18.5 Might by a Might be by her a that her
29.2 hellish a bellish
45.1 this the a this
49.5 staine a straine
59.5 countenaunce a countenance
Canto 8
8.3 somewhile e lomewhfle ab
9.9 whom c who ab
10.6 countenaunce a countenant
11.6 he was a was
20.2 fortune a Fortune
22.5 saw c saw, ab
30.3 frory e frowy ab
Canto 9
6.4 Is a It
8.4 For a Fo
9.1 Satyrane) entreat a Satyrane entreat)
13.8 or loth a orloth
13.9 And so defide a And defide
17.2 ire; a ire,
20.1 rest, c rest; ab
24.5 But most they a But they
46.2 Hygate a Hygate gate
48.6 to sea a to the sea
Canto 10
5.2 Malbeccoes a Metbeccoes
12.2 Malbecco a Melbecco
19.2 search a seach
25.3 rudenesse a rudedesse
30.4 rownded a grounded
30.6 [line moved to right]
40.1 They a The
42.9 did. a did,
45.8 fed, c fed. ab
47.1 Malbecco a Melbecco
47.2 hands a hand
52.1 day spring a day springs
Canto 11
2.3 golden c golding ab
9.6 hastthou, c hast, thou ab
13.7 Abiecting, a Abiecting
14.1 conceiued a cenceiued
15.6 At a And
16.2 fruitlesse a firuilesse
20.6 forwandred a forwandred
23.5 This is a This
26.7 and with a and
42.2 hight, a hight.
42.6 He a Her
42.8 snaky-locke a snaly-locke
43.4 proue) c proue. a proue.) b
44.9 parts, a parts,
45.2 so?) a so?
48.7 enfold a ensold
49.8 ener more c euermore ab
51.8 weare, a weare?
Canto 12
9.3 other c others ab
11.1 cloth’d a cloth’
12.6 winged heeld a (first issue) wingyheeld
15.5 countenaunce a countenance
18.7 had: c had ab
22.5 kingdome a knigdome
23.5 right hand PB right ab
26.6 All a And
27.3 away, a away
28.1 there c their oi
34.4 her c him
BOOK IV
Canto 1
7.9 excesse. e excesse
25.9 warre. a wane,
38.5 ply c ply.
42.2 tydes a tydes.
46.1 knight, c knight
51.5 rotten, c rotten,
Canto 2
22.2 Florimell. c Florimelt,
22.4 tell, c tell,
46.9 stout, c stout
50.9 came, c came
53.5 assynd, c assynd,,
Canto 3
4.7 fortune c fortnne
6.3 Priamond c Prirmond
7.4 skill c sill
32.2 in c in
Canto 4
1.4 depends; c depends.
2.4 Blandamour [editorial conjecture] Scudamour bed
8.2 Ferraa c Ferrat
9.5 sight, c sight.
10.5 worse c worst
16.9 [line moved to left]
22.4 affray, c affray.
22.6 Maidenhead, c Maidenhead.
23.5 glode, glode.
24.1 beamlike c brauelike
24.4 guide, e guide.
24.5 side, c side.
27.3 behalue, c behalue.
27.9 fight, c fight
28.1 [line moved to left]
45.2 t’auenge c t’euenge
Canto 5
5.5 Acidatian [editorial conjecture] Aridalian bed
6.1 Cestus [editorial conjecture] Cestas bed
25.5 one c once
31.3 his c her
37.2 Pyracmon c Pynacmon
37.7 hammer c ham mer
Canto 6
23.5 vnlesse c vnlessc
28.6 He c Her
31.5 withstand, c withstand
46.4 mind, c mind.
46.5 whom [editorial conjecture] who be
Canto 7
1.1 darts c dart,
25.1 Which c With
34.1 sad c said
46.9 blist. c blist:
Canto 8
2.9 decay; e decay
30.4 then c them
38.2 flie; c flie
Canto 9
1.8 vertuous c vertues
3.7 trustie c Trustie
9.6 PffiUfio c Pceana
13.2 Pceana e Pceana
17.5 quest [editorial conjecture] guest 6c
18.8 represse, c represse.
26.1 There c Their
30.8 repayed c repayred
35.9 repeat; c repeat.
39.8 wretch, c wretch I
Canto 10
Arg. 1 conquest c conqust
7.8 manner c nanner
7.9 maintaine c maintaine,
19.1 meanest e nearest
23.2 to ghesse [rhyme scheme] to bee be
23.8 to bee [rhyme scheme] to ghesse be
25.1 alleyes c all eyes
36.3 Loue c loue
37.9 May c may
Canto 11
4.5 Grandame c Gramdame
4.6 seuen b [some copies] three be [some copies]
23.7 Ægæan [editorial conjecture] Agxan 6c
24.4 became, c became;
27.9 That c Tha
34.5 Grant [editorial conjecture] Guant be
36.7 and c And
48.8 Eudore [editorial conjecture] Endore be
52.4 vpbinde, c vpbinde.
Canto 12
5.4 none, c none.
5.5 bemone, c bemone,
18.3 seeing, Marinell c seeing Marinell
26.9 seene c seenc
BOOK V
Procttt
1.3 prime, erf prime.
4.7 farre, from d farrefrom, be
Canto 1
24.9 the cd the
30.5 aduenture d adueuture
Canto 2
Arg. 3 Munera [editorial conjecture] Momera bed
4.1 he d she b hee c
7.9 ouersight. cd ouersight
17.5 [line moved to left] Artegatt – Art egall b Arthegall cd
18.9 dight. cd dight
29.6 admire, cd admire.
32.4 earth cd eare
37.6 it’s cd its
50.5 make cd makes
Canto 3
24.2 image – image b Image cd
40.1 [line moved to right]
40.6 we c were b
Canto 4
4.5 fires cd fires
20.3 Bracidas cd Bracidas
33.1 Amazon? (sayd Artegall) [editorial conjecture] Amazon (sayd ArtegallT) b Amazon (sayd Arthegalt)!c Amazon (said Arthegall)’} d
36.8 her selfe, halfe [editorial conjecture] her selfe halfe, b her self(e) arm’d like a man cd
39.3 doale cd doile diuidc cd daude
Canto 5
Arg. 3 her cd her
27.9 abhord. c abhord
Canto 6
9.2 where erf where
17.5 Heard – Here b (corrected by catchword on preceding Page)
20.1 salute cd salute.
21.9 empeach. [editorial conjecture] empeach b impeach, cd
24.4 of her cd ofher
27.2 ofhis cd ofhis
30.5 euer – eucr
Canto 7
3.6 Britomart cd Britomart
6.5 twine of twine
13.1 Her seem’d, as cd Her seem’, das
13.5 red, cd red.
25.9 hold, cd hold
28.8 tie at tie.
Canto 8
8.1 him cd hm
16.1 them cd then
24.2 complained c complained.
40.9 pine
moved to left]
45.2 caused cd caused
Canto 9
18.4 hard cd hart
23.9 [line moved to left]
41.5 inspyred) d inspyred.)
44.1 oppose cd appose
45–7Nobilitie cd Nobilitie
45.9 Griefe cd Griefe
Canto 10
1.3 to weeten Merck, [editorial conjecture] to weeten Mercie b to weeten Mercy, cd
6.4 and her cd and ofher
22.7 where cd where
Canto 11
19.3 hie, c hie,
56.9 dissemble cd dissemble
57.9 with all cd withatt
63.9 hold, cd hold;
Canto 12
1.9 enduren cd endure
15.8 gerne cd gcrne 16.6 sight cd fight
40.5 sword, the sword cd sword the sword,
BOOK VI
Proem
1.9 It [manifest error] tl
4.9 eies-eics b eyes cd
Canto 1
10.8 withall; cd withall,
13.9 pay. cd pfiy
23.6 carcasse cd carkarss
24.4 day, cd day.
25.9 requight. cd requight
28.6 Ere he cd Erethou
Canto 2
5.7 Lincolne cd lincolne
30.6 wrong, c wrong
Canto 3
3.6 incline cd incline
12.7 whole cd hole
13.7 rust, cd rust.
28.6 soft footing [editorial conjecture] sorting foot bed
30.9 ride, cd ride
41.7 withall, – with all, b (withall) cd
42.4 approue cd reproue
42.7 reproue cd approue
Canto 4
4.7 strokes cd stroke
5.1 to aduize cd t’aduize
13.4 perswade. cd persuade
20.5 lose cd loose
30.6 ouerthrow – ouerthow b ouer-throwe cd
Canto 5
Arg. 1 Serena [editorial conjecture] Matilda bed
1.2 be wrapt cd bewrapt
5.6 and cd aud
11.7 require cd requre
34.9 neighbourhood cd neighbourhoood
36.4 ofF cd of 36.7 Some cd Soome
41.2 there cd their
Canto 6
7.8 restraine c restaine b restrain, d
16.1 the other cd t’other
17.7 Calepine [editorial conjecture] Calidore bed
25.6 whereof shall cd whereofshall
30.7 ground cd gound
35.6 fight cd right
Canto 7
3.7 armed cd arm’d
Canto 8
11.9 two cd tow
17.6 From cd For
32.4 nought, cd nought.
42.4 sides, d sides be
47.3 toyle cd toyles
Canto 9
6.5 him cd them
7.8 tyde, cd tyde.
21.3 lose cd loose
36.8 Oenone [editorial conjecture] Benone bed
41.6 Clout cd clout
45.5 breeds cd breeds:
46.5 dwell d well be
Canto 10
13.4 fray cd fray.
18.7 wight, cd wight,,
21.4 within cd with in
22.5 Æacidee. [editorial conjecture] Æcidee. b Aecidee, cd
22.6 him selfe cd himfelfe
25.8 countrey c counrtey b country, d
31.5 Which c Whch b Wich d
32.6 impure cd impare
38.1 woo’d cd wood
Canto 11
37.3 themselues cd themseles
Canto 12
13.5 Throughout cd Troughout
18.9 Hue. cd liue
19.9 faine? cd faine.
27.4 cry: cd cry.
41.2 Hope cd H’ope
41.5 tongues cd tongnes
MUTABILITIE CANTOS
Canto 6
29.5 Procrustes [editorial conjecture] Proscustes cd
Canto 7
4.5 euery – cuery c
7.8 they – they c
8.3 as – ar c
12.1 neuer – neucr c
12.5 Peleus [editorial conjecture] Pelene cd
15.8 esteem – esteeeme c
36.7 array; – array, c
40.1 full – full full c
41.7 Idcean [editorial conjecture] laean cd
48.3 disseise – disseife c
49.8 if-If c
NOTES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Aen. Virgil, Aeneid
AV King James Bible, Authorized Version
Cor. The Epistles to the Corinthians
ELH English Literary History
Gen. Boccaccio, Genealogy of the Gods
GL Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata
Gough Alfred B. Gough, The Faerie Queene, Book V, Oxford, 1918
Hawkins Sherman Hawkins in Nelson, William, ed., Form and Convention in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser, Columbia, 1961
HLQ Huntington Library Quarterly
Il. Homer, Iliad
JEGP Journal of English and Germanic Philology
JWCI Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
Kellogg and Steele Robert Kellogg and Oliver Steele, Edmund Spenser, Books I and II of The Faerie Queene…, New York, 1965
Lotspeich Henry G. Lotspeich, Classical Mythology in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser, Princeton, 1932
Maclean Edmund Spenser’s Poetry, ed. Hugh Maclean, New York, 1968
Met. Ovid, Metamorphoses
MLN Modem Language Notes
MLQ Modern Language Quarterly
MLR Modern Language Review
MP Modem Philology
N&Q Notes and Queries
Natalis Comes Natalis Comes, Mythologiae
Od. Homer, Odyssey
OED Oxford English Dictionary
OF Ariosto, Orlando Jurioso
PL Milton, Paradise Lost
PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association
PQ Philological Quarterly
Rev. Book of Revelation
RN Renaissance News
SP Studies in Philology
Vat. The Works of Edmund Spenser: a Variorum Edition, ed. Edwin Greenlaw, C. G. Osgood, F. M. Fadelford, et al., 11 vols., Baltimore, 1932-57
Zitner The Mutabilitie Cantos, ed. S. P. Zitner, London, 1968
NOTES ON THE LETTER TO RALEGH
Spenser addresses the letter explaining his poem to Sir Walter Ralegh (1552?-1618), adventurer, explorer, poet and favourite of the Queen. Spenser may have met Ralegh as early as 1579 but certainly knew him in 1580-81, when both were in Ireland. When Ralegh left Ireland in 1581 and returned to England, he rapidly became a favoured courtier, the Queen granting him the lucrative posts, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall and Lord Warden of the Stanneries (the mines in Cornwall and Devon). In Ireland Ralegh also had a vast estate near Spenser’s Kilcolman. In 1589 Ralegh came to stay with Spenser; soon thereafter both men returned to England, where Ralegh presented Spenser and his poem to the Queen in hopes that this might earn Spenser preferment.
The letter serves both as a poetics and as a description of the poem. As a poetics it clearly allies Spenser with the ancients’ theory that poetry has the double function of instructing and delighting the reader. The classical statement of this theory is Horace, Ars Poetica 333-4, 343-4: the task of the poet is to profit (prodesse) and to delight (dekctare), an aim most successfully accomplished by those who mix the useful (utik) with the sweet (duke):
Omne tulit punctum qui miseuit utik dulci
Lectorem dekctando pariterque monendo.
This theory firmly holds that examples of good and bad conduct can instruct the reader to choose virtue and to avoid vice. Thus Spenser’s purpose is to ‘fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline’, and his method for achieving that grand design is his ‘historicall fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for variety of matter, then for profite of the ensample’. Spenser’s allowance of the possibility of the reader’s not profit
ing by the example but following only the delight of the fiction is the bow of the allegorist to those who ‘had rather haue good discipline deliuered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large… then thus clowdily enwrapped in Allegoricall deuises’. The position that Spenser defends had been the weak point of all poets at least since the time of Plato, when Socrates subjected poetry to rather severe test in the Ion: what is the usefulness of poetry? It will not teach one to ride horses or to do anything useful.
Spenser’s answer is that given by all poets in the Renaissance: ‘For this cause is Xenophon preferred before Plato… So much more profitable and gratious is doctrine by ensample, then by rule.’ In the Republic Plato set out a model for the just city by means of precept (‘rule’). In the Cyropaedia Xenophon painted a lively picture of a king who might point the way to virtue by his example. Spenser may, in fact, be recalling Sir Philip Sidney’s similar praise of Xenophon:
For Xenophon who did imitate so excellently as to give us effigietn iusti imperil, the pourtraiture of a just Empyre, under the name of Cyrus, as Cicero saith of him, made therein an absolute heroicall Poeme… not onely to make a Cyrus, which had bene but a particular excellency as nature might have done, but to bestow a Cyrus upon the world to make many Cyruses, if they will learne aright, why and how that maker made him.
Sidney considers Xenophon to be using the methods of the poet to make the precept striking, for earlier in the Defense of Poetry he establishes the superiority of poetry to both history and philosophy in this respect. History, which delivers true facts, can provide lively examples: philosophy can provide abstract precepts; but only the poet can combine the example of the historian with the precept of the philosopher.
Spenser sees his’ continued Allegory, or darke conceit’ in the tradition of the ‘antique Poets historicall’ from Homer to Tasso, whose purpose, he implies, is to instil in the reader both the ‘priuate morall vertues’ (Ethice) and the public political virtues (Politice). Homer uses Agamemnon in the Iliad for the latter and Ulysses in the Odyssey for the former. Virgil combines both functions in the single epic Aeneid. Ariosto follows Virgil’s example by combining both functions in his Orlando furioso (1532). Tasso reverts to the Homeric practice by treating the private virtues in Rinaldo (1562) and the political in La Gerusalemme liberata (published surreptitiously as Il Goffredo in 1580). Spenser’s last comment on his poetics provides a further distinction between the historiographer, who must relate his facts sequentially as they happen, and the’ Poet historical’, who ‘thrusteth into the middest’ (Spenser’s translation of the Horatian ‘in median res’, Ars Poetica 148-9), a device used by all the antique poets historical mentioned, who begin their epics in the middle of the events that a historian would tell seriatim.
As a description of the poem the letter is both more tantalizing and less satisfying. In the first place it describes only the first three books, published in 1590, and it was not changed or expanded for the second three books in 1596. Furthermore, there are manifest differences between the three books described and the actual poem. Nevertheless, the letter is our only source for the original grand plan of Spenser’s epic. It was to be twelve books, following the example of Virgil, each book concerned with one of the twelve’ priuate morall vertues, as Aristotle hath deuised’ and was to be followed by another twelve books on the political virtues, bringing the total to twenty-four books, the number of books in the Homeric epics. Spenser completed six books and part of a seventh (‘The Mutabilitie Cantos’, first published in 1609). But even with this bare outline of Spenser’s plan we run into difficulties. Aristotle does not mention twelve well-defined virtues, and only Spenser’s temperance and justice are treated at any length in Aristotle’s Ethics. The problem is solved if we refer Spenser’s virtues not to Aristotle but to ‘Aristotle and the rest’ (i.e., later classical and Christian philosophers) as Rosemond Tuve has done exhaustively in Allegorical Imagery. Yet even beyond the difficulties of the individual virtues, many critics feel that the original plan was abandoned by the time Spenser published the last three books in 1396, since justice, the virtue of Book V, is clearly a political and not a private virtue.