1 Diggon Dauie: Diggon is the Welsh form of Diccon, a nickname for Dick, Richard. Scholars agree that Diggon evokes Richard Davies, Bishop of St. David’s, a supporter of Archbishop Grindal and the translator of the New Testament and parts of the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh (McLane 1961: 216-34). In addition to Churchyard’s Davy Dycars Dreame and Langland’s figure in Piers Plowman (see headnote), in the background may also be Barclay’s Amintas from Eclogue 5, who also leaves the pastoral world of shepherding for the town (Little 2013: 157). As such, ‘Diggon is a clear surrogate for Colin, another wayward prodigal . . . whose disaffection from the pastoral world also threatens to divorce him from its poetry’ (Nicholson 2014: 115). Indeed, Diggon joins Colin as the only shepherds in the Calender who follow the ‘formula of out-and-back’, in which a shepherd leaves the pastoral world for the court and then comes home again, to which Spenser ‘attached important meanings’, for ‘it occurs at least four times in his poetry’ (MacCaffrey 1976: 366-7): the old hermit Heavenly Contemplation (FQ I.x.60); Colin Clout in Colin Clout Comes Home Againe; and both the Hermit and Melibee at FQ VI.v.37 and VI.ix.24. At Jan 50, Colin leaves the pastoral world for ‘the neighbour towne’ (see note). Spenser tends to use the formula to test the limits and merits of disillusionment (cf. P. Cheney 1993: 49-52).
1 deuised: ‘The word “devised” seems to suggest . . . that readers are already familiar with the character Diggon Davy [via Churchyard and Langland; see note above]. . . . [T]he use of “devised” ensures that this figure preserves his previous existence as laborer’ (Little 2013: 157).
2 gayne: See 72.
2 farre countrye: Either Rome or Wales; see note on ‘Popish prelates’ below. Cf. ‘forein costes’ at 28.
3 Hobbinols: As E.K. points out in his gloss at [176], in the topical allegory of the Calender the figure represents Gabriel Harvey, Spenser’s close friend from Cambridge. Hobbinol also appears as a speaker in Aprill and June.
3 Popish prelates: As with Maye and Julye, here the figures of ‘abuse’ are not merely Catholic priests (J.N. King 1990: 44) but also English clergy with ‘Popish’ leanings (Hume 1984: 21).
1 her: Welsh, likely to evoke Bishop Davies.
1 bidde her: E.K.
1 god: Archaic for ‘good’ (although it may reflect Welsh pronunciation).
2 missaye: The word, which recurs at 106, signals the eclogue’s concern with language and with the problem of communication (see headnote).
5 wightly: Cf. Mar 91.
6 dirke night: Diggon’s phrase can be read metaphorically to refer to his state of mind, but it could also signal ‘a break in the usual chronographical pattern’, which throughout the Calender moves from day to evening: ‘In September it is twilight from the start’ (Snyder 1998: 42).
7–10 Diggon . . . dead: Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues 9.1-2: Candide, quo casu patriis procul actus ab oris / Haec in rura venis? (‘By what misfortune, Candidus, driven far from your fathers’ lands, have you come into these fields?’; trans. Piepho).
9 Where is the fayre flocke . . . leade?: This is the central pastoral trope of the Calender, evoking social duty, established at To His Booke 10 and in Januarye.
15–17 Nay . . . to beare: The idea of a sorrowful person talking freely with another as cathartic therapy, although common, will recur in Spenser with particular urgency (e.g., FQ I.vii.38-42; Daph 67). The topic is re-introduced at 52-5. Cf. Ovid, Tristia 4.3.37-8: est quaedam flere voluptas; / Expletur lacrimis egeriturque dolor (‘in weeping there is a certain joy, for by tears grief is sated and relieved’); Petrarch, Bucolicum Carmen 11.5-6: Enecat arctatus mentem dolor; optima mesti / Pectoris est medicina palam lugere (‘Sighs, if suppressed, are fatal; tears openly shed are the only / Remedy for the sad heart’).
20 Thrise three Moones: Nine months is the period not only of gestation but of rebirth and fulfillment; it will recur throughout The Faerie Queene (e.g., I.ix.15.9). It seems strangely applied to Diggon here but may hint at a process of renewal at work in his conversation with Hobbinol. See the reference at line 49 to the ‘Westerne wind’ and the note on the symbolism of renewal.
22 wandred: Casts Diggon as a vagrant (Lane 1993: 133).
24 astate: Archaic for ‘estate’.
26 of yore: Cf. Julye 116.
28 forrein costes See 'farre countrye’, Sept Arg 2n.
30 dempt: Cf. Aug 137.
30 eeked: Medievalism; also Scots.
36 They . . . shame: ‘Shamefully, they sell their good offices’. A reference to the sin of simony, but topically alluding to the clergy selling their benefices.
37 Mart: A Protestant topos of anti-Catholic satire. Cf. Maye 298. ‘[M]onetary references and metaphors . . . dominate the eclogue [see, e.g., 39-41, 94-9]’ (L.S. Johnson 1990: 73).
40–41 Or . . . throte: May refer both to the recurrent ecclesiastical fines being levied and to the loss of benefices by responsible clergy (see McCabe 1999: 554).
42–46 The shepheards . . . cranck: Cf. Maye 117-23; Julye 165-80 and 203-4.
42 ken: Medievalism; also Scots.
44 Bulls: A biblical image of pride. See 124 and note.
45 cragge: Northern, Scots.
46 As cocke . . . cranck: Cf. Drayton, Shepheards Garland, Eclogue 8.163: ‘Like Chanteclere he crowed crancke’. The cock is another emblem of pride.
47 stanck: Likely a Spenserian coinage, from Ital stanco, ‘weary’.
49 Westerne wind: Zepherus, traditionally associated with spring and renewal, here more obviously suggesting autumn and decline. Yet see 20n. Cf. Apr 122 and note.
52–55 Sitte we downe . . . thou hast: See 15-17n. The idea of ‘talk’ as a way to ‘mock’ the weather is particularly striking, especially since ‘mock’ functions as an artistic term, meaning imitate (OED). See [54]n. The phrase ‘make a mock’ appears at Prov 14:9: ‘The fool maketh a mocke of sin: but among the righteous there is favour’.
56–57 Hobbin . . . grounde: Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues 9.11.
61 Dogge: Cf. Aesop, Fables no. 133 for the dog on a bridge who drops meat from his mouth when he sees his reflection in the water. Cf. Narcissus in Diggon’s Emblem at the end (discussed by E.K. in his gloss): Narcissus, too, sacrifices ‘meat’--his own embodied existence--in favor of its reflection. This playing of Aesop against Ovid is characteristic of the sly humor at work in these eclogues with their intertextual gamesmanship.
62–67 My seely . . . agayne: For the pastoral convention of comparing the enervation of the flock with that of the shepherd, cf. Mantuan, Eclogues 9.46-7 and 54-8.
65 Bene . . . penuree: Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues 9.42-3: Importuna fames, labor improbus, aëris ardor / confecere gregem macie (‘Relentless famine, ceaseless toil, and the heat of the air have all wasted my flock’; trans. Piepho).
67 come home agayne: The phrase will reappear in the title of Colin Clouts Come Home Againe.
68–73 Ah fon . . . payne: Cf. Mantuan, Eclogues 9.78-80: Vivere tum felix poteras dicique beatus; / sed bona (quod nondum fueras expertus acerbam) / vilis erat tibi teque ideo fortuna reliquit (‘At that time you were able to live as a fortunate man and could be called blessed. But when fortune was good, you valued her cheaply—because as yet you had not known her harshness—and therefore she abandoned you’; trans. Piepho). Also, 9.195-7: facit experientia cautos. / Hi prius explorant et non laudata sequuntur / omnia (‘Experience makes these men cautious. They explore matters beforehand and follow everything that men don’t extol’; trans. Piepho).
74 wote ne: Spenser reverses the usual formulation, ne wote.
74 bewitcht: Another link with Colin Clout, although the agent of enchantment differs: not Rosalind but ‘vayne desyre, and hope to be enricht’ (75; see headnote). Cf. June 18.
80–81 For eyther . . . wyll: Cf. Maye 39-44; Julye 187-204.
83 casten to compasse: For the circumlocution, cf. Oct 103.
86 conteck: Cf. Maye 163 and note.
89 holy water: A common object of Protestant satire. Cf. Feb 210, as well as van der Noot, TVW 1615, 1820, 1831, and 1845.
90 high way: Cf. Matt 7:13-5: ‘Enter in at the streict gate: for it is the wide gate, and broad waye that leadeth to destruction . . . Beware of false prophetes, which come to you in shepes clothing, but inwardely they are ravening wolves’.
91 vndersaye: Cf. ‘missaye’ at 2, 106: terms of communication (see headnote).
94–97 They boast . . . sorrowe: The Reformers often associated Roman Catholic exorcism with demonic magic. Cf. Julye 197.
96 Marrie . . . borrow: Cf. 1 Pet 2:25, Matt 20:28; also, Apr 51, Maye 131.
96 great Pan: Christ. See Jan 17n.
102–103 speake not so dirke . . . to mirke: The lines work doubly: first, as Hobbinol’s request to Diggon to speak plainly; and, second, as the author’s invitation to attend to language and thus to read allegorically. See headnote and notes on 104 and 105.
104 playnely to speake: The phrasing recurs at line 136 when Hobbinol tells Diggon he ‘speakest to plaine’. ‘A plain style and highly charged biblical imagery were the common property of English Protestant progressives’ (J.N. King 1990: 18-19).
104–135 Then playnely to speake . . . leese the grosse: The structure of the speech is careful, dividing into five parts (cf. Herford, Var 7: 358), signaled by iterations of the concept of speech (‘speak . . . They sayne . . . Other sayne . . . Some sticke not to say . . . Sayne’). The ‘device of attributing to others opinions held by the satirist himself . . . is a familiar one in Tudor satire and poetry’, as in Skelton’s Colyn Clout (Hume 1984: 36): in Diggon’s ‘“some say” style’, Spenser’s ‘reported discourse’ is ‘of reported discourse’ (Lucas 2002: 160). At 104-7, Diggon introduces his agreement to speak plainly, stating his general theme, that bad behavior causes men to ‘missay’ both their ‘doctrine’ and their ‘faye’—their teaching (or preaching) and their faith. In the remainder of the speech, Diggon distinguishes among four groups of speakers, each of whom levies a specific criticism against ‘shepheards’: 1) lines 108-09, criticism of an arrogant and ignorant clergy; 2) lines 110-111, criticism of clergy who disgrace their vocation by abusing their parishioners; 3) lines 112-21, criticism of clergy who serve Mammon not God, this world rather than the next, by supporting the Crown’s commitment to agrarian reform; 4) lines 122-35, criticism of clergy who work with powerful patrons to enforce land enclosure, create vagrancy, and in general commercialize the countryside. (See notes on each of the four groups below.)
105 Badde is the best: An English proverb.
105 this English is flatt: For ‘flat’ as having reference to ‘composition, discourse’, see OED, citing ‘1573  G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 20[:] Mi over flat and homeli kind of writing’. The parenthetical phrase raises the question of English style, both ecclesiastical and poetic. The plain style is opposite to the ornate (or flowery) style, at which Spenser excels, and for which Hobbinol often serves as a spokesman (e.g., June 1-8); this may help to explain why Spenser selects Hobbinol to rehearse Colin’s floral lay of Queen Elisa in Aprill.
106 missay: See 2 and note.
108 war: Northern, Scots. Cf. Feb 11-2 and note.
109 All . . . beastly and blont: ‘Because their shepherds are arrogant and ignorant’. ‘Beastly’ pertains to appetite, desire, corrupt conduct; blunt, to perception, insight, knowledge. Spenser will return to use of the ‘b’ alliteration for ‘blont’ in later poetry: e.g, ‘blunt and bad’ (FQ I.x.47).
111 cote: Sheep-cote, but also outer cloth garment. The double-sense evokes both the clergyman’s parish church (and thus its parishioners) and his clerical attire. See 104-35n. The word appears first at 40 and later at 206. Cf. Julye 162.
112 whote . . . tongue: Cf. Isa 6:6-7: ‘[the Lord’s] lippes are ful of indignacion, and his tongue is as a devouring fyre’ (also Isa 30:27). Cf. Rom 12:20: ‘Thou shalt heape coles of fyre on his head’ (also Prov 25:22).
115 deck her Dame: ‘Dress their wife or mistress’. The reference uses the Protestant convention of attacking Catholic priests for breaking their vows to target English Protestant clergy who abuse their flock, and perhaps those who sully the Protestant right of clergy to marry (Herford, Var 7: 359).
115 heyre: Cf. Maye 75-94.
116–119 For such . . . her crumenall: The images are, first, of chimneys that no longer smoke, a sign of lost hospitality; and, second, of well-fed ox taken out of their stalls, slaughtered, and converted into cash, a sign of agrarian commercialism (Lane 1993: 1-2).
119 crumenall: Evidently a Spenserian coinage, derived from the L. crumena, purse. Cf. Henry More (1647): ‘Thus cram they their wide-mouth’d crumenall’ (Song of the Soul 3.19.8).
121 Ylike . . . heads: Most directly, the many-headed Hydra, slain by Hercules (Ovid, Met 9.68-74), which could be allegorized as the falsehood of the multitude (Alciati 1551: 149), but also likely evoking the Beast of Rev 12.3-4 (see Lotspeich 1965: 71; SpE 41, 97, and 223). To be used recurrently in The Faerie Queene (e.g., I.viii.17 for Duessa’s seven-headed beast).
122–135 But they . . . the grosse: Refers to wealthy patrons, especially William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who imposed extortionate rents upon incumbents of ecclesiastical livings. Spenser’s own patron, the earl of Leicester, was also accused.
122 shooten . . . pricke: ‘Hit nearest to the point’. Diggon singles this abuse out as the one that deserves the most attention.
123 other . . . lick: Proverbial for appropriating the profits of someone else’s labors.
124 Bulles of Basan: Cf. Ps 22:12-13: ‘mightie bulles of Bashan have closed me about. They gape ypon me with their mouthes’ (Geneva gloss: ‘He meaneth, that his enemies were so fat, proude and cruel, that they were rather beastes then men’). Also Amos 4: 1: ‘Heare this worde, ye kine of Bashan . . . which oppresse the poore, and destroy the nedie’ (Geneva gloss on ‘kine’: ‘princes and governers’). The allusion is to powerful courtiers, such as Burghley (and perhaps Leicester).
130 ouergrast: Likely, a Spenserian neologism.
136–139 thou speakest too plaine . . . nedes be endured: Hobbinol’s advice resembles the method of the poet himself, and evokes an era of intense Elizabethan censorship. The word ‘feyne’ was a cardinal term of poetics, meaning ‘To relate or represent in fiction; to fable’ (OED).
141–149 Sike as . . . and bent: Cf. Maye 126-9. For relevant biblical passages, cf. 2 Sam 12:1-9; Matt 7:15, 10:16; Luke 15:1-7; John 10. Also, cf. Chaucer, CT Physician 101-2.
141 Sike . . . sheepe: Cf. Petronius, Satyricon 58.4-5: qualis dominus, talis et servus (‘like master, like man’). Also cf. Jan 7; Julye 129-32.
143 But . . . choyce: ‘Unless he calls them when they wish to be called’.
153 nor in Christendome: The alliterative ring of ‘Kent’ and ‘Christendom’ ‘seems to have been traditional’ (Var 7: 361). Cf. Wyatt, ‘Mine Own John Poins’: ‘But here I am in Kent and Christendom, / Among the Muses where I read and rhyme’ (100-01).
154–161 But the fewer . . . knowe: A reference to the Jesuit Mission of the late 1570s (Greenlaw, Var 7: 360). Cf. Maye 174-305.
155 Foxes: Alludes both to Catholics and to crypto-Catholics within the English Church. Cf. Maye 219. For the paradigm of foxes and wolves, see Maye 174-305n.
159 great hunt: Generally, an organized fox hunt, but see E.K. for an allegorical reading of the political significance.
163 Bandogs: Symbolizing law-enforcement officers.
164 thy Ball is a bold bigge curre: We adopt the capitalization offered by 1597, which resolves ‘ball’ in 1579 as the name of the cur. That ‘ball’ can designate some sort of missile or bullet suggests that the name is an apt one for the sort of dog that one might wish to unleash on wolves or foxes. It is worth noting that Roffyn’s less aggressive dog will “ball” (e.g. howl, 190) to alert his master of nighttime dangers.
171 Roffynn: E.K. at [171] and [180-225]. John Young, Bishop of Rochester (Roffensis in Latin), was Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge when Spenser was a student there, and he became Spenser’s patron in 1578 (see 176n; Hadfield 2012: 67-8, 114-8). Cf. Apr 21, where Young is referred to as ‘the Southerne shephearde’.
172–241 Say it on Diggon . . . at best: Diggon’s story of the shepherd Roffy and his dog Lowder, who work diligently to combat a wolf (dressed in sheep’s clothing) that attacks their sheep, functions topically to celebrate Bishop Young’s work at church reform against the threat of Catholicism in its many guises, while the dangers into which Lowder gets himself form a cautionary tale about the challenges of such reform. The particular occasion of Young’s vigilance has not been identified, but it probably involved the Jesuit Mission.
172 hight: Pseudo-archaic; OED lists various meanings used only by Spenser.
174 merciable: Medievalism.
176 Colin clout: September is the only ecclesiastical eclogue to refer to Spenser’s chief persona.
177 Ah . . . my ioye: Cf. Apr 9-28 and June 49-51.
178–179 Shepheards . . . carefully theyr flocks tend: Throughout the Calender, the gold standard of pastoral conduct.
180 Thilk . . . marke: ‘This same shepherd I may well note’.
184–225 Whilome there . . . same euen: Mantuan, Eclogues 9.143-6 serves as a literary template for Spenser’s Reformation allegory: Ipse homines . . . / saepe lupi effigiem moresque assumere vidi / inque suum saevire gregem multaque madere / caede sui pecoris. (‘I myself have often seen men . . . assume the shape and ways of a wolf and rage among their own flocks, drenching themselves with the slaughter of their sheep’; trans. Piepho). For the underlying biblical text, see Matt 7:15: ‘Beware of false prophetes, which come to you in shepes clothing, but inwardely they are ravening wolves’.
185 gulfe: The ‘gulf’ of his stomach, or a voracious appetite.
188 Ycladde in clothing of seely sheepe: The language self-consciously evokes allegory, as does that of 215.
194 Lowder: A common name for a shepherd’s dog.
203 Argus: Cf. Ovid, Met 1.624-7; Julye 154, Oct 31-2.
206 cote: Here, ‘coat’, a reference to Catholic vestments. Cf. 40, 106, as well as 216.
211 both . . . shidder: ‘Both young male and female sheep’; the terms denote sheep too young for their first shearing.
215 And eke . . . call: Cf. John 10:3-5. See 188n.
219–225 The dog his maisters voice . . . same euen: A variation on the scene depicted on Willye’s mazer at Aug 31-4: instead of a shepherd saving his lamb from the jaws of a wolf, a shepherd saves his dog, who himself has failed to save his sheep from a wolf.
228–235 If sike . . . to gard: Cf. Thomas Cartwright, Replye to an Answer, p. 68: ‘And therefore we muste walke in those wayes that God hathe appoynted, to bring them to saluation, whych is to feede them continually, and watche ouer them so long as they are in danger of hunger, in danger of wolues, in danger of the ennemyes, within and without, which is so long as the church is heere vpon the earth. Upon all whych things I conclude, that the residence of the pastor is necessary, and to dout whether the pastor ought to be resident amongst his flocke is to doubt whether the watchman should be in hys tower . . . or the shepheard amongst hys flocke, especially where the sheepe are continually in danger of wolues, as in the land of Jewrie, from whence thys similitude or manner of speache was taken where they watched their flockes night and day’.
230 watchfulnesse: Cf. Matt 24:42: ‘Wake therefore: for ye knowe not what houre your master wil come’.
232 with shepheard sittes not playe: Makes explicit the danger of ‘playe’ (the opposite of ‘heed and watchfulness’ [230]), especially in Maye (see 179n).
236–241 Ah Diggon . . . at best: Cf. Mantuan, Ecl 9.38: Omne opus, atque labor vult intervalla (‘Each task and labor seeks a respite’); Maye 149-57. Hobbinol’s retort to Diggon’s call for watchfulness both characterizes his commitment to pastoral retreat and expresses a genuine difficulty in a shepherd’s pastoral care. Hobbinol’s ‘“philosophy of moderation” is the “central doctrine” of the Calender’ (Hume 1984: 38, citing H.S.V. Jones and H.D. Smith).
237 waite: Cf. Luke 12:36: ‘like unto men that wait for their master [God]’.
238 fleshe: Cf. Matt 26:41: ‘the spirit in dede is readie, but the flesh is weake’.
244–245 What shall . . . to amend?: See Mantuan, Ecl 9.179: Quid faciam? Quo me vertam? (‘What should I do? Where should I turn?’; trans. Piepho). Diggon’s expression of helplessness when faced with the difficulty of the pastoral ideal of watchfulness and his call for ‘counsell’ (246) evoke an important Elizabethan principle of government—the need to counsel the monarch—and gestures to a salient role of the poet who writes a poem within a monarchy.
246–247 Ah good . . . my decaye: Cf. Mantuan, Ecl 9.32: Res est consiliis secura fidelibus uti (‘It is a deed free from care to accept trustworthy advice’; trans. Piepho).
250–257 Nethelesse . . . his head: Cf. Mantuan, Ecl 9.13-17: Antiqui potes haec mea tecta subire / iure sodalitii. Sunt hic mihi pauperis agri / iugera pauca meae vix sufficientia vitae; / quidquid id est commune puta. Tibi forsitan ulla / prospera sors aderit (‘By the right of our fellowship of old, you may enter my house here. My few acres of poor land yield me barely enough for my living. Yet such as it is, consider it yours. Perhaps some favorable destiny will come to you’; trans. Piepho). Cf. also Boccaccio, Ecl 1.22-5, 3.10, 4.1-12, 9.195-8. Cf. the conclusion of Virgil, Ecl 1.79-81 (Lindheim 1994: 2).
257 his: A difficult crux. Fortune is proverbially female, but five of the seven witnesses collated read ‘his’ and we find no other variants within inner forme K. Since correction usually (but not always) takes place early in printing, our sample (admittedly small and, therefore, quite possibly not representative) loosely suggests a correction of ‘her’ to ‘his’. A somewhat more powerful argument for the reading adopted here is that it is the lectio difficilior : that Fortune is traditionally figured female might explain compositorial adjustment from ‘his’ to ‘her’ in resistance to copy or independent from it, whereas it is difficult to imagine adjusting from ‘her’ to ‘his’ without the warrant of copy.
261 Inopem . . . fecit: ‘Plenty makes me poor’. From Ovid, Met 3.466. Cf. June 52. In Davy Dicars Dreame, Churchyard includes the phrase ‘plenty please the poore’ (the poem is reprinted in Lucas 2002: 161).
7 beades for prayers: Refers to Catholic prayer rituals.
11–12 Lidgate . . . Chaucer: For example, cf. Lydgate, Falls of Princes 6, epigraph 2; Chaucer, Rom 4552.
15 Thrise We emend to bring E.K.’s lemma into accord with both the text of the eclogue and the logic of E.K.’s gloss.
27 Debes ludibrium ventis: See Horace, Odes 1.14.15-6: Tu, nisi ventis / debes ludibrium, cave (‘Unless you are to become a plaything of the winds, take care!’).
28 Lorne: Cf. Jan 62 and Apr [4].
29 Soote: A mis-gloss, since the word does not appear in September. The same gloss appears correctly at Apr [111].
65 Priue or pert We emend to align E.K.’s lemma both with the text of the eclogue and with the Chaucerian sources. Although Chaucer uses privily with some frequency, the form he pairs with pert or apert is prive or privy; see CT Wife 1114 and 1136, Fame 717, and the pseudo-Chaucerian La Belle Dame sans Mercy 174. The pairing reflects a legal formula to indicate deeds both covert and overt. Note that, despite the lemma, E.K. glosses only ‘pert’.
32 Mantuane: Cf. Ecl 6.8-9: Omne bonum praesens minus est; sperata videntur / magna, velut maius reddit distantia lumen (‘Every good thing, when it comes, is less than it seemed. Things hoped for seem great, just as distance makes a reflected light seem greater than it is’; trans. Piepho).
33 Per Syncopen: ‘By way of syncope’ (the omission of internal letters within a word). However, E.K.’s explanation is mistaken: ‘emprise’ and ‘enterprise’ are different words.
35 Trode: Cf. Julye 14, which E.K. does not gloss.
50–51 year . . . Lorde: Either a proofreading mistake or E.K.’s failure to remember the dates, which should appear but do not; Edgar reigned 959-75. For an early modern account of Edgar’s rule, cf. Holinshed, Chronicles 1.6.23-4.694-7.
52 proper policie: Edgar required three hundred wolves per year from the King of Wales, which wiped out their population.
59 Ethelbert: King of Kent, who welcomed St. Augustine in 597 and then converted to Christianity. Ethelbert later established the religion at Canterbury, but he did not impose it on his subjects. Another Ethelbert was both King of Wessex and King of Kent (855-60); his reign was marked by invasions from the Dutch. E.K.’s explanation is spurious.
62 Great hunt: Specifically, the attack against Catholics.
65 Chaucer: Cf. CT Wife 1114, although perhaps the pseudo-Chaucerian La Belle Dame sans Mercy 173-5: ‘In her failed nothing, that I coud gesse / One wise nor other, priuie noe perte / A garrison she was, of all goodlinesse’. The 1532 and 1561 Chaucer editions read ‘priuie nor perte’.
66 Roffy: E.K. is mistaken, as a Raffy Lyonnois is mentioned instead in Marot, Eglogue de Mme Loyse de Savoye 42. Spenser adapts the name but changes the character.
74 Musarum Lachrymæ: Harvey’s Smithus, vel Musarum Lachrymae (1578) eulogizes Sir Thomas Smith (died 1577), as each of the Nine Muses sings a lament, a format Spenser adapts in Teares. For Smith, cf. Jan [10].
74–78 Gratulationum Valdinensium . . . in Hertfordshire: While on progress in the summer of 1578, Queen Elizabeth visited Audley End not far from Cambridge, where Harvey presented to her the manuscript of his Latin poem in four books, Gratulationes Valdinenses (‘Joyful Greetings from Saffron Walden’). The title records his birthplace, also nearby, and the work consists of a collection of poems to Elizabeth and five important courtiers, including Burghley, Leicester, and Sidney. Later, Harvey presented the printed version to Elizabeth at the home of his friend Arthur Capel, Hadham Hall, Hertfordshire.
80 Tyrannomastix: Not extant.
80 Ode Natalitia: Published in 1575 to commemorate the death (and celebrate the achievement) of Peter Ramus, the leading rhetorician of his day, in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572). Harvey was a leading Ramist at Cambridge (for details, see Introduction to Theatre for Worldlings).
80 Rameidos: Not extant, but the title suggests a celebration of Ramus’ life and work.
81 Philomusus: Not extant, but Harvey calls the work ‘Schollers Love’; see Let 2.553 and n; see also Stern 1979: 50-3.
81 diuine Anticosmopolita: Evidently an epic celebration of the queen’s reign but likely never completed; see Let Intro XX and Let 2, 561-3 and note. Harvey’s references to these titles suggest that some or all existed as real works either in manuscript or in idea. Thus the commonly iterated idea that these works, and others of Spenser mentioned in the Calender and elsewhere, such as Dying Pellican and Nine Comedies, did not exist, will not stand in any simple way; see SpE 737-8.
93–94 Quod . . .est: ‘That which lacks its alternations of repose will not endure’ (Ovid, Heroides 4.89).
96 Vetchie: ‘Vetch’ was often used of cornfield weeds such as tares; E.K.’s gloss, ‘of Pease strawe’, refers to pea-stalks, commonly used for fodder.
105 This poesie . . . much used of the author: For evidence, see note on the Emblem. E.K.’s comment forms an important directive for reading the Narcissus myth as central to the Spenser canon (see C. Edwards 1977).