1 wholly vowed to . . . Colins ill successe: By identifying Colin’s ‘complayning’ of Rosalind as the ‘whole Argument’ of the eclogue, E.K. neglects the terms of the dialogue between Colin and Hobbinol regarding the proper ‘place’ (1) of the poet in the world.
3 founde place in her heart: Only here does the Calender record Rosalind’s favoring of Colin.
5 Menalcas: See gl 82 and note.
1–16 Lo Collin . . . pate: Indebted to Virgil, Ecl 1.1-58 (see headnote).
1–8 Lo Collin . . . attemper right: The terms of Hobbinol’s description of the ‘pleasaunt syte’ evoke the conventional pastoral garden as locus poeticus, or ‘place’ of poetry--e.g., Virgil, Ecl 1.51-8 (Pugh 2016: 94-5): ‘nature is really a synonym for art’ (Berger 1988: 325; see 408). Hence, the wind is ‘warbling’, and the birds, a traditional symbol of the poet, temper their ‘tunes’ to the waterfall, just as Colin does at Apr 35-6 (see note). The word ‘dight’, a favorite of Spenser’s, can mean ‘adorn’ but also ‘compose’ (see Apr 29), while ‘attemper’ means ‘To attune, bring into harmony’ (OED). ‘Delyte’ is a key word in English Renaissance literary criticism for one of the Horatian goals of poetry; it recurs at 29, 35, 40, and 51 (see ‘pleasures’ at 32 and 36). Even the ‘Bramble bush’ is Colin’s tree (the rose briar, associated with Rosalind; see Dec 2); at Feb 123, Colin’s bird, the nightingale (see esp. Aug 183-6), sits in the briar.
2 wandring: Perhaps a hint of error (A. Fletcher 1971: 28).
5 So calme . . . fynde: Echoed by Herbert, 'Virtue' 1: ‘Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright’.
6 The grassye . . . dight: Cf. Ovid, Fasti 4.138: nunc alii flores, nunc nova danda rosa est (‘now give her other flowers, now give her the fresh-blown rose’).
7–8 where Byrds . . . right: Cf. Apr 36; imitated by Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals 1.3.377-90.
9–10 O happy Hobbinoll . . . Adam lost: Colin praises Hobbinol, but the lines evoke the blasphemy of a lowly shepherd finding what the father of mankind has lost.
10 That . . . lost: Cf. Gen 3:23.
11–12 Here wander . . . bene ytost: The details subtly underwrite the sense of blasphemy: the sheep ‘wander’ (see 2); they do not ‘dreade’ wolves; and Hobbinol may ‘boste’ of his own songs.
14–16 But I . . . pate: A double allusion, not only to Virgil, Ecl 1 but also to Aen 1.1-4, perhaps (rather playfully) evoking the pastoral shepherd with an epic destiny. Cf. Let 4.119-236, ‘Ad Omatissimum Virum,’ for a similar epic voyaging metaphor of authorial discontent.
16 shroude: Baffled or incurious, the compositors or editors of the early quartos allow the nonsense reading of 1579 to stand; we adopt the correction of 1611. Cf. June 54; Julye 3.
19–21 hilles . . . dales: This is the moral and ecclesiastical landscape that will appear in Julye, here accommodated to the path of the poet’s career. The woodcut suggests a movement along the Virgilian path from lowly pastoral to the height of epic; but it is unclear which figure makes the gesture (see headnote). E.K. associates the hills with the ‘Northparts’ [18], suggesting that Spenser presents Colin as ‘a northerner, an outsider attempting to gain entry to the south [the dales, representing the London court], but the key to that entry is his northern language’ (Blank 1992: 38-9).
20 winding witche: The wych elm has supple branches.
23 night Rauens: Proverbial for boding disaster. The raven also has vocational associations; see Dec 32.
24 owles: For Spenser, always a bird of ill-omen. Cf. Theatre Son 6.13; Dec 72; FQ I.ix.33.6; Time 130; Epith 345.
25–32 But frendly Faeries . . . in these places: As the references here to figures and places of poetry indicate, the lines form an elaborate trope for a pastoral of pleasure. E.K.’s gloss at 27 invites a symbolic interpretation of the fairies.
25–27 But frendly . . . traces: Cf. Horace, Odes 1.4.5-7: iam Cytherea choros ducit Venus imminente Luna, / iunctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes / alterno terram quatiunt pede (‘Now Cytherean Venus leads the dancers as the moon hangs overhead, and the lovely Graces, hand in hand with the Nymphs, beat the ground with one foot after the other’).
25 Graces: Cf. Apr 109 and note.
27 Heydeguyes: Drayton, Polyolbion, Song 5, arg.3-5: ‘And whilst the nimble Cambrian Rills, / Daunce Hy-day-gies amongst the Hills, / The Muse them to Carmarden brings’.
28 systers nyne: The nine Muses.
28 Parnasse: Mount Parnassus. Cf. Apr 41 and Julye 45-8.
30 Pan: Cf. Jan 17 and note, as well as Apr 51, Maye 54, and Dec 7.
38 stayed steps: Can mean either that Colin’s steps are ‘supported’ or ‘encumbered’, moving forward or impeded, thereby evoking ‘the shuffling feet of a man at a crossroads’, divided between ‘ambition and reminiscence’, ‘pastoral anonymity and epic fame’ (Bouchard 1993: 202). The apparent period after ‘[ſt]eps’ in 1579 may be a damaged or poorly-inked comma, the punctuation that we adopt. 1581 drops the punctuation; characteristically helpful, 1611 provides a colon.
43 Queene apples: An old variety of early apple, notable for both its size and redness; or perhaps the quince, associated with Venus: ‘Spenser follows tradition in frequently associating apples with temptation and love’ (SpE s.v. ‘apples’ 48). That the Queen apples are ‘unripe’ ‘suggests Colin’s impatience or the stage of his love’ (Brooks-Davies 1995: 105).
48 toyes: Games of love; also a disparaging term for poetry (cf. Teares 194 and 325). Cf. Cor 13:11: ‘when I became a man, I put away childish things’.
49–51 Colin, to heare . . . Sommer dayes: Cf. Virgil, Ecl 5.45-7: Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, / quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per aestum / dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo (‘Your lay, heavenly bard, is to me even as sleep on the grass to the weary, as in summer heat the slaking of thirst in a dancing rill of sweet water’); Marot, Complainct de Madame Loyse 17-20: Berger Thenot, Ie suis esmerueillè / De tes chansons, & plus fort ie m’y baigne / Qu’ à escouter le Linot esueillè / Ou l’eau qui bruit tombant d’une montaigne (‘Shepherd Thenot, I am in awe / Of your songs, and I immerse myself more deeply in them / Than in listening to the waking Linnet, / Or to the crashing of water as it falls from the mountain top'; trans. Meyers).
49 roundelayes: Cf. Apr [33] and note.
51 larke in Sommer dayes: Spenser uses the lark several times in his poetry (e.g, Nov 71; see also Apr gl 118-9). While the lark was often a symbol of Christian transcendence (because it ascends while it sings; see Shakespeare, Sonnet 29.11-2), Spenser always associates the bird with either a carefree state of innocence in the natural world or the folly of such a state; in most instances, the latter colors the former (see P. Cheney 1993: 269n11).
52 Echo . . . ring: The line suggests the merging of nature and art, as the landscape joins in the poet’s song. Cf. Virgil, Ecl 1.4-5: tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra / formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas (‘you, Tityrus, at ease beneath the shade, teach the woods to re-echo “fair Amaryllis”’).
53–64 And taught . . . art outgoe: Suggests Colin’s Orphic powers.
55 cheriping: ‘An elaboration of the onomatopoeic chirp (which had been in use since the 1440s).
57–64 I . . . outgoe: Cf. Dec 43-8.
57–61
57 Calliope: Muse of heroic poetry. Cf. Apr 100 and note.
59 Luyts . . . Tamburins: Lutes and tabors (small drums), representing lyric and heroic poetry, respectively. Cf. Jonson, Sad Shepherd 1.3.76; Drayton, Shepheard’s Garland, Eclogue 4.114-17.
60 the fountaine, where they sat around: The scene at the fountain recurs throughout Spenser (e.g., Gnat 238). In the background is often Ovid’s myth of Narcissus and Echo (Met 3.359-401), glanced at in the word ‘Echo’ at 52.
61 siluer sound: The phrase recurs at Aug 181 (see note). Spenser was especially attracted to the word ‘silver’, and often uses it as an adjective modifying a noun beginning with the letter ‘s’ (e.g., ‘silver song’ at Apr 46; see note). Evidently, he did not invent the phrase ‘silver sound’, for it appears in Richard Edwards’ Song, printed in The Paradise of dainty Devises (1576), quoted six times in a single dialogue from Romeo and Juliet for comical, dramatic purposes (4.5.128-42): ‘There Musick with her silver sound’ (line 3 of Edwards’ Song). See also Timothy Kendall, ‘A Lute of Fir Tree’ 3, in Flowers of Epigrammes (1577). The phrase has a remarkable afterlife in English literature (Var 7: 318)--from John Lyly and Sir John Davies to John Dryden and Alexander Pope--much of it retaining the aesthetic vocabulary that Spenser turns into a signature. See, e.g., Davies, Orchestra, st. 107: ‘And when your Ivory fingers touch the strings / Of any silver sounding instrument, / Love makes them daunce’. Examples in Richard Barnfield (The prayse of Lady Pecunia [1598] 235-40) and William Browne (Britannia’s Pastorals [1613] 1.5.315-60), two well-known ‘Spenserian’ poets, suggest a Spenserian provenance.
62–64 But when . . . art outgoe: Cf. Virgil, Ecl 4.55-7.
65–75 I conne no skill . . . flying fame: Colin’s refusal to climb Parnassus makes best sense in terms of the classical recusatio (cf. Cameron 1995: 454-83), the refusal to write in a higher genre like epic. The source-text here is Virgil, Ecl 6.1-10, in which Tityrus refuses to write epic; but see also Horace, Odes 4.15.1-4; Ovid, Amores 3.1; Propertius, Elegies 3.3.1-26; Tibullus, Elegies 2.4.13-20. For a pre-Spenserian pastoral version, see Sannazaro, Arcadia, chpt. 7, pp 74-5 and chpt. 10, pp 104-5. The recusatio traces to Callimachus, Aetia (i.fr.I.21-4).
66 daughters . . . Ioue: See note at Apr gl 41.
67 quill: Both a musical pipe and a pen.
68–69 For sith . . . droue: For the story of the singing contest between Pan and Apollo, see Ovid, Met 11.146-77. For the importance of the story in the Calender, see Apr 73-81n. Cf. Virgil, Ecl 4.58-9: Pan etiam, Arcadia mecum si iudice certet, / Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se iudice victum (‘Even were Pan to compete with me and Arcady be judge, then even Pan, with Arcady for judge, would own himself defeated’). Among English poets, Wyatt had featured the myth in ‘Mine own John Poins’ 48-9 as part of his own poetics (P. Cheney 2011a: 131-2).
71 pyping lowe in shade of lowly groue: ‘Piping low and in the shade may indeed be the (hidden) master trope of the Shepheardes Calender’ (Rambuss 1993: 15).
73 prayse or blame: The twin goals of epideictic poetry.
75 flying fame: Cf. Virgil, Aen 4.173-7, 7.104, 11.139. The trope evokes the myth of Pegasus, as E.K.’s gloss on Apr 42 makes clear: ‘Pegasus the winged horse of Perseus (whereby is meant fame and flying renowme)’.
79 paint out: Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica 361-5.
80 poore: Perhaps a half-pun on poor.
81–96 The God of shepheards Tityrus . . . teares to shedde: For Tityrus, see Feb 92 and note, as well as Oct 55, Dec 4, and Envoy 9. Here Spenser uses the persona of Virgil in the Eclogues to represent Chaucer, and to see Chaucer as a native pastoral poet of love, a foil to Colin: unlike Spenser’s persona, Chaucer/Tityrus used his song to achieve catharsis, to serve the public good, and to acquire fame.
82 make: Spenser recurrently presents Tityrus/Chaucer as a maker, not a vates or prophet.
84 loue ytake: Chaucer did not simply write numerous tales of love (including so-called the Marriage Group in the Canterbury Tales but also Troilus and Criseyde and The Romaunt of the Rose); he presents himself primarily as a love poet (e.g., HF 615-8, 633-44; see R.R. Edwards 1989: 94).
87 mery tales: Evokes Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, mentioned by E.K. in his gloss. Cf. Lydgate, Fall of Princes, Prologue (1.246-7): ‘My maistir Chaucer, with his fresh comedies, / Is ded, allas’.
89–96 89-96: This stanza is omitted in 1597 and 1611
89 wrapt in lead: repeated at Oct 63 and Nov 59.
93–94 But if...hedde: Anticipates FQ IV.ii.32.8: ‘Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled’.
96 trees . . . shedde: Cf. Ovid, Met 10.106-44, the story of Orpheus using his song to move trees.
100 And pierce her heart: See the headnote for the Petrarchan intertext (RS 239.9, 14-5).
103 vnderfong: Cf. Nov 22.
110 turned: While we maintain a conservative approach to emendation, the metrical regularity of this eclogue and the general pattern of prosodic signalling in the handling of preterits suggest a possible emendation here to “turnd”.
117–120 But now . . . trace: Cf. Virgil, Ecl 10.75-7: surgamus: solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra, / iuniperi gravis; nocent et frugibus umbrae. / ite domum saturate, venit Hesperus, ite capellae (‘Let us arise. The shade is oft perilous to the singer—perilous the juniper’s shade, hurtful the shade even to the crops. Get home, my full-fed goats, get home—the Evening Star draws on’).
118 ye blessed flocks: Cf. Virgil, Ecl 1.74: ite meae, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae (‘Away, my goats! Away, once happy flock!).
119 with stealing steppes: Cf. Thomas, Lord Vaux, ‘The Aged Lover Renounceth Love’: ‘For Age with stealing steps’ (9). The phrase turns out to have a healthy afterlife in English literature because the gravedigger in Hamlet famously rehearses Vaux’s line when singing part of his graveyard song (5.1.71).
122 Gia speme spenta: ‘Hope utterly extinguished’. E.K. Cf. Colin’s Jan Emblem: ‘Anchôra speme’ (still hope).
2 Paradise: Gr παράδεισος (paradeisos), ‘enclosure, orchard, pleasure garden’. Cf. the note to the map at Gen 3 in the Geneva Bible: ‘In this countrey and moste plentiful land Adam dwelt, and this was called Paradise: that is, a garden of pleasure, because of the frutefulness and abundance thereof’.
7 Diodorus Syculus: Library of History 17.53.
9 two famous Ryuers: See Gen 2:10-14, where Tigris is called Hiddekel.
10 it is so denominate: Mesopotamia (Gr μεσοποταμία, 'between rivers') derives its name from the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
20 Kantsh: E.K. draws on William Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent (1576), which says that the word is British, not Saxon.
34–35 Guelfes . . . Gibelins: A fanciful, mock-scholarly derivation for elf and goblin.
43 Thalbot: Sir John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury, a hero in the Hundred Years’ War, (later made famous by Shakespeare in 1 Henry 6).
50 Musæus: de Herone et Leandra 63-5.
52–53 Pageaunts...&c: Spenser's only reference to this lost work.
59 Ipse . . . mala: ‘My own hands will gather quinces, pale with tender down’ (Virgil, Ecl 2.51).
74 Tullie: Cicero, Post Reditum in Senatu 4.8: P. Lentulus, parens ac deus nostrae vitae (‘Publius Lentulus, parent and guardian deity of my life’).
80 wite: Archaic, Northern/Scots.
81 Virgile: Menalcas appears in Ecl 3 and 5.