Spenser's The Faerie Queene Part 34

213. The absolutions granted by the clergy.

215. the pa.s.sion of his plight, his suffering condition.

x.x.x. Percival points out the resemblance between Spenser's Charity and Andrea del Sarto's famous painting La Charite in the Louvre.

277. Whose pa.s.sing price, etc., whose surpa.s.sing value it was difficult to calculate.

292. well to donne, well doing, right doing.

318. seven Bead-men, seven men of prayer, corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins of the House of Pride. They represent good works: (1) entertainment of strangers; (2) food to the needy; (3) clothing to the naked; (4) relief to prisoners; (5) comfort to the sick; (6) burial of the dead, and (7) care of widows and orphans.

354. price of bras, ransom in money. Bras is a Latinism from aes.

355. From Turkes and Sarazins. In the sixteenth century thousands of Christians were held captive in Turkish and Saracen prisons, and many of these were ransomed by the charitable of Europe. Prescott tells us that Charles V found 10,000 Christians in Tunis at its capture in 1535.

359. he that harrowd h.e.l.l. The Harrowing of h.e.l.l was the mediaeval belief in the descent of Christ to h.e.l.l to redeem the souls of Old Testament saints, and to despoil the powers of darkness. It is the subject of an old miracle play.

374. The reference is to the resurrection from the dead.

378. I dead be not defould, that I (when) dead be not defiled. This prayer was answered, for the poet received honorable burial in Westminster Abbey.

381. And widowes ayd, i.e. had charge (to) aid widows, etc.

382. In face of judgement, before the judgment-seat.

422-423. his ... her, Redcross Knight...mercy.

430. For nought he car'd, for he cared nought that his body had been long unfed.

470. that same mighty man of G.o.d, Moses. See Exodus, xiv, 16, xxiv, and x.x.xiv.

471. That blood-red billowes, of the Red Sea.

478. that sacred hill, the mount of Olives.

483. that pleasaunt Mount, mount Parna.s.sus, the seat of the nine Muses (l. 485), the patronesses of the arts and of learning. Sacred and profane literature are beautifully blended in the thoughts of the contemplative man.

489. a goodly Citie, the Celestial City, Heaven. The description is suggested by that in Revelation, xxi, 10 seq.

515. That great Cleopolis, London, "the city of glory."

519. Panthea, probably Westminster Abbey, in which Elizabeth's ancestors were buried.

524. for earthly frame, for an earthly structure.

549. Saint George of mery England. St. George became the patron Saint of England in 1344, when Edward III consecrated to him the Order of the Garter. Church and Percival say that merry means pleasant and referred originally to the country, not the people. Cf. Mereweather.

lxii. Observe that lines 1, 2, 5, 6 are spoken by the Knight, the rest by Contemplation.

565. bequeathed care, the charge intrusted to thee (by Una).

579. and many b.l.o.o.d.y battailes, etc., and fought many b.l.o.o.d.y pitched battles.

585. Chaungelings. The belief in the power of fairies to subst.i.tute their elf-children for human babies is frequently referred to in writers of Spenser's time. In the Seven Champions the witch Kalyb steals away St. George, the son of Lord Albert of Coventry, soon after his birth.

591. Georgos, from the Greek ?e?????, an earth tiller, farmer. Spenser borrows the story in this stanza from that of Tages, son of Earth, who was similarly found and brought up. Ovid's Metamorphoses, xv, 553.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

(Canto X)

1. Observe that stanza i contains the moral of Canto IX. 2. What was Una's purpose in bringing the Knight to the House of Holiness? 3. Why should Faith and Hope be represented as betrothed virgins, and Charity a matron? 4. Who were Zeal, Reverence, Obedience, Patience, and Mercy, with the symbolism of each? 5. Who was the door-keeper? Explain the allegory. 6. Find and explain the biblical allusions in this Canto, which shows the influence of the Bible to a remarkable extent. 7. In what was the Knight instructed by Faith (xix seq.)? 8. Compare the mood of the Knight in xxi with that in Canto IX, li. 9. How did the two situations affect Una? 10. Note the teachings in xxiii (prayer), xxiv (absolution), and xxv (mortification of the flesh). 11. Observe that Faith teaches the Knight his relations to G.o.d; Charity, those to his fellow-men. 12. Explain the lyric note in l. 378. 13. Give an account of the knight's visit to the Hill of Contemplation. Explain the allegory. 14. Find a stanza complimentary to Queen Elizabeth. 16. What prophecy was made of the Knight?

CANTO XI

I. The Plot: The Redcross Knight reaches the Brazen Tower in which Una's parents, the King and Queen of Eden, are besieged by the Dragon. The monster is described. The first day's fight is described, in which the Knight is borne through the air in the Dragon's claws, wounds him under the wing with his lance, but is scorched by the flames from the monster's mouth. The Knight is healed by a bath in the Well of Life. On the second day the Knight gives the Dragon several sword-wounds, but is stung by the monster's tail and forced to retreat by the flames. That night he is refreshed and healed by the balm from the Tree of Life. On the third day he slays the Dragon by a thrust into his vitals.

II. The Allegory: 1. Mankind has been deprived of Eden by Sin or Satan (Dragon). The Christian overcomes the devil by means of the whole armor of G.o.d (shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, etc.). The soul is strengthened by the ordinances of religion: baptism, regeneration, etc.

2. There is a hint of the long and desperate struggle between Reformed England (St. George) and the Church of Rome, in which the power of the Pope and the King of Spain was broken in England, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe. Some may see a remoter allusion to the delivery of Ireland from the same tyranny.

13. be at your keeping well, be well on your guard.

iii. This stanza is not found in the edition of 1590.

30. And seemd uneath, etc., and seemed to shake the steadfast ground (so that it became) unstable. Church and Nares take uneath to mean "beneath" or "underneath"; Kitchin conjectures "almost."

31. that dreadful Dragon, symbolical of Satan. Spenser here imitates the combat between St. George and the Dragon in the Seven Champions of Christendom, i.

32. This description of the dragon watching the tower from the sunny hillside is justly admired for its picturesqueness, power, and suggestiveness. The language is extremely simple, but the effect is awe-inspiring. It has been compared with Turner's great painting of the Dragon of the Hesperides.

42. O thou sacred muse, Clio, the Muse of History, whom Spenser calls the daughter of Phbus (Apollo) and Mnemosyne (Memory).

56. till I of warres, etc. Spenser is here supposed to refer to his plan to continue the Faerie Queene and treat of the wars of the English with Philip II ("Paynim King") and the Spanish ("Sarazin").

61. let downe that haughtie string, etc., cease that high-pitched strain and sing a second (or tenor) to my (lower) tune.

120. As two broad Beacons. Kitchin thinks this pa.s.sage is a reminiscence of the beacon-fires of July 29, 1588, which signaled the arrival of the Armada off the Cornish coast.

158. Her flitting parts, her shifting parts; referring to the instability of the air.

161. low stouping, swooping low (to the ground); a term in falconry.

167. hagard hauke, a wild, untamed falcon.

168. above his hable might, beyond the strength of which he is capable.

172. He so disseized, etc., i.e. the dragon being thus dispossessed of his rough grip. The construction is nominative absolute.