1 Piers: Rather than representing a specific historical personage, such as William Percy, Thomas Preston, or John Piers (Var 7: 295-6; McLane 1961: 175-87), the name evokes Langland’s Piers Plowman, together with the tradition of prophetic reform that this literary figure came to signify for English Protestants (J.N. King 1982: 319-39; Norbrook 2002: 56); however, Spenser’s Piers is not a plowman, or figure of rural labor, but a shepherd as priest (Little 2013: 149-50). Piers reappears in October.
2 Palinodie: Similarly, rather than representing such historical figures as Henry Constable or Andrew Perne (Var 7: 295-6), Palinode most directly figures ‘a defence of traditional revelry against Puritan attacks’ (Norbrook 2002: 65). A palinode is ‘Originally: an ode or song in which the author retracts a view or sentiment expressed in a former poem. Later also (more generally): a recantation, retraction, or withdrawal of a statement’ (OED). Spenser’s shepherd is a ‘palinode’ in that his ‘seize the day’ poetics, valuing the green world of May, ‘retracts’ the austere poetics of pastoral duty, valued by Piers.
2 represented: Either ‘present[ed] the image of’ or ‘symboliz[ed]’ (OED)--drawing attention to the specifically literary quality of the eclogue.
2 pastoures: Combines classical shepherds with Christian pastors or clergymen.
3 Ministers: A ‘politically loaded’ term (Brooks-Davies 1995: 81), used by Protestants to designate a member of the English clergy in opposition to a Catholic priest (OED).
6 felowship: ‘[A]nother loaded word’ (Brooks-Davies 1995: 81), ranging in meaning from ‘partnership’ to ‘political alliance’, but also having Reformation meaning, referring to ‘membership’ within a (Protestant) church (OED). Cf. Gal 2:9: ‘the right hands of fellowship’, which Geneva glosses: ‘They gave us their hand in token that we agreed wholly to the doctrine of the Gospel’. The word recurs at 172 and [174].
4 gawdy greene: ‘[G]reen dyed with weld, yellowish green’ (OED). This meaning of ‘gaudy’ appears only in combination with ‘green’; the phrase is rare. Cf. Chaucer, CT Knight 2079: ‘In gaude grene hir [Diana’s] statue clothed was’. Green is also the natural color of spring.
5 bloncket liueryes: The phrase identifies Palinode and Piers as ‘parish priests’ (Hume 1984: 15).
7 pleasaunce: That which feels pleasurable, but evoking the pleasure garden of the May Day ritual that Palinode describes. Thus his commitment to pleasure, reiterated throughout the eclogue (e.g.,‘merimake’ at 15), evokes one of the Horatian goals of poetry: to delight (detached from the other goal, to instruct).
10 To gather . . . brere: Cf. Chaucer, Rom 54-6: ‘For ther is neither busk nor hay / In May, that it nyl shrouded ben, / And it with newe leves wren,’ and 101-2: ‘The song of briddes forto here / That in thise buskes syngen clere’.
14 Sopps in wine: See Apr 138 and gl 157.
15 holy Saints: With the exception of ‘Saint John’ at TVW 15.1, this is the first use of the word ‘saint’ in Spenser’s poetic canon. He uses the word sparingly, although in The Faerie Queene I he features ‘Saint George’ as a Protestant hero (x.61), while in his marriage poetry he recurrently identifies Elizabeth Boyle as his ‘sweete Saint’ (Am 22.4; see, e.g., Epith 208). In the context of Palinode’s speech and character, the reference evokes Catholicism’s veneration of sainthood and saints days, allowed by conservative members of the English Church, even though oppositional to the Calvinist concept of ‘the elect’ (Brooks-Davies 1995: 82; see J.N. King 1990: 40, 188-99). At 247, Palinode refers to ‘sweete Saint Charitee’, and in his gloss E.K. notes the Catholicism. Cf. Julye 113-26, where Thomalin assigns the Reformation model to Algrind, whose teaching distinguishes between the outward celebration of a mountain, because it is sacred to a saint, and the inward celebration of the saint himself, because he has been elected to heaven.
16 But we here sytten as drownd in a dreme: Cf. the opening to Langland’s Piers Plowman, which also ‘sets together water and dreaming’ (Little 2013: 151): ‘And as I lay and lenede and loked on þe watres / I slombred into a slepyng, it sweyed so murye. / Thanne gan I meten a merueillous sweuene’ (B Version, Prologue 9-11).
17–18 For Younkers . . . elder witt: Cf. 1 Cor 13:11: ‘when I became a man, I put away childish things’.
18 tway: A Northern/Scots form of two, evoking rusticity.
18 elder witt: Knowledge of an elderly person; wisdom of a Protestant minister (elder translates Gk presbyteros, πρεσβύτερος). ‘Piers hints at the model followed in Scotland by Calvin’s disciple John Knox and reinforced here, as in Julye and September, by the adoption of northern/Scots linguistic forms which complement the “plowman” persona’ of the Protestant reform tradition (Brooks-Davies 1995: 82).
20 shole of shepeheardes: A group of ‘pastours’ or ‘Ministers’.
22 yode: Archaic but not infrequent in sixteenth-century literary texts.
23many: The reading in 1597, ‘meynie’ (retained in 1611), suggests that the producers of 1597, working from ‘manie’ in their copy (1591), may have regarded the term as an archaism or regionalism, and determined to heighten its orthographic oddity. A ‘meynie’ is a band of soldiers, sometimes an armed portion of a household retinue, although 1597 may take the term simply to designate a crowd of followers.
27 greene Wood: See 178 and note.
27 hem: Colloquial, possibly archaic.
28 May: The lord of the May festival celebrating the blossoming of the hawthorn tree, called a ‘may’ (see Barber 1959: 18-24).
31 Flora: Roman goddess of flowers, and thus a fertility deity, as well as the flower goddess of May. She was metamorphosed from Chloris when Zephyrus, the West Wind, tried to rape her (Ovid, Fasti 5.195-224; see Botticelli’s Primavera). While Spenser can see Flora as a beneficent figure (Apr 122), E.K. in his gloss at March 16 emphasizes her role as a harlot. Palinode’s celebration of Flora as the ‘Queen’ of ‘Faeries’ on her ‘royall throne’ glances at Queen Elisa in Aprill, but it manages to evoke both views of the flower goddess. Here Spenser uses colorful poetry to complicate the folly of Palinode’s hedonist celebration with the feminine charm of fairy beauty.
32 A fayre . . . bend: 'Band': 'the original spelling preserves the rhyme' (Brooks-Davies 1995: 83). Cf. Chaucer, Rom 1079: ‘And with a bend of gold tasseled’.
33–34 O that I were there . . . Maybush beare: A fantasy of male longing: to enter into feminine space, as the pun on ‘beare’ intimates, with Palinode a forerunner to Shakespeare’s Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
36 How . . . swinck: Cf. Chaucer, CT Gen Pro 1.188: ‘Lat Austyn have his swynk to hym reserved!’
39–44 Those faytours . . . vnfedde: For an attack on the clergy, see Julye 169-80.
39 faytours: E.K. Cf. Plowman’s Tale 164, said of priests: ‘All suche faytours foule hem fall’.
40 letting their sheepe runne at large: Cf. 173 (and note) where Piers consents to doing precisely this.
45–50 Well is it . . . but a peece: An attack on the Elizabethan abuse of pluralism, wherein unqualified men were hired cheaply as pastors, while holders of the benefice were absent but still receiving much of the income (on ‘fee structure and inheritance’ and the emphasis on ‘financial good’ here, rather than spiritual ‘reward’, see Little 2013: 152-3; on the ‘financial transaction’ in the fable, see Little 2013: 155). In the background is John 10:11-15: ‘I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for his shepe. But an hireling, and he which is not the shepherd, neither the shere are his owne, seeth the wolf coming, and he leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the shepe’.
54 great Pan: For Pan as Christ, see Maye 111, Julye 49-50, and Sept 96. Cf. Virgil, Ecl 2.33: Pan curat ovis oviumque magistros (‘Pan cares for the sheep and the shepherds of the sheep’).
54 account: The Last Judgment. Cf. 51, as well as Matt 12:36: ‘But I ƒay vnto you, that of euerie idle worde that men shal speake, they shal giue account thereof at the day of iudgement’.
55–72 Sicker now . . . other end: Cf. Julye 209-12.
65 Reapen: Cf. Gal 6:8: ‘For he that soweth to his flesh, shal of the flesh reape corruption: but he that soweth to the spirit, shal of the spirit reape life everlasting’.
73 worldes childe: Piers’ evocative summarizing epithet signals Palinode’s naïve love of things worldly. The phrase appears to be original to Spenser, but cf. Luke 16:8: ‘And the Lord commended the unjust stewarde, because he had done wisely. Wherefore the children of this worlde are in their generacion wiser then the children of light’. Cf. also Hugh Latimer, The sermon that the reverende father in Christ (1537): ‘But yf the chyldren of this worlde be eyther mo in nombre, or more prudent than the children of light, what than avayleth us to have this convocation? Had it not ben better, we had not ben called togyther at all?’ (sig Ciiir). According to OED, a ‘worldling’ is ‘A person who is devoted to the interests and pleasures of the world; a worldly or worldly-minded person’, citing ‘1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. Jude f. xxiiiv, They bee worldelinges [L animales], and gevyng them selves in to the service of worldly affectes [L mundanis affectibus]’. Cf. Mammon at FQ II.vii.8.1: ‘God of the world and worldlings I me call’. The word ‘child’ could refer to a boy or lad, and could be used affectionately or contemptuously (OED).
74 touches . . . defilde: Cf. Ecclus 13:1: ‘He that toucheth pitch, shalbe defiled with it: and he that is familiar with the proude, shal be like unto him’; the Geneva gloss reads: ‘The companies of the proude and of the riche are to be eschewed’.
75–90 But shepheards . . . wasted with misgouernaunce: Refers to the Elizabethan controversy over whether clergy should remain celibate or marry. Although Queen Elizabeth did not favor the practice of celibacy, the Church allowed it.
75 Algrind: First reference to the shepherd featured in Julye, an anagram for Edward Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, suspended in 1577 by order of Elizabeth after he supported the Puritan practice of ‘prophesyings’, private meetings conducted by the clergy to interpret Scripture. See Julye headnote and notes at 126, 215-30.
77 With them . . . heire: ‘It is fitting for them to provide for their heirs’.
81–94 But shepheard . . . them ouerflowe: The Protestant doctrine of ‘living by faith’, by which the godly person organizes his or her life around belief in the redemptive power of the spirit, not the body. Derived from Matt 6:19-32: ‘Lay not up treasures for your selves upon the earth. . . . Therefore take no thoght, saying, What shal we eat? or what shal we drinke? or wherewith shal we be clothed? (For after all these things seke the Gentiles) for your heavenlie Father knoweth that ye have nede of all these things’. Cf. Luke 12. For the Pauline concept of ‘inheritance’ of the spirit, see Acts 26:18; Gal 3:18; Col 1:12. Yet cf. Cuddie’s claim in October that poets have to eat (33-4), as well as Spenser’s recurrent emphasis throughout the Calender on the importance of patronage.
92 cheuisaunce: Cf. Apr 143-4 and notes. See Chaucer, CT Shipman 7.329, said of a merchant, ‘That nedes moste he make a chevyssaunce’; and 391: ‘For that I to hym spak of chevyssaunce’.
94 floddes . . . ouerflowe: Ps 69:15: ‘Let not the water floods drown me’.
95–100 Sike mens . . . her youngling: Anticipates Piers’ fable of a mother and her child. For his ape lore, cf. Pliny, Natural History 8.80.216; Whitney, Choice of Emblems 188: ‘With kindness, lo, the Ape doth kill her whelp, / Through clasping hard. . . . / Even so, the babes, whose nature, Art should help: / The parents fond do hazard them with harms’.
103–131 The time was once . . . nor borrowe: A poetic version of the Puritan narrative about the simplicity of the primitive church corrupted by later practice.
106 sufferaunce: ‘The condition of the holder of an estate who, having come in by lawful right, continues to hold it after the title has ceased without the express leave of the owner’ (OED).
111 Pan . . . inheritaunce: Cf. Deut 10:9: ‘for the Lord is his inheritance’.
115 Butter . . . whay: For the biblical imagery, cf. Gen 18:8; Josh 5:6; Isa 7:15; 1 Pet 2:2.
123 Louers of Lordship: Evokes Puritan contempt for the Church’s retention of episcopacy. For Peter’s warning against ‘lordship’, see 1 Pet 5:1-4.
126–127 Tho vnder . . . guile: Cf. Matt 7:15: ‘Beware of false prophetes, which come to you in shepes clothing, but inwardely they are ravening wolves’. Cf. also the beast fable at Sept 146-225.
131 nill . . . borrowe: ‘Will not be stopped by guarantee or pledge’-a 'metaphor...of spiritual imprisonment' (McCabe 1999:536). See Maye gl XX. The word ‘borrowe’ evokes Chaucer (Todd, Var 7: 303): TC 2.963; CT Squire 5.596; Rom 7307. The word recurs at 150, 308; see note at 308 (and headnote). The phrase 'bail nor borrow' has the form of a proverb, even though it does not appear in Tilley 1950. On Spenser's coinage of proverb-like forms, see the General Introduction.
132–133 Three thinges . . . outragious: For the pattern, see Prov 30:18, 21, and 29.
141 fooles talke: Cf. Prov 18:6-7, 29:11; Eccles 5:3, 10:14.
142–143 I wene . . . height: E.K. For the story of Atlas, cf. Hesiod, Theogony 517; Ovid, Met 2.296-97; 6.174-75; Virgil, Aen 4.481-82. See [142]n.
147 And blamest . . . encheason: Cf. Chaucer, TC 1.348: ‘And yet if she, for other enchesoun, / Be wroth’.
149–157 What? . . . showres: Cf. Sept 236-41.
150 deare borrowe: See 131n and 308n.
158–163 And sooth . . . be ended: Cf. 1 Cor 11:16: ‘But if any man lust to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God’ (Geneva gloss: ‘Against such as are stubbornly contentious we have to oppose this, that the Churches of God are not contentious’); Gal 5:26: ‘Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another’ (Geneva gloss: ‘He addeth peculiar exhortations according as he knew the Galatians subject to divers vices: and first of all he warneth them to take heed of ambition, which vice hath two fellows, backbiting and envy, out of which two it cannot be but many contentions must needs arise’).
158 nought seemeth: Cf. 2 Cor 6:14: ‘what communion hathe light with darknes?’
163 conteck: Cf. Sept 86 and Chaucer's ‘Contek, with blody knyf and sharp manace’ (CT Knight 2003). In the 1570s controversy with Thomas Cartwright, John Whitgift ‘repeatedly attacked Puritan contentiousness’ (Hume 1984: 20).
168 For what . . . sam?: Cf. 2 Cor 6:14: ‘what communion hathe light with darknes?’
169 what peace . . . Lambe: Cf. Isa 11:6 and 65:25; Mic 5:8.
172 felowship: See Argument and note. Cf. 2 Cor 6:14: ‘what felowship hathe righteousness with unrighteousnes?’
173 Ladde . . . straying: Cf. Virgil, Ecl 5.12, said by Menalcus when instructing Mopsus to tell his story about Phyllis: pascentis servabit Tityrus haedos (‘Tityrus will tend the grazing kids’). Spenser’s word ‘straying’ is ominous. Piers’ directive ‘comically undercuts his earlier self-righteous line. Leaving their sheep to “the ladde” directly contradicts the ostensible allegorical meaning of Piers’ tale, that vigilance is always necessary to protect the innocent from the guileful, and essential to the duty of the good priest’ (Chamberlain 2005: 47).
174–305 Thilke same Kidde . . . bene fayne: Unlike Thenot in Februarie, who ascribes his fable of the Oak and the Briar to Tityrus (Chaucer), Piers neglects to mention a literary origin (but see 308n below). In gl 174, E.K. cites Aesop, but Spenser substitutes the Fox for the Wolf, who could represent ‘a secret papist who presents himself as a Church of England pastor’, as told by a Puritan Piers (Hume 1984: 23) or Catholicism, since the ‘hostility to “popery” was not a Puritan monopoly’ but rather ‘axiomatic in the Elizabethan church’: ‘The immediate political context of the Calender’ is ‘the Jesuit Mission’ in England. Hence, ‘Spenser’s conversion of the biblical Wolf into the Fox . . . alludes to the satirical tradition that the Wolves who could prey openly during a Roman Catholic regime conceal themselves as Foxes under Protestant monarchs’ (J.N. King 1990: 36-7).
174 deuise: See Sept Arg.
177 dame: OED’s first definition is political, ‘A female ruler,’ and its second social, ‘The “Lady” of the house’. The only previous use in the Calender refers to ‘dame Eliza’ at Apr 150; the next one refers to ‘Dame Cynthia’ at Aug 89.
178 greene wood: The Gate leaves the house for the very place that Palinode locates as the site of the May Day celebration circling around the Fairy Queen Flora: ‘the greene Wood’ (28).
179 play: The word links the Gate’s departure from her home with Palinode’s sojourn to the greenwood (see 23 and 44). Cf. Sept 232, ‘with shepheard sittes not playe,’ versus Mar 62 and note, ‘When shepheardes groomes han leave to playe’.
180 motherly care: Evokes Queen Elizabeth’s care of her people. Cf. Isa 49:23: ‘And Kings shabe thy nourcing fathers, and Queenes shalbe thy nources’. Isaiah becomes ‘a fundamental text for patriarchal/matriarchal theories of monarchical power and responsibility’ (Brooks-Davies 1995: 90). On the word ‘care’, see the headnote.
185 Uellet: Northern/Scots.
187 bloosmes We emend following E.K.’s lemma, conscious that the ten-syllable line as printed in 1579 is hardly a gross violation of the metrical norm. Spenser employs the slightly archaic forms, blooſme, blooſmes and blooſming, elsewhere in the Calender (Jan 34, Maye 8, and Dec 103) and also at FQ DS Cumberland, 2; FQ IV.viii.2.9, VI.Pr.4.2, VI.viii.20.2, TCM vii.8.8, and TCM vii.28.3. That 1591 opts for the more common form at Maye 8 and 1597 similarly normalizes Dec 103 evidences compositorial resistance to the archaic forms; similar resistance may have operated in 1579 here at Maye 187 and perhaps at Feb 167.
224 Sperre: Medievalism.
224 Sperre . . . of fraude: Cf. Chaucer, Tr 5.531, ‘whan he saugh hire dores spered all’; Skelton, Garland of Laurel 1435, ‘When the stede is stolyn, spar the stable dur’. See 234.
224 yate: Northern/Scots.
227 schooled: ‘To inform or advise on a particular matter; to make privy to pertinent information; to instruct (a person) how to act in a particular situation or how to do something’ (OED).
235–236 It was not long . . . to the dore anone: Links causally the departure of the Gate and the arrival of the Fox (Lane 1993: 111).
238–240 pedler . . . tryfles . . . belles, and babes, and glasses: ‘These words in the 1570s had become part of the distinctive language of Puritans when denouncing the ceremonies and vestments which the authorities permitted or insisted upon, but which to the puritan mind seemed popish’ (Hume 1984: 23). See also ‘knacks’ at 286. The discourse here has Puritan significance but does not mean that Spenser is himself a Puritan (Waters 1974: 9-10; see J.N. King 1990: 18-9).
241 Biggen: OED identifies the word as rare, meaning, variously, ‘A child’s cap,’ ‘a metonym or symbol for infancy,’ ‘A cap, or hood, esp a night cap,’ or ‘The coif of a serjeant-at-law’. Spenser might have adopted the ‘Biggen’ as part of the Fox’s disguise because of its association with infancy, that is, as part of the trap for the Kid; this might explain the reference to ‘babes’ in the preceding line.
243 His hinder heele . . . wrapt in a clout: See headnote. Everywhere else in the Calender, the word ‘clout’ is part of the name of the author’s persona, Colin Clout. The image of the Fox wearing a cloth bandage on his hind leg recalls the ‘clouted legge’ of Thomalin’s ‘unhappy Ewe’ at Mar 50 (see note), a possible allusion to the relation between Colin and Elisa, Spenser and Elizabeth (see also Nov 99), with the clout referring to the poet’s traditional role as physician. In Maye, the clout may identify the Fox as a false Colin, or poet figure, who uses ‘Catholic’ art to deceive the Kid. Not just priests and pastors but poets abuse the English church—an inference supported by the word describing the Fox’s deceit of the Kid: ‘complaint’ (250 and note).
247 Saint Charitee: A commonplace, which E.K. associates with Catholicism; cf. Hamlet 4.5.58: ‘By Gis, and by saint Charity’.
250 complaint: Not just a ‘lamentation’ but also ‘A plaintive poem’ (OED). This is Spenser’s first use of the word; it will flower in the 1591 volume titled Complaints.
251 Wickets: Evidently, ‘a little door’; but a wicket is also ‘A small opening, esp. one through which to look out or communicate with the outside’ (OED).
254 double eyed: Traditionally, deceit has two faces.
262 lere: A Northernism meaning 'Instruction, learning; . . . a lesson; also, a doctrine, religion' (OED).
265 your beastlyhead: A comical title of courtesy invented by Spenser but evoking beastliness (OED) and contributing to the sustained mock-anthropomorphism of the beast fable.
291 popt: Cain (in Oram 1989) sees a potential pun on 'poped', alluding to the Jesuit Mission (97).
298 merchandise: A stock Protestant term for the ceremonial trappings of Roman Catholicism. Cf. John 2:16: ‘Take these things hence: make not my Fathers house, an house of marchandise’; and the Geneva gloss on Matthew’s version (21:12-3): ‘Under the pretence of religion hypocrites seke their owne gaine, and spoyle God of his true worship’.
308 thy tale borrowe: In Maye, Spenser is indebted to Chaucer, and specifically in his use of the word ‘borowe’ (L.S. Johnson 1990: 78-82). The word as used here is a metaphor for literary transmission and imitation. See 131n. Yet the oddness of amiable Palinode first criticizing Piers’ tale and then asking to borrow it for Sir John (who means well but has little to say [311]), renders the literary process at once cheerful and comical.
309 our sir John: Sir John was a stock figure for an unlearned priest, but Puritans also complained about pastors of the English church as being unlearned.
318 Palinodes Embleme: ‘Everyone without faith is suspicious’.
320 Piers his Embleme: ‘What faith then is in the faithless?’
5 as before: Cf. Apr 155.
18 good shepherd: Cf. ‘I am the good shepherd’ (John 10:11 and 14; Heb 13:20).
21 Eusebius: Cf. Praeparatio Evangelica 5.17.
23 Plutarch: Cf. De Defectu Oraculorum 17.
24 Lauatere: Ludwig Lavater, De Larvis, trans. Robert Harrison, Of Ghosts and Spirites Walking by Night (1572) 1.19. Eusebius and Plutarch are in Lavater.
46–47 Malim . . . miserescere: ‘I would rather have everybody envy me than pity for me’. Unknown source, but cf. Erasmus, Adagia 1044B: ‘Nihil tam vulgari sermone iactatum, quam haec sententia: Praestat invidiosum esse quam miserabilem’ (Mustard, Var 7: 307). Cf. also Pindar, Pythian Odes 1.85; Herodotus, History 3.52.
48 syncope: A rhetorical figure that omits a letter or syllable of a word.
58 Sardanapalus: Assyrian monarch infamous for sensuality.
51 Tullie: Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.35.101; but E.K. prints ‘habui’ for ‘habeo’ and ‘iacent’ for ‘manent’ used in modern texts (Mustard, Var 7: 307). According to Let 1.42-3, the translation, in quantitative verse, is Spenser’s.
57 Erle of Deuonshire: Edward de Courtenay, earl of Devonshire. The lines were believed to come from his tomb at Tiverton. Cf. Complete Peerage 4.325-6.
73 Chaucer: Cf. CT Shipman 1519, 1581.
93–95 countrye (of . . . denomination), brother . . . who (as] The early quartos make a hash of the text. 1581 replaces the confusing period after ‘countrye’ but misrepresents ‘denomination’ as ‘domination’; 1586, whether perplexed by the text as he found it or, less attentively, succumbing to eyeskip, dropped 13 words between the open parenthesis before ‘of’ (93) and the open parenthesis before ‘who’ (95). (We have relocated this latter parenthesis, following 1597.) The carelessness of 1586 removes all reference to Prometheus and transforms his brother, Atlas, into the great early astronomer.
92–97 Other thinke, ... hys shoulders.: The sentence presents slight difficulties. E.K. explains that some believe that the myth of a giant who carries the sky on his shoulders is an excellent poetic fiction (‘imagination’) that refashions the historical fact that a king named Atlas once ruled in Mauritania and perhaps gave his name to an especially tall mountain in that region; according to the Greeks, this king had a brother named Prometheus, who was the first astronomer. E.K. takes this euhemerist interpretation of Atlas and Prometheus from Cooper, Thesaurus (1565 s.v. ‘Atlas’; see Gallagher, SpE s.v. ‘Prometheus’).
75 Deuteronomie: 10:9. Levi's was the priestly tribe.
88 The Geaunte: Cf. Boccaccio, Gen Deor 4.31.1-5; Conti, Myth 4.7.
90 Barbarie: The Muslim regions on the north coast of Africa.
94 Prometheus: Spenser’s confusing euhemerist identification of Prometheus as the brother of Atlas and as an astronomer (cf. Endymion at Julye 57-64) comes directly from Cooper, Thesaurus (1565 s.v. ‘Atlas’; see Gallagher, SpE s.v. ‘Prometheus’).
106 Chaucer: Cf. Mars 52.
109 Æsops fables: See the fable of the goat and the wolf, Fables, no. 572, in which the young goat heeds his mother’s warning and is not deceived. Also, cf. no. 157.
115 felowshippe: See Arg 6n.
123 πάθoς: Gr pathos. Here, a literary expression of sadness or sympathy (OED).
125 Hyperbaton: Change of the usual or expected word order.
127 Andromache: Wife of the Trojan hero Hector, who compares Aeneas’ son Ascanius to her dead son Astyanax: Virgil, Aen 3.490: Sic . . . ferebat (‘Such was he [Astyanax] in eyes, in hands, and face’).
136 Hastingues: Cf. Shakespeare, Richard III 3.4.84-6, following Holinshed, Chronicles 3.381-2.
148 Paxes: 'A tablet of gold, silver, ivory, etc., with a projecting handle, depicting the crucifixion or other sacred subject, which is kissed by the celebrating priest and then by the other participants at a mass' (OED).
152–153 in their outward Actions, but neuer inwardly in fayth: For Protestants, these are the very terms of the Reformation, evoking the dispute between Catholic justification by works and Protestant justification by faith.
154 Chaucer: See CT Merchant 4.2046, 2117.
165 Epiphonèma: 'An exclamatory sentence or striking reflection, which sums up or concludes a discourse or a passage in the discourse' (OED).
168–169 but . . . nynth: Reputedly influenced by his mother, Catherine de Medici, King Charles IX of France ordered the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Huguenots in August 1572. Like the reference to Lord Hastings earlier, the reference here inserts political terminology into the fable.
178 [Em] Theognis: Not in Theognis; the source is not known.
184–185 what hold . . . theyr religion: Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues 4.15.