NOTES BOOK I CANTO I [The numbers in bold-faced type refer to the stanzas.] AFTER the introduction of Una and the knight, we have the adventure in the Wandering Wood, and Archimago's first treachery the real beginning of the story. The adventure in the Wandering Wood represents a normal accident of life: the knight loses his path through a natural mistake, without fault of his own or positive temptation, except as the conditions of human life are temptations. When he recognizes Error, he conquers it and regains his path. The episode furnishes a contrast and an introduction to the story of Archimago, the spirit of aggressive evil, positive temptation in the world. The incidents have their sequence in the knight's states of mind; at the moment of his victory, when he is most off his guard, Archimago deceives him. The fine picture of the house of Morpheus is, of course, drawn for its own sake, rather than as a link in the story. 1. A gentle knight: St. George, in whom Spenser idealizes his friend, the Earl of Leicester. For his armor and the origin of his quest, see the letter to Sir Walter Raleigh (page 169). Many' a bloody field: The apostrophe denotes elision. 2. But of his cheere: He bears no scars of external warfare; his real life is in thoughts and ideals, which leave their mark in the expression of his face. 3. Gloriana: Queen Elizabeth. A Dragon: Satan. 4. A lovely Ladie: Una, impersonating Truth singleness of heart, in contrast to the duplicity and complexity of falsehood. The veil she wears helps to realize the sacredness of Truth, and the poet avoids the necessity of describing her face. Her beauty is always expressed indirectly, in its effect on others. •The ass represents Humility; the lamb, Innocence. The attendant dwarf represents common sense. - 8, 9. Read aloud this catalogue of the trees, and notice the sweetness of the lines a good example of Spenser's wonderful music. He is trying to render in sound the charm of the Wandering Wood, as it appealed to Una and the knight. Notice also the felicity of the concisely phrased epithets; they seem inevitable, like the_language_of_proverbs. Spenser here imitates Chaucer, Parlement of Foules, 176–182. 11. A hollowe cave: Spenser's landscape, of course, contributes to the allegory. Sin of any kind hides from the open light. Cf. Error's cave with the cave of Despair, Canto ix. 151 12. And perill without show: Una is always more wary than the knight against hidden danger. Spenser means the finer instinct to belong to her as a woman, as well as to the nature of Truth. Virtue gives her selfe light: imitated by Milton, Virtue could see to do what virtue would By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 13. 'Fly, fly!' quoth then the fearefull Dwarfe: the warning of common sense. 19. Besides the inspiration of Truth, Spenser here indicates the chivalric inspiration of womanhood. Una later not only encourages but even rescues the knight. 20-27. Error here represents chiefly religious and political rebellion. The brutal realism of the passage, so out of harmony with Spenser's usual refinement of mood, is a mediæval survival. 29. An aged Sire: Archimago, Hypocrisy; Spenser probably means Philip II of Spain. Note the contrast of this quiet passage with the preceding episode. 32. Far hence' (quoth he): Archimago makes up the story of the 'straunge man'; when the knight is eager to follow that quest, and so may escape him, Archimago hastens to describe the quest as remote and difficult. 34. Did gently play: Spenser's descripions are rarely without sound. In the Wandering Wood the birds sing; here the voice of the picture is the brook. 36. Morpheus: the god of sleep. 37. Plutoes griesly dame: Proserpina. Great Gorgon: Demogorgon, an evil spirit invoked by medieval conjurers. Cocytus, Styx: the rivers of lamentation and of hate, in the lower world. 39. Tethys the wife of Oceanus. Cynthia Diana, the moon. 40. Whose double gates: Cf. Virgil, Æneid, vi, 893. Through the ivory gate came the false dreams; through the silver gate, the true. 41. A trickling streame: Notice, as in st. 34, how the element of sound in the picture is supplied by the brook, the rain, the bees; the verse itself gives the effect of drowsiness. Cf. Chaucer: This messager took leve and wente That made a deedly sleping soun, Morpheus. Book of the Duchesse, 153-167. 43. Hecate the name of Proserpina as Queen of Hades. 44. By the Yvorie dore: because the dream was false. See note, st. 40. CANTO II When the Red Cross knight, deceived by Archimago, deserts Una (Truth), he has no longer a quest, and falls into the hands of the enemies of Holiness. From that moment Una seeks her champion, to discover the cause of his defection and to recall him to his quest. Canto ii contains two episodes. The overthrow of Sansfoy is the knight's first victory in human warfare; the ease of it shows for the last time the might of his arms before he comes into Duessa's power. The episode of Fradubio is a warning to him, from the experience of another; if he had not become blind, from the loss of Truth, he would have seen that his adventure with Duessa so far was practically the same as Fradubio's. 6. Hesperus: the evening star, here standing for the night. 7. Tithones: Tithonus, the human lover of Aurora. The gods gave him immortality, but not immortal youth. Titan: the sun. 10. Proteus: a sea-god, who could assume any shape. 12. Will was his guide: the object of Archimago's devices and the cause of the knight's defeat: he follows wilful passion, not Truth. Sarazin: a Saracen, a pagan. the 13. A goodly Lady: Duessa (false faith), disguised as Fidessa (true faith), the feminine counterpart of Archimago, and morally opposite of Gloriana (Elizabeth); she is meant to indicate Mary Queen of Scots. To understand Spenser's view of life, you must remember that the Saracen is deceived by her, as the Red Cross knight afterwards is. 22. An Emperour: the Pope. 30. He pluckt a bough: the bleeding bough is an old incident in poetry: see note, Canto vi, 15. Spenser probably got it from Tasso, Ger. Lib., xiii, 41, but young students may be more familiar with it in Virgil's account of Polydorus, Eneid iii, 26. 32. Limbo lake: the abode of lost souls. 33. Fradubio: Brother Doubtful; he hesitated between Fraelissa and Duessa. Boreas: the north wind. 37. Fraelissa: "Frailty. 38. A dull blast: scandal. CANTO III Canto iii takes up the adventures of Una. The beautiful story of the faithful lion is meant to offset the knight's hasty desertion of his lady; the true instinct of the animal world is proverbially more discerning of character than human reason. Truth is safe with Nature throughout the book, and Una is to be rescued from Sansloy by another savage race. When Sansloy kills Archimago, the tempter's career would seem to be over, but we shall meet Archimago again; evil is constant in the world, and cannot be crushed once for all. 1. Lately through her brightnes blynd: Spenser may refer to his reception by the Queen, or possibly to his former love for Rosalind. 4. And layd her stole aside: Una's face for the first time is unveiled when the lion sees her; he is mastered by the full charm of Truth. 7. But he, my Lyon: the knight. 9. The lion is the emblem of princely honor. His protection of Una expresses the human rather than the allegorical side of her character. The lamb, on the other hand, belonged to the allegory. 30. Una, like the knight, falls a victim to hypocrisy. From here on Spenser makes her seem more a human character than the embodiment of Truth. 31. As when the beaten marinere: Notice how frequently Spenser draws his images from seafaring. Tethys wife of Oceanus. Orion: a hunter loved by Diana and accidentally killed by her arrows. His hound is Sirius, the dog-star. Nereus: the god of the sea in its calmer aspects; father-in-law of Neptune. 32. Neptune the supreme god of the sea. 35. Sansloy is evil, but not untrue; therefore he is stronger than false Archimago. 36. Lethe lake the river of forgetfulness, over which pass the souls of the dead. Furies: spirits of vengeance. 40. Her selfe so mockt to see: Una is never again deceived by hypocrisy. Henceforth she detects her enemies at once. 42. In the death of the lion Spenser reveals something of Virgil's sense of the pathos of the animal world. The pathos is in the allegory also; Truth is ultimately victorious, at the price of faithful lives. CANTO VI This canto is remarkable for its pictures; the appeal throughout is to the eye. The two romantic pastorals, Una's adventure among the satyrs and the story of Satyrane, blend in tone, but, like the episodes in most of the cantos, they are meant to present a contrast. As in the story of the lion, the theme here is the safety of virtue and the practice of courtesy in the natural |