The Faerie Queene (116 page)

58 8
aggrace: enhance.

59 3
ensude: followed. 59 4 repine: complain. 59 7 in fine: in the end. (So 9 embay: bathe.

62 3
lauer: basin.

62 6
cubits: a length of about twenty inches.

62 8
Iaspar: a green precious stone. 63–8Imitated from
GL
15.58 ff.

63 1
margent: border. 63 2 defend: fend off.

63 3
bet: beat.

64 5
from… restraine: i.e., restrain from rising. 64 8 vnhele: uncover.

64 9
greedy: lustful

65 1
Starre: Venus as the morning star.

65 3
Cyprian
goddesse: Venus, born on Cyprus.

65 6
Christalline humour: clear water.

66 4
avise: view.

67 6
reft: stolen.

69 5
amis: incorrectly.

69 9
drift: scheme.

71 4
respondence: response, answer. meet: appropriate.

73 9
toyes: recreations.

73 4
depasturing: consuming.

74–5
The song of the rose imitates
GL
16.14-15.

76 7
display: see.

77 7
Arachne:
see note to 11.7.28.7. 80 4 ra'st: erased.

80 9
blend: blind.

81 9
wrest: twist.

82 3
distraine: tear apart.

82 6
adamant: a very hard rock, such as diamond.

82 8
Verdant:
Latin: ‘green-giving'; cf. Mordant of II.1.49.9 and note.

83 8
race: raze.

86 7
Grille:
Plutarch, in his dialogue
Whether Beasts have the Use of Reason,
makes Grillus, a companion of Ulysses, refuse to return from animal to human shape after Circe's enchantment. Plutarch's story was retold in Giovambattista Gelli's
Circe
(1548). Spenser may have read the story inGelli.

86 8
repined: sorrowed.

BOOK III

PROEM

a 3
Zeuxis
or
Praxiteles:
a painter and a sculptor of Greece, fourth century
BC,
both proverbial for their excellence in counterfeiting life.

2 4
daedale: skilful, from the name of the inventor Daedalus.

3 8
in coloured showes may shadow it: i.e., may give but the shadow of the reality in my poetical fictions.

3 9
antique: ancient.

4 5
gracious seruant: Sir Walter Ralegh wrote a poem to Elizabeth I,

The Ocean's Love to Cynthia,
only a fragment of which is extant. 4 6–9Spenser writes in the Letter to Ralegh:

In that Faery Queene I meane glory in my generall intention, but in my particular I conceiue the most excellent and glorious person of our soueraine the Queene, and her kingdome in Faery land. And yet in some places els, I doe otherwise shadow her. For considering she beareth two persons, the one of a most royall Queene or Empresse, the other of a most vertuous and beautifull Lady, this latter part in some places I doe expresse in Belphoebe, fashioning her name according to your owne [i.e., Ralegh's] excellent conceipt of Cynthia, (Phoebe and Cynthia both being names of Diana).

CANTO I

1 1
Faerie knight: Guyon.

1 5
Alma:
Alma's castle appears in n.9-11.

1 9
conge: leave (French:
congi).

2 1
Acrasia:
see II.1.51 fit and 12.69 fE he: Guyon.

4 9
lion passant: lion walking on a gold background, the arms of Brute, who founded Britain and is the ancestor of Britomart.

5 4
poinant: sharp.

6 4
sell: saddle.

6 7
crouper: crupper, i.e., horse's rump.

7 9
speare enchaunted: this magic spear is imitated from Ariosto: Astolfb gives the warrior maiden Bradamante an enchanted spear (OF 23.15).

8 6–9
Britomart:
her name is taken from Virgil's
Cms,
294-300. There

Carme, the ancient nurse, laments the death of her daughter Brito-martis, who fled into the sea to escape the love of Minos. The story of Britomartis is told by Carme to her foster daughter Scylla who has fallen in love with Minos, her father's enemy. Spenser imitates much of that dialogue in Canto 2 in the speeches of Glauce and Britomart. Britomart's adventures in search of Artegall are modelled on Ariosto's Bradamante in search of Ruggiero. Both pairs of lovers eventually found a dynasty in their respective countries. The Virgilian name also suggested to Spenser the etymology for a female warrior's name: Brito-fBritain), martis (Mars).

8 9
Venus
looking glas: see III.2.17-22.

9 7
toward perill: imminent danger.

9 8
rencounter: chance meeting (French:
rencontre).

11 8
furnitures: equipment

12 cf.
note to I.9.I.L

13
Imitated from
OF
1.22, without the ironic twist at the end of Ariosto's stanza, in which the knights who have pledged loyalty to one another are parted immediately by a dividing of the way.

14 2
edifyde: built up. 14 4 dernely: grievously.

14 8
tract: trace, track. ij FlorimeU's appearance is modelled on Ariosto's proud Angelica, whose beauty no knight can resist
(OF 1.33ft).
Her name means ‘flower honey'.

15 7
tinsell: guttering. 17 2 Foster: forester.

17 4
tyreling iade: weary nag, imitating the slow ass of the lecherous hermit in OF 2.13 and 8.31.

18 9
Timias:
Arthur's squire. See note to L7.37.1. 20 4 edifyde: built.

20 8
size knights: see note to m.1.45.

22 2
embost: driven to extremity.

23 6
gyre: circle.

24 7
Errant Damzell:
i.e., Una of Book I.

25 7–9
See Chaucer's ‘Franklin's Tale', 764-6, and D. W. Robertson, jr,

Preface,
pp. 470-72, but note the change in context. Chaucer describes cupidinous love; Spenser, charitable love.

26 4
debonaire: gracious.

30 6
mard: marring of the sword -was a sign of defeat.

34 2
Arras
and of
Toure:
Arras and Tours, famous for their tapestries. 34–8The myth of Venus and Adonis is told in
Met.
10.519-739. Spenser also relies on Natalis Comes, 5.16. Spenser gives another version of this love in the Garden of Adonis, HI.6.

35 7
Beauperes: companions. 38 8 transmew: transmute.

40 2
Lydian:
the mode of Greek music associated with soft, sensuous qualities suitable for a place like Castle Joyous, dedicated to the pursuit of dalliance.

41 6
askaunce: to the side.

41 9
amenaunce: conduct, bearing.

42 5
spiceree: spices.

42 8
vented up her vmbriere: raised face guard of helmet.

43
The stanza imitates' Ariosto's description of Bradamante taking off her helmet in a similar revelation of beauty (OF 32.65 ff). See also KI.9.20.

43 2
noyous: vexatious. 43 7 heried: praised.

45
The names of these knights have been called ‘a ladder of lechery' (Allan H. Gilbert,
MLN
56,1941,594-7). See also the response of James Hutton,
MLN
57, 1942, 657-61). They mean ‘looking' (Gardante), ‘speaking' (Parlante), ‘joking' (Iocante), ‘kissing' (Basdante), ‘revelling' (Bacchante), and ‘Late Nights' (Noctante). See Roche,
The Kindly Flame,
67-72, and Alastair Fowler,
SP
56,1959, 583-99.

46 6
vermeill: vermilion.

48 7
discust: shaken off.

49
adapted from
OF
28.1.

50 1
skill: care or understand.

51 3
Ceres
and
Lyeeus:
i.c, food and wine. Ceres is goddess of growing things, and Lyaeus, or Bacchus, is god of wine. 53 5 but if: unless. 53 7 priefe: experience, proof.

53 8
malengine: ill-intent.

54 2
i.c, by the similar feelings of her own female nature. 56 1 flit: flitting.

56 8
Bascionumi:
Italian: ‘I kiss your hand'.

57 1
hazardry: gambling.

57 5
crafty engins: i.c, eyes or plans.

57 8
moist daughters: Hyades, seven stars in me constellation. Taurus, called daughters of Atlas by Natalis Comes, 4.7.

58 9
assoile: release.

61 2
abrayd: have startled.

622
fifed: defiled.

62 3
gride: pierce.

64 s
contecke: contest; strife, discord.

64 8
embosse: Le., strike.

64 9
succourd: helped.

65 4
sheene: fair, shining. 67 5 trade: custom.

CANTO 2

i-a
In these stanzas Spenser partially imitates
OF
20.1-2.

1 6
gestes: deeds.

2 8
pollicy: statesmanship.

3 4
endite: write, compose.

4 1
Guyon:
in Canto 1 Britomart defeats Guyon but is separated from him when he rides off after Horimell. She then comes upon Redcross at Castle Joyous, and we must surmise from Argument and stanza 16 that Redcross is meant here. One of Spenser's slips.

4 6
inquest: quest.

5 7
flake: flash.

5 8
fulmined: thundered.

6 4
affrap: hit (Freanch:
frapper
).

6 8
nyce: slender, thin.
OED
quotes this line.

7 6
ff Britomart's story puts her in the tradition of the female warrior:

Penthesilea
(Aen.
1.491-3), Camilla
{Aen.
7.803 ff), Bradamante (OF 3), Clorinda
(GL
2.39-40). 7 7 card: map.

7 9
greater
Britaine:
i.e., Great Britain, not Brittany in France, often called the ‘lesser Britain'.

8 9
Arthegall:
the name appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth, 9.12, but

Spenser uses it for its meaning, ‘equal to Arthur'. He is destined to marry Britomart and begin the dynasty leading to Elizabeth I, just as in
OF
3 Bradamante and Ruggiero begin the dynasty leading to the D'Este. He is equal to Arthur in that Spenser inserts the reign of Arthegall and Britomart to replace the reign of the ‘historical' Arthur in the chronicle of British history told in IL10 and III.3. See Roche, pp. 47 ff.

9 9
borne the name: i.e., won the tide.

11 2
magnifide: praised.

12 3
Her list: it pleased her.

12 4–5
fife Your curteous tongue: natter by lying. ia 8 tort: wrong.

13 9
Whose prowesse paragon: the equal of whose powers.

14 1
soothlich: truly.

15 4
allegge: alleviate, allay.

15 8
i.e., was pleased to make the feeling greater by pretending disagreement

16 4
parauaunt: before.

17 4
mirrhour: see the mirror in Chaucer's ‘Squire's Tale', 132-142.

II43

Lotspeich suggests Plato,
Phaedrus,
255 D. Spenser calls it ‘Venus looking glas', III.1.8.

17 5
engraffed: grafted, implanted.

18 5
Ryence:
Ryence or Rouens is a figure in Malory.

18 6
Merlin:
the great magician of the Arthurian material, who appears here because Ariosto uses him to tell Bradamante about her future,
OF
3.

18 8
aguiz'd: fashioned. 20 3
Phao:
Spenser's source for this myth of Phao has not been found,

Spenser includes the name Phao in his list of the fifty Nereids in

IV.11.49. 20 6
Ptolonuee:
Ptolemy II, confused with the astronomer Ptolemy, who built the lighthouse and library at Alexandria. He was credited with magical powers.

20 9
peaze: blow.

21 2
for his gard: to protect him. 21 6 famous: worthy of fame.

21 8
conuince: vanquish.

22 6–9
i.e., she looked at herself awhile in vain, then remembered the rare virtues spoken of that mirror and began to think how they might pertain to her.

24 3
ventayle: lower movable part of a helmet. 24 4 agrize: horrify.

24 9
gest: countenance.

25 1
couchant: lying.

23 2
antique: ancient. 25 3 massie: heavy.

25 4
yfretted: decorated.

35 5
cyphers: characters, letters.

25 6
Achilles armes:
it was traditional for romance heroes to inherit the armour of Greeks and Trojans. Arthegall has the martial prowess of Achilles but not his wrath.

25 7
enueloped seuenfold: Achilles' shield was made with seven layers of skins (JZ. 8).

25 8
Ermilin: ermine.