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 6–9Britomart: 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 7–9See 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 4–5fife 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 Bradaman
te 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 6–9i.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.
25 9 pouldred: spotted.
26 2 fastned: attached herself
26 6 redound: result.
26 7 Archer: Cupid.
27 2 Ruffed of: ruffled by. auaile: droop. 27 3 portance: carriage. gest: bearing, countenance.
29 2 still: distill, drop into.
30 ff This episode is derived mainly from Virgil, Ciris. For parallels see Merritt Y. Hughes,. Univ. Cdl. Pub. in Engl., 2, 1929, 348-54.
30 2 Glance: the name Glauce may be derived from Spenser’s conflation of myths. In Virgil’s poem the young woman is named Scylla; in Greek mythology, Scylla fell in love with Glaucus. Since Spenser borrows only the name Britomartis from Ciris, he may be indicating his source by rhanmnor the nurse’s name from Carme to Glauce. See note to III.1.8.6-9. It might also be noted that Glaucus is the name of the young man in Plato, Symposium. 30 4 keight: caught.
33 7 away doe dread: do away with dread.
34 2 straightly strayned: closely hugged. colled: embraced.
35 a eke: augment.
36 5 stye: mount, fly.
37 3 no no: know no.
37 8 gryde: pierced.
38 9 hooke with baite: see note to I.4.25.9.
41 1 Myrrhe: Myrrha, mother of Adonis, committed incest with her father Cinyras (Met. 10.312-518).
41 2 Biblis: Byblis fell in love with her brother Caunus {Met. 9.453 ff).
41 5 Pasiphag: fell in love with a bull, to whom she bore the Minotaur {Met. 9-735-44).
41 9 bands: bans.
43 1 Beldame: good mother.
44 6 Cephisus foolish child: Narcissus, symbol of self-love, who drowned in a pool trying to kiss his reflection (Met. 3.407 ff).
45 9 cyphers: magic characters or letters.
47 7 apayd: satisfied.
48 6 herse: ceremonial.
49 1 Infant: princess.
49 5 Rew: the herb rue.
49 5–6Upton {Var., p. 221) notes that all these herbs are useful ‘to abate desires of venery, and to procure barrenness’.
49 6 Camphora: camphor. Calamint: calamine.
49 8 Colt wood: or coltsfoot, according to Upton (Var., p. 221), ‘reckoned a good cooler, and proper to abate the fervour of the virgin’s love.
51 9 by triall: by experience.
52 4 brame: longing.
52 6 Stygian strand: bank of river Styx in helL
CANTO 3
1–3Spenser addresses the power of love as directed by Providential order to bring together a man and a woman who will produce a line that will become a great dynasty. So Virgil in Am. 6 tells about the mythical origins of Augustus’ empire. Ariosto and Tasso and Spenser imitate this dynastic purpose in celebrating the origins of their patrons’ realms.
2 6 descents: dynasties, successions of rulers.
2 9 late: ancient.
4 6 Clio: the Muse of history, invoked here because Spenser is dealing ‘with facts of English history and not his epic fictions, which are the province of Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry. 4 8 protense: duration.
6 7 Aafrick Ismaell: an old tradition suggests that Africa was peopled by Ismael and his descendants.
7 4 Cayr-Merdin: Carmarthen in Wales.
7 7 delue: cave.
8 5 Barry: the river Cadoxton in Wales. Dyneuowre: Dynevor Castle, the seat of the princes of South Wales.
10-II Warton (Var., p. 225) suggests a source for this myth in Malory, 4.1.
11 2 beare: bier.
12 Merlin’s powers should be compared to the powers of Fidelia in I.10.20.
13 Merlin’s parentage is not so reported in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Spenser’s usual source for Merlin. Matilda and Pubidius are Spenser’s addition, but Matraval is a town in Wales. The chroniclers tell that Ambrosius was king immediately preceding Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father.
14 5 hardie: bold. with loue to frend: i.e., with love as a friend.
14 6 Mage: magician.
17 5 leach-craft: medicine.
19 1 bord: talk.
19 3 colourable: deceiving.
21 8 begin: beginning.
22 6 Troian blood: most of the chroniclers trace the origins of Britain to Brute, the great-grandson of Aeneas, thus linking British history to that of Troy.
22 8 Peres: champions, the heroes of Homer.
26 4 sib: sibling, i.e., brother or cousin or relative.
27 1 Gorlois: Prince of Cornwall, married to Igerne or Igrayne (as Spenser calls her in the Letter to Ralegh). Uther Pendragon falls in love with her and through Merlin’s magic sleeps with her, fathering Arthur. Thus for the poem Arthegall may be Arthur’s half-brother, although Spenser does not even mention Igerne as mother.
27 2 Cador: son of Gorlois in Malory.
28 5–9See OF 3.24.
28 8 rathe: early.
29 2 Image dead: i.e., the son looks exactly like the father.
29 5 Constantius: when Arthur is mortally wounded in the battle with his traitorous nephew Modred, he gives his kingdom to Constantine, the son of Cador, who reigns three years and is slain by Conan, his nephew (Geoffrey of Monmouth, 11.4-5). Spenser, weaving fact with fiction, does not mention Conan by name so that he can introduce this unnamed son of Britomart and Arthegall into the chronicle of British history. For sources of this history see Var., pp. 229 S.
30 1 Lyon: see Genesis, 49.9-10, the prophecy of Jacob concerning his twelve sons: ‘Juda is gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness: who shall rouse him? The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.’ See also V.7.16-23.
30 5 Mertians: the inhabitants of Mercia, who lived in the south.
30 6–9Details invented by Spenser.
31–50From this point on Spenser follows the standard history of Britain set forth by the chroniclers, although he often differs in detail. The outline of the history is that the Saxons defeat and finally drive the Britons (Brutans, descendants of Brute) to Wales, the traditional home of Arthur and the Tudors (stanzas 31-42). The Saxons rule for two hundred years (stanzas 44-6) until defeated by the Danes (the Raven of stanza 46). They both are defeated by William the Conqueror (Lyon of Neustria, stanza 47), whose line extends until Henry Tudor restores the ancient Britons to the throne when he becomes Henry VII and establishes the Tudor dynasty. See headnote to II. 10.
31 7–9Geoffrey (11.7) mentions Malgo, but the other details are Spenser’s invention.
32 6 six Islands, comprouindall: Iceland, Norway, the Orkneys, Ireland,
Gotland and Dacia (Denmark). See Vat., p. 231.
33 1–2Careticus appears in Geoffrey as Keredic (11.8), but the other details are Spenser’s invention.
33 5 Ge
offrey (11.8) makes Gormond king of the Africans.
33 9 Norueyses: Norwegians.
Britons fone: i.e., the Saxons; ‘fone’ is an old plural form of’foe’.
35 3 Augustine: St Augustine of Canterbury, not to be confused with the theologian, was sent by Pope Gregory to convert the Angles. For details of the battle see Geoffrey, II.12-13.
35 4 Dee: the river Dee. See note to I.9.4.7.
36 1–2Cadwallin, son of Cadwan, kills Edwin, son of Etheldred (see Geoffrey, 12.1-8).
37 5 Louthiane: Scotland.
37 8 Penda: Geoffrey mentions a Peanda (12.8 ff), but the angels and bloodless battle are Spenser’s invention.
39 4 Geoffrey has Oswald killed by Peanda, not Cadwallin, as in Spenser (see Geoffrey, 12.10).
40 3 Cadwallader: son of Cadwallin (see Geoffrey, 12.14).
40 8 murrins: diseases.
41 4 Armoricke: Brittany.
42 8 antique Troum blood: see note to 22.6.
44 5–6Spenser implies that this prophecy is fulfilled by the accession of Henry Tudor to the throne in 1485.
45 These men are Welsh kings. Rhodri the Great ruled c AD 844. Howell Dha died in 948. Griffith ap Cynan died in 1136.
46 5 Rauen: the Danes, who invaded England in AD 787, were heathen. The figure on their ensign was a raven.
46 7 faithlesse: i.e., not Christian. chickens: generic term for any young birds.
47 2 a Lyon: William the Conqueror, 1066-87.
47 3 Neustria: ancient name for Normandy, home of William.
48 5 Mona: Anglesey, where Henry VII was born.
48 7 stile: title.
49 6 royall virgin: Elizabeth I.
49 7 Belgicke shore: the Low Countries.
49 8 great Castle: Castile, Spain, whose Armada had been defeated in 1588.
52 7 Octa and Oza: Octa, a son of Hengist, and Oza, a Uramati attacked Uther Pendragon around 470–80AO according to Geoffrey of Mon- mouth, 8.23. This is historically the time of Arthur’s first appearance.
52 8 Cayr Verolame: the ancient city Verulam, now St Albans.
54 7 Bunduca: Queen Boadicea, mentioned in Tacitus, Annals 14, 31, 35, 37. See note to II.10.54.6.
54 8 Guetublen: daughter of Corineus, king of Cornwall; she killed her unfaithful husband, and later ruled Cornwall for fifteen years.
54 9 Martia: the Dame Mertia of II.10.42, wife of Guitheline.
Emmilen: daughter of Charlemagne? (Var., p.- 236).