The epithets describing the trees are intended to show the use to which society puts each tree (e.g., ‘sayling Pine’ because ships’ masts were made of pine). The catalogue gives a picture in miniature of a world in which the diversity of choices can make man lose his way as Redcross and Una do, and relates this wood to the dark wood (selua oscura) in which Dante finds himself lost at the beginning of the Divine Comedy.

9 9 earner Holme: holm oak, used for carving bowls, etc.

11 5 tract: traces.

12 7 shame were: it would be shame to.

12 8 forward footing for: i.e., going forward for fear of.

14 1 hardiment: courage, boldness.

15 3 boughtes: coils.

16 1 dam: mother.

16 4 without entraile: without coiling.

16 5 mayle: armour.

16 6 Armed to point: fully armed.

16 7 bale: death and conflagration (OED 1 and 3).

17 1 Elfe: inhabitant of Faeryland.

17 3 trenchand: sharp.

17 8 enhaunst: raised.

19 3 force: not merely physical force but fortitude as in French force. See R. Tuve, Allegorical Imagery, p. 120 ff. Cf. I. 1.3.8 and 1.24.6.

19 8 gorge: throat.

20 1 maw: stomach.

20 3 gobbets: lumps.

20 6 bookes and papers: theological books, tracts, and pamphlets, debating often violently the nature of the one, true Church, that is, theological controversy which involves men in Error’s den.

20 7 frogs: Rev. 16.13: ‘And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.’ Cf. Exodus 8.2-7.

20 9 parbreake: vomit.

21 1 Nilus: the river Nile. Spenser often uses the Latin forms of proper names as here.

21 9 reed: to see, only in Spenser (OED, ‘read’ 7). Cf. IH.9.2.3. 23 2 Phoebus: sun. welke: fade.

23 8 clownish: rustic.

24 1 bestedd: situated.

26 2 vnkindly Impes: unnatural children.

27 5 Armorie: armour.

28 7 to frend: as friend.

29 2 weedes: garments; cf. OF 2.12-13, where Angelica meets the hypo- critical old hermit. 29 9 knockt his brest: in reciting the confiteor, the act of confession in the Roman Mass, the pious would touch the right hand to the heart thrice as a sign of penitence at the words ‘mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa’ (through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault).

30 2 faire him quited: responded similarly.

30 7 Bidding his beades: saying his rosary beads, prayers, trespas: sins.

30 9 sits not: is not proper.

32 1 wastfull: like a waste.

32 5 later: recent.

32 9 baite: refresh.

34 4 a little wyde: a little apart.

34 s edifyde: built.

34 7 holy things: the prayers for matins and evensong, or perhaps more specifically the monastic offices of Roman Catholicism.

35 3 Rest is their feast, and all things at their will: i.e., rest is entertainment to them, and because they desire nothing, they have ‘all things at their will’. 35 7 file his tongue: i.e., make his words persuasive.

35 9 Aue-Mary: ‘Hail, Mary’, the salutation of the archangel Gabriel to Mary announcing the conception of Christ (Luke 1.26 ff). The salutation was adopted as a prayer by the Roman Church and became the principal prayer in the Rosary.

36 2 humour: moisture.

36 3 Morpheus: god of sleep.

36 5 riddes: dispatches.

37 4 Plutoes griesly Dame: Pluto’s wife Proserpina, queen of hell. Cf. I.5.20 ff.

37 8–9Gorgon: Demogorgon, the mythological invention of Boccaccio as the progenitor of all the gods, whose power is so great that even mention of his name makes the rivers of hell (Cocytus and Styx) tremble. Faustus swears by him in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus 1.3. See also I.5.22 ff.

38 4 A-waite whereto: i.e., wait to see where he will use their services.

39 1 He: i.e., the first spirit.

39 3 Morpheus house: god of sleep; derived mainly from Met. 11.592 ff and Statius, Thebaid 10.84 ff. Cf. Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, 155 ff.

39 6 Tethys: wife of Oceanus and queen of rivers.

39 7 Cynthia: a name for the moon, associated with the goddess Diana. See VIl.6.3.3 and VII.6.37.5, and below, note to I.43.3.

40 1 double gates: The Gates of Sleep are from Od. 19.562 ff and Am. 6.893 ff. True dreams pass through the gate of horn, which Spenser does not mention except to say that they are encased in silver; false dreams pass through the gate of ivory.

40 9 keepe: notice.

41 3 loft: air, sky, upper region (OED 1).

42 7 dryer braine: i.e., not moistened by the dew of sleep.

43 3 Hecate: three-headed goddess of witches, identified -with Diana on earth, Cynthia or Luna in heaven, and Proserpina in hell.

43 6 Archimago: the old hermit, already associated with hypocrisy, is called now by his rightful name, ‘the great master of the false image’, at the moment at which his power in hell has been established.

44 2 diuerse: another.

44 4 carefull carke: concern.

45 3 fram’d of liquid ayre: Latin: liquidus, ‘clear, bright, pure’; the hellish spirit must be given a tangible body.