8. sluggish german;-Sansjoy apostrophizes himself as 'sluggish brother.' 'German' is any blood relation.

11, 2. redeeme from his longwandring woe;—that is, by slaughtering the Red Cross Knight he proposes to relieve Sansfoy from his doom of wandering by the Stygian lake. (Cp. iv. 48.)

4. That I his shield have quit;—that I have delivered his shield from his dying foe.

12, 8. That forced;—' that (he) forced.'

13, 6. when lo a darkesome clowd, &c.;-imitated from Homer, Il. 5. 344. 16, 3. of his service seene;-of his service, which had now been tried by battle in their sight.

4, 5. goodly gree, Greatly advauncing, &c.;-she accepts his service with much satisfaction, and highly praises and gives honour to his gay chivalry and prowess.

17, 4. wine and oyle;-Luke 10. 34.

5. gan embalme on everie side; they began to cover over the wounds, wherever he had been stricken.' Ed. 1596 reads ' can.'

6

sweet musicke did divide;-Church says "to divide in musick signifies to play divisions," which is an explanatio per idem.' 'To divide,' 'to play divisions,' in the old musical writers always signified to play 'brilliant passages,' as they are now called. For example, instead of running straight up the scale (we will say) in minims, if a musician played his way up in triplets, ornamenting a plain theme, he would have been said to 'play divisions. This usage is illustrated in Ford's Lover's Melancholy, act I. sc. I, where the lover is supposed to vie with the nightingale upon his trilling flute :

66

He could not run division with more art

Upon his quaking instrument, than she,

The nightingale, did with her various notes
Reply to."

So too Herrick, speaking of a running accompaniment, says:
"While the active finger

Runs division with the singer." (Christmas Carol.)

The term may come from the Horatian carmina divides.'

18, 2. By muddy shore, &c.;-the crocodile rarely descends below 27° N. lat., where the river banks are not muddy' (as they are in the Delta), but sandy. So that there is a slight inaccuracy here.

4. a cruell craftie crocodile;-this conceit of 'crocodiles' tears' was very common about Spenser's time. Richardson quotes, from the Uncertain Auctor's Lover dreadding to Mone, these lines:

"As cursed crocodile most cruelly can tole

With truthlesse teares unto his death the silly pitieing soule."

And again, Fuller, Worthies (Essex), "the crocodile's tears are never true." The crocodile had a character for deceitfulness which was most undeserved. There was even an adj. crocodilian' formed, signifying deceitful, as in Quarles' Emblems:

"O what a crocodilian world is this,

Composed of treach'ries and insnaring wiles."

19, 2. That shyning lampes, &c.;-i. e. till the stars come out.

20, 1. griesly night;-she is sometimes described by the poets as passing forth from Erebus in a chariot, covered with a dark garment. It is in imagery of this kind that Spenser excels.

9. their rusty bits;-Warton notices that "the word rusty seems to have conveyed the idea of somewhat very loathsome and horrible to our author." See Gloss. Rusty.

21, 4. th' unacquainted light;— the unwonted light;' light with which she was not acquainted.

22, 2. most auncient grandmother of all;-in the oldest cosmogonies Night is one of the very first of all created things, daughter of Chaos, sister of Erebus, mother of Aether (the sky) and Hemera (day). So in the Orphic hymn to Night-Νύκτα θεῶν γενέτειραν ἀείσομαι ἠδὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν.

3. Jove, whom thou at first didst breede;—this is not in accordance with the cosmogonies, which made Zeus the son of Cronos and Rhea.

5. in Daemogorgons ball;—again a confusion of mythologies. (See note on i. 37.)

6. the secrets of the world unmade;-the chaos of the poets, from which they fabled that Night was sprung.

23, 4. on groning beare;- groning' here = sorrowful, or surrounded by weeping friends.

7. If old Aveugles sonnes so evill beare;-'if the son of old Aveugle be in so evil a case' (not, as Upton says, from the Latin male audiunt, ‘are evil spoken of'). Aveugle (the Blind) is the father of the three Paynims. 24, 9. for;-ed. 1596 reads 'and.'

25, 5. the chayne of strong necessitee;-probably alludes to the golden rope which Zeus (Hom. Il. 8. 19) proposes to fasten to Earth, to try his power by.

9. is bad excheat; it is a bad way of gaining, to grow great by another's loss.' 'Escheat' is a law term signifying any lands or profits which fall to a lord by forfeiture within his manor. (Blackstone, Kerr's ed. 2. p. 71.) But Spenser does not seem to use the term in its strict legal sense. See Gloss. Excheat.

26, 4. Shall with his owne bloud price, &c.;-shall pay with his own blood the price of the blood he has spilt.'

27, 6, 7. though I the mother bee Of falsbood;—this agrees with the mythologies. So Hesiod, Theog. 224, has it: Nùg ỏλon μetà tývď åtátny téke. 28, 8. foming tarre;—the foam of their mouths as black as tar.

9. fine element;-the subtle, thin air.

30, 6. The messenger of death, the ghastly owle;-Ovid, Metam. 10. 452:

"Ter omen

Funereus bubo letali carmine fecit."

Το

The Romans looked on the owl with horror as a messenger of death. the Greeks she was, on the other hand, the bird of wisdom; and at Athens went with Athene, patron-goddess of the city.

31, 3. deepe Avernus bole;—the Lacus Avernus in Campania was regarded by the Latins as the entrance to the shades below, in consequence of its gloomy cliffs (it lies in an ancient crater) and of its mephitic exhalations. Cp. Virg. Aen. 6. 237.

4. By that same hole;-Avernus was a lake, not a cavern, as Spenser seems to make it.

8. dreadfull Furies;-according to Homer these rest in Erebus till a curse pronounced on some criminal calls them up to earth. They are not usually described as having 'burst their chains.' They are clothed in black, with serpent-locks, and blood-dropping eyes.

33, 1, 2. Acheron...wailing woefully ;-Acheron, river of lamentation (axos).

3. fiery flood of Phlegeton ;-Phlegeton is the river of fire (pλéyew). 5. bootlesse cry;-bootlesse' is an adj., not adv. It is an epithet of 'ghosts,' which are without hope of boot or help. See Gloss. Booteth.

7. The house of endlesse paine;—so Milton, P. L. 2. 823, uses the same phrase: From out this dark and dismal house of pain."

66

34, 1. Cerberus ;—the three-headed watch-dog of the infernal regions. This description is drawn from Virg. Aen. 6. 424.

6. And felly gnarre;—and to snarl at them horribly.' This description follows Virg. Aen. 6. 417.

9. For she in bell, &c.;-from Virg. Aen. 6. 247:

66

'Hecaten, caeloque Ereboque potentem.'

35, 1. Ixion;—was kept ever rolling in the infernal air, chained to a fiery winged wheel, because he had aspired to the love of Hera.

3. Sisyphus;-whose special crime has not come down to us, was condemned to push a huge stone for ever up a hill till it nearly reached the top, when it rolled down again of its own accord. Hom. Od. 11. 592.

5. Tantalus bong by the chin;-the crime of Tantalus also is uncertain; but his punishment was not to be "hong by the chin," but to stand up to the chin in water, and to suffer agonies of thirst, the water sinking as he tried to bend down to it. His condition and punishment form the subject of a fine stanza in Book II. vii. 58. Cp. Hom. Od. II. 581.

6. Tityus; he attacked Artemis, was killed by Zeus (or by Apollo), and afterwards was stretched out over nine acres of ground, while two vultures devoured his liver. Cp. Hom. Od. 11. 575; Virg. Aen. 6. 595.

7. Typhoeus joynts, &c. ;—the mythologies bury him under Ætna, but

say nothing of his being racked in a 'gin' (engine).

8. Theseus condemnd to endlesse slouth;

sedet, aeternumque sedebit Infelix Theseus." Virg. Aen. 6. 617. The legend was that he was condemned to this punishment for trying to carry off Persephone.

9. fifty sisters;-the Danaides, who slew their fifty husbands, and were condemned to endless pouring of water into a vessel full of holes. (Ovid, Met. 4. 462.)

leake; ed. 1590 reads 'lete.'

36, 1. worldly wights in place;-Spenser uses 'in place' as equivalent to in this place' or 'in that place.' So Book VI. i. 28, he says "he should be soone in place," where the phrase means men still belonging to the upper world.

66

soon bere." Worldly wights,"

7. Aesculapius;—this legend respecting the punishment of the god of medicine is not classical. On the contrary, Zeus first slew him for arresting death, and then raised him to the stars.

9. he did redresse ;—' he remade,' ' restored.'

40, 3. fates expired could renew again;-could replace on the distaff of life the thread which the fates had already cut.

41, 2. nigh weary waine;—the horses' epithet attributed to the carriage. 4. Whom having softly, &c.;-and when she had softly disarmed him (the knight) she then (tho) began to discover to him (Aesculapius) all his (the knight's) wounds.'

42, 7. But that redoubled crime, &c.;- thou biddest me lengthen out a doubled crime (or source of accusation) with fresh vengeance (by asking me to cure the knight).' Notice the curious construction of this sentence—' Is not enough, that . . . but that thou biddest me &c.'

43, 9. both never to be donne ;-both eternal, never to be ended; or, never to be surpassed.

44, 9. weary wagon did recure;

team.

recovered (refreshed) his weary

45, 4. albe, his wounds, &c.;-the words "his wounds not throughly heald" are absolute. And so the whole passage is 'albe (although), his wounds being not quite healed, [he] were unready to ride.' Notice the archaic plur. woundës.'

9. caytive wretched thralls;-unhappy prisoners in low estate; souls ruined by indulging in these seven deadly sins.

47, 1. that great proud king of Babylon ;—Nebuchadnezzar; cp. Daniel 4. 32, where we do not read that he was 'transformed into an ox,' but that "he did eat grass as an ox;" which is quite a different thing. "That would compell &c." refers doubtless to Dan. 6, and the proclamation that none should "ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of" the king: if so, there is another inaccuracy, as this king was Darius, not Nebuchadnezzar. Spenser may however have thought that the golden image set up by Nebuchadnezzar in the plain of Dura was an image of himself.

5. king Croesus;-whose story is told at length by Herodotus, 1. 26, where his vast wealth and conference thereon with Solon are fully described. He was the last King of Lydia, and reigned from 595 to 560 B.C.

7. richesse store;-notice the gen. richesse, both for the form of the word, and the use of the gen. We still employ some words which have this gen. incorporated with the subst. on which it depends—as housewife, bank-parlour, &c.

8. proud Antiochus ;-Antiochus Epiphanes (who also bore the name of Theos-eds, God) was King of Syria, and reigned from 175 to 164 B.C. In the course of his wars he took Jerusalem twice, and in every way insulted the Jewish religion, and " on Gods altars daunst."

48, 1. great Nimrod;-cp. Genesis 10. 8-the "mighty hunter" whose prey, as Spenser reads it, was man. He founded a great empire in Shinar, on the Tigris and Euphrates.

3. old Ninus;-the mythical founder of Nineveh.

5. that mightie monarch, &c.;-Alexander the Great, born B.C. 356, became King of Macedon on the murder of Philip in 336, and died in 323. The allusion in “Ammons sonne" relates to his expedition to Egypt (B.C. 332, 331), in the course of which he reached the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, and was saluted "Son of Ammon" by the obsequious priests. His death in 323, of fever, had in it no special characteristics to call for Spenser's remark "scornd of God and man, a shamefull death he dide." Spenser doubtless refers to the opinion that he died of drinking.

49, 5. Romulus ;-mythical founder of the city of Rome. date most usually given for the foundation of the city.

B.C. 753 is the

6. Proud Tarquin;- Tarquinius Superbus, seventh and last of the Kings of Rome.

too lordly Lentulus;-the House of Lentulus was famous among the patrician gentes for its haughtiness. It does not appear to which Lentulus Spenser here alludes.

7. Stout Scipio;--Scipio Africanus is meant, who was born in B.C. 237 or 234, and died in Spain about B. C. 183. His pride shewed itself in his struggles with the tribunes of the people. He rescued his brother from prison in defiance of their authority: when brought to trial, he refused to defend himself, set the laws at defiance, relying on his great name, and presently left Rome of his own accord, never to return;-a man too proud and too great to obey or to be made to obey the laws.

stubborne Hanniball;-his life lay between the years B. C. 247-181. Spenser hits the key to his character in the word 'stubborne.' His power of endurance, tenacity of purpose, resolution whether to act or to wait, and his skill in making much of small resources, are among his noblest characteristics. But it is not so clear why he is made a victim in the house of Pride.

8. Ambitious Sylla;-born B. C. 138, died B.C. 78. Sulla (as it should be spelt), though of a distinguished patrician family, began his career a very poor man his ambition carried him to absolute power.

sterne Marius;-born B.C. 157, died B. c. 86. The great rival of Sulla ; he deserved the epithet ambitious' as well as that of 'stern.' His character was full of a sternness which readily degenerated into cruelty. 9. High Caesar;-C. Julius Caesar, born B. C. 100, murdered B. C. 44. great Pompey; Cn. Pompeius Magnus, born B. C. 106, murdered

B.C. 48.

fierce Antonius;-Mark Antony, born (probably) B.C. 83, slew himself B.C. 30. 50, 2. forgetfull of their yoke ;—' of their due subordination as women.' 3. The bold Semiramis;—the mythical joint founder (with Ninus) of Nineveh.

5. Faire Sthenoboea;—Stheneboea (rightly spelt) for love of Bellerophon made away with herself by drinking hemlock, not by the cord, as Spenser has it. Cp. Aristoph. Ran. 1082.

7. High minded Cleopatra;-born B.C. 69, killed herself by the sting of an asp, or (as is also told) by the prick of a poisoned comb, B.C. 30. 53, 2. For many corses;—' by reason of many corpses.'