The Faerie Queene (124 page)

26 4
that faire City: Oxford.

26 5
impes: i.e., scholars.

26 6
Britany: Britain.

26 7
elder sisters broode: Cambridge University. As a Cantabrigian Spenser gives priority of founding to his own university.

27 2
watchet hew: pale blue.

27 9
fret: interlaced net; ornament.

28 4
Cybele: the great mother of gods, and goddess of civilization, tradition- ally pictured wearing a turreted crown.

28 6
Turribant: turban.

28 7–6
Troynouant: i.e., London. See notes to m.3.22 and 9.44. The old maps that Spenser used identified large cities by groups of towers clustered as if in a crown. See the maps of Christopher Saxton, published in 1579.

29 5
Kenet: the Kennet ioins the Thames at Reading.

Thetis gray: modern Wey meets the Thames at Weybridge.

29 6
morish Cole: The marshy Colne meets the Thames at Staines.

Breane: probably modern Brent; meets the Thames near Syon House.

29 7
Lee: meets the Thames at Blackwall after an irregular course.

29 8
Darent: flows through Kent to Thames near Dartford.

30 6
Seuerne: the Severn, one of Britain's major rivers, flowing from central Wales to the Bristol Channel.

30 7
Humber: flows by Hull to the North Sea.

31 1
Tamar: divides Cornwall and Devonshire. It does not meet the Plim, as Spenser says, but he may have mistaken the Tavy or Plymouth Bay on Saxton's map.

31 5
Dart: rising in Dartmoor, it carried away tin ore from the stanneries on its course, which nearly choked it.

31 6
Auon: the Avon flows through Bath and Bristol near which, Camden states, are hills full of Bristol diamonds.

32 1
Stoure: the Dorset Stour, which springs from six heads, now all within Stourton Park. Spenser may be playing with the name of the river and the common noun ‘stoure' meaning variously ‘struggle', ‘agony', ‘paroxysm'.

32 3–4
Blandford plains: probably the region below Blandford where the valley spreads into a plain towards Wimborne Minster (Winborne).

32 5
Wylibourne: the modern Wylye, meeting the Avon at Salisbury.

32 6
Again Spenser puns on the name.

32 7
Wiltshire is named after Wilton, named from the Wylye. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, lived in Wilton House on its banks.

32 8
Mole: flows from north of Dorking, Surrey, joining the Thames opposite Hampton Court The story of its course underground is derived from Camden.

33 1
Rother: separates Sussex from Kent. The river rises near the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, now heathland.

33 2
Rhy: Rye in Sussex.

33 3
Sture: the Stour, separating Essex from Suffolk, flows by Clare and Harwich.

33 6
Yar: the Yare, in Norfolk, which flows near Norwich.

33 9
Ruffins: a kind of perch abundant in the Yare.

34 1
Ouse: the Great Ouse, which empties into the Wash.

34 5
These are tributaries of the Ouse. Cle is the modern Ouzel or Lovat. Were is the modern Tove. Grant is the Granta or Cam of Cambridge. The Sture has left nothing more than the name of Stourbridge Fair, held yearly below Cambridge, ‘the most famous mart in England', as Harrison says (Var., p. a$8).

34 7
My mother Cambridge: Spenser matriculated at Pembroke Hall on 20 May 1569. He took his B A degree in January 1573, and his MA in June 1576.

35 I
Welland: river of Lincolnshire which Spenser says will flood Holland, the maritime part of Lincolnshire. The prediction comes in one of the so-called prophecies of Merlin (‘old sawes”) that studies at that time taking place at Oxford (Vada Bourn) would, by the end of the century, take place at Stamford (Vada Saxi). Camden records that a university was founded at Stamford during the reign of Edward III (1333). Many northern students left Oxford, but were called back by Royal proclamation. Spenser connects the two stories, not found together in other writers.

35 7
New: the Nene has its source above Northampton and it flows into the Wash.

35 8–9
Trent: etymology rather than nature is responsible for the thirty kinds offish and streams (French: trente, thirty). The river was famous for its variety and plenty offish.

36 1–5
Tyne: part of the course of the Tyne runs parallel to the wall built by the Roman Severus from the Solway Firth to Tynemoutb,

36 5
Gualseuer: wall of Severus; see preceding note.

36 6
Twede: Tweed, the border between Logris land (England) and Albany (Scotland), so called because it was the portion given to Albanact, youngest son of Brute. See II.10.14.

36 7
Eden: in Westmorland, often the scene of border battles between Scots and English.

37
The ‘sixe sad brethren' are tributaries of the Ouse in Yorkshire. They are the Swale and the Ure, which unite to form the Ouse, the Skell, a tributary of the Ure, the Nidd, and the Wharfe. The Ouse flows into the Humber mentioned in stanza 30.7.

38 1
Brutus: the legendary founder of Britain. For the reign of Brutus see IL10.9-14.

39 1
Lone: the Lune, which has its mouth just below Lancaster.

39 3
Dee: the name is derived by Spenser from the Latin divus, holy.

39 S
Conway: in North Wales, which according to Camden produces pearls.

39 7
Lindus: modern Witham of Lincolnshire, famed for its pike. It flows through Lincoln and is ostensibly the source of the name.

41 1
Liffy: the river that flows through Dublin.

41 2
Slane: the very sandy river Slaney that reaches the sea below Wexford.

Aubrian: the Owenbrin in Connaught? the Breanach between Cork and Kerry? the Urrin in Wexford?

41 3
Shenan: the Shannon in Limerick opens into a great estuary.

41 4
Boyne: flows from Kildare to Drogheda.

Ban: the Bann in Wexford joins the Slaney.

41 5
Awniduff: the northern Blackwater that flows between the counties of Armagh and Tyrone.

41 6
Liffar: the Foyle at Lifford in Donegal.

41 7
Trowis: Drowes, flowing between Donegal and Leitrim into Donegal Bay. 41 8 Allo: the Blackwater, or Broadwater, so called in Colin Clouts Come Home Again, 123.

41 9
Mulla: the Awbeg, which rises to the north of Kilcolman, Spenser's home, joins the Bregog to the south, and empties into the Blackwater. See Colin Clouts Come Home Again, 88-155, and VII.6.38-55. 4a 1 three renowmed brethren: the Suir, the Nore and the Barrow, described in 43-

42 2–9
This topographical myth, which is Spenser's invention, derives from the fact that the three rivers rise in the Slieve Bloom Mountains (Gyant Blomius) after rainfall (Nimph Rheusa, from Greek: ‘flowing water').

44 1
Mayre: the Kenmare, south-west of Kerry.

44 2
Bandon: flows through County Cork into the sea at Kinsale.

44 3
Lee: the Lee expands greatly below Cork but in Spenser's time was wide enough to embrace the whole city.

44 5
Oure: the Avonbeg in County Wicklow. Near Glenmalure the English were defeated in 1580 while under the command of Lord Grey, to whom Spenser was secretary.

45 6
water Chamelot: rich cloth with watered appearance.

46 7
humour: moisture.

47 2
Theise: Teise meets the Medway at Yalding.

Crane: the Beult, which meets the Medway almost at the same point as the Teise.

47 9
Donne… Frith: it is not dear which small streams Spenser means. The Frith may be the Shode, a brook just above Yalding. He may have known the streams from his acquaintance with the area surrounding Penshurst, the home of the Sidneys on the Medway above Tonbridge.

48–51
The Nereids are the fifty daughters of Nereus (see stanza 18) and Doris. Hesiod, Theogony, 240-64, is the first to name them, but Spenser invents two (Phao and Poris, stanza 49. 5-6). Vat., pp. 274-5, suggests two sources for Spenser's list: the Latin translation of Hesiod by Boninus Mombritius, published first in Ferrara, 1474, and reprinted into the later sixteenth century; and the mythological commentary of Natalis Comes, 8.6. Neither gives Spenser's list exactly. Whatever the source, Spenser seems to be at his usual work of etymologizing in applying epithets to these nymphs.

C
ANTO
12

2 2
Venus was born from the foam of the sea according to Met. 4.537, following earlier tradition.

2 4
fry: offspring.

4 9
disauentrous: unfortunate.

6–11
These stanzas comprise a formal complaint made by Florimell imprisoned. See Britomart's complaint, III.4.8-10.

9 8
art one: at once.

11 2
points: appoints.

12 4
misfare: affliction, sorrow.

14 5
former charge: see III.4.25-7.

14 7
targe: shield.

14 9
forthinke: to think better of.

22 2
mister: kind of.

25 4
Leaches: doctors.

26 5
shrieue: shrive.

28 4
Old Proteus' prophecy is told in III.4.25.

31 8
repleuie: recover cattle or goods. Cymodoce is using precise legal terminology. See V.3.27.5.

34 5
refection: refreshment.

34 6
tine: wrath.

35 9
Spenser relates the marriage of Florimell and Marinell in V.3.

BOOK V

H
EADNOTE

Justice is cited by Plato, Republic 4.6 ff, as one of the four virtues essential to the good society; the other three are prudence, temperance, and fortitude. The same four virtues are mentioned in the Book of Wisdom 8.7. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins, p. 66, asserts that St Ambrose was the first to call them ‘virtutes cardinales'. Very early they became the four virtues of the classical philosophers; later, ranged with the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity (1 Corinthians
13) they were set in opposition to the seven deadly sins. Tuve, Allegorical Imagery, p. 57 ff, states that the development of the medieval tradition did not depend directly on Plato, Aristotle, or the Bible, but on Cicero, Macrobius, and Martin of Braga (often cited as Seneca). These writers, who analysed the virtues before the rediscovery of Aristotle's Ethics, were responsible for the development of moral theory, the most important text being Cicero's rhetorical treatise De inventione 2.53-4.

Spenser treats two of the cardinal virtues, temperance and justice, which are related to each other as the individual is to society: what temperance (the proper ordering of the body) is to the individual, justice (the proper giving of what is due to each member of society) is to the body politic. Theologically justice is the virtue most appropriate for kings. The development of law during the Middle Ages and Renaissance was built on the analogy of God and king: the king was to administer God's law on earth, and this right administration was, by definition, justice. More than any other virtue, justice related God to history.

Spenser's Book of Justice deals specifically with historical events of Spenser's time. Arthegall, the knight of justice, has been identified with Lord Grey de Wilton, Elizabeth's deputy in Ireland, to whom Spenser was secretary (see notes to Dedicatory Sonnets). He has also been identified with Sir Philip Sidney. Much critical controversy could have been spared us if readers had recognized that an allegorical reading can include both historical figures, for each was dedicated to the Protestant cause. Arthegall's task is to rescue Irena, whose name derives from the Greek, eirene, ‘peace', and Iema, the ancient Gaelic name for the island. Spenser calls himself'Irenius' in A View of the Present State of Ireland (published posthumously in 1633), the tract expounding his thoughts on the solution to the ‘Irish problem'. Ireland, since it maintained its allegiance to the Church of Rome in spite of being annexed to Protestant England, became the target for subversive attacks on British Protestantism. (England still had ties with the Pope and with Philip II of Spain, who had been married (1554-8) to Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I's sister and predecessor on the English throne.) The crisis between the Catholic and Protestant powers in Ireland during Spenser's long residence in the country became for him a focus on the problems of establishing justice.

The great enemy of Irena is Grantorto (Italian: gran, ‘great', torto, ‘wrong1), Spenser's representation of injustice against the rights of individuals and nations; he is associated with the oppressive powers of Catholicism, in the figures of the Pope and Philip of Spain. Tort is a legal term. In the sixteenth century it meant that recourse which a person had under civil law for damages done to him or to his property. At that time it still carried with it something of its original meaning, which was to give civil redress to a person against whom a felony had been committed. The law of tort was introduced into England after
the Norman Conquest, purposely to aid the plaintiff to compensation for his losses. The allegorical significance of Grantorto's name, with its legal connotations, is that he has besieged Irena to the point at which she must have recourse to justice. Grantorto's actions are a breach of the duty imposed by the laws of God and nature. Grantorto is not being treated as a simple religious or nationalistic breach of duty. Spenser's point is that his oppression of Irena contravenes the very laws of nature and of nature's God, a view of Spanish or Papal oppression fundamental to Spenser's understanding of Britain's position in the moral and political struggles of the sixteenth century.