Spenser's The Faerie Queene Part 27

12. Find examples of alliteration in xix; of balance in x.x.xvii; and of Latinizing in xix; x.x.xvi; x.x.xviii, and xl.

13. Paraphrase in your own words ll. 111, 134-135, 162 (giving two interpretations); 335, 386-387.

14. What figure of speech is used in xiii, xvi, and xx?

15. Study the rich word-painting in the description of sunrise in vii. Find other examples of this poet's use of "costly" epithets.

16. Scan the following pa.s.sages: 148, 174, 178, 193, and 299.

17. Find example of tmesis (separation of prep. from ob.) in xlv.

18. What is the difference between the two wells in xliii?

19. To whom do the p.r.o.nouns in ll. 174, 175 refer?

20. What is the case of heavens in l. 193? of Sarazin in l. 217?

21. What words are omitted in ll. 188, 313, 398?

CANTO III

I. The Plot: Una wandering in quest of her Knight is guarded by a Lion. With difficulty they gain entrance to the cottage of Corceca and her daughter Abessa, the paramour of Kirkrapine. The latter is killed by the Lion. Fleeing the next day, Una falls in with Archimago disguised as the Redcross Knight. They journey on and meet a second Saracen knight, Sansloy. In the fight which ensues Archimago is unhorsed and his deception unmasked. The Lion is slain, and Una becomes the captive of Sansloy.

II. The Allegory: 1. Truth finds temporary protection in Reason, or Natural Honor (Lion), and with its help puts a stop to the Robbing of Churches (Kirkrapine), which is connived at by Blind Devotion (Corceca) and Secret Sin (Abessa). Truth is then a.s.sociated with Hypocrisy under the guise of Holiness, but it is soon unmasked by Lawlessness (Sansloy), with which Truth is forced into an unnatural alliance.

2. "The lion is said to represent Henry VIII, overthrowing the monasteries, destroying church-robbers, disturbing the dark haunts of idleness, ignorance and superst.i.tion."-Kitchin. The battle between Archimago and Sansloy refers to the contests of the Catholic powers with the Moslems. The whole canto also has a hint of the violence and lawlessness connected with the English conquest of Ireland.

Line 14. though true as touch, though true as if tested on the touchstone (by which true gold was distinguished from counterfeit).

18. And her due loves, etc., the love due to her diverted, etc.

27. Yet wished tydings, etc., yet none brought unto her the wished-for tidings of him. An awkward transposition.

34. the great eye of heaven, the sun. Cf. Paradise Lost, v. 171.

38. A ramping lyon. Reason or Natural Honor; also Henry VIII. According to the ancient belief, no lion would attack a true virgin or one of royal blood. Similar scenes are found in Sir Bevis of Hampton, The Seven Champions of Christendom, etc. Cf. I Henry IV, ii, 4. The allegory signifies that man guided merely by reason will recognize Truth and pay it homage.

51. Whose yeelded pride, etc., object of had marked, l. 52.

77. he kept both watch and ward, he kept awake and guarded her.

89. A damzell spyde, Abessa, who symbolizes Flagrant or Secret Sin.

99. her cast in deadly hew, threw her into a deathly paleness.

101. upon the wager lay, was at stake.

102. whereas her mother blynd, where her blind mother, Corceca, or Blind Devotion.

109. unruly Page. This refers to the violence with which Henry VIII forced Protestantism upon the people. In his Present State of Ireland (p. 645), Spenser speaks of the ignorance and blind devotion of the Irish Papists in the benighted country places.

116. Pater nosters, the Lord's Prayer; Aves, prayers to the Virgin.

136. Aldeboran, the Bull's Eye, a double star of the first magnitude in the constellation Taurus.

137. Ca.s.siopeias chaire, a circ.u.mpolar constellation having a fancied resemblance to a chair.

139. One knocked at the dore, Kirkrapine, the plunderer of the Church. Spenser represents in him the peculiar vices of the Irish clergy and laity.

166. stay him to advize, stop to reflect.

172. him booteth not resist, it does him no good to resist. This whole pa.s.sage refers, perhaps, to Henry VIII's suppression of the monasteries and convents in 1538-39.

185. that long wandring Greeke. Ulysses, or Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey, who wandered ten years and refused immortality from the G.o.ddess Calypso in order that he might return to Penelope.

xxii. Note the rhymes deare, heare, and teare (air). This 16th century p.r.o.nunciation still survives in South Carolina. See Ellis's Early English p.r.o.nunciation, III, 868. This stanza reads like the description of an Irish wake.

238. Or ought have done, or have done something to displease you.

239. That should as death, etc., that should settle like death, etc.

248. And chose in Faery court. See Spenser's letter to Sir W. Raleigh, p. 6.

250. her kindly skill, her natural power.

276. fierce Orions hound, Sirius, the Dog-star, the brightest of the fixed stars. The constellation Orion was named from a giant hunter who was beloved by Aurora and slain by Diana.

279. and Nereus crownes with cups, and Nereus drinks b.u.mpers in his honor. Nereus was a sea-G.o.d, son of Ocean and Earth.

282. from ground, from the land.

297. Sans loy symbolizes the pagan lawlessness in Ireland. There is also a wider reference to the struggles between the Turks and the allied Christian powers, which had been going on since the siege of Vienna in 1529.

309. vainly crossed s.h.i.+eld, Archimago's false cross lacked the protecting power of St. George's charmed true cross.

321. Lethe lake, a lake or river of Hades, whose water brought oblivion or forgetfulness to all who drank of it.

322. Refers to the ancient custom of sacrificing an enemy on the funeral altar to appease the shade of the dead.

323. The blacke infernall Furies, the Erinyes, or G.o.ddesses of vengeance, who dwelt in Erebus. They were robed in black, b.l.o.o.d.y garments befitting their gloomy character.

325. In romance it was customary for the victor to unlace the helmet of the knight whom he had unhorsed before slaying him. Friends and relatives were sometimes discovered by this precaution.

342. Ne ever wont in field, etc., was never accustomed to fight in the battle-field or in the lists of the tournament.

xliii. Contrast Sansloy's rude treatment of Una with the chivalrous respect and courtesy always shown by a true knight to woman.

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