The Faerie Queene (135 page)

25 5
natiue mights: natural powers. It was believed that elements could be transmuted into one another.

25 6
sheerer bright, crystal clear.

26 4
Vesta:
Roman goddess of heavenly fire as in Ovid,
Fasti
6.291-2. 26 4 aethereall: heavenly.

26 5
Vulcan,
of this,___: Vulcan, as opposed to Vesta, is god of earthly fire, a more common phenomenon to us. 26
6 Ops:
goddess of the earth.

Iuno
of the Ayre: Juno's special province was the air.

26 7
Neptune:
god of the seas.

Nymphes: guardian spirits of rivers.

27 3
The rest…: Mutability has in mind the participants in the procession about to start, by which man maintains order in his temporal existence.

27 9
Order:
as in VII.7.4.6 Order as sergeant is an important part of the reason that Nature can finally decide against Mutability.

28 Spenser uses only two rhymes in this stanza, as in VII.7.44. 28 1 issew'd: came forth.

28 8
morion: helmet

29 4
well beseene: well adorned.

29 S chauffed: heated (French:
chauffer).

29 8
Libbard: leopard.

30 4
to-fore: before.

31 1
in frize: frieze is a coarse woollen cloth. 31 4 bill: nose.

31 5
limbeck: alembic, a vessel for distilling; a retort.

31 9
loosed: out of joint. See Sidney's translation of Psalms 22.8. to weld: wield, manage.

32–43The stanzas describing the months have certain common features. In each the sign of the zodiac appropriate to it is included, and very often this sign is associated with a well-known classical myth. The procession
begins with March because March was the first month of the legal -year according to the old calendar, and the first month of the rebirth of nature. New Year's Day was still celebrated on I January, a form of the calendar Spenser uses by beginning his
Shepheardes Calender
with January. Below is a brief chart of the months, their zodiacal signs, and the myths associated with them.

Spenser also incorporates the labours of the months, an ancient theme in Christian art, which makes of the farming cycle of the year a symbol of man's finding his way to salvation through the proper use of the curse on Adam that man must work (Genesis 3.17). For the tradition see Tuve,
Seasons and Months,
and for the tradition as it is adapted by Spenser see Hawkins.

32 1
softly: slowly.

32 5
Helkspontus:
Ovid,
Fasti
3.851-76, tells the story of Helle and Phrixus, who escaped the wrath of Ino through the aid of a ram with golden fleece, which carried them across the body of water now called the Hellespont, whose name came from the feet that Helle slipped off the ram's back and drowned. This ram has been associated with the zodiacal sign Aries and is identified with Jupiter by Boccaccio.

32 6
hent: held.

32 7
ysame: together.

33 1
lustyhed: lustiness.

33 4
Europa:
Jupiter in the form of a white bull enticed Europa onto his back and then fled into the sea in order to capture her love (Met. 2.836-75). Spenser uses the Europa story again in
Muiopotmos,
277–96and III.11.3a Ovid associates this bull with Taurus in
Fasti
5.617.
Argolick
fluds: the gulf of Argolis in the Aegean.

34 1
mayd: with a pun on the name of the month.

34 4–5two brethren?… twinnes of
Leda:
Castor and Pollux. There are many versions of this myth, but basically, when Jupiter in the form of a swan seduced Leda she bore him not only Helen of Troy but also these twins.

34 9
all in greene: no source has been found for Cupid's being in green. The association of Cupid with spring is a natural but insufficient explanation.

35 2 as he a Player were: probably a reference to the savage man, or Wood- wose, a common figure in Elizabethan pageantry. 35 3 wrought: worked. 35 4 plough-yrons: colter and ploughshare.

35 9
Probably a reference to deferential courtiers who back out of the presence of the monarch.

36 5
forray: ravage.

36 6
Nenuean forrest: a reference to the Nemean lion, killed by Hercules (
Amphytrionide,
son of Amphitryon) as the first of his twelve labours.

37 3
a louely Mayd: Astraea, goddess of justice, who fled from the earth because of its wickedness; often associated with Ceres. See V.1.5-11.

37 9
extold: raised, stellified.

38 7
paire of waights: the scales of Libra. assoyle: determine.

38 9
scann'd: measured.

39 2
noule was totty of the must: i.e., head was dizzy from die new wine. 39 3 wine-fats see: sea of the wine vats.

39 4
gust: taste. 39 5 frollick: joyful.

39 6–8Vpon…
Orion:
in anger at Orion's boasts of his skill as a hunter Diana sent a scorpion to kill him. In remorse she had both Orion and the scorpion stellified.

40 3
a fatting hogs: fattening or butchering hogs. 40 5 breem: cold, chill, rough, harsh.

40 7
not easie was to deeme: i.e., it was not easy to think about.

40 9 Spenser's description of Chiron the centaur has not been satisfactorily explained. He is more usually the son of Saturn and Philyra, but he also was called the son of Magnes and Nais (Greek: ‘water nymph
¹
). See Fowler,
Spenser and the Numbers of Time,
pp. 231-3.

41 5
1609 reads ‘rode', although some editors emend to ‘rade'.

41 6–7
Dan Ioue
…
th'Idfran
mayd: Jupiter was sent to Amalthea, ‘th'Idaean mayd', who nursed him. She is sometimes represented as a goat nursing Jupiter, who later stellified her as the goat Capricorn. See note to 50-53.

41 9
health: toast.

42 3
like to quell: as if he might die.

42 8
Earth-pot steane: earthen pottery urn.

42 9 Romane floud: die Tiber? The details are unclear, but Spenser probably has in mind the common picture of an ancient man holding or lying near an urn that pours form a flood of water. See
The Visions ofBellay,
9' The image is appropriate for the water-carrier Aquarius.

43 3
two fishes: the sign of Pisces. for the season fitting: fit for the season of Lent, when meat was prohibited'

43 8
hasting Prime: hastening spring. burgein: to bud.

44 Spenser uses only two rhymes in this stanza as in VIL7.28.

44 2 with equall pase: abreast.

44 3
Palfrey: a small saddle horse.

44 4
vncomely: unattractive.

44 7
trace: dance.

45 I
Howres:
the Hours, whose parentage may be a Spenserian invention, for they are more commonly the daughters of Jupiter and Themis (law). Their guarding Heaven's gate is derived from fl. 5.748-50. 45 s-6 That might… mighty
Ioue:
i.e., that might cause them to neglect the charge ordained for them by mighty Jupiter.

45 9
euen turnes: equal turns.

46 4
Ne ought… weene: i.e., and nothing to see but one would think him a mere shade.

47 7
in one stay: in one place.

48 3
of: by. disseise: deprive.

50–53In her final attack Mutability tries to show that even the gods themselves are under her control. Once more she follows an orderly outline, beginning with the moon and working up through the spheres (see introductory note), but she changes the order of Jupiter and Saturn. This may be either for rhetorical effect or, as Fowler suggests, to provide further evidence for the reader of the interrelationship of Jupiter and Saturn in the planetary week (pp. 231-2). For Fowler the transposition also occurs in the myths attached to November and December. Sagittarius is the House of Jupiter, but Spenser relates his November sign to Saturn. Capricorn is the House of Saturn, but Spenser relates December to Jupiter's nursing by Amalthea. Her main point is the irregularity of the gods' planetary courses, whose elliptical paths were announced by Kepler in the very year that the
Cantos
were published. Before Kepler elaborate cycles and epicycles had to be postulated to account for the movement of the planets. See V. Proem 8.8-9.

50 2
whom so much ye make: i.e., whom the rest of you gods make.

50 4
Cynthus
hill: a hill on Delos, the birthplace of Diana and Apollo.

50 5
how-so ye crake: however you brag.

50 9
vse to: are accustomed.

51 5
Paragone: model of excellence, with a sneer at her loves.

51 7
lightsome: radiant.

52 7 Sir
Saturne:
‘Sir' used contemptuously here.

52 8
sterne aspect: Saturn was a malevolent planetary influence.

53 1
Dan:
‘Master', used contemptuously here. 53 3 misfare: mishap.

S3
S-6 Crete …
other-where: there are many versions of Jupiter's birthplace. Mutability's point is that Jupiter is earth-bred.

53 9
ne other can appeare: nor can it appear otherwise.

54 4
power and vertue: see VII.7.48.7 and VII.7.49.4.

54 9
obliquid: directed obliquely.

55 2
clerkes: learned men.

55 5
starrie skie: the sphere of the fixed stars above the planets.

55 7 Movement initiated by the primum mobile.

55
9
This is Latinate word order: therefore I prove both you and them subject to me.

56 3
by transuerse: in a haphazard way. 56 4 let: prevent.

56 5
Trophee: sign of victory.

56 8
addoom: give a judgement.

57 2
to or fro: to one side or the other.

57 9
speeches: words.

58 4
estate: original nature.

58 5
dilate: expand, extend, perfect.

58 7
so by fate: see Hawkins for the philosophical niceties of her speech.

59 6
whist: silenced.

59 7
imperial] see: seat, throne.

THE VIII. CANTO, VNPBHFITB

1–2There have been so many attempts to read these last two stanzas either as a pessimistic renunciation of life or as a too easy acceptance of Christian consolation that their superb appropriateness as conclusion has been obscured. Spenser is not trying to escape the vagaries of this ‘life so tickle'; he is praying to be able to use them properly so that this changing life will have earned him the right to that nnrhanging life to come.

1 6
tickle: unstable, inconstant

2 5
contrayr: contrary to.

2 8 God of Sabbaoth: Hebrew: ‘armies', ‘hosts', retained untranslated in the English New Testament (as in the original Greek and Vulgate) and the
Te Deum,
in the designation “The Lord of Sabaoth'; in translating Old Testament passages the English versions have the rendering “The Lord of Hosts'.

2 9 Sabbaoth God…Sabaoths sight: much scholarly effort has been expended on the two spellings of Sabbaoth in this line. Some critics think that Spenser meant to write Sabbath sight, that is, day of rest or eternal rest, and so emend the second occurrence of the word. The point is that Spenser is calling upon the God of the universe, the Lord of Hosts, both heavenly and earthly, to grant him that seventh-day rest not merely as the cessation of earthly labours but the perfection of them in the full knowledge of the beatific vision. D. C. Allen
(MLN64,
1949, 93-4) paraphrases the last two lines: ‘All shall eventually obtain permanent repose with him who is the God of Quiet; but until then, O God of the Great Sabbath (the envisioned day of the Eternal quiet) grant that I may see, when I have left this world and come to dwell in the shelter of Your constancy, the great panorama of the Creation as You see it from Your immovable center.' L. S. Friedland
(MLQ
17, 1956, 199-203) cites the last chapter of the last book of St Augustine's
City of God:
‘Of the eternal felicity of the City of God, and the perpetual sabbath', in which St Augustine writes:

‘There shall be perfected the saying, Be at rest and see that I am God [Psalm 46.10] because there shall be the most great Sabbath having no evening… Then shall we know this thing perfectly, and we shall perfectly rest and shall perfectly see that He is God.'

The point is important and may account for the numbering of these cantos. As Hawkins suggests: