131 and passim. Subsequent explanations of iconographical details can be verified in Chew.

18 7 Asse: animal associated sometimes with sloth, as here, and sometimes with humility. See L1.4.

18 8 habit: clothes of a religious. amis: amice; hood.

19 1 Portesse: breviary or prayer book, ao 1 esloyne: withdrew.

20 3 chalenged essoyne: pleaded excuse (legal).

21 5 Crane: Chew quotes John Davies of Hereford that man would like a neck as long as a crane’s so that meat and drink ‘would longer passe, with pleasure to our mawes’. The source is probably Aristotle, Ethics III.10.10. fyne: extremely thin.

21 9 spued vp his gorge: vomited.

22 The description is similar to that of Silenus, the satyr foster father of Bacchus (Met. 11.89-99).

22 5 somewhat: something, a little bit.

22 6 bouzing can: drinking cup.

24 2 bearded Goat: traditional symbol of lechery.

24 3 whally: there is no reason to accept modern editors’ definition of ‘whally’ as ‘greenish’, derived from the more familiar ‘green-eyed monster’ of Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice 3.2.110 and Othello 3.3.165-7. ‘Whally’ is defined by OED as ‘showing much white, glaring’ and is related to ‘wall-eyed’, a term used for animals in which one eye is much lighter than the other. As such this usage relates Lechery and his goat to Malbecco, Spenser’s most explicit figure of jealousy, one of whose eyes is blind (III. 10).

25 4 new fanglenesse: new fashions.

25 8 louing bookes: books about love.

25 9 bait his fleshly hookes: D. W. Robertson, jr, Preface to Chaucer, p. 399, points out that this is a traditional medieval image from Isidore of Seville and Andreas Capellanus, who claim that the word amor (love) is derived from amus (hook).

26 7 fowle euill: venereal disease.

27 2 Camell: the symbolism of the camel ridden by Avarice is ex- plained by Matthew 19.24 (also Mark 10.25 and Luke 18.25): ‘And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’

27 5 told: counted.

28 5 richesse to compare: to acquire riches (Latin: comparare).

29 3 couetise: covetousness.

30 2 wolfe: traditional attribute of envy.

30 3 cankred: ulcerated. tode: toad, a common iconographical attribute of envy.

30 4 chaw: jaw.

30 5 maw: stomach.

31 1 kirtle: jacket, outer garment. discolourd: of various colours. say: a cloth of fine texture, resembling serge.

31 4 Snake: traditional attribute of envy, perhaps derived from Met. 2.768-70, where Envy feeds on snakes. 31 5 implyes: enfolds (Latin: implicate).

31 7 griple: greedy, tenacious.

3a 1 good workes: Spenser may be referring to the traditional seven corporal works of mercy. See the seven beadsmen in I.10.36–43and note.

32 2 Le., Envy hated good works and the man who did them.

32 4 Envy does not believe in the good motives of the almsgiver-because of his own lack of faith.

32 5 abuse: turn the use of.

3a 6–9cf. VI.1.8 describing the Blatant Beast.

33 3 brond: sword or brand, probably the latter, a common attribute of wrath.

33 9 choler: wrath.

34 7 facts: deeds, things done (Latin: facta).

35 3 Vnmanly: inhnman

35 7 Splene: organ associated with anger in Renaissance physiology; c£ adjective ‘splenetic’. 35 8 Saint Frounces fire: unknown. Spenser may mean Saint Anthony’s fire, or erysipelas, a disease producing inflammation of the skin.

35 9 tire: the meaning is clear, but no such usage is recorded in OED.

36 4 Slowth: the Idleness of stanzas 18-20.

36 5 routs: crowds.

37 7 repaire: approach.

37 8 ioyaunce: joy.

38 2 breathing: emitting fragrance.

38 7 hardy-hed: boldness.

39 5 enuious gage: envied pledge.

39 7 which… wage: who owned the shield.

39 9 rencountring: engaging in battle. pray: prize.

40 1 hurtlen: rush together.

40 9 equall lists: impartial formal combats.

41 5 treachour: traitor.

41 9 rentierst: reversed or turned upside down; a reversed shield symbolized defeat and disgrace.

42 7 So be: if.

44 6 Morpheus: god of sleep.

46 5 launcht: pierced.

48 9 Stygian: of the river Styx, which surrounded the classical Hades.

49 4 neuer vantage none: i.e., help anyone.

49 5 Le., it does not help to moan over events about which one can do nothing.

49 6 vitall: of life.

50 9 I no whit reck: i.e., I do not care at all. to reherce: to tell.

CANTO 5

2 8 battailous: warlike.

5 3 paled: fenced.

6 4 blesse: wave, brandish.

8 2 Gryfon: mythical beast with body of lion, head and wings of eagle. seized: in possession.

85 rauine: plunder.

8 7 souce: strike.

10 Spenser may intend a reversal of the roles of Turnus and Aeneas at the end of Aen. Aeneas, seeing the belt of his dead friend Pallas on Turnus, kills him in a fury of vengeance. Spenser often uses wry imitations of action in Virgil; in particular, see the meeting of Braggadocchio and Trompart with Belphoebe, II.3, a parody of the meeting of Aeneas and Achates with Venus, dressed as Diana (Aen. 1.314 ff). In this instance, Sansjoy adopts a heroic stance (that of Aeneas) only to deal an impotent stroke. He is then shielded by a’ darksome clowd’ (see note to 13.6).