1Goe little booke: A traditional ‘envoy’ to
introduce the work, imitating Chaucer, ‘Go, litel bok’ (see headnote above). Chaucer’s
verbal formula has a remarkable afterlife, almost all of it appearing in patronage
poems, with Lydgate turning to it again and again: Troy
Book, ‘Lenvoye’ 92-107, Fall of Princes 3589-3604, Complaint of the Black Knight 674-81, The Churl and the Bird 379-87. See also Hoccleve, ‘Balade to Edward,
Duke of York’ (Seymour 1981: 55), ‘Balade to John, Duke of Bedford’ (Seymour 1981:
57); James I of Scotland, Kingis Quair 1352-79; Richard
Roos, La Belle Dame Sans Mercy 829-49; Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, Capitu 46;
Skelton, Garland or Chaplet of Laurel 1533-86. Spenser returns to
the formula in SC Envoy, line 7: ‘Goe lyttle
Calender’. He may also draw on Ovid, Tristia 1.1.23-30, when
the exiled poet directs his book to find refuge back in his library in Rome
(Stapleton 2009: 52).
2parent is vnkent: The first reference
to the poem’s anonymous publication, as at 13-4.
3president: Most obviously signifying
both president (patron) and precedent (exemplar). Yet the word had an array of
meanings, political and religious (as well as literary): ‘The appointed governor or
lieutenant of a province, . . . colony, city’; ‘A presiding god, guardian, or
patron’; ‘The head of a religious house’; even ‘A title applied to the heads of
certain colleges of British universities’ (OED).
5Enuie barke: Envy, conventionally
represented as canine (R.B. Gill 1979: 217), is a major topic of
Spenser’s poetry, the evil from which he longs to be free (SpE s.v. ‘envy’), beginning with his inaugural poem here and climaxing
in the closing books of the 1596 FQ, where he embodies the
Blatant Beast as a ‘hellish Dog’ (VI.vi.12.2). Cf. Ded Ep 169-74, where E.K. says
to Gabriel Harvey on behalf of Spenser: ‘Whose cause I pray you Sir, yf Envie shall
stur up any wrongful accusasion, defend with your mighty Rhetorick and other your
rare gifts of learning, as you can, and shield with your good wil, as you ought,
against the malice and outrage of so many enemies, as I know wilbe set on fire with
the sparks of his kindled glory.’
7Vnder the shadow of his wing: Cf. Ps
36:7, ‘under the shadowe of thy wings,’ referring to the Lord’s protection of the
faithful from evil.
10his straying flocke he fedde: The
central trope in the Calender for the pastor-poet’s role in society.
See, e.g., Jan 4n.
11his honor: While sometimes used as a general honorific, "his honor" can be used specifically to indicate a person of knightly status. Since Sidney had not yet been knighted in 1579, the phrase may indicate that
Spenser originally intended to dedicate the Calender to Robert Dudley,
earl of Leicester (SpE s.v. ‘Leicester, Robert Dudley, earl
of’ 432).
12hardyhedde: A Spenserian neologism.
Cf. E.K.’s phrasing at Ded Ep 65-6: ‘of witlesse headinesse in judging, or of
heedelesse hardinesse in condemning.’ Milton seems to have been the first to follow
Spenser's use, adapting the term as 'hardihood' in the Attendant Spirit's instructions
to the valiant but inexperienced brothers of Comus (649).
16ieopardee: Spenser shows awareness of
the risks his little book takes, from its origin in an author of humble social birth
to its criticism of political and religious authorities.
19Immeritô: Spenser’s assumed identity
in the Calender, meaning ‘The Unworthy One’. In addition to ‘the
modest Italian adjective, Spenser may intend the Latin adverb, as in Terence, Phormio 290---"Unjustly (accused)"' (A. Fowler 2012: 151).
Throughout the Letters, Spenser signs his name ‘Immerito’ (e.g.,
1.86), while Harvey repeatedly addresses Spenser as ‘Immerito’ (e.g., 2.1). Notably,
in Letters 4 Spenser signs his inset poem ‘Iambicum
Trimetrum’ with ‘Immerito’ (105/21), while in Letters 3
Harvey calls Spenser’s first wife ‘mea Domina Immerito, mea
bellissima Collina Clouta’ (597-8: ‘O my Lady Immerito, my most
beautiful Madam Colin Clout’).