The Faerie Queene (133 page)

6 4
she was to foe or frend: i.e., she was to be either foe or friend.

6 5
shadow: pretence.

9 2
sort: group.

9 3
bondmen: slaves.

97
at the instant brunt: suddenly.

10 4
commodity: profit.

12 6
silly: weak, helpless.

13 3
regard: appearance.

15 9
aby: pay. handsell: reward.

16 4
balke: unploughed ridge of land.

16 9
leaues… wight: i.e., makes it impossible to distinguish between merchants and pirates.

17 1
sort: group.

18 5
wide: round about.

19 4
target: shield. pretended: covered (Latin: pmetendere).

20 1
preasse: crowd.

23 8
steepe: bathe, wet.

26 6
Spenser again echoes the refrain from
Epithalamion
as he did in VI.10.10.5.

27 9
hynd: rustic

29 9
doe feare away: expel fear.

31 4
hent: seized.

34 3
source: fountain-head (i.e., he stopped crying).

34 9
Hues threed: the thread of life spun out by the Fates (see I.7.22.5 and IV.2.48.5).

35 8
wrought with meed: i.e., worked with promise of reward. 39 2 purpose gan to faine: i.e., began to invent conversation.

39 6
mister men: kind of men.

40 6
earnest tooke: i.e., received an initial payment for their services.

41 4
entrayles: minds.

43 1
fast: securely dosed.

47 2
breath'd: rested.

47 5
say: assay, temper.

48 8
brond: sword.

C
ANTO
12

1 4
let: hindered.

3–22
The recognition of Pastorella by her parents through the agency of Melissa uses a common motif in romance: a lost child found. Cf. Tasso, Rinaldo 11.89-90, Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato 2.27.25 ff, and Shakespeare, Winter's Tale 5.1 and Shakespeare's source in Robert Greene's Pandosto; for possible historical identifications see Var., pp. 262-4.

3 3
Belgard: French: ‘good protection' or ‘loving look'.

3 4
Bellamoure: French: ‘beautiful love'.

4 1
Claribett: French: ‘bright beauty'. 4 6 PicteUmd: Scotland.

4 9
fere: companion, mate.

6 8
hyre: payment.

7 8
mold: mole.

11 6
durance: suffering.

12 2
forlore: forsaken.

12 8
loos: a variant spelling of'lose', fame, reputation.

14 8
Melissa: Greek: ‘bee'. Melissa is also a prophet in OF 3 and 7.

15 7
kest: cast.

16 2
conceiptfull: clever, imaginative.

18 8
prieue: prove.

19 9
faine: imagine.

21 4
descriue: describe.

22 9
tract: trail.

23
ff Spenser is making a distinction between the secular clergy, those who were pastors to the people, and monks, those who had retired from the world. The fact that Henry VIII had dissolved the monasteries in England does not alter the point Spenser is making: no one escapes the Blatant Beast.

24 3
dortours: sleeping rooms.

24 9
heast: vow.

26 6
pecke: a great number (of teeth).

26 9
Orcus: Hell.

27 1
empight: implanted.

27 4
wrawling: mewing.

28 3
gere: corrupt, foul matter, pus.

28 7
Kesars: rulers.

29 7
former: situated more forward.

29 8
rampt: seized.

32 1–2
Hydra: the many-headed monster whom Hercules (Alcides) slew as one of his twelve labours.

34 4
mured: closed (Latin: mums, ‘wall').

35 1–8
Tirynthian swaine: Hercules, who was born in Tiryns, brought

Cerberus out of hell (Met. 7.408-15).

35 6
Pluto: god of the underworld.

36 1
repine: show discontent.

39 6–7
Sir
Pelleas
… Sir
Lamoracke:
both characters in Malory, but neither of them pursues the beast in that work.

40 7
rate: scold, assault verbally.

41 3 all: although. clearest: most free. Some editors emend to
cleanest
for the sake of the rhyme.

41 4
wite: blame.

41 6
Feres: Burleigh's. See Dedicatory Sonnet, IV.Proem.i and V.s.43. 41 7 endite: censure.

NOTES TO MUTABILITIE CANTOS

H
EADNOTE
3

Although the ‘Mutabilitie Cantos' first appeared in the folio of 1609, they were undoubtedly intended by Spenser as part of the uncompleted poem. They are based on the ancient cosmology of Ptolemy, which postulated a universe made up of a series of concentric spheres with the earth as centre. Beyond the earth was the sphere of the moon and beyond that the spheres of Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, in that order (the so-called ‘celestial' spheres). Beyond these were the sphere of the fixed stars, the crystalline sphere, and the
primum mobile,
the sphere that imparted motion to all the others. From the time of Aristotle to the beginning of the seventeenth century it was generally believed that everything below the sphere of the moon was subject to change (mutability) and that from the sphere of the moon to the
primum mobile
everything was unchanging. The whole system participated in time, and beyond it was the timeless world of eternity, hence the Neoplatonic division of the universe into three worlds: below the sphere of the moon (the sublunary world), in time and mutable; from the sphere of the moon to the
primum mobile
(the celestial world), in time and immutable; and the supra-celestial world, out of time and immutable. Against the background of this philosophic-scientific system Spenser dramatizes the claims of his invented goddess Mutability, who maintains that nothing is unchanging or permanent in the universe except the continuing flux of which she should be recognized as mistress. The sweep of her claim calls into question not only Renaissance cosmology but also the value and dignity of human life within the Christian scheme. See Sherman Hawkins in
Form and Convention in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser,
ed. William Nelson, New York, 1961, pp. 76-102.

C
ANTO
6

I 2 sway: have power over.

1
6
Which that to all …: i.e., so that it may appear more dearly to all…

2 6
Titans:
the Titans were the offspring of Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Gaea) and constitute a generation of gods older than the reigning
Olympians (Jupiter, etc.). The most important of them was Saturn, who had dethroned his father Uranus. Because Earth prophesied that Saturn would be dethroned in turn by one of his sons, he devoured each of his children immediately after birth. IBs wife managed to preserve one, Jupiter, by sending him off to Crete. Jupiter lived to fulfil the prophecy and not only dethroned but also emasculated Saturn. Thus began the reign of the Olympian gods. Saturn's brothers and sisters, offended at Jupiter's presumptions, contended with him for supremacy. The victorious Jupiter thrust the Titans into the pit of Tartarus. Mutability is a descendant of the Titans and bases her claim on the legal right derived from her lineage. See Vn.6.26-7.

2 7
regiment: rule.

3 3
Hecati:
a Titaness, the infernal aspect of the triple goddess Hecate-Diana-Cynthia. See I.1.43.3 and note.

3 7
Bellona:
a Titaness, goddess of war.

4 3
admire: wonder at.

4 4
twaine: i.e., Hecate and Bellona.

5 8
prouide: prepare, with overtones of Providential ordering.

5 9
still: continuously.

6
2 Policie: good government.
6
8 that curse: the fall of man.

6 9
our Nurse: nature, or earthly life.

7 4
T'attempt: to take by force.

7 6
region of the ayre: the atmosphere.

7 7 And of the fire: it was believed that a sphere of fire enclosed the atmosphere. Cf.
Hymn of Heavenly Beauty, 36-42,
and Donne,
The
First Anniversary,
205 ff. 7 8 contraire: oppose, thwart

7 9
prepaire: provide, furnish.

8 1
Circle of the Moone: see introductory note for the place of the moon in Ptolemaic cosmology.

8 2
Cynthia:
the moon, also called Phoebe, VII.6.21. 8 7 liefe or sory: willing or not.

8 8
stage: level. scand: climbed.

9 6
intend: call.

10 7
tortious: wrongful, illegal.

10 9
wained: Zitner suggests ‘drawn' as in ‘moved by a wain'; but it may also mean ‘waned, diminished'.

11 9
condigne: worthy, deserving. ?

12 6
her horned browes: the crescent moon is often an attribute of Cynthia.

13 7 Moones bright wagon: see
VU.6.9.

14 6
Chaos:
the undifferentiated mass of warring elements before the imposition of form by Love (cf.
Hymn in Honour of Love,
57-63); often identified with the ‘void' of Genesis 1.

14 8
Mercury:
nearest planet to the moon. Mercury is also the traditional messenger of the gods.

15 8
Typhon:
a giant imprisoned by Jupiter under Mount Aetna for joining with the Titans in their war against him.

15 9
him… feared: i.e., frightened Jupiter.

16 1 sonne
oi Maia:
Mercury, son of Jupiter and Maia. 16 4 forslowe: make go more slowly, delay.

16
7 Him to attache: to seize him.

16 9
prest: quickly.

17 1
The wingd-foot God: winged sandals are an attribute of Mercury. 17 4 hardinesse: boldness.

17 6
to doe his charge: to carry out Jupiter's command.

18 a snaky-wreathed Mace: the caduceus, the wand of peace and attribute of Mercury. See II.12.41.

19 1
Heauens Herald: Mercury as messenger of the gods. 19 5 congregate: gathered.

19
6 Hermes:
Mercury.

20 2
since: when. th'Earths cursed seed: the Titans. ao 5 deed: acts.

21 5
If that: if only.

21 9
deuise: contrive.

22 2
beck: nod. 22 3 vow: will.

22 5
degrees: hierarchical order.

22 7
nought did reck: did not care about.

23 5
extasie: bewildered state.

24 6
to aby: to remain.

24 9
encheare: give cheer to.

25 8
now make: now do.

26 4
-9 Mutability is the daughter of Earth and Titan, Saturn's elder brother.

27 4
Corybantes
slight: at the birth of Jupiter his mother Cybele urged the Corybantes, a group of fanatically wild women devoted to her, to make a great uproar to drown the cries of the new-born child. She then presented Saturn with a stone, which he duly ate, thinking it to be Jupiter. This whole passage seems to refer to an alternate version of the war between Jupiter and the Titans. According to Natalis Comes, 9.5, Titan, the elder brother of Saturn, was persuaded to abdicate the throne on condition that Saturn should kill all his children so that he might have no descendants to succeed him. As a result of this original compact between Titan and Saturn and Mutability's relation to Titan, Jupiter might be considered a usurper and Mutability the legal heir, as a result of the Corybantes' trick.

286 sort of Steeres: herd of steers.

29 3
sort: way.

29 5
Procrustes
hire: the ‘reward' of Procrustes, who made his guests fit his bed either by chopping them off if they were too large or by stretching them if they were too small. His ‘reward' was similar treatment by Theseus. He is included here as an example of what happens to those
people who do not observe distinctions either in persons or in hierarchies.

29
6-q Typhons… Ixions… Prometheus:
examples of those already punished by Jupiter for opposing his supremacy. For Typhon see VII.6.15.8. brion was bound to a burning wheel for trying to seduce Juno. For stealing fire from heaven and giving it to man Prometheus was bound on the Caucasus where each day a vulture devoured his liver, which grew again each night.

30 1
fry: brood, i.e., the Titans.

304 Whom what should hinder …: i.e., what should hinder us from handling her (whom).

30 9
levin-brond: lightning-brand, lightning bolt.

31 4
sway: power.

32 3
that: that which.

32 5s
Bellona:
see note to 3.7. spight: envy. 32 7 her affright: fright of her.

32 9
And sure thy worth…: i.e., and surely thy worth does seem to appear no less than hers.

33 3
interesse: legal interest.

33 4 old
Titans
Right: see note to 27.4.

33 6
eternall doome of Fates decree: divine order of Providence.

34 4
There-to thou maist: to that place you may get.