31. the hellish hound, Cerberus. 33-6. Mantuan, 11-12: Pro numeris vanas laudes et inania verba 37-42. Mantuan, 126–7: Dic pugnas, dic gesta virum, dic proelia regum, 55-9. Mantuan, 86–88: Tityrus (ut fama est) sub Maecenate vetusto 58. laboured lands, tilled lands; a Northern dialectal usage. 65-72. Mantuan, 153-9: At qui dura manu gesserunt bella potenti 75-8. Mantuan, 148-152: Ipsi ad delicias reges et ad otia versi quod celebrant laudari optant; hinc carmina manant perdita de studio Veneris, de scurrilitate, de ganea, de segnitie, de infamibus actis, quae castum capitale nefas celebrare poetam. 79-84. Cf. Spenser's Fowre Hymnes, and the last passage from Colin Clout's Come Home Againe in this volume. Emblem. Ovid, Fasti, vi. 5. 139. Plato. Not in Plato, any more than the forbidding of 'the Arabian (? Arcadian) Melody', line 170. 196. Cognisance. The Bear and Ragged Staff was the crest of Leicester's (the Dudley) family. Is this a reference to Spenser's lost Stemmata Dudleiana? 208. Bucoliques, i.e. Georgics. 214. it is sayd, e.g. by Horace, Odes, ii. 8, 9, and by du Bellay. 221. Oration of Tullies: pro Archia, x. 24. Petrarch. Sonnet cxxxv in Vita: Alexander, arrived at the famous tomb of the fierce Achilles, sighing, said, O fortunate, who didst find so clear a trumpet, &c.' Cf. Ruines of Time, 400-34 and notes. 256-60. The poem is lost. Was it The Dying Pelican? 262-4. Petrarch. Sonnet xxxviii in Vita; he speaks of his lady Laura under the guise of the laurel (lauro): It made my feeble wit to flower in its shade, and grow amid sorrows.' 269. Mantuanes saying. Not in Mantuan. E. K. may be quoting, from his inaccurate memory, line 70 of this Eclogue: Vult hilares animos tranquillaque pectora carmen. 271. that comen verse: Horace, Epistles, i. 5. 19. 284. Virgile: Bucol. viii. 10; Horace, Ars Poetica, 280. 286. queint. Spenser probably meant fine'. 297. aut si carminibus. Not in Ovid. (Mustard.) Perhaps a confusion of Am. 111. vii. 27-34 with Virgil, Aen. iv. 487: Haec se carminibus promittit solvere mentis quas velit. PAGE 52. THE RUINES OF TIME Published in the volume of Complaints, 1591. This elaborate Elegy, highly wrought with figures of rhetoric, celebrates Spenser's early patrons Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Sir Philip Sidney, with others of their kindred. It is built up of several sections, perhaps originally distinct poems: a eulogy of Camden's Britannia (1586); the personal elegies proper, some portions of which have rather the air of dutiful interpolations; a confession of faith in the immortality of poetry; and an imitation of du Bellay's Songe and Marot's version of Petrarch's Canzone iii in Morte, both of which were translated by Spenser and published among the Complaints. A visionary figure, the Genius of the ancient city of Verulam, is supposed to be speaking to the poet. 184. A mightie Prince. Leicester, who died in 1588. 190. Right and Loyall. Leicester's motto, Droit et Loyal.' 220. a glasse upon the water. Glass is a by-form of gloss; thus, a shining spot, a sun-glint. 225. Colin Clout. Spenser himself. The poem was apparently written some time after Leicester's death. 281. Spenser now turns to speak of Sidney. 290. too soone. Sidney was 32 years of age when mortally wounded, 1586. 317-19. thine owne sister. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, to whom this poem is dedicated. For the memorial volume to which Spenser contributed Astrophel she wrote The Doleful Lay of Clarinda, which Spenser probably revised. 323-9. Referring to Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, and his Arcadia. 341. Heroes. A trisyllable, as usually in Spenser. 344-434. Cf. Horace, Odes, iii. 30, iv. 8, 9, and Ovid, especially Am. i. 15 and Met. xv. 871; also du Bellay, Deffence et Illustration, II. v. (ed. Person, pp. 123–4). 416. Marcellus. Probably from a vague and inaccurate remembrance of Plutarch's Life of Marcellus, 28: He thought to consecrate the temple of honor and vertue, which he had built with the spoyles he gotte in the warres of Sicile. But the priestes were against it . . . and he did take it for an evill token, besides diverse other signes in the element For there were many temples set a fire with lightening at one time' (tr. North, 1579). 417. Lisippus. Probably a reference to his statues of Alexander the Great, of which none have survived. 418. King Edmond. Camden, Britannia, Bury St. Edmunds: 'If you ask how great were its riches, one cannot readily tell how many gifts were hung upon the tomb of Edmund alone.' but was rent for gain. After the death of Queen Elizabeth Camden added the following sentence, which she might have construed as a reflection on her father; Spenser probably knew Camden personally, and heard his views on the subject: This work... Henry VIII brought to its end, when he overturned the Monasteries, persuaded by those who, under a specious pretext of the restoration of religion, preferred their private reasons and their own enrichment to the glory of their Prince and Country, and even of God.' 429. the sonne of Thetis. Achilles. 432-4. The story is in Plutarch's Life of Alexander, but here apparently from Petrarch. See note to Shep. Cal., Oct., 216 ff. 436. Meliba. Sir Francis Walsingham (1530 ?-90), Secretary of State. The reference is to Thomas Watson's Melibæus, a pastoral elegy on Walsingham, Latin and English versions, 1590. 673. Philisides. Sir Philip Sidney. PAGE 60. COLIN CLOUTE'S COME HOME AGAINE Published along with Astrophel in 1595. The dedication to Raleigh is dated 27 December 1591. Whenever Spenser speaks of himself, it is as the Shepherd Colin. In this, his most definitely autobiographical poem-or at any rate the one least obscured by allegory-he narrates his visit to England with Sir Walter Raleigh, 1589-91. 2. after Tityrus. In imitation of Virgil, Chaucer being perhaps sub-intended. See Shep. Cal., Oct., 55 and its gloss, and E. K., p. 18. 15. Hobbinol. Gabriel Harvey, in Shep. Cal. (see Apr. and note). As in this poem Spenser represents himself as returned to Ireland, this is another Hobbinol, or, as is more likely, the gathering of friends is figurative, and attempts at identification idle. 40. that Angel. Queen Elizabeth. 46. bright. The use of the adjective as noun is frequent in Middle Scots poetry, especially in such phrases as this. 57. Mole. The Ballyhowra hills, north of Kilcolman. 59. Mulla. The river Awbeg, a little south of Kilcolman. 60. a strange shepheard. Sir Walter Raleigh, who held lands at Lismore, some 35 miles to eastward. 186. Cynthia. A name of Diana, therefore of Queen Elizabeth. 188. making. Poetry. Cf. Sidney, Apologie for Poetrie: 'Poet commeth of this word Poiein, which is to make: wherein wee Englishmen have mette with the Greekes in calling him a maker.' For an example of Queen Elizabeth's verse, see Puttenham, Arte of Poetrie, III. XX. 196-211. Spenser refers often to the sea, and uses nautical terms and metaphors, but he does not appear to have loved it. He remembers here, perhaps, Ovid, Tristia, i. 2. 309. that same land. The realm of Cynthia, England. 380-490. The handling of the names is typical of Spenser's method of allusion to contemporary persons and events, varying from the most obvious to the most obscure. We have not the facts necessary to the construction of a complete Key to Spenser, and conjectures must be taken with reserve. 380. Harpalus. Collier suggests Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, (later) Earl of Dorset (1538-1608), author of the Induction to A Myrrour for Magistrates (1555), part author of Gorboduc (publ. 1565), and a notable Elizabethan statesman. 382. Corydon. Abraham Fraunce (fl. 1587-1633), a poetical protégé of the Countess of Pembroke, has been suggested; but these pastoral names are the vaguer for their commonness. 384. Alcyon. Arthur Gorges (d. 1625). See Daphnaida. 392. Palin. Malone suggests George Peele (1558-97). 394. Alcon. Collier suggests Nicholas Breton (?1568-1626). 396. Palemon. Thomas Churchyard (?1520-1604) refers to himself by this name in one poem. (Grosart.) 400. Alabaster. William Alabaster (1567-1640); his Eliseis, a Latin poem in praise of Queen Elizabeth, exists in MS. 412. See note to Returne from Parnassus. 416. Daniel. Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) published Delia, a sonnet-sequence, in 1591. Spenser may have met him in the house of the Countess of Pembroke, his patron, and the passage may refer to his working on The Civill Warres, published 1595. 434. Amyntas. Probably Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (1559?-94), poet, and patron of the company of actors to which Shakespeare belonged. If this is a reference to his death the dedication is ante-dated, or, as is more likely, the poem was revised and amplified between 1591 and its publication in 1595. 444. Aetion. Grosart suggests Michael Drayton (1563-1631). His Idea was published in 1590, but he was in London in 1590, and may have been meditating then his England's Heroical Epistles, published in 1597. 660-730. Though the wickedness and ingratitude of courts was a commonplace of Renaissance poetry, the feeling here is probably personal. Spenser, while not unsuccessful as a courtier, seems to have been disappointed in his expectations, and to have borne a grudge against Burleigh, who is said to have hindered his advancement. Cf. Mother Hubberd's Tale, 581-936. 931-955. Rosalind. See Shep. Cal., Apr., 27, 185, and note. Spenser is not one of our great sonnetteers; his diffuse style does not flourish in confinement; but the following sonnets are pleasant examples of occasional verse by a cultured and practised poet. Some controversy has been aroused about the significance of the Amoretti as autobiography, but in all probability the sonnets are very various in inspiration. All the sonnets were not necessarily addressed to the same lady, or to any lady, and their arrangement for the press may be as conventional as the most artificial conceit in the series. 1. A copy of the first edition of The Faerie Queene has been found, apparently Spenser's own, and having, written on the fly-leaf, what is evidently an early version of this sonnet. (Gollancz, Proceedings of the British Academy, 1908.) Published with Amoretti, 1595, and written, as its coda tells, for his own marriage, in 1594. The poem is based on the traditional matter of the Latin epithalamium-see particularly those of Catullus, lxi and lxii-with the Christian admixture typical of the time. The verse is an adaptation of the Italian canzone, which is a series of long strophes, the lines varying in length and intricately rhymed. No precise form of the strophe is fixed, but the pattern of the first should be repeated in each following, a rule Spenser does not strictly observe. I. Ye learned sisters. The Muses. 56. Mulla. The river Awbeg. See Colin Clout, 59, and note. 60. the rushy lake. Kilcolman was situated by a lake. 103. three handmayds. The Graces. See F. Q. VI. x. 15 and 21-4. 234. sad, serious, grave. 265-9. Barnaby the bright. St. Barnabas' Day is June 11th, the longest day according to the Old Style' calendar, there being about ten days of difference from the 'New Style'. 282. fayrest planet. The sun. 286. evening star. lxii. 20-30. Venus, in this month. Cf. Catullus, 307-10. Spenser exercises the poet's privilege of making his own version of the myth. 329. The great Tirynthian groome. Hercules, who was brought up at Tiryns, son of Alcmena and Zeus. |