The Faerie Queene (108 page)

46 7
Cleopolis: the city of glory, capital of Faeryland.

47 5
vnregarded: not respected.

48 7
deare: harm.

48 9
tosse: wield, handle. 51 4 mall: club.

C
ANTO
8

3 5
home of bugle: literally, a horn of a wild ox. This horn is related to the horn of Astolfo in OF 15.14, where Logistilk (reason) bestows upon Astolfo gifts of a book and a horn. The commentators interpret these gifts as wisdom (by which we know the truth) and eloquence (by which we proclaim that wisdom). Spenser may also have in mind Romans 10.13-18, where Paul, discussing dissemination of the word of Christ by preachers, quotes Psalm 19.4: “Their line is gone forth through all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world'.

4 7
presently: at once.

6 2
beast: see note to I.7.17-18.

7 4
snubbes: snags, stubs.

7 S
Him thought: i.e., he thought that he would slay him at once.

7 6
Pere: rival.

7 7
maine: strength.

8 2
idle: useless.

9 3
food: feud.

9 6
engin: weapon.

10 1
boystrous: roughly massive, bulky.

11 5
Cymbrianplaine: probably Wales, from a conflation of Cymru (Welsh: ‘Wales') and Cambria (Latin: ‘Wales').

12 5
ramping: rearing.

13 4
That stop: i.e., Timias.

13 5
the let: hindrance.

14 1
golden cup: Spenser finally mentions the Scarlet Whore's golden cup, which was ‘full of abominations and filtbiness of her fornications' (Rev. 17.4). The Genevan Bible glosses ‘abominations' as ‘false doctrines and blasphemies'. The image is general, but some critics would like to particularize the cup as the chalice used in the Roman Catholic Mass, with (to Protestant eyes) its abominable doctrine of transubstantiation.

14 8
quayd: subdued,

16 1–5
A direct reference to Rev. 13.3: ‘And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death.' 18 2 In one alone left hand: i.e., the one hand left to him.

18 4
dites: lifts, raises; erroneous usage by Spenser (OED 16).

19
Arthur's shield uncovered has the same effect as Ruggiero's in OF 22.84-6. Here it is God's grace intervening.

21 2
trend: lover.

22 3
blest: brandished.

22 5
as an aged tree: a simile with classical precedents; cf. especially Aen. 2.626-31, where the fall of Troy is compared to the falling of a tree.

23 2
slight: device.

25 3
crowned mitre: the triple tiara of the Popes.

271
fresh bud: i.e., Timias, Arthur's squire.

31 s
trace: walk.

31 9
Ignaro: ignorance.

32 2
as beseemed well: as was proper.

34 2
doted: stupid, foolish, in second childhood.

34 9
empeach: hinder.

35 2
arras: tapestry.

35 6–9
Probably a reference to Herod's massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2.16). Traditionally these children were interpreted as the first sacrifices or martyrs for Christ.

36
Rev. 6.9-10: ‘And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were killed for the word of God, and for the testimony which they maintained. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy and true, dost not thou judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' The Genevan Bible glosses: “The continual persecution of the Church is noted by the fifth seal. The souls o tthe Saints are under the altar which is Christ, meaning that they are in his safe custody in the heavens.'

The prisoners in Orgoglio's castle, captives of Ignaro (ignorance) and Orgoglio (pride), with the help of Duessa (the power of Antichrist, here the Church of Rome), are meant to signify the faithful kept from the true faith by the corruption of doctrine and power in the English Church while it maintained allegiance to Rome.

36 4
doen to dye: caused to die.

37 3–4
An allusion to the power given Peter by Christ (Matthew 16.19). See stanza 30 and I.3.16.4.

37 9
enlargen: set free.

40 2
noyous: noxious.

40 3
nicer: too fastidious.

40 8
pined: wasted.

41 3
better bits: food.

41 4
deceiued: deprived, but Spenser's use refers to the deception of Redcross by Duessa, which deprived him of spiritual food.

41 6
bowrs: muscles.

42 9
misseeming hew: unbecoming appearance.

43 4
wreakes: revenges.

43 6
priefe: testing, proving.

44 6
ware: wary.

44 8
yron pen: Jortin (Var., p. 262) cites Job 19.23-4: ‘O that my words were written. .. that they were graven with an iron pen.'

45 7
To do her dye: to cause her to die.

45 9
spoile: despoil.

46
The stripping of Duessa imitates the revelation of Alciaa to the rescued Ruggiero (OP 7.71-3). In using Alcina as a model Spenser is once more using physical action to figure spiritual meaning. He carefully avoids bringing in the destruction of the Scarlet Whore (Rev. 17.16), which Una's mercy countermands (stanza 45).

46 2
pall: cloak.

46 5
tire and call: headdress and caul, the netted substructure of a wig.

47 3
scald: scabby disease.

47 4
feld: fallen.

48 3–9
Upton (Var., p. 263), citing Rev. 13.2, suggests that the foxtail signifies craftiness and that the eagle's claw and bear's paw signify Duessa's rapacious nature.

49 6
counterfesaunce: deceit.

50
Duessa's exit, in nakedness and desolation, is indebted to Rev. 17. 16.

C
ANTO
9

Arg. 1
Ugnage: lineage.

1 1
goodly golden chaine: the image of the golden chain begins with Il. 8.18-27, where Zeus asserts his superiority to the other gods:

He spake, and all the Gods gave eare: heare how I stand inclind -That God nor Goddesse may attempt t'infringe my soveraigne mind, But all give suffrage, that with speed I may these discords end.

      … then shall he know from thence

How much my power, past all the Gods, hath soveraigne eminence. Indanger it the whiles and see let downe our golden chaine, And at it let all Deities their utmost strengths constraine To draw me to the earth from heaven: you never shall prevaile Though with your most contention ye dare my state assaile. But when my will shall be disposd to draw you all to me, Even with the earth it selfe and seas ye shall enforced be. Then will I to Olympus' top our vertuous engine bind And by it everie thing shall hang by my command inclind. So much I am supreme to Gods, to men supreme as much.

(8.5-24, trans. George Chapman, 1598)

1 6
aid enuy: begrudge aid. 3 2 without: outside, beyond. 3 9 thewes: manners.

4 1
Timon: Greek: ‘honour'; cf. Arthur's squire Timias, ‘honoured', so named in III, IV, and VI. As usual Spenser carefully avoids the tradi tional Arthurian matter because in his fiction Prince Arthur is to marry Gloriana. In Malory, Arthur is brought to Sir Ector.

4 6
Raman: a hill in Merionethshire, Wales. Since the Tudor dynasty originated in Wales, it very cleverly associated its origins with the legendary Arthur.

4 7
Dee: river forming part of the border between England and Wales.

5 4
nounture: nurture, training.

6 1
gent: gentle.

7 9
find: be eager to. on ground: in the world,

8 9
respire: breathe.

11 8
disauentrous: disastrous.

12 2
mated: overcome.

12 5
prickt: urged.

13 S
humour: moisture, air? 15 1 deuoyd: empty.

I5 7
tyne: toil.

17 8
prowes priefe: the proof of process.

18 5
Als Vna earnd: i.e., also Una yearned.

19 3
liquor pure: probably symbolic of grace. Some editors see it as the Eucharist. Arthur uses this liquor to cure the wounds of Amoret, IV. 8.20.

19 5
incontinent: immediately.

19 7
A booke: the New Testament.

20 3
pray: prey upon.

20 8
hew: appearance.

21 4
him agast: mad him aghast. 21 7, 9 As: as if.

21 9
Pegasus his kind: of Pegasus' kind or nature, i.e., a winged horse. Pegasus, sprung from the blood of Medusa (Met. 4.786), was used by Bellerophon in killing the Chimaera. Pegasus is also associated with the Muses: he struck his hoof against Mt Helicon, creating the well Hippo-crene for them.

23 2
what mister wight: what kind of man.

23 9
misseeming: unseemly.

26 9
had bene partaker of the place: i.e., would have fallen prey to the place he is now fleeing.

28 3
blesse: protect.

28 5
Despaire: or accidie, is one of the principal sins in Christian theology, for it denies the possibility of God's mercy. Ironically it is the ultimate form of pride: the soul is so self-absorbed that it cannot believe that God is all-powerful and can save all. Faustus is in this condition at the end of Marlowe's play. Cf. Chaucer's ‘Parson's Tale' for the ramifications of this sin, which Spenser would have known as commonplaces.

29 9
rope… knife: In John Skelton's
Magnificence
(1515) the hero is offered a halter and a knife by Despair and Mischief.

30 6
dying feare: fear of dying.

30 9
But God you neuer let: i.e., but God never let you.

312
Castle of his health: i.e., the body, a common metaphor; c£ Sir Thomas

Elyot,
The Castle of Health
(1534). Spenser devotes all of II.9 to an expanded allegory of the body as a castle. 34 3 knees: crags.

34 7
teene: grief.

35 9
as: as if.

37 9
to price: to pay for.

38–47
Despair's speech is modelled carefully on the classical rules of rhetoric (see Herbert Rix,
Rhetoric in Spenser's Poetry,
Pennsylvania State College Studies, vol. 34, 1940, pp. 68-9). The speech is opposed to the advice given by pagan philosophers such as Cicero and Seneca as well as by all Christian writers throughout the centuries. The argument is based on a fallacious understanding of Christian theology. Ernest Sirluck has pointed out that Despair emphasizes God's justice to the point of excluding God's mercy
(MP
47, 1949, 8-17). Kathrine Roller
(SP 61,
1964,128-39), elaborates by showing that many of the phrases and arguments were common in the
artes moriendi,
treatises designed to help the Christian to die in hope, an aim which Despair perverts through his rhetorical skill. Una understands and explains the true mining in stanza 53.

41 1
suddeine wit: quick intelligence.

41 2–5
Redcross is paraphrasing Cicero,
De Senectute
20.73: ‘Hence it follows that old men ought neither to cling too fondly to their little remnant of life, nor give it up without a cause. Pythagoras bids us stand like faithful sentries, and not quit our post until God, our Captain, gives the word' (trans. W. A. Falconer, Loeb Library).

41 9
droome: drum, but pun on doom.

43 6
Genesis 9.6: ‘Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God hath he made man.'

44 3
that life ensewen may: i.e., that may ensue in the rest of your life.

45 9
happen fall: happen to fell.

47 5–6
See Ezekiel 18.4 and Job 34.15.

49 6
table: picture.

50 5
ouercraw: exult over.

52 3
reliu'd: revived.

53 8
accurst hand-writing: the justice of the old law, now abrogated by the mercy of the new law of Christ.

C
ANTO
10

1
See Ephesians 2.8-9: ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God – not of works, lest any man should boast himself.' Spenser is alluding to Paul's warning that we are justified (‘saved') by faith and not by our good works. The relation
between faith and good works is stated in Articles XI and XH of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England:

XI.
Of the Justification of Man.
We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only, is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

XII.
Of Good Works.
Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's Judgement; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.