24 4 embost: encased.

28 5 meere: pure.

30 1 her seemd: seemed to her.

30 3 dispence: make up for.

31 1 beaten: storm-beaten.

31 3 soust: soaked. Tethys: wife of Oceanus, here ‘the ocean’.

316 Orions hound: Sirius, the dog star, which brings in the ‘dog days’ of summer’

31 9 Nereus: a sea god. Cf. IV.11.18 ff. pledg around: drink a toast.

32 s Neptune: god of the oceans.

32 9 fell: befelL

33 S yron: bit.

33 6 chauffed: heated.

33 9 Sansloy: ‘-without law’. See note to L2.25.6-9.

34 8 good hap: good fortune.

35 3 vainely crossed shield: i.e., vain because the cross here does not protect and because it is almost sacrilegious that Archimago should be carrying such a shield.

35 5 beare: thrust. 3d 2 reaue: take.

36 6 Lethe: river of forgetfulness in hell.

36 8 Furies: spirits of evil and discord who with Cerberus the three-headed dog guard the gate to hell (Met. 4.454). doen aslake: do pacify.

37 3 in place: i.e., whoever you may be.

389 round lists: enclosures for tournaments or jousts.

39 8 Which doen away: i.e., when the swoon was passed.

41 5 ramping: rearing.

42 6 chaufed: heated.

42 7 brand: sword.

43 4 spill: destroy.

43 7 will or nill: willing or not, willy-nilly.

CANTO 4

1 6 misweening: erroneous opinion.

2 1 lorne: abandoned.

2 2 misdeeming: misjudging.

2 3 borne: carried off.

2 6 brauely garnished: finely decorated.

2 8 broad high way: see Matthew 7.13: ‘Enter ye in at the strait gate, for it is the wide gate and broad way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.’

3 6 lazars: lepers.

4 4 golden foile: probably taken from OF 6.59, in which Alcana’s palace is made of gold.

5 1 heape: building; no such usage is recorded in OED. 5 2 wit: skill.

5 3 mould: structure.

5 5 sandie hill: see Matthew 7.26-7.

6 4 Maluenil: ‘evil welcome’, opposite of French ‘bienvenu’, welcome; similar to the character Bel Accueil in Roman de la Rose, 2787 S.

7 2 Presence: i.e., Lucifera enthroned.

7 5 richesse: richness.

81 cloth of State: canopy, baldachin.

8 s Titans: Saturn’s older brother, a figure of rebellious pride, but here a poetic name for the sun.

9 1 Phoebus fairest childe: Phaetlon, who stole the chariot of the sun from his father Apollo. Through his act of presumption he destroyed the chariot, himself, and almost the whole world (Met. 2.1-328).

9 8 rapt: carried away. 10 3 lowly: lowliness.

10 6 mirrhour: in the Renaissance a mirror could be a symbol either of self-knowledge or, as here, self-love.

11 1–2Lucifera’s genealogy and name link her with the infernal powers. Her mother and father are king and queen of hell. See Chaucer’s “The Merchant’s Tale’, 2219-318. Her name is derived from ‘Lucifer’, the light-bearer, named in Isaiah 14.12 ff, to which the whole stanza is indebted:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? and cut down to the ground, which didst cast lots upon the nations? Yet thou saidst in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven and exalt my throne above beside the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, and I will be like the most high. But thou shalt be brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit.

12 7 pollicie: political cunning. 14 7 frounce: frizz or curl.

14 8 prancke their runes: pleat their ruffs. 16 3 hurtlen: dash. 16 4 Aurora: goddess of dawn, pall: robe.

16 9 glitterand: glittering.

17 3 Flora: goddess of flowers and spring. See note to I.1.48.9.

17 5–9The description of Juno’s chariot is derived from II. 5.720 ff, where the same details occur. Spenser moralizes the episode to symbolize Lucifera’s pride. The peacocks that traditionally draw Juno’s chariot are from Met. 1.588 ff, where Jupiter, surprised by Juno while ravishing Io, turns her into a heifer which he is forced to give to Juno, who puts it in the custody of the hundred-eyed monster, Argus. At Jupiter’s request Mercury through his eloquence puts all hundred eyes to sleep and cuts off the monster’s head. Juno in sorrow places the eyes on the tail of the peacock.

18 ff Samuel Chew, The Pilgrimage of Life (New Haven, 1962), pp. 70 ff, points out that Spenser’s procession of the seven deadly sins is organized around the medieval concept of the ‘Infernal Trinity’: the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, which is ultimately derived from and related to 1 John 2.16: ‘For all that is in the world (as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life) is not of the Father, but is of the world.’ Sloth, Gluttony and Lechery are of the Flesh; Avarice is of the World; and Envy, Wrath, and Pride are of the Devil. See Morton Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins (Michigan State University, 1952), p.