from East to West. See L1.5. The throne set upon the banks of the Tiber allusively links the Emperor of the West to the Pope as he figured Antichrist to the Protestant community.

23 6
day of spousall: marriage day.

24 2
conuaid: removed.

25 4
Fort: metaphor for virginity.

25 6–9
Sansfoy:
the three Sans brothers are the sons of old Aveugle (blind- ness). They are descendants of Night (cf. I.5.20 ff). They represent the progressive deterioration of the human soul through spiritual blindness. One is first without faith (Sansfoy) and then without law (Sansloy) and finally ends in spiritual death or joylessness (Sansjoy). Redcross's and Una's encounters with these three brothers in cantos
2-6
present an account of the Christian life in its battle against the forces of spiritual blindness. Redcross meets Sansfoy immediately after he has broken faith with Una by leaving her. He has broken his ‘troth' and wandered off from ‘truth'. See Tuve,
Allegorical Imagery,
p. 125.

26 2
Fidessa:
‘Faithful' (Latin
-.fides),
here used ironically.

27 9
so dainty they say maketh derth: this proverb is not entirely clear.

      It may be a simple moral warning: ‘Who dainties love shall beggars prove.' Some editors relate it to ‘Fastidiousness brings poverty', and interpret that Duessa's coy withholding of herself increases Redcross's desire. In either case, the ironic thrust of this clinching proverb seems pointed towards the fastidiousness of Redcross, who refrains from pursuing his advantage, ‘feining seemely mirth'.

29 9
a tide: a while.

30 3
falsed: misled.

31 1
ff Spenser uses the ‘flashback myth' or exemplum often, as a way of specifying the moral significance of an action. Redcross, in abandoning Una and taking up Duessa, is making the same mistake as Fradubio (‘Brother Doubt'). Similar transformations of a man into a tree can be found in
Aen.
3.20
ft,
Dante,
Inferno
13 and
OF
6.26.

31 3
embard: imprisoned.

31 8
houe: rise.

31 9
member: part of his body.

32 2
ouerpast: passed.
manhood well awake: i.e., reason controlled the senses.

33 5
Limbo
lake: not the Christian limbo. Maclean suggests it is a phrase taken from Phaer's translation of the
Aeneid
(editions from 1562).