The Faerie Queene (122 page)

5 7
dumpish: heavy, spiritless.

8 2
paragon: love.

10 4
draft: attraction.

12 8
way'd: made their way.

16 3
lea: meadow.

16 4
stemme: ram.

16 8
ordenance: ordnance, artillery.

18 3
rayle: flow.

18 5
sprent: sprinkled.

21 s
wroken: wreaked, wrought, avenged.

23 9
aggrate: thank.

25 3
learne: teach.

25 7
a girdle: see IU.7.29
S.
The tournament referred to in stanzas 26 and 27 occurs in IV.4.

29 8
enure: put into practice.

31 ff
The story that follows is Spenser's interpretation and completion of Chaucer's unfinished ‘Squire's Tale'. Milton refers to the tale in
B Penseroso
109-12.

32 1
Imitation of the first line of Chaucer's ‘Knight's Tale', the first of
The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer writes ‘olde', not ‘antique'.

32 2
fellonest: fiercest.

32 8
Dan
Chaucer:
Chaucer was regarded by Spenser and other Elizabethan poets as the first true English poet. He is apostrophized throughout
The Shepheardes Calender.
See especially ‘June' 81–96and VII.7.9.4, where he is called ‘The pure wel hed of Poesie
^,
.

34 6
Ne dare I like: i.e., nor dare I try the like.

34 9
so I may the rather meete: i.e., so that I may complete the meaning of your tale rather than attempting to finish your poem.

35 3
seene: well versed.

40 9
brooke: tolerate.

41 4
burden: birth.

41 7
Agape:
Greek word for Christian love.

41 8
Priamond:
‘first world'.

41 9
Dyamond:
‘second world
^,
.

Triamond:
‘third world
^,
. Roche suggests that the three brothers allegorize the harmony of the three worlds of Renaissance cosmology, which were in fact brought into being by Love
(Kindly Flame,
pp. I5-3I).

4a 7
curtaxe: battle-axe.

45 4
cristall flood: clear stream.

47 2
t'enlarge with long extent: i.e., to get them long life.

47 4
three fatall sisters: the three fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, named in stanza 48. Clotho holds the spindle, or distaff (‘rocke'), Lachesis spins the thread, and Atropos cuts the thread to end life. Spenser may derive his information from Boccaccio,
Gen.
1.5, since he places the fates with Demogorgon, an invention of Boccaccio, for which see notes to I.1.37.8–9and I.5.20.

C
ANTO
3

3 9
define: decide.
OED
cites this line.

4 1
listes: enclosures of the field of combat.

4 9
gage: wager.

5 5
amenance: bearing.

5 7
ordinance: order.

6 2
abet: maintain.

6 7
affret: onset.

7 1
practicke: skilful.

9 1
poynant: keen.

9 4
arresting: stopping.

10 4
empight: fixed itself.

11 2
abet: instigation.

11 8
beuer: faceguard of helmet.

12 2
troncheon: spear shaft.

12 7
weasand pipe: windpipe. gorget: armour for the throat.

13 1
assoyld: delivered.

13 6
traduction: transmission, a word used in philosophical discourse for the transmission of the soul from parent to child, deriued: transferred.

14 1
brother: i.e., Diamond.

14 5
generous: highborn.

14 7
in reuersion: a legal term – by right of succession, which Diamond has earned on the death of Priamond.

17 3
wariment: wariness.

19 6
souse: swoop.

23 7
teene: grief.

24 8
on equall cost: on even terms.

25 6
soust: struck violently. foynd : thrust.

25 9
water-sprinkles: drops of water.

27 2
Shenan: the river Shannon in Ireland.

28 6
disentrayled: drawn forth.

29 5
guarisht: cured.

30 3
hauberk: long coat of chain mail.

31 9
teene: grief.

32 2
Stygian: of the river Styx in classical Hades. 37 2 whether: which.

37 4
tine: grief.

37 5
fine: end.

38 4
furniment: equipment.

38 9
maker selfe: God.

39–45
Cambina, not named until stanza 51, sister of the three brothers, appears with a number of attributes that associate her with peacemaking and concord, thus establishing her as an antitype to Ate. For iconography of Cambina see Roche, Kindly Flame, pp. 23-8.

39 2
two grim lyons: two lions draw the chariot of the goddess Cybele.

They are the metamorphosed Atalanta and Hippomenes brought to concord. Atalanta, a young and valiant virgin, would marry no man who could not outrun her. Many tried and failed. Hippomenes, by dropping golden apples which Atalanta stooped to pick up, outran her and won her as wife. They were turned into lions for making love in the temple of Cybele (Met. 10.560 if).

42
I rod of peace: the caduceus of Mercury, a rod entwined with two serpents, was used to produce concord.

42 3
in louely lore: in loving fashion.

42 6
Maias sonne: Mercury.

42 9
Nepenthe: Nepenthe is the drink used by Helen to extinguish grief (Od. 4.219-25). Spenser christianizes it in stanza 43 as does Milton (Comus 675 ff).

45 2
water of Ardenne: OF 1.78 describes two fountains, one of which produces love, the other hatred. We are told that these two fountains are the cause of all the changing loves in the poem.

45 3
Rinaldo: a hero in OF who is smitten by love after drinking from one of the fountains.

46 4
auaile: descend. 52 6 fere: love.

C
ANTO
4

1 2
turne to: become.

2 7
as ye remember well: see canto 2.20.

2 8
descride: examined.

6 1
folke-mote: meeting of folk.

7 2
vaunted: advanced.

8 3
he: i.e., Braggadocchio.

9
The offer proposed by Blandamour to Braggadocchio imitates the fight between Marfisa and Zerbino over the old hag Gabrina (OF 20).

11 7
mesprize: contempt (French: mipris).

12 5
which is not long: not fir away in time. See refrain of Prothaiamion: ‘Against the brydale day which is not long'.

12 7
prolong: put off.

13 2
bord: jesting.

14 1–3
The confusing number of battles in these opening cantos may make it helpful to name the two sides of'this faire crewe': one side is Blanda-mour with the False Florimell, whom he took from Ferraugh in IV.2.7; Paridell with Ate and Duessa, and presumably the Squire of Dames, who is still riding with them in TV.2.29 but is not mentioned again nmtdl IV.5.18. The other side consists of Cambel and Cambina, Tria-mond and Canacee. Braggadocchio, who can be neither friend nor foe (stanza 11.8-9), belongs to neither side. On the other hand Spenser may mean the entire group named above as opposed to Satyrane and his Knights of Maidenhead, since Blandamour, Cambel, and Triamond fight on the same side in theensuing tournament.

15 2
precious relicke: Florimell's girdle.

17 4
maiden-headed shield: in this tournament Satyrane bears the sign of the Knights of Maidenhead on his shield, as does Guyon in II.1.28.7. Satyrane's shield in m.7.30.6 bears a satyr's head.

17 9
Bruncheual: French: ‘brown horse'.

18 3
As two fierce Buls: common simile deriving from Am. 12.715–19and Met. 9.46-9.

18 4
maine: force.

19 1
Ferramotit: ‘iron mount'? This name and the names of the knights in stanzas 21 and 40 have not been identified or explained.

22 6
Knights of Maidenhead: Knights devoted to the Faerie Queene, led by Satyrane in this tournament. Other references to this order of knighthood, which Spenser does not develop elaborately, occur in I.7.46; IL2.42 and 9.6; III.847.

23 5
glode: glided.

24 1
beamlike speare: spear thick as a wooden beam, from Latin hasta trabalis (Statius, Thebaid 4.6) and telum trabale (Am. 12.294).

24 9
sound: swoon.

25 9
to beare the bell: i.e., to wear the bell as leader of a herd.

27 4
counterfesaunce: imposture.

29 6
” cuffing close: fighting at close quarters.

29 8
As two wild Boares: Spenser uses the same simile in I.6444-9.

30 3
foundring: stumbling, or falling lame,

30 7
sowst: struck violently. compast: round, curved.

32 3
brondiron: sword.

32 6
toile: trap, net.

33 2
There as: there where.

35 7
husband farme: husbanded or tilled farm.

36 7
gest: deed.

37 7
somewhile: at times.

37 8
teemed: restored.

39 2
reed: recognize.

39 3
quyent: strange.

39 6
attrapt: furnished with trappings.

39 8
word: motto.

39 9
Saluagesse sans finesse: French: ‘savagery without finish' or ‘fierceness without guile'.

40 7
crouper: crupper, i.e., horse's rump.

40 8
hote: hight, was named.

40 9
behote: deemed.

41 3
brust: broken.

44 3
Vmbriere: vizor of helmet.

45 8
feutred: put spear in rest.

48 8
beauties prize: excellence of beauty.

C
ANTO
5

1 4
reasons spedall priuitie: i.e., for those special secrets of nature known to reason.

3–6
Venus girdle: the girdle of Florimell is here related to the cestus, or ceston, of Venus, mentioned in II. 14.214 if. Spenser, following the mythographers, makes it a symbol of chaste love. The attribute is excluded when Venus is engaged in adulterous pursuits.

4 4
Lemno: Vulcan's workshop was in Lemnos. See Muiopotmos, 37a

4 5
hire: payment, reward.

5 5
Acidalian mount: a mount near the brook Acidalus, a haunt of the Graces, See VI.10.5-9.

7 7
from fordonne: i.e., from being defeated.

10 7
vnheale: uncover.

12 1
enchace: ornament.

12 7
Chian: the painter from Chios, Apelles, who used the features of various courtesans to give him a perfect image. Spenser may be referring to Zeuxis' portrait of Helen in which he combined the best features of the five most beautiful maidens of the city. The source is probably Cicero, De inventione 2.1.1-3.

13 6
beare the bell away: i.e., win. See note to IV.4.25.9.

14 3
Phebes: Cynthia, or the moon.

19 5
let: hindrance.

22–4
Compare the action of Discordia in OF 27.39 ff

25–6
See OF 27.103-7.

28 3
reau'd: taken away.

28 6
else: elsewhere. The story is not told.

30 3
assoyle: remove.

30 7–9
See canto 1.46-54.

33 5
sallowes: willows.

33 7
ranke: strong.

34 3
wefrish: wizened.

36 4
soused: struck.

37 2
Bronteus, or Pyramon: Brontes and Pyracmon were Cyclops in Vulcan's smithy. Spenser has in mind the visit of Thetis to Vulcan in Il. 18.410 ff and especially Aen. 8.41s ff.

37 3
Lipari: island off Sicily; home of Vulcan's smithy in some traditions, but see canto 5.4.

42 9
apayd: pleased.

46 9
a went: a journey.

C
ANTO
6

1 8
gride: pierce.

8 5
abie: pay for.

9 9
recure: recover, remedy, restore.

10 2
fewter: put spear in rest.

12 4
Thrust to: leap at.

13 4
blest: protected.

13 8
chynd: broke the chine or back. sell: saddle.

17 5
The maker selfc resembling: resembling God in that she was created in his image and likeness (Genesis 1.26).

17 7
defeature: defeat.

18 5
decrewed: decreased.

19 3
ventayle: lower movable part of helmet. shard: sheared, cut.

20 8
Pactolus: river in Lydia with golden sand.

20 9
riuage: banks.

25 2
assoyle: remove.