185 184 Which The Second Booke of the Faerie Queene. Contayning The Legend of Sir Guyon. OR Of Temperaunce. 1 Right well I wote most mighty Soueraine Soveraine , That all this famous antique history, Of some th'aboundance of an ydle braine Will iudged judged be, and painted forgery, Rather then than matter of iust just memory, Sith none, that breatheth liuing living aire, does know, Where is that happy land of Faery, Which I so much doe vaunt, yet no where show, But vouch antiquities, which no body can know. 2 But let that man with better sence aduize advize , That of the world least part to vs us is red: And daily how through hardy enterprize, Many great Regions are discouered discovered ,

186 Cant. The Second Booke of I. Cant. I. Which to late age were neuer never mentioned. mentioned, Who euer ever heard of th' Indian Peru Peru? Or who in venturous vessell measured The Amazons Amarons huge riuer river now found trew trew? true? Or fruitfullest Virginia who did euer ever vew? vew. view? 3 Yet all these were when no man did them know, Yet haue have from wisest ages hidden beene beene: And later times thinges more vnknowne unknowne shall show: ſ⁀how ſ⁀how. ſ⁀howe. Why then should witlesse man so much misweene That nothing is but that which he hath seene? What if within the Moones fayre shining ſpheare, spheare, ſpheare ſpheare? What if in euery every other starre vnseene unseene Of other worldes he happily should heare? heare He wõder wonder would much more, yet such to some appeare. appeare 4 Of faery lond yet if he more inquyre By certein signes here sett in sondrie place He may it fynd; ne let him then admyre But yield his sence to bee too blunt and bace That n'ote no'te no'te without an hound fine footing trace. trace And thou then thou, O fayrest Princesse vnder under sky sky, In this fayre mirrhour maist behold thy face, face And thine owne realmes in lond of Faery, Faery And in this antique ymage thy great auncestry. 5 The which O pardon me thus to enfold In couert covert vele and wrap in shadowes light, light That feeble eyes your glory may behold, behold Which elles ells elſe could not endure those beames bright, bright But would bee dazled with exceeding light; light light. O pardon and vouchsafe with patient eare The braue brave aduentures adventures of this faery knight The good Sir Guyon gratiously to heare, heare (peare. In whom great rule of Temp'raunce goodly doth ap- peare. appeare. mentioned.] mentioned. 1596 1609 mentioned, 1590 Peru ] Peru 1590 Peru? 1596 1609 Amazons ] Amazons 1596 1609 1590FE Amarons 1590trew] trew 1590 trew? 1596 true? 1609vew?] vew? 1596 vew. 1590 view? 1609beene] beene 1590 beene: 1596 1609show:] show: ſ⁀how 1590 ſ⁀how. 1596 ſ⁀howe. 1609heare?] heare? 1596 1609 heare 1590appeare.] appeare. 1596 1609 appeare 1590 n'ote ] n'ote WU no'te HEH_2 YM HRH HRH_2 PN PN_2 PN_3 F F_2 BL_2 BL BL_3no'te 1596 1609trace.] trace. 1596 1609 trace 1590thou] thou then 1590 thou, 1596sky] sky 1590 sky, 1596 1609face,] face, 1596 1609 face 1590Faery,] Faery, 1596 1609 Faery 1590 light, ] light, 1596 1609 light 1590behold,] behold, 1596 1609 behold 1590elles] elles WU ells HEH_2 YM PN_3 PN_2 PN HRH HRH_2 F F_2 BL BL_3 BL_2elſe 1596 1609bright,] bright, 1596 1609 bright 1590light;] light; light 1590 light. 1596 1509heare,] heare, 1596 1609 heare 1590

232 A mad The Second Booke of Cant.IIII. Cant. IIII. Guyon does Furor bind in chaines, And stops occasion: Deliuers Delivers Phaon Phedon , and therefore By strife is rayld vppon uppon . 6 In braue brave poursuitt of honorable deed, There is I know not what (what) great difference Betweene the vulgar and the noble seed, Which vnto unto things of valorours pre tence pre ten ce valorours pretenc e valorours pretence valorous pretence Seemes to be borne by natiue native influence; As feates of armes, and loue love to entertaine, But chiefly skill to ride seemes a science Proper to gentle blood; some others faine To menage steeds, as did this vaunter; but in vaine. 7 But he the rightfull owner of that steede, Who well could menage and subdew his pride, The whiles on foot was forced for to yeed, With that blacke Palmer, his most trusty guide; Who suffred not his wandring feete to slide. But when strong passion or weake fleshlinesse, Would from the right way seeke to draw him wide, He would through temperaunce and stedfastnesse, Teach him the weak to strẽgthen strengthen , & and the strõg strong suppresse. 8 It fortuned forth faring on his way, He saw from far, or seemed for to see Some troublous vprore uprore or contentious fray, Whereto he drew in hast it to agree. Phaon ] Phaon 1590 Phedon 1596 1609what] what 1596 1609 (what) 1590valorours pre tence PN F_2 F pre ten ce HEH_2 HRH YM Y_2 PN_2 PN_3 HRH_2 HEW valorours pretenc e HRH_3 valorours pretence WUvalorous pretence] valorous 1596 1609

233 And the Faery Queene. Cant.IIII. A mad man, or that feigned mad to bee, Drew by the heare along vpon upon the grownd, A handsom stripling with great crueltee, Whom sore he bett, and gor'd with many a wownd, That cheekes with teares, & and sydes with blood did all a- (bownd. bownd. abownd. 9 And him behynd, a wicked Hag did stalke, In ragged robes, and filthy disaray, Her other leg was lame, that she no'te n'ote walke. But on a staffe her feeble steps did stay; Her lockes, that loathly were and hoarie gray, Grew all afore, and loosly hong vnrold unrold , But all behinde was bald, and worne away, That none thereof could euer ever taken hold, And eke her face ill fauourd favourd , full of wrinckles old. 10 And euer ever as she went, her toung did walke In fowle reproch, and termes of vile despight, Prouoking Provoking him by her outrageous talke, To heape more vengeance on that wretched wight; Somtimes she raught him stones, wherwith to smite, Sometimes her staffe, though it her one leg were, Withouten which she could not goe vpright upright ; Ne any euill evill meanes she did forbeare, That might him moue move to wrath, and indignation reare. 11 The noble Guyon mou'd mov'd with great remorse, Approching, first the Hag did thrust away, And after adding more impetuous forse, His mighty hands did on the madman lay, And pluckt him backe; who all on fire streight way, Against him turning all his fell intent, With beastly brutish rage gan him assay, And smott, and bitt, and kickt, and scratcht, and rent, And did he wist not what in his auengement avengement . n'ote] no'te 1590

234 As The Second Booke of Cant.IIII. 12 And sure he was a man of mickle might, Had he had gouernaunce governaunce , it well to guyde: But when the frantick fitt inflamd his spright, His force was vaine, and strooke more often wyde, Then Than at the aymed marke, which he had eyde: And oft himselfe he chaunst to hurt vnwares unwares , Whylest reasõ reason blent through passiõ passion , nought descryde But as a blindfold Bull at randon fares, (nought cares. And where he hits, nought knowes, & and whom he hurts, nought cares. 13 His rude assault and rugged handeling Straunge seemed to the knight, that aye with foe In fayre defence and goodly menaging Of armes was wont to fight, yet nathemoe Was he abashed now not fighting so, But more enfierced through his currish play, Him sternly grypt, and hailing to and fro, To ouerthrow overthrow him strongly did assay, But ouerthrew overthrew him selfe vnwares unwares , and lower lay. 14 And being downe the villein sore did beate, And bruze with clownish fistes his manly face: And eke the Hag with many a bitter threat. Still cald vpon upon to kill him in the place. With whose reproch and odious menace menaee menace The knight emboyling in his haughtie hart, Knitt all his forces, and gan soone vnbrace unbrace His grasping hold: so lightly did vpstart upstart , And drew his deadly weapon, to maintaine his part. 15 Which when the Palmer saw, he loudly cryde, Not so O Guyon, neuer never thinke that so That Monster can be maistred or destroyd: He is not, no, ah he is not such a foe, menace] menace WU menaee BL_2 BL_3 HEH_2menace 1596 1609not,] not, 1590FE 1596 1609 no, 1590

235 In the Faery Queene. Cant.IIII. As steele can wound , or strength can ouerthroe overthroe . That same is Furor, cursed cruel wight, That vnto unto knighthood workes much shame & and woe; And that same Hag, his aged mother, hight Occasion , the roote of all wrath and deſpight. despight. deſpight, 16 With her, who so will raging Furor tame, Must first begin, and well her amenage: First her restraine from her reprochfull blame, And euill evill meanes, with which she doth enrage Her frantick sonne, and kindles his corage, Then when she is withdrawne, or strong withstood, It's eath his ydle fury to aswage, And calme the tempest of his passion wood; The bankes are ouerflowne overflowne , when stopped is the flood. 17 Therewith Sir Guyon left his first emprise, And turning to that woman, fast her hent By the hoare lockes, that hong before her eyes, And to the ground her threw: yet n'ould she stent Her bitter rayling and foule reuilement revilement , But still prouokt provokt her sonne to wreake her wrong; But nathelesse he did her still torment, And catching hold of her vngratious ungratious tonge tongue tong , Thereon an yron lock, did fasten firme and strong. 18 Then whenas vse use of speach was from her reft, With her two crooked handes she signes did make, And beckned him, the last help she had left: But he that last left helpe away did take, And both her handes fast bound vnto unto a stake, That she note stirre. Then gan her sonne to flye Full fast away, and did her quite forsake; But Guyon after him in hast did hye, And soone him ouertooke overtooke in sad perplexitye. tonge] tonge 1590FE tongue 1590 1609 tong 1596

236 The The Second Booke of Cant.IIII. 19 In his strong armes he stifly him embraste, Who him gainstriuing gainstriving , nought at all preuaild prevaild : For all his power was vtterly utterly defaste, And furious fitts at earst quite weren quaild: Oft he re'nforst, and oft his forces fayld, Yet yield he would not, nor his rancor slack. Then him to ground he cast, and rudely hayld, And both his hands fast bound behind his backe, And both his feet in fetters to an yron rack. 20 With hundred yron chaines he did him bind , And hundred knots that did him sore constraine: Yet his great yron teeth he still did grind, And grimly gnash, threatning reuenge revenge in vaine: His burning eyen, whom bloody strakes did staine, Stared full wide, and threw forth sparkes of fyre, And more for ranck despight , then than for great paine, Shakt his long locks, colourd like copper-wyre, And bitt his tawny beard to shew his raging yre. 21 Thus whenas Guyon Furor had captiud captivd , Turning about he saw that wretched Squyre, Whom that mad man of life nigh late depriud deprivd , Lying on ground, all soild with blood and myre: Whom when as he perceiued perceived to respyre, He gan to comfort, and his woundes to dresse. Being at last recured, he gan inquyre, What hard mishap him brought to such distresse, And made that caytiues caytives thrall, the thrall of wretched- nesse. (nesse. wretchednesse. 22 With hart then throbbing, and with watry eyes, Fayre Sir (qd.he) what man can shun the hap, That hidden lyes vnwares unwares him to ſurpriſe? surprise? ſurprysſe Misfortune waites aduantage advantage to entrap

237 At the Faerie Queene. Cant.IIII. The man most wary in her whelming lap, So me weake wretch, of many weakest wretch one , Vnweeting Unweeting , and vnware unware of such mishap, She brought to mischiefe through her guilful trech occaſion , Where this same wicked villein did me wãdring wandring ketch light vpon . 23 It was a faithlesse Squire, that was the sourse Of all my sorrow, and of these sad teares, With whom from tender dug of commune nourse, Attonce I was vpbrought upbrought , and eft when yeares More rype vs us reason lent to chose our Peares, Our selues selves in league of vowed loue love wee knitt: In which we long time without gealous feares, Or faultie thoughts contynewd , as was fitt; And for my part I vow, dissembled not a whitt. 24 It was my fortune, commune to that age, To loue love a Lady fayre of great degree, The which was borne of noble parentage, And set in highest seat of dignitee, Yet seemd no lesse to loue love , then than loued loved to bee: Long I her seru'd serv'd , and found her faithfull still, Ne euer ever thing could cause vs us disagree: Loue Love that two harts makes one, makes eke one will: Each stroue strove to please, and others pleasure to fulfill. 25 My friend, hight Philemon, I did partake, Of all my loue love and all my priuitie privitie ; Who greatly ioyous joyous seemed for my sake, And gratious to that Lady, as to mee, Ne euer ever wight, that more so welcome bee, As he to her, withouten blott or blame, Ne euer ever thing, that she could thinke or see, But vnto unto him she would impart the same: O wretched man, that would abuse so gentle Dame. wretch] wretch 1590 one 1596 1609 her guilful trech ] her guilful trech 1590 occaſion 1596 1609

238 Who The Second Booke of Cant.IIII. 26 At last such grace I found, and meanes I wrought, That I that Lady to my spouse had wonne; Accord of friendes, consent of Parents sought, Affyaunce made, my happinesse begonne, There wanted nought but few rites to be donne, Which mariage make; that day too farre did seeme: Most ioyous joyous man, on whom the shining Sunne, Did shew his face, my selfe I did esteeme, And that my falser friend did no lesse ioyous joyous deeme. 27 But ere ear that wished day his beame disclosd, He either enuying envying my toward good, Or of him selfe to treason ill disposd One day vnto unto me came in friendly mood, And told for secret how he vnderstood understood That Lady whom I had to me assynd, Had both distaind her honorable blood, And eke the faith, which she to me did bynd; And therfore wisht me stay, till I more truth should fynd. 28 The gnawing anguish and sharp gelosy, Which his sad speach infixed in my brest, Ranckled so sore, and festred inwardly, That my engreeued engreeved mind could find no rest, Till that the truth thereof I did out wrest, And him besought by that same sacred band Betwixt vs us both, to counsell me the best. He then with solemne oath and plighted hand Assurd, ere long the truth to let me vnderstand understand . 29 Ere long with like againe he boorded mee, Saying, he now had boulted all the floure, And that it was a groome of base degree, Which of my loue love was partener partner Paramoure: ere] ere 1596 1609 ear 1590 partener ] partener 1590 partner 1596 1609

Q 239 Eft the Faery Queene. Cant.IIII. Who vsed used in a darkesome inner bowre Her oft to meete: which better to approue approve , He promised to bring me at that howre, When I should see, that would me nearer moue move , And driue drive me to withdraw my blind abused loue love . 30 This gracelesse man for furtherance of his guile, Did court the handmayd of my Lady deare, Who glad t'embosome his affection vile, Did all she might, more pleasing to appeare. One day to worke her to his will more neare, He woo'd her thus: Pryene (so she hight) What great despight doth fortune to thee beare, Thus lowly to abase thy beautie bright, That it should not deface all others lesser light? 31 But if she had her least helpe to thee lent, T'adorne thy forme according thy desart, Their blazing pride thou wouldest soone haue have blent, And staynd their prayses with thy least good part; Ne should faire Claribell with all her art, Though she thy Lady be, approch thee neare: For proofe thereof, this euening evening , as thou art, Aray thy selfe in her most gorgeous geare, That I may more delight in thy embracement deare. 32 The Maydẽ Mayden proud through praise, & and mad through loue love Him hearkned to, and soone her selfe arayd, The whiles to me the treachour did remoue remove His craftie engin, and as he had sayd, Me leading, in a secret corner layd, The sad spectatour of my Tragedie; Where left, he went, and his owne false part playd, Disguised like that groome of base degree, Whom he had feignd th'abuser of my loue love to bee.

240 That The Second Booke of Cant.IIII. 33 Eftsoones he came vnto unto th'appointed place, And with him brought Pryene, rich arayd, In Claribellaes clothes. Her proper face I not descerned in that darkesome shade, But weend it was my loue love , with whom he playd. Ah God, what horrour and tormenting griefe My hart, my handes, mine eyes, and all assayd: Me liefer were ten thousand deathes priefe, (priefe Then Than wounde of gealous worme, and shame of such repriefe. re- priefe. 34 I home retourning, fraught with fowle despight, And chawing vengeaunce all the way I went, Soone as my loathed loue love appeard in sight, With wrathfull hand I slew her innocent; That after soone I dearely did lament: For when the cause of that outrageous deede Demaunded, I made plaine and euident evident , Her faultie Handmayd, which that bale did breede, Confest, how Philemon her wrought to chaunge her (weede. weede. 35 Which when I heard, with horrible affright And hellish fury all enragd, I sought Vpon Upon my selfe that vengeable despight To punish: yet it better first I thought, To wreake my wrath on him, that first it wrought. To Philemon, false faytour Philemon I cast to pay, that I so dearely bought; Of deadly drugs I gaue gave him drinke anon, And washt away his guilt with guilty potion. 36 Thus heaping crime on crime, and griefe on griefe, To losse of loue love adioyning adjoyning losse of frend, I meant to purge both with a third mischiefe, And in my woes beginner it to end:

Q 2 241 >Wrath, the Faerie Queene. Cant.IIII. That was Pryene; she did first offend, She last should smart: with which cruell intent, When I at her my murdrous blade did bend, She fled away with ghastly dreriment, And I poursewing my fell purpose, after went. 37 Feare gaue gave her winges, and rage enforst my flight; Through woods and plaines so long I did her chace, Till this mad man, whom your victorious might Hath now fast bound, me met in middle space, As I her, so he me poursewd apace, And shortly ouertooke overtooke : I breathing yre, Sore chauffed at my stay in such a cace, And with my heat kindled his cruell fyre; Which kindled once, his mother did more rage inspyre. 38 Betwixt them both, they haue have me doen to dye, Through wounds, & and strokes, & and stubborne handeling, That death were better, then than such agony, As griefe and fury vnto unto me did bring; Of which in me yet stickes the mortall sting, That during life will neuer never be appeasd. When he thus ended had his sorrowing, Said Guyon, Squyre, sore haue have ye beene diseasd; But all your hurts may soone through tẽperance temperance be easd. 39 Then gan the Palmer thus, most wretched man, That to affections does the bridle lend; In their beginning they are weake and wan, But soone through suff'rance growe to fearefull end; Whiles they are weake betimes with them contend: For when they once to perfect strength do grow, Strong warres they make, and cruell battry bend Gainst fort of Reason, it to ouerthrow overthrow : (low. Wrath, gelosy, griefe, loue love this Squyre haue have laide thus low.

242 Burnt The Second Booke of Cant.IIII. 40 Wrath, gealosie, griefe, loue love do thus expell: Wrath is a fire, and gealosie a weede, Griefe is a flood, and loue love a monster fell; The fire of sparkes, the weede of little seede, The flood of drops, the Monster filth did breede: But sparks, seed, drops, and filth do thus delay; The sparks soone quench, the springing seed outweed The drops dry vp up , and filth wipe cleane away: So shall wrath, gealosy, griefe, loue love die and decay. 41 Vnlucky Unlucky Squire (saide Guyon) sith thou hast Falne into vnto mischiefe through intemperaunce, Henceforth take heede of that thou now hast past, And guyde thy waies with warie gouernaunce governaunce , Least worse betide thee by some later chaunce. But read how art thou nam'd, and of what kin. Phaon Phedon I hight (quoth he) and do aduaunce advaunce Mine auncestry from famous Coradin , Who first to rayse our house to honour did begin. 42 Thus as he spake, lo far away they spyde A varlet ronning towardes hastily, Whose flying feet so fast their way applyde, That round about a cloud of dust did fly, Which mingled all with sweate, did dim his eye. He soone approched, panting, breathlesse, whot, And all so soyld, that none could him descry; His countenaunce was bold, and bashed not For Guyons lookes, but scornefull eyglaunce at him shot. 43 Behind his backe he bore a brasen shield, On which was drawen faire, in colours fit, A flaming fire in midst of bloody field, And round about the wreath this word was writ, into] into 1590 1609 vnto 1596 Phaon ] Phaon 1590 Phedon 1596 1609

Q 3 243 So the Faery Queene. Burnt I doe burne . Right well beseemed it, To be the shield of some redoubted knight; And in his hand two dartes exceeding flit, And deadly sharp he held, whose heads were dight In poyson and in blood, of malice and despight. 44 When he in presence came, to Guyon first He boldly spake, Sir knight, if knight thou bee, Abandon this forestalled place at erst, For feare of further harme, I counsell thee, Or bide the chaunce at thine owne ieopardee jeopardee . The knight at his great boldnesse wondered, And though he scornd his ydle vanitee, Yet mildly him to purpose answered; For not to grow of nought he it coniectured conjectured . 45 Varlet, this place most dew to me I deeme, Yielded by him, that held it forcibly. (seeme But whence shold come that harme, which thou dost seeme To threat to him, that mindes his chaunce t'abye? Perdy (sayd he) here comes, and is hard by A knight of wondrous powre, and great assay, That neuer never yet encountred enemy, But did him deadly daunt, or fowle dismay; Ne thou for better hope, if thou his presence stay. 46 How hight he then (sayd Guyon) and from whence? Pyrochles Pyrrhochles Pyrrhochles is his name, renowmed farre For his bold feates and hardy confidence, Full oft approud approvd in many a cruell warre, The brother of Cymochles , both which arre The sonnes of old Acrates and Despight, Acrates sonne of Phlegeton and Iarre Jarre ; But Phlegeton is sonne of Herebus and Night; But Herebus sonne of Aeternitie is hight. Pyrochles ] Pyrochles 1590FE Pyrrhochles 1590 Pyrrhochles 1596 1609

244 With The Second Booke of Cant.IIII. 47 So from immortall race he does proceede, That mortall hands may not withstand his might, Drad for his derring doe, and bloody deed; For all in blood and aud spoile is his delight. His am I Atin , his in wrong and right, That matter make for him to worke vpon upon , And stirre him vp up to strife and cruell fight. Fly therefore, fly this fearfull stead anon, Least thy foolhardize worke thy sad confusion. 48 His be that care, whom most it doth concerne. (Sayd he) but whether with such hasty flight Art thou now bownd? for well mote I discerne Great cause, that carries thee so swifte and light. My Lord (qd. he) me sent, and streight behight To seeke Occasion, Occasion; where so she bee: For he is all disposd to bloody fight, And breathes out wrath and hainous crueltee; Hard is his hap, that first fals in his ieopardee jeopardee . 49 Mad man (said then the Palmer) that does seeke Occasion to wrath, and cause of strife; Shee comes vnsought unsought , and shonned followes eke. Happy, who can abstaine, when Rancor rife Kindles Reuenge Revenge , and threats his rusty knife; Woe neuer never wants, where euery every cause is caught, And rash Occasion makes vnquiet unquiet life. Then loe, wher bound she sits, whõ whom thou hast sought, Said Guyon, let that message to thy Lord be brought. 50 That when the varlett heard and saw, streight way He wexed wondrous wroth, and said, Vile knight, That knights & and knighthood doest with shame vp-bray upbray , And shewst th'ensãple th'ensample of thy childishe might, and] and 1596 1609 aud 1590Occasion,] Occasion, 1609 Occasion; 1590 1596

Q 4 245 After the Faery Queene: Cant.V. With silly weake old woman that did thus to fight. Great glory and gay spoile sure hast thou gott, And stoutly prou'd prov'd thy puissaunce here in sight; That shall Pyrrhochles well requite, I wott, And with thy blood abolish so reprochfull blott. 51 With that one of his thrillant darts he threw, Headed with yre and vengeable despight; The quiuering quivering steele his aymed end wel knew, And to his brest it selfe intended right: But he was wary, and ere it empight In the meant marke, aduaunst advaunst his shield atweene, On which it seizing, no way enter might, But backe rebownding, left the forckhead keene; Estsoones he fled away, and might no where be seene. that did] that did 1590 thus to 1596 1609

II proem antique ancient antique Also ‘antic’, meaning ludicrous or grotesque. Cf. Donne, Elegy 9, ‘The Autumnal’: ‘Name not these living death-heads unto me, / For these, not ancient, but antique be’ (43-4). This wordplay introduces an ambiguity that runs throughout the proem, which pretends to worry about whether Spenser’s fiction possesses the dignity and authority of antiquity or is merely a gothic extravagance. history narrative history In early modern usage, either factual (the modern sense) or a purely imaginary (a common synonym for ‘story’). Of some by some no body Ancticipating the contrast between faith in that which is unseen and knowledge that is available to the senses (the body), elaborated in st. 3 and 4. better sense As opposed to those through which a 'body can know'; see 4.4n. advize consider red A favorite word of Spenser’s both for its convenience in rhyming and for its lexical range. Here primarily a synonym for its rhyming partner ‘discovered’, it also suggests the activities of conjecture, interpretation, declaration, and, of course, construal of a text. Its range is suggested by the way Spenser punningly enfolds the verb into its rhyming partners 'discover-red' and 'measur-red'. late age recent ages, as opposed to antiquity Indian Peru Early explorers had believed that Peru was India. By 1590 the difference was well understood. The passage thus suggests, through the rhyming play on ‘red’ and ‘discovered’ (with its accented last syllable), that Peru was initially both discover-read and misread. Amazons huge river Francisco de Orellana in 1541-42 was the first European to sail the Amazon. fruitfullest Virginia Named after Elizabeth in 1584. The epithet combines colonial motives, asserting the economic value of newly discovered lands, with a Protestant adaptation of the Virgin Mary’s paradoxical status as fecund virgin. 3.3-8 Spenser is here imitating Ariosto, OF 7.1 and Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, Prol. 12-15. Spenser fuses these more or less playful references with an echo of Hebrews 11: 1: ‘Now faith is the grounde of things, which are hoped for, and the evidence of things which are not sene’; the rest of chapter 11, an extended definition of faith, is evoked more broadly in the proem. Hamilton 2001 also notes a reminiscence of Giordano Bruno’s astronomical speculations in the 1584 treatise De l'Infinito Universo e Mondi (‘On the Infinite Universe and Worlds’). This fusion of literary, religious, and scientific allusions creates an ambiguous, distinctively Spenserian tonal irony. misweene misconceive, suppose incorrectly happily by chance or good fortune certein signes Cf. John 4: 48: ‘Then said Jesus unto Him, Except ye se signes and wonders, ye wil not beleve’. Extends the resonance of the allusion to Hebrews in st. 3 above. here sett May refer to the positioning of words in a piece of writing or to the setting of type on the page. sondrie place Playing the geographical sense of ‘place’ against its use as the designation for a passage in a text, familiar from the glosses to the Geneva Bible. ‘Place’ in this sense is a vernacular equivalent for the more learned expression loci communes. sence Powers of interpretation (cf. 2.1, 'with better sense, and 3.4, ‘witless man’), but playing also on the five senses, or ‘wits’ and the ‘common sense’ that synthesizes them (thus Thomas Wilson 1553 says that ‘The common sense...is therefore so called, because it geveth judgement, of al the five outwarde senses’ [112]). These ‘outward’ or bodily senses were contrasted with the ‘inward sense’, i.e. faculties of mind or spirit. This ambiguity concentrates into a single word the playful pretense that Faeryland is a geographical location like Peru, able to be discovered by the outward senses, rather than a textual ‘place’ (4.2n) accessible only to the intellect. n'ote might not n'ote pseudo-Chaucerian contraction for ‘ne mote’, might not. (See glossary entry.) fine footing Elusive tracks or artful metrics—an ambiguity parallel to those of ‘red’, ‘place’, and ‘sence’. The line may thus be paraphrased ‘That can’t track fancy (poetic) footwork without a bloodhound’. In 1596 Spenser will repeat the pun on ‘footing’, referring to Faeryland as ‘these strange waies, where never foote did use, / Ne none can find, but who was taught them by the Muse’ (VI.pr.2.7-9). fayrest Spenser more than once links ‘faery’ (4.1, 8) to ‘fayre’ (4.7) and ‘fayrest’ as if it expressed the comparative degree of a beauty whose superlative is embodied in the queen (cf. 1.pr.2.5). This ambiguity cuts against the wordplay elsewhere in the proem that tends to disembody Faeryland, and thus implies that it can be ‘red’ in both senses (intellectually as well as corporeally; see 4.4n) only in Elizabeth. this fayre mirrhour A favorite metaphor of Spenser’s, elaborated in all but one of the proems and in many other texts; for examples, see Am 7 and 45, HL 196, and HB 181, 224. Here its seeming simplicity is complicated by the association between ‘fayre’ and ‘Faery’, by the implication that Elizabeth is the mirror in which Faeryland may be ‘red’, and by the assertion in the immediately following lines that Faeryland reflects the past as well as the present. 4.7-9 According to early modern constitutional theory, the monarch possesses two ‘bodies’: the personal body of the mortal individual and the undying ‘body politic’, through which the monarch personifies the realm. These lines evoke the body personal in Elizabeth’s ‘face’ and the body politic in her ‘realmes’, concluding with her lineage, which traces the genealogy of each. covert vele Echoes biblical accounts of Moses veiling his face to temper the ‘glory’ or radiance that shone from it after he spoke with God (Exod. 34: 30). At 2 Cor. 3: 13 St. Paul reinterprets the passage allegorically, suggesting that what Moses hid was not the radiance but its fading. If there is also a glance at the legal term femme covert (the legal status, or rather non-status, of a married woman), it would carry strong irony, given the queen’s unmarried state. Both vele and shadowes echo standard Renaissance discussions of fiction in general and of allegory in particular. shadowes light Shadows that are rivial or facetious (continuing the pretense from st. 1 that fiction is somehow disreputable), in contrast to the rhyming use (at 5.5) as illumination. But the paradox of ‘shadowes light’ reintroduces the sense of illumination as a secondary reference, and it thus plays against the superficial sense of ‘light’ as trivial. rule The term has a range of meanings here, among them the fundamental principle of temperance, the body of writings that make up its lore, the standard by which it is measured, and its reign or governance. goodly doth appeare Cf. ‘to some appeare’ (3.9). This verbal echo belongs to the pattern of contrasts running throughout the language of the proem, suggesting that Temperance will ‘appear’ to the inward rather than the outward senses. This suggestion is reinforced by the rhyming partner ‘heare’(5.8), since hearing Guyon’s adventures is an activity of the common sense whereas the rule of Temperance can appear only to the intellect (see 4.4n). II.iv Furor madness fueled by anger Furor Aquinas writes that ‘the first reaction of anger is called wrath; enduring anger is called ill-will; when it seeks an opportunity for revenge it is [furor] . . . the Greek word thymosis [θύμωσις] which in Latin becomes furor, may imply both quickness to anger and a firm intention to obtain revenge’ (Summa I, qu. 21, art. 108-11, translation modified). occasion See OED for the personification of Occasion in 15th- to 17th-c usage, typically as a figure representing opportunity—a commonplace that dates back to late antiquity in the Roman poets Ausonius and Phaedrus, appears in the Greek Anthology, and is illustrated in contemporary emblem books such as Whitney (1586, no. 181, In Occasionem). Given the extended allegory of baptism, sin, and the law in canto i, with its texture of allusions to Romans 5-7, the mention of ‘occasion’ here will also recall Paul’s celebrated definition of the law as the ‘occasion’ of sin (Rom 7:8); the provocative inversion of causality on which Paul insists (the law creates sin) foreshadows the repeated compounding of cause and consequence in this episode. Phaon (Phedon 1596) Phaon is the young man addressed by Sappho in Ovid’s Heroides 15. Phedon is mentioned by Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 2.18) and by Ficino (In convivium 6.16) as a handsome young man rescued by Socrates from sexual slavery. vulgar . . . seed the common people pretence purpose or intention borne carried, born native influence birth rather than training native influence ‘Seed’ and ‘blood’ stress ancestry, but ‘influence’ also suggests the effect of the stars at nativity. skill to ride Etymologically, chivalry, originally a synonym for ‘cavalry’, but in extended use a term for both the military skills and the ethos of gallantry specific to armed knights in the late Middle Ages. faine ‘pretend’ (feign), with a play on ‘wish’ (fain) menage handle menage As a noun, ‘menage’ names the ability both to ride horses and to train them. 2.2 The repetition of ‘menage’ emphasizes the allegorical connection, reinforced by the ambiguity of the pronoun ‘his’, between the knight’s horse and the knight’s passionate nature. Cf. the tensions in the opening procession of Book I, where Una rides slowly on a donkey while Redcrosse both spurs his steed and reins it in, or in the first canto of Book II, where Guyon rushes ahead leaving the Palmer behind. Such passages reflect the tradition descending from Plato’s Phaedrus in which the passions are represented as a horse resistant to the bit (cf. 34.1-2, ‘most wretched man / That to affections does the bridle lend’). Here the passion in question is pride, humbled by the need to go on foot; in canto i, it was anger leading to haste. yeed go yeed In ME, ‘yeed’ is the past tense of ‘go’; the infinitive ‘to yeed’ appears only in pseudo-archaic usage by 16th-c poets. slide go astray 2.6-9 Cf. the Palmer’s moralization of the polarity of strength and weakness at i.57.7-9; both passages reflect Aristotle’s concept of virtue as a mean between the excess and deficiency of a given quality (Nic Eth 2.6-9). 3.2,5 See 10.2-5n. Spenser’s equivocations echo the simile describing Aeneas’s glimpse of Dido in the underworld: qualem primo qui surgere mense / aut vidut aut videsse putat per nubila lunam (‘even as, in the early month, one sees or fancies he has seen the moon rise amid the clouds’; Aen 6.454). Milton echoes this echo in a conspicuously Spenserian moment at the close of PL 1, when ‘Some belated peasant sees / Or dreams he sees’ a fairy dance by moonlight (781-88). agree conciliate in hast it to agree For Guyon’s tendency to respond ‘in haste’, see i.13.1-2, i.39.2, ii.25.1, and especially ii.21.6-7. 3.5-7 In ‘Slander, A Warning’ (an essay widely known in the Renaissance), Lucian describes a painting by Apelles that shows Slander ‘haling a youth by the hair’ (Works 4.2). He explains that Apelles—falsely accused of conspiracy and nearly executed—transformed his experience into an allegorical painting. For a full account of the Renaissance literary and pictorial tradition to which Lucian’s brief essay gave rise, see Cast 1981. st. 4-5 Spenser’s allegorical portrait of the ‘wicked Hag’—not named until the Palmer identifies her as Occasion at 10.9—draws upon literary and iconographic traditions for several related figures, including Occasion, Penitence, Fortune, Envy, Discord, and Punishment. Within these traditions, the attributes, appearances, and accoutrements of such figures continually alter as the concepts they embody are redefined. Kiefer (1979), for example, describes the gradual conflation of Fortune with Occasion in the literature, emblems, paintings, and imprese of the Italian Renaissance, as the medieval view of an arbitrary force imposed upon largely passive victims yields to a rival conception of Fortune as a variable set of conditions to be met and mastered by the resourceful human agent. Occasion is regularly depicted in emblems as a naked young woman with winged heels, not a lame hag clothed in rags. The lameness of Spenser’s hag in 4.3 may echo a verse from Horace used by Van Veen in Horatii Flacci Emblamata (Plate 27a): raro antecedentem scelestum / deseruit pede Poena claudo (‘Punishment with her lame foot rarely forsakes the fleeing criminal’; Odes III.ii.31-32); it may also echo Homer, who says that the sharp-tongued detractor Thersites was ‘bandy-legged and lame in one foot’ (Il 2.217). See Var 2.225-27 and Manning and Fowler (1976). Beyond these echoes, Spenser recombines elements from at least three sources, Lucian, Ausonius, and Boiardo. From Lucian he takes the image of the young man dragged by the hair—transferring it from Calumny, a beautiful woman, to his ‘mad man’. (The theme of calumny will resurface when this young man’s story is revealed). Unlike Calumny, Spenser’s ‘wicked Hag’ comes stalking after the young man dragged by his hair, in the place of Lucian’s Penitence. As a provocateur in this oddly trailing position, she reflects a persistent motif in canto iv wherein temporal sequences are reversed. In Ausonius, Epigram 33, Occasio and Metanoea (Regret) appear together as a before-and-after pair. Boiardo offers a similar conception: Orlando, failing to grasp the forelock of Fata Morgana, is set upon by a hag with a flail who identifies herself as ‘Penitenza’ (OI II.ix.1-20). The forelock is a familiar attribute of Occasion, as in the proverb ‘Seize occasion (opportunity, time) by the forelock’ (Smith 1970, no. 777) and in the emblem tradition illustrating it, e.g. Whitney’s In occasionem: ‘What meanes longe lockes before? that suche as meete / Maye houlde at firste, when they occasion finde. / The head behinde all balde, what telles it more? / That none shoulde houlde, that let me slippe before’ (lines 9-12; see arg.2n). Spenser joins the forelock of opportunity to the abusive speech of Calumny, the ‘vengeaunce’ visited upon her victims by Punishment, and the trailing position of Penitence. This conception mingles figures of consequence with those of cause, suggesting, for example, a connection between the youth dragged along by his hair in st. 3 (consequence) and the forelock (st. 4) by which ‘cause is caught’ (44.6). This compounding of before-and-after reflects the broad irony by which characters in the canto, having mistaken an allegorical figure for the causes of wrath (arg.2n) as the conventional emblem of an opportunity to be grasped, find themselves pursued by the uncontrolled fury they have sought (cf. 32.1n). 4.1-2 Cf. Lucian’s description of Penitence, as translated by Melanchthon: A tergo, lugubri habitu, pullata laceraque Poenitentia subsequitur (‘Following behind in mourning guise, black-robed and with torn hair, comes [I think he named her] Repentance’). Bull conjectures that Spenser read pullata as ‘filthy’ rather than ‘black’ (1997, n10). n'ote could not, a contraction of ‘ne mote’ walke ‘move briskly’ (unlike her feet) raught him ‘brought him’, from ME past tense of ‘reach’ in the sense of ‘give, pass’ (OED) impetuous rash impetuous See ii.21.5-9n for Guyon’s previous effort to pacify with force. mighty hands Cf. Medina’s contrast between ‘mighty hands’ and ‘rightful cause’ at ii.29.8-9. 6.8 The madman’s lack of governance (7.2) is anticipated here in the disarticulated flailing of his hand-to-hand combat, which resembles a tantrum. wist knew avengement Trisyllabic. mickle much governaunce See i.29.9n for the link to Guyon’s rash anger in the opening episode of Book II. wyde Echoing the efforts of passion ‘from the right way . . . to draw him [Guyon] wide’ (2.7). blent blinded reason blent through passion Cf. I.ii.5.7, ‘The eie of reason was with rage yblent’. at random Randomly; from OF randir to run fast, hence also impetuously (cf. 6.3). menaging / Of armes skilled handling of weapons menaging / Of armes Cf. 1.9, 2.2; Guyon’s skill is contrasted to the madman’s lack of governance (7.2). nathemoe not at all more enfierced provoked to greater fierceness 8.8-9 The first of several suggestions that in wrestling with the figure of rage Guyon wrestles himself. villein . . . clownish peasant . . . rustic villein . . . clownish Cf. the emphasis on social class in st. 1, and note the contrast between ‘clownish fistes’ and ‘manly face’. in the place right then and there in the place For the figurative treatment of space in this episode, see 32.4n. emboyling boiling, agitated unbrace loosen 10.2-5 Echoing the equivocations at 3.2 and 3.5, the Palmer tells Guyon that he only ‘seems to see’ Furor. Having personified both Furor and Occasion as embodied agents whose features, actions, and accoutrements call for interpretation, the allegory now insists they are not really embodied agents after all. Spenser’s allusion to the ‘Calumny of Apelles’ topos, with its emphasis on the artistic processes of embodiment and depiction (see 3.5-7n), anticipates this self-conscious undoing of personification. The Palmer’s decoding sheds light as well on the motif of inverted cause and consequence (st. 4-5n), which complements the transposition of self and other whereby Guyon misreads his own affective state as an embodied adversary (8.8-9n). 10.6-9 Here as often, names are disclosed not when a character first appears, but in a climactic moment, to signal that the character’s nature has been revealed. In this instance, the moment of naming confirms an interpretation in which personification as such is revealed to be a symptom of rage. 10.9 The Palmer seems less concerned that Guyon repress anger’s consequences than that he discern its causes. To disentangle self from other in dealing with rage is also to clarify the relation of causes to consequences. St.11 Cf. 2 Cor 11:12: ‘that I may cut away occasion, from them which desire occasion’. The Palmer’s advice that anger needs to be prevented (L pre + venire, to come before) arrives belatedly, much as Occasion, with whom he says Guyon ‘Must first begin’, trails after the fury she provokes, introduced with the words ‘And him behynd’ (4.1). On the episode’s play with hysteron proteron, see the notes to 10.2-5 and st. 4-5. amenage domesticate amenage From ménage as household, but cf. 1.9, 2.2, and 8.3-4. The emergence of this term as a motif underlines the allegory of horsemanship as anger-management. corage wrath eath easy ydle unoccupied wood mad 11.9 Blocking a river without stopping its source will cause it to flood. Cf. Smith (1970, no. 731), ‘The stream (current, tide) stopped swells the higher’, and Prov 17:14, ‘The beginning of strife is as one that openeth the waters; therefore or [ere] the contention be medled with, leave off’. The Palmer’s advice points to the consequences (flooding) of not attending to causes (stopping the source). emprise undertaking hent seized 12.2-3 Belatedly realizing the proverb ‘to seize occasion by the forelock’ (Manning and Fowler 1976: 264). n'ould she stent she would not cease n’ould she stent n’ould’ is a contraction of ‘ne would’, ‘stent’ a form of ‘stint’. he Guyon an yron lock Evoking the branks, or scold’s bridle, ‘a kind of iron framework to enclose the head, having a sharp metal gag or bit which entered the mouth and restrained the tongue’ (OED). the last help Both Furor and (as lines 4-5 retroactively suggest) the hands she uses to summon him. note could not defaste undone defaste The sense ‘destroy, demolish’ reflects the Latin roots of the word (de + facere, to make, to do). Given the canto’s emphasis on allegorical personification, the sense ‘mar the face, disfigure’, with its proximate etymology in Fr deffacer (de + face, face), suggests that Furor’s defeat is accomplished by undoing the personfication that had given a face and body to an affective state. at earst promptly quaild daunted re’nforced reinforced hundred yron chaines . . . And hundred knots See Jupiter’s prophecy of the Augustan pax in Virgil: Furor impius intus / saeva sedens super arma et centum vinctus aënis / post tergum nodis fremet horridus ore cruento (‘within, impious Rage, sitting on savage arms, his hands fast bound behind with a hundred brazen knots, shall roar in the ghastliness of blood-stained lips’; Aen 1.294-96). strakes streaks 15.5-6 Wrath’s eyes similarly give off sparks of fire in the House of Pride (I.iv.33.5-6). 15.5-9 The red of Furor’s eyes, the copper of his hair, and the yellow- or orange-brown of his beard are all conventional signs of an irascible temperament. Humoral theory ascribed this temperament to an excess of choler, called ‘yellow bile’ and often associated with the color red. rank extreme Guyon Furor had captivd On the episode’s deliberate confounding of self and other, see notes to 8.8-9 and 10.2-5. The question whether Guyon will ‘captive’ Furor or be ‘captivd’ by him has been the crux of the passage; here, the juxtaposition of names underlines the reversibility of the syntax even as context resolves the question. lying on ground, all soild with blood and mire The posture of this ‘wretched Squire’ echoes that of the prostrate Mortdant in canto i: cf. ‘the soiled gras’ upon which ‘the dead corse of an armed knight was spred, / Whose armour all with blood besprincled was’ (41.1-3). respyre Literally, to breathe; figuratively, ‘To breathe again, after distress, trouble, etc.; to recover hope, courage, or strength’ (OED). recured Combining the senses of ‘cured’ and ‘recovered’. caytives Wretch’s, villain’s, but the more specific sense ‘captive’s’, followed by the doubling of ‘thrall’, emphasizes the circularity of Furor as a form of self-captivity or self-defeat. St. 17-35 The following inset narrative derives from Ariosto (OF 4.42-6.61) and reappears in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (see Evans 2010 on the relations among the three texts). Spenser’s is the only version related in the first person. Tales of friendship destroyed by love (or love destroyed by false friendship) have a distinguished history that includes Chaucer’s ‘Knight’s Tale’ and Shakespeare’s Othello. The story recalls Archimago’s use of a fabricated tale and a disguised female to provoke Guyon at II.i.9-30, and his earlier use of disguised sprights to enrage Redcrosse at I.ii.3-6. 17.2-5 These lines introduce a self-exculpating motive that reappears throughout the squire’s tale. whelming engulfing whelming In earlier usage, the mention of Fortune refers to the downward turn of her wheel; the sense of submerging under water also recalls Fortune’s association with the sea in the emblem books. Using the term to describe her ‘lap’ may recall the Palmer’s complaint to Gloriana that the ‘wicked Fay’ Acrasia had ‘many whelmd in deadly paine’ (ii.43.3-4), especially as it anticipates the reiterated association of the Bower of Bliss with various female laps (v.36.3, vi.14.6-7, vi.15.4-5, xii.76.9). Fortuna and Occasion were sometimes described as beautiful (or depicted as nude) to emphasize their potentially deceptive allure. weake wretch Either one who is helpless and miserable or one who is morally feeble and hence contemptible. mischiefe misfortune trech trick trech Not in OED; probably formed from ME ‘treche’, to deceive or betray. The c-rhymes in this stanza are revised or corrected in 1596, replacing ‘her guileful trech’ with ‘through occasion’ to rhyme with ‘weakest one’ and ‘light upon’. 18.3 The shared breast of their nurse identifies the two as foster-brothers. Attonce together It was my fortune Echoes both the opening of st. 18, ‘It was a faithless Squire’, and the emphasis on fortune and ‘hap’ in st. 17. The squire, who characterizes ‘Misfortune’ in terms of female sexual allure (17.5n) even though he knows his male friend to be the source of the ‘guilful trech’ (17.8) that brought him to mischief, fails even now to distinguish his fortune from his misfortune. partake inform Philemon From Gr φιλήμων philema (‘affectionate’). A common Greek proper name, it became the title of ‘The Epistle of Paul to Philemon’ and hence a Christian name of some currency in 16th-c England. privitie personal business, intimacy, or secrets grace favor grace Cf. ‘gratious’ (20.4), meaning courteous or benevolent, with a secondary sense of charming or pleasing. Affyaunce betrothal mariage make Cf. Epith 216-17: ‘sacred ceremonies . . . / The which do endlesse matrimony make’. falser very false toward approaching toward The related sense ‘favorable or propitious’ is also relevant. assynd allotted distaind her honorable blood stained her family’s honor stay pause stay Phaon’s diction in this stanza is marked by legalisms, including treason, assynd, bynd, and stay. sad Relevant senses include wise, discreet, sober, grave, mature, sorrowful, and distressing. infixed Used twice previously in the poem, both times to describe the action of stinging, first by Errour’s brood (I.i.23.6) and then by the Dragon in Eden (I.xi.11.8). Cf. ‘out wrest’ (23.5) and ‘mortall sting’ (33.5). engreeved ‘filled with grief’ engreeved Given the legal coloring of Phaon’s diction in this passage, the sense ‘made into a grievance, taken as a ground of accusation’ may be relevant (OED). sacred band Cf. 18.6. Phaon’s language reflects a set of attitudes and social practices characteristic of early modern friendship in one of its specific forms: a learned tradition, with classical and medieval roots, in which the formal exchange of vows solemnizes a degree of intimacy, intensity of affect, and sense of mutual obligation that modern custom more often reserves to the marriage relation or domestic partnership. boorded approached boulted sifted boulted The proverb means that Philemon has found out the truth. Spenser may be echoing Chaucer, CT Nun’s Priest 7.3240: ‘But I ne kan nat bulte it to the bren’. groome of base degree A groom is a serving-man or other male of inferior position. Phaon and Philemon have both been identified as squires (16.2, 18.1), a rank just below knighthood. The distance between Phaon’s rank and that of the groom is real, then, but may be less than the distance between himself and his lady of ‘great degree’. His phrasing recalls the ME romance ‘The Squire of Low Degree’, which similarly turns on a deception that keeps the squire apart from his beloved, the king’s daughter. partener Paramoure partner by way of sexual desire partener Paramoure The adverbial sense of ‘Paramoure’ reflects its derivation from OF par amour, by or through love. Spenser here plays the sexual sense against the polite usage in which it meant ‘for the sake of love’ or ‘if you please’. Partener glances at its synonym ‘parcener’, familiar in such standard legal phrases as ‘parcener per le cours de commune ley’ and ‘parcener per le custome’ (partner in the course of common law, partner by custom). Spenser’s mock-legalese implies that the ‘groome of base degree’ is a ‘parcener per amour’, that is, a joint tenant in Claribell by virtue of an adulterous liaison. that that which nearer move more closely affect gracelesse Unregenerate, lacking decency; cf. 21.1, 20.4, and 25.4, ‘more pleasing to appeare’. embosome cherish; conceal Pryene From L prae, before, + iens, going. Gr πῦρ pyr (‘fire’) is also suggested by the reference to ‘blazing pride’ at 26.3. Note the alliterative link to ‘proud through praise’ at 27.1. 25.7-9 Cf. 17.4-8, 19.1 for the recurrent emphasis on fortune. deface outshine deface Immediate context suggests the sense ‘outshine by contrast’, but the word and its etymology also link Phaon’s tale to the preceding episode’s concern with the poetics of ‘impersonation’ (see 14.3n). blent blinded blent Cf. 7.7. She blinds ‘their blazing pride’ by outshining it. In ME the verb can also mean to conceal or put out of sight. Claribell From L clara, famous or bright, and bella, beauty. as thou art The rhyming pair (‘all her art’) pointedly contrasts the being ascribed to Pryene with the artifice attributed to Claribell—ironically, since Pryene will soon be dressed in Claribell’s identity. 26.8 Pryene’s impersonation of Claribell, mingling social advancement with pride in ‘gorgeous geare’, recalls the themes of Braggadocchio’s knightly imposture in the previous canto (see esp. iii.5) as well as the emphasis throughout this canto on the trope of allegorical personification. treachour traitor; deceiver treachour At 17.8 Phaon ascribed the ‘guilful trech’ to Fortune; here he more properly ascribes it to Philemon, but the accusation still serves to shift his own guilt onto another. did remove Hamilton suggests ‘moved again’ (2001), although OED does not record such a usage. Alternatively, Phaon may be saying that Philemon ‘transferred’ the deception to him; ‘Me leading’ suggests that Phaon is as much self-deceived as betrayed by another. engin plot, scheme 27.6 Phaon does not recognize himself as the subject of ‘his’ tragedy. proper own weend supposed assayd afflicted assayd According to OED influenced by ‘assail’. 28.8-9 ‘I would rather suffer death ten thousand times than the pain of jealousy and the shame of disgrace’. deathes Disyllabic. priefe Proof, test. The action of passing through (‘proving’) death is central to Book II, from the allegorical tableau of Mortdant and Amavia in canto i to Guyon’s swoon in canto viii and Arthur's confrontation with Maleger in canto xi. gealous worme serpent of jealousy repriefe disgrace chawing chewing, ruminating 29.6-7 ‘For when, asked the cause of my outrageous deed, I laid out [my justification] for all to see . . .’. 30.1-5 The movement from ‘my selfe’ to ‘him’, reinforced by the repetition of ‘first’, shows Phaon displacing the cause of his ‘hellish fury’ to a source outside himself, in keeping with the self-exculpatory motives of his tale. In replacing himself with another as the source of his rage, Phaon enacts the reversal central to the allegory in this canto (see 10.2-5n). vengeable despight cruel injury vengeable despight Suggesting an outrage that calls for vengeance (cf. 29.2). faytour impostor washt away his guilt Sardonic reference to absolution. In a Book marked by failed absolutions (Ruddymane in canto ii, Pilate in canto vii), Phaon’s poison is the one instance of efficacious ‘washing’. 31.4-5 Playing on the Latin etymology of the name (see 25.6n). first . . . last In a canto filled with reversals of sequence (see 4-5n and 10.2-5n), Pryene’s move from first to last in Phaon’s program of vengeance suggests that he imagines himself to be working back from consequences to causes (see 30.1-5n). That his confidence is deluded may be suggested by the phrase ‘poursewing my fell purpose’, which implies that he is chasing his own anger. ghastly dreriment ‘Dreriment’ is coined by Spenser from ‘dreary’, by analogy to merry/merriment; synonyms are ‘drerihed’ and ‘dreriness’. ‘Dreriment’ appears 12 times in FQ, and is ‘ghastly’ a third of the time. enforst compelled; reinforced 32.1 The rage that ‘enforst’ Phaon’s flight takes embodied form as the ‘mad man’ who pursues him. This emergence of the allegorical personification out of passionate delusion reverses, and retroactively explains, the Palmer’s earlier undoing of the personification allegory (see notes to 10.2-5 and 10.9). Till Spenser often uses temporal succession to imply causality. in middle space Allegorically the place where extremes are moderated (see ii.20.3); also the rhetorical space in which the relations of first/last, cause/effect, and self/other are subject to chiasmus, or reversal. 32.5 The pattern of self/other reversal is mirrored in the chiasmus of the pronoun sequence ‘I her . . . he me’. sore chauffed severely chafed; raged 32.8 The metaphor acknowledges that Furor’s power arises from Phaon’s ‘heat’. me doen to dye they have almost killed me stubborne handeling ruthless treatment mortall deadly mortall Also, characteristic of mortal existence; capable of depriving the soul of grace (as in ‘mortal sin’). diseasd Afflicted with illness, but the rhyme-partner ‘easd’ calls attention to the broader meaning implicit in the etymology: deprived of comfort, tormented. St. 34 For the polarity of strength and weakness as central to temperance, cf. i.57.7-8, ‘The strong it weakens with infirmitie, / And with bold fury armes the weakest hart’, and ii.31.3, ‘Weake she makes strong, and strong thing does increace’. affections passions the bridle lend See 2.2n. betimes speedily; before it is too late perfect mature or complete perfect From L perfectus, fully grown 34.7-8 Cf. xi.1.1-4 and the attacks on Alma’s castle in cantos ix and xi. St. 35 Abraham Fraunce quotes these lines in full in Arcadian Rhetoric (1588, E3r) as an example of polyptoton, ‘the repetition of a word in different cases or inflections within the same sentence’ (OED). The four passions on which the elaborate patterning of the syntax is based correspond to the four humors: wrath to choler, jealousy to phlegm, grief to black bile, and love to blood. do thus expell This and the verb phrases in lines 6-8 are to be construed as imperatives; cf. Col. 3:8: ‘But now put ye away even all these things, wrath, angre, maliciousnes’. filth lust; sins of the flesh 35.4-5 ‘The fire bred from sparks, the weed bred from a little seed, the flood bred from drops, and filth bred the Monster’. The lines employ a version of zeugma known as syllepsis: three intransitive clauses are paralleled with a fourth transitive clause, all linked by zeugma to the verb ‘breede’. The effect, in an episode concerned with reversals of sequence, is unsettling. delay allay; dilute or temper outweed weed out mischiefe Cf. the squire’s self-exculpating accusation against ‘Misfortune’ at 17.8, and ‘Unlucky’ in line 1. governaunce Cf. Guyon’s ‘goodly governaunce’ (i.29.8n) and Furor’s manifest lack of it (7.2). 36.4-5 Cf. John 5:14, ‘Sinne no more, least a worse thing come unto thee’. read tell advaunce bring forth; raise up Phaon Ovid's Sappho, yearning for Phaon, laments Uror, ut indomitis ignem exertibus Euris / fertilis accensis messibus ardet ager (‘I burn—as burns the fruitful acre when its harvests are ablaze, with untamed east-winds driving on the flame’; Heroides 15.9-10). advaunce With tendentious senses implied: extol, promote, elevate, put forward as a claim. Cf. ‘rayse . . . to honour’ in line 9. Coradin Gray suggests L cor, heart, + Atin (2006); cf. 42.5. 37.1 As at 32.3, succession implies causality. varlet male servant varlet May be used as a synonym for either ‘groom’ or ‘squire’. soyld Cf. Phaon ‘Lying on ground, all soild with blood and myre’ (16.4). bashed not / For ‘was unabashed by’ Guyons lookes Guyon’s glances eyglaunce at him shot Punning on ‘glance’ as a blow or impact, as in Hakluyt: ‘they saile away, being not once touched with the glaunce of a shot’ (1589: 1.153). field . . . wreath Heraldic terms referring to the surface of the shield and to the ornamental border in which the motto is inscribed. Burnt I doe burne See arg.2n. This riddling motto makes its first person pronoun at once the subject and the object of its doubled verb: ‘I burn (myself/another) because I am burnt’. It thus condenses the play with cause and consequence, self and other, that runs throughout the canto: ‘Having been burnt by another/myself, I burn myself/others as if in an act of retribution’. redoubted dreaded or respected dartes javelins or light spears flit swift dight prepared place Cf. the ‘middle space’ of 32.4. The varlet’s belated claim to have preempted this space of figuration extends the canto's exploration of the relation between preventative and precipitate action. 39.6-9 Instead of rising to the bait, Guyon lets go the ‘opportunity’ for rage presented by the varlet’s ‘great boldness’, checking his scorn in order to discover the cause; the internal rhyme ‘not to grow of nought’ emphasizes that Guyon has learned the Palmer’s lesson: ‘who so will raging Furor tame / Must first begin’ with ‘Occasion, the roote of all wrath’ (10.9-11.2). to him, that mindes his chaunce t’abye to him who intends to take his chances’, responding to the challenge at 39.5; ‘abye’ in this sense is influenced by ‘abide’. assay proven worth stay wait for Pyrochles Gr πῦρ pyr, fire + ὀχλέω ochleō, ‘to be swept away’. The correction in FE, reducing the consonant cluster of ‘Pyrrh-’ to ‘Pyr-’, may be calculated to reduce the possibility that a reader will construe the syllable as metrically promoted. In classical quantitative scansion, a syllable spelled ‘Pyrrh’ might be regarded as ‘long by position’ and therefore metrically prominent; the correction thus seems to confirm that the first syllable is not to be regarded as promoted by its orthography and that the first foot of the line therefore conforms to Spenser’s iambic. (For more on Spenser’s interest in the relation of quantitative meter to English verse practice, see the introduction to Letters). Cymochles Gr κῦμα kuma, wave + ὀχλέω ochleō, ‘to be swept away’. For both brothers’ names, meter suggests that the accent should fall on the second syllable. Acrates See II.i.51.2-4n on the etymology of Acrasia as ‘lack of self-control’. 41.7-9 Phlegeton is the river of fire in the classical underworld, crossed by Duessa and Sansjoy at I.v.33.3 on their way to visit Aesculapius. Jarre is discord; Herebus is Erebus, generally the region of the underworld. Hesiod, Theog 123-25, makes Erebus and Night the children of Chaos. In making Erebus the son of Aeternitie, Spenser may be adapting Boccaccio (Gen Deor 1.1), who derives Night from Herebus and Litigium (Jarre), who in turn derive from Demogorgon and Aeternitie. 41.8 The hypermetric line creates an unusual double alexandrine in this stanza. The isochronic tendencies of these lines build on the marked pattern of repetition begun in lines 6-7 to intensify the archaic theogonic turn given to the brothers’ genealogy. race ancestry Drad dreaded derring doe Bold action, courage, a usage derived from misunderstanding of the ME idiom, which meant ‘daring [to] do’; cf. SC Oct 65 gloss by E.K., ‘manhoode and chevalrie’. His am I i.e. his attendant Atin From Gr ἄτη atē, mischief or ruin, and OF atine, ‘incitement to battle’ (Heiatt 1975: 185); the line thus suggests that Atin is not only Pyrochles’ attendant but his occasion, riding ahead to start the cycle of fury anew. Ate, the Greek goddess of discord who provoked the Trojan War (II.vii.55.4-9) will appear as a character in Book IV. stead place stead Cf. 39.3n. confusion destruction behight commanded 44.1-7 The Palmer’s comment in these lines brings out the implicit irony of an allegorical figure who combines the iconography of strife with that of opportunity (Occasio; see st. 4-5n). Only from the point of view of Atin and his lord, Pyrochles, does strife appear as an opportunity to be ‘caught’ by the forelock. The rhyming pair ‘seeke’ and ‘followes eke’ (like the epithet ‘mad man’, repeated from 3.5) link Pyrochles’ reversal of sequence to the predicament initially faced by Guyon and then elaborated in Phaon’s tale (see notes to 30.1-5 and 31.5-6). rusty reddish-brown with dried blood cause is caught ‘occasion [for anger] is seized’. In formulating the reversal of sequence by which Pyrochles, already inflamed, looks for a reason to be angry, this phrase condenses the canto’s sustained meditation on cause and effect with its reversals of pursuit. upbray reproach (cause to be blamed) silly defenseless 45.5-7 Echoing Dido’s bitter reproach to Aeneas: egregiam vero laudem et spolia ampla refertis / tuque puerque tuus; magnum et memorabile numen, / una dolo divum si femina victa duorum est (‘Splendid indeed is the praise and rich the spoils ye win, thou and thy boy [Ascanius]; mighty and glorious is the power divine, if one woman is subdued by the guile of two gods!’; Aen 4.93-95). thrillant piercing vengeable despight See 30.3n; here ‘despight’ suggests rather ‘contempt’ than ‘injury’. intended guided empight implanted itself 46.6-8 Cf. Eph 6.16, ‘Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye may quench all the fyrie dartes of the wicked’, and Whitney, Calumniam contra calumniatorem virtus repellit (‘virtue beats back slander against the slanderer’; 1586, no. 138b, trans. Green 1866).