The Shorter Poems
Argument
abruptely: in abbreviated fashion.
Aprill
8 thristye: thirsty.
14–15 Pipe… broke: cf. Januarye, 71–2.
16 outwent: excelled, surpassed.
18 pinching: in the sense of painful or distressing.
21 Southerne… boye: Spenser was secretary to John Young (1534?–1605), Bishop of Rochester. Cf. September, 171 and note.
24 Forcing: endeavouring, urging (i.e. by pressing gifts upon him).
25 is starte: has bolted, has rushed away.
27 bredde: occasioned.
29 trimly dight: deftly composed or constructed. Here as elsewhere ‘dight’ lends a consciously archaic quality to the verse.
36 Cf. Theocritus, Idylls, 1. 7–8.
37–153 For classical models for Colin’s ‘laye’ cf. Theocritus, Idylls, 17 and Virgil, Eclogues, 4.
50 without spotte: stainless, immaculate (like the Virgin Mary). Cf. Song of Songs 4: 7.
52 grace: in both the social and spiritual senses.
54 blotte: stain, tarnish.
57 Scarlot: a colour emblematic of royalty.
58 Ermines: signifying purity, as in the celebrated ‘Ermine Portrait’. Cf. Strong (1987), 113–15.
59 Cremosin coronet: presumably a garland of red roses (often associated with Venus).
60 Damaske roses: red or pink roses traditionally believed to have originated in Damascus.
Daffadillies: daffodils.
61 Bayleaues: emblematic of conquest and virginity. Cf. E. K.’s gloss at [104].
62 Primroses: cf. Februarie, [166].
63 Violet: emblematic of modesty and love.
69 depeincten: depict.
77–8 blusht… showe: a Petrarchan conceit. Cf. Rime Sparse, 115.
81 haue… ouerthrowe: to be defeated.
82 Cynthia: Diana, as goddess of the moon.
86–7 Latonaes… Niobe: cf. E. K’s gloss, fourth from the end. It is displaced from its proper position in the first quarto.
99 Albee: although, but with a possible play on Albion (England).
109 foote: dance.
113 fourth grace: normally Venus, but here the goddess is supplanted by the queen. Cf. FQ, 6. 10. 12–16 where the queen herself is displaced by Colin’s lady.
114 yeuen: given (an archaism).
123 Coronall: wreath or garland.
126 principall: befitting a prince (a typical Spenserian pun). Cf. Muiop, 380.
128 hye… apace: hurry there speedily.
131 whereas: where.
133 fillets: ribbons for binding the hair.
135 finesse: elegance.
tawdrie lace: silk waistband (more usually a neckband). St Audrey was said to have died of a throat tumour visited upon her in retribution for the youthful vanity of her necklaces. Hence the contraction ‘tawdrie’.
136 Cullambine: columbine.
137 Gelliflowres: gillyflowers or clove pinks.
138 Coronations: carnations (with a political pun).
Sops in wine: clove pinks or gillyflowers.
141 Kingcups: buttercups (with a political pun).
142 Pawnce: pansy.
143 Cheuisaunce: not identified as a flower but used by Spenser for chivalric enterprise. Cf. Maye, [92]; FQ, 2. 9. 8.
144 flowre Delice: fleur-de-lis, the royal emblem of France and, as opponents of the d’Alençon match argued, already part of Elizabeth’s blazon owing to the monarchy’s ancestral claim on France [McCabe (1995), 27–8].
148 echeone: each one.
152 Damsines: damsons (a variety of small plum).
153 part: share.
156 taking: condition, plight.
157 lewdly bent: basely or foolishly inclined.
163 O… virgo?: ‘How shall I address you, maiden?’ (Virgil, Aeneid, 1. 327).
165 O… certe: ‘Surely a goddess’ (Virgil, Aeneid, 1. 328).
Gloss
[5] delaye: temper with moisture, assuage. Cf. FQ, 3. 12. 42.
[19] make… Poetes: cf. Sidney, Apology for Poetry, ECE, 1. 155.
[21] lasse of Kent: cf. Februarie, 74.
[26] glenne: glen or wild valley. E. K.’s gloss is in error.
Hamlet: cf. Januarye, 49–50.
Theocritus: cf. Idylls, 7. 97.
Petrarches Goddesse: cf. Rime Sparse, 5 where Petrarch expounds the significance of the form ‘Lauretta’.
Stesichorus: Greek lyric poet (c. 632–553 BC). Himera was his home town not his mistress. For his blinding cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 243a–b.
[33] Roundelayes: short simple lyrics with a refrain, cf. August, 53–124.
Virelayes: short lyric poems using only two rhymes.
[37] Exordium… animos: ‘a formal introduction to prepare the readers’ minds’.
[41] For the Muses’ genealogy cf. Comes, Mythologiae, 4. 10; 7. 15.
[42] Helicon: properly a mountain in Boeotia containing the sanctuary of the Muses with the spring of Hippocrene just below the summit, but itself regarded as a spring by Chaucer. Cf. House of Fame, 521–2.
Castalius: cf. VG, 21–4; Virgil, Culex, 15–17; November, [30].
Pegasus: cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5. 254–63.
[46] siluer song: the Greek phrase quoted (‘silver song’) is not in Hesiod.
[50] Syrinx: cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1. 689–712.
Homeres saying: ‘Proud is the heart of kings, fostered of heaven; for their honour is from Zeus, and Zeus, god of counsel, loveth them’ (cf. Iliad, 2. 196–7).
Christ himselfe: as the ‘good shepherd’ Christ is Pan (John 10: 14). The primary influence is Marot who alludes to Francis I as Pan in Eglogue au Roy soubz les noms de Pan et Robin and to Christ as Pan in La Complaincte d’un Pastoureau Chrestien in which the speaker addresses his complaint to God ‘under the persona of Pan, the god of shepherds’.
[100] Signat… gestu: ‘Polyhymnia signifies everything with her hand and speaks through gesture’. Cf. Ausonius, De Musarum Inventis, 9. This poem is ascribed to Virgil by Dumaeus in the edition of 1542 (which Spenser used for VG) and by Comes, Mythologiae, 7. 15. For Polyhymnia cf. TM, 541–94.
[104] Arbor… Poëti: ‘Victorious triumphal tree / The honour of Emperors and of Poets’, Petrarch, Rime Sparse, 263.
[109] Graces: cf. Seneca, De Beneficiis, 1. 3; Servius, Commentarii (Aeneid, 1. 720); Comes, Mythologiae, 4. 15; FQ, 6. 10. 21–4.
Pasithea: cf. Homer, Iliad, 14. 276.
Boccace saith: cf. Boccaccio, Genealogia, 5. 35.
[120] King Arthure: Roger Ascham had attacked Arthurian romances in The Scholemaster (1570) and Arthur’s historical existence was a matter of contemporary controversy. The issue was topical in view of the Tudor family’s claim to Arthurian descent.
Ladyes… Lake: the Lady of the Lake featured in Leicester’s famous entertainment for Elizabeth at Kenilworth in 1575.
[122] Cloris: the goddess Flora. Cf. March, [16]; Proth, 2 and notes; Ovid, Fasti, 5. 195–220. Chaucer associates Zephyrus with the month of April, cf. ‘General Prologue’, 5–7.
[124] Neptune and Minerua: cf. Servius, Commentarii (Georgics, 1. 12).
[136] Flos delitiarum: ‘Flower of delights’.
[99] Forswonk and forswatt: from The Plowman’s Tale (‘Prologue’, 14), commonly attributed to Chaucer at this period.
[86–7] Niobe: cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 6. 146–311.
Emblem
Æneas… Venus: cf. Virgil, Aeneid, 1. 314–414.
Maye
This is the first of Spenser’s ecclesiastical eclogues designed to explore the religious divisions of contemporary England. The literary conventions upon which it draws were long established and universally familiar. The spiritual dimension of pastoral imagery, greatly developed in the eclogues of Petrarch, Mantuan and Marot, originates in Psalm 23, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’, and in the Gospel of John where Christ declares himself to be ‘the good shepherd’ (10: 14). As a result of the Reformation, however, there were now,
as the ‘Argument’ informs us, two distinct ‘formes of pastoures or Ministers… the protestant and the Catholique’. The former are represented by Piers, spiritual kinsman of Langland’s Piers Plowman, and the latter by the more worldly Palinode.
The structure is similar to that of Februarie with the opening dialogue (1–173) serving as a prelude to an elaborate moral parable after the manner of Aesop’s fables and the medieval cycle of Reynard the Fox (174–305). The conclusion is strikingly problematic in that Palinode appears to appreciate Piers’s story but to miss – or to dismiss – its polemic point (306–17). This is inevitable because the preceding debate confronts us not merely with conflicting doctrines but with conflicting temperaments. Devoted to things spiritual, Piers reads the pastoral landscape allegorically: his Pan is Christ and he has followed St Paul’s injunction to ‘put away childish things’ (17-18). Palinode, by contrast, responds to the sheer ‘iouysaunce’ of the pastoral world (25): his Pan is the god of ‘the greene Wood’ and he retains the spirit of youth in elder years. While Piers’s rugged tetrameters evoke the moral ethos of The Plowman’s Tale, those of Palinode are attuned to the infectious music of May Day – his heart dances to the playing of the pastoral pipe (26). As in the case of Februarie, therefore, the stark, intellectual dichotomies of the debate are considerably obscured by the personalities of the participants, and it remains unclear how the music of the green wood may be reconciled to the morality of the good shepherd. Piers’s sentiments frequently sound harsh and E. K. is at pains to dissociate them from the ‘malitious’ opinions of radical Puritans [121]. The opening exchanges are so finely balanced as to afford little clear evidence of the author’s outlook – in marked distinction to the typical Puritan dialogue.
The fable, however, is somewhat less opaque in responding to the perceived threat of crypto-Catholic infiltration. This was an anxiety by no means exclusive to Puritans but common to all shades of Protestant opinion. The Queen’s excommunication (1570), the ongoing Jesuit mission to England, and the perilous influence of the Catholic Duc d’Aubigny on the youthful James VI of Scotland combined to lend urgency to the matter [cf. McLane (1961), 77–91]. It was widely feared that in the event of any change in religious policy – such as might be occasioned by the Queen’s proposed marriage – the crypto-Catholic fox would transform itself once again into the Roman wolf [cf. King (1990), 37–9]. Hence E. K.’s allusion to the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre [304]. The marriage of Flora, attended by a ‘fayre flocke of Faeries’, to the Lord of the May (27–33) may pose a danger to ‘the faerie queene’ because female lust is alleged to be unquenchable (134–5).
The outlook of the eclogue is considerably more complex than its ‘Argument’ suggests. The woodcut assigns central position to the triumph of Palinode’s May Lord and Queen but surrounds their joyous procession – in a wagon drawn by winged horses resembling Pegasus – with cautionary vignettes from Piers’s moral fable [cf. Luborsky (1981)]. Palinode’s name implies ‘recantation’ or ‘retraction’, but it is left to the reader to decide which, if either, of the two speakers, or the two Pans, should make such a gesture, and what sort of moral or aesthetic accommodation it might involve [cf. Herman (1992)]. Cf. Brennan (1986); Hume (1969), (1984); L. S. Johnson (1990); King (1982), (1985); Waters (1974).
Argument
credit: credence, belief.
counterpoynt: counterstroke, complete deception.
Maye
4 gawdy greene: bright or yellowish green (an archaic usage).
12 eare: ere.
13 Eglantine: wild rose.
14 Sopps in wine: cf. Aprill, 138 and note.
17–18 Echoing St Paul’s sentiments at 1 Corinthians 13: 11.
17 Palinode: the name means ‘retraction’ or ‘recantation’ (a palinode was a poem or song made in retraction of some former piece). No retraction is made in Maye but cf. note to Julye, 181.
18 tway: two (a dialectical form to suggest rusticity).
19 lenger: longer (an archaic form).
22 Tabrere: drummer (a tabor is a small drum).
28 May: May-lord, a young man chosen to preside over the festivities.
musicall: musical accompaniment.
30 attone: at one with him, in harmony with him. Cf. FQ, 2. 1. 29.
31 Flora: cf. March, [16]; Aprill, [122]; Proth, 2 and notes.
34 Maybush: a branch of hawthorn.
35 Piers: the name recalls that of Piers Plowman. An allusion to Bishop John Piers of Salisbury (1523–94) has also been suggested, but the evidence is slight. Cf. McLane (1961), 175–87.
41 sparely: frugally, cautiously.
45–50 An attack on the prevalent abuse of pluralism whereby unqualified deputies were hired at a pittance to serve as ministers while the absentee holders of the benefice (laymen as well as clerics) enjoyed the bulk of its income without performing any pastoral duties. The imagery is informed by Christ’s attack upon hirelings at John 10: 12–15.
49 fallen: befalls, happens to.
50 peece: portion.
51–4 Cf. Christ’s concern for the lost sheep, Matthew 18: 11–14.
51 muse: wonder.
55 of spight: from spite.
58 All… foe: although it were by my foe.
68 other moe: many others.
74 touches… defilde: cf. Ecclesiasticus 13: 1.
75 Algrind: an anagram of Grindal. Edmund Grindal (1519–83) became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1576 but was sequestered from his office the following year owing to his support for Puritan ‘prophesyings’, religious gatherings at which scripture was expounded. He was Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge from 1559 to 1562. Cf. headnote to Julye.
77 With… heire: ‘it is fitting for them to take care of their heirs’. The issue of clerical marriage was still controversial. The Queen was known to disapprove of it although it was allowed in the Anglican Church and widely championed as preferable to Roman Catholic celibacy.
80 wont countenaunce: customary status or public repute.
82 foresay: renounce (a rare usage giving an archaic effect).
84 spard: spared, saved.
88 trust: property entrusted to him (by bequest).
90 misgouernaunce: ill-management.
95–100 For this ape lore cf. Pliny, Natural History, 8. 80. 216.
105 shepeheards… inheritaunce: cf. Deuteronomy 18: 1.
106 fee in sufferaunce: allowance of revenues. Technically speaking sufferance is ‘the condition of the holder of an estate who, having come in by lawful right, continues to hold it after the title has ceased without the express leave of the owner’ (OED).
109 ywis: indeed, truly.
110 forgoe: give up, renounce.
111 Pan… inheritaunce: cf. Deuteronomy 10: 9.
112 little… serued: little sufficed.
117 tract: passage.
120 obeysaunce: obedience.
121 gouernaunce: temporal authority or power.
123 Lordship: Puritans regarded the Anglican retention of episcopacy as a betrayal of the Reformation. They objected to the temporal power of the episcopate as reflected in such titles as ‘Lord Bishop’. As Ε. K. suggests at [121], they regarded the temporal ambitions of the papacy as responsible for the corruption of the Church’s spiritual mission.
126 somewhile: at some time.
127 Wolues: cf. Christ’s condemnation of false prophets (Matthew 7: 15).
131 nill… borrowe: will not be delivered by surety or pledge. The metaphor is that of spiritual imprisonment. At line 150 Christ is identified as the ‘borrowe’ or ‘common pledge’ of redemption. The etymology of ‘borrowe’ is discussed in Letters (cf. Prose, 213). Cf. September, 96.
132 Three thinges: the formula is common in Proverbs.
133 outragious: excessive, beyond all bounds.
135 Hardly forbearen: scarcely refrain.
137 Wanting: lacking.
138 thristie: thirsty.
157 beare of: shake off, withstand.
&
nbsp; 164 list… make: I desire to make no agreement.
167 leuer: rather.
168 Cf. ‘And what communion hath light with darkness’ (2 Corinthians 6: 14).
169 peace… Lambe: a biblical topos, cf. Isaiah 11: 6; 65: 25.
172 felowship: companionship, comradery. But fellowship in the theological sense is what Piers wishes to avoid: ‘what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?’ (2 Corinthians 6: 14).
173 Ladde… straying: a common topos, cf. Virgil, Eclogues, 5. 12.
177 Gate: given the theological context of the fable the use of goat and kid may be intended to recall Christ’s reference to the segregation of the sheep (the saved) from the goats (the damned) at Matthew 25: 32–3.
dame: mother, but possibly with the political connotations of great lady in oblique allusion to the Queen who is ‘dame Eliza’ at Aprill, 150.
180 But for: because.
181 wit to beware: sense to be cautious.
184 fauour: attractiveness, good looks.
185 Vellet: velvet.
188 ranckly: luxuriantly, abundantly (possibly also a sign of ‘rank’ lust).
192 iollitee: (jollity) exuberance, cheerfulness.
206 hauty… weld: wield his lofty horns.
210 made… breache: broke upon her anew.
212 lineaments: characteristics, features.
219 Foxe: the traditional enemy is the wolf, but the fox had particular contemporary associations with crypto-Catholicism. Cf. such polemic tracts as William Turner’s The Huntyng of the Romishe Foxe (1543); September, 155 and note; King (1990), 37–9.
227 schooled: instructed.
232 dispraised: spoken ill of, deplored.
234 sperred… fast: bolted securely.
239 trusse: bundle, pack.
241 Biggen: cap or hood (possibly a night-cap).
245 me: colloquially employing the ethical dative.
250 lengd: longed (a dialectical form implying rusticity).