19 4 riue: cut through.

19 s cleft: cut off

19 7 grudging: complaining.

20 5 scowre: run, pursue.

21 4 humblesse: humility.

21 8 Much rueth me: it causes me to pity.

22 4 Before that: before.

22 7–9Emperour: Duessa’s father as Emperor of the West stands opposed to Una and her father, whose realm extends from East to West. See L1.5. The throne set upon the banks of the Tiber allusively links the Emperor of the West to the Pope as he figured Antichrist to the Protestant community.

23 6 day of spousall: marriage day.

24 2 conuaid: removed.

25 4 Fort: metaphor for virginity.

25 6–9Sansfoy: the three Sans brothers are the sons of old Aveugle (blind- ness). They are descendants of Night (cf. I.5.20 ff). They represent the progressive deterioration of the human soul through spiritual blindness. One is first without faith (Sansfoy) and then without law (Sansloy) and finally ends in spiritual death or joylessness (Sansjoy). Redcross’s and Una’s encounters with these three brothers in cantos 2-6 present an account of the Christian life in its battle against the forces of spiritual blindness. Redcross meets Sansfoy immediately after he has broken faith with Una by leaving her. He has broken his ‘troth’ and wandered off from ‘truth’. See Tuve, Allegorical Imagery, p. 125.

26 2 Fidessa: ‘Faithful’ (Latin-.fides), here used ironically.

27 9 so dainty they say maketh derth: this proverb is not entirely clear.

      It may be a simple moral warning: ‘Who dainties love shall beggars prove.’ Some editors relate it to ‘Fastidiousness brings poverty’, and interpret that Duessa’s coy withholding of herself increases Redcross’s desire. In either case, the ironic thrust of this clinching proverb seems pointed towards the fastidiousness of Redcross, who refrains from pursuing his advantage, ‘feining seemely mirth’.

29 9 a tide: a while.

30 3 falsed: misled.

31 1 ff Spenser uses the ‘flashback myth’ or exemplum often, as a way of specifying the moral significance of an action. Redcross, in abandoning Una and taking up Duessa, is making the same mistake as Fradubio (‘Brother Doubt’). Similar transformations of a man into a tree can be found in Aen. 3.20 ft, Dante, Inferno 13 and OF 6.26.

31 3 embard: imprisoned.

31 8 houe: rise.

31 9 member: part of his body.

32 2 ouerpast: passed. manhood well awake: i.e., reason controlled the senses.

33 5 Limbo lake: not the Christian limbo. Maclean suggests it is a phrase taken from Phaer’s translation of the Aeneid (editions from 1562).

33 3 Fradubio: see note to I.2.31 ff.

33 7 Boreas: the north wind.

34 7 author: instigator.

35 1 prime… youthly; i.e., in the springtime of my youth. corage: heart (OED, ‘courage’ 1, but see OED 3e: sexual vigour, lust).

36 1 did take in hand: undertake.

36 8 prise martiall: prize of war.

37 4 whether: which.

37 8 Frcelissa: frailty (Italian: fralezza).

38 2 doubtfull ballaunce: i.e., the balance of decision was in doubt.

39 S visage: face.

39 9 treeu mould: form of a tree.

40 1 for my Dame: as my lady.

40 4 Prime: spring. See Milton, PL 10.572 ff.

40 7 origane and thyme: marjoram (oregano) and thyme, used to cure itching and scabs.

41 8 decay: destruction.

42 8 in wooden wals full faste: i.e., fast within the tree.

43 1 Elfin: faery.

43 4 in a liuing well: grace. See John 4.13–14and Rev. 22.1.

43 6 out find: find out, discover.

43 7 wonted well: i.e., usual state of nature or health; well-being.

43 8 suffised: satisfied.

44 4 dreriment: gloom, sorrow.

45 4 carelesse swowne: unconscious swoon. 45 6 vp gan lift: i.e., began to lift herself.

CANTO 3

Arg. 3 mart: bargaining, traffic.

Arg. 4 kachour: lecher, i.e., Sansloy.

2 5 true as touch: true as a touchstone.

2 9 deriu’d: taken away.

3 3 prease: press, gathering. 3 8 wastnesse: wilderness.

3 9 wished: wished for.

4 2 vnhastie: slow.

5 2 ramping: raging.

     Lyon: the trrening of the lion is still a vexed question. It was long ago pointed out that the story of the lion tamed by the sight of beauty or of royalty had parallels in earlier romances; but Tuve cautions against reading the poem too ‘morally’ {Allegorical Imagery, p. 123). Nevertheless, Tuve’s case for her candidate (some form of pride) is no more convincing than Upton’s argument for the Church of England or Henry VIII {Variorum, p. 207) or Fowler’s for sol iustitiae {Spenser and

the Numbers of Time, pp. 67 ff) or Hankins’s for the irascible passions {Source and Meaning in Spenser’s Allegory, pp.