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Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Chapter 6: FOOTNOTES:
By Edmund Spenser
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About This Book

A lengthy allegorical epic in Spenserian stanza unfolds through a sequence of chivalric episodes in which knights and maidens travel across enchanted realms, facing monsters, temptations, and deceptive enchantments that personify moral qualities. Each quest dramatizes a particular virtue and the trials that test it, combining courtly romance, classical allusion, and pastoral description. The diction favors archaisms and rich imagery, and the poem alternates narrative adventure with reflective digression and moral meditation.

Your owne deare sake forst me at first to leaue lii
My Fathers kingdome, There she stopt with teares;
Her swollen hart her speach seemd to bereaue,
And then againe begun[68], My weaker yeares
Captiu’d to fortune and frayle worldly feares,
Fly to your faith for succour and sure ayde:
Let me not dye in languor and long teares.
Why Dame (quoth he) what hath ye thus dismayd?
What frayes ye, that were wont to comfort me affrayd?
Loue of your selfe, she said, and deare constraint liii
Lets me not sleepe, but wast the wearie night
In secret anguish and vnpittied plaint,
Whiles you in carelesse sleepe are drowned quight.
Her doubtfull words made that redoubted knight
Suspect her truth: yet since no’vntruth[69] he knew,
Her fawning loue with foule disdainefull spight
He would not shend, but said, Deare dame I rew,
That for my sake vnknowne such griefe vnto you grew.
Assure your selfe, it fell not all to ground; liv
For all so deare as life is to my hart,
I deeme your loue, and hold me to you bound;
Ne let vaine feares procure your needlesse smart,
Where cause is none, but to your rest depart.
Not all content, yet seemd she to appease
Her mournefull plaintes, beguiled of her art,
And fed with words, that could not chuse[70] but please,
So slyding softly forth, she turnd as to her ease.
Long after lay he musing at her mood, lv
Much grieu’d to thinke that gentle Dame so light,
For whose defence he was to shed his blood.
At last dull wearinesse of former fight
Hauing yrockt a sleepe his irkesome spright,
That troublous dreame gan freshly tosse his braine,
With bowres, and beds, and Ladies deare delight:
But when he saw his labour all was vaine,
With that misformed spright he backe returnd againe.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Arg. 3 entrape 1596: entrap 1609

[19] i 4 bloody 1590 passim

[20] ii 1 But] And 1590

[21] iv 7 sat] sate 1590

[22] v 1 and innocent 1590: an Innocent 1609

[23] 9 cõpeld 1590, 1596 passim

[24] viii 3 tempests 1609

[25] ix 6 sweet, 1609

[26] 9 sildom 1609 passim

[27] x 4 They] The 1596

[28] xii 5 your hardy stroke 1590 &c.: corr. F. E.

[29] xiii 2 late, 1596

[30] xv 6 poisnous 1590

[31] xvii 1 perceiu’ed 1596

[32] xix 2 ye] you 1609

[33] xx 4 vilely 1609

[34] xxi 5 spring] ebbe 1590 &c.: corr. F. E.

[35] t’auale 1590: corr. F. E.

[36] xxii 3 lenger 1590

[37] xxiii 2 Phebus 1590

[38] 5 cumbrous 1590

[39] xxiv 6 stroke 1590

[40] 8 reft 1609

[41] xxv 7 wound. 1596

[42] xxvi 8 longer 1609

[43] xxvii 2 haste 1609

[44] xxviii 8 passeth 1596, 1609

[45] xxx 9 fits 1609

[46] xxxi 1 danger 1609

[47] 2 euill bis 1596

[48] 3 strange 1609

[49] 6 you] thee 1590

[50] xxxii 6 for wearied 1596

[51] xxxv 8 euemore 1596

[52] xl 6 sleepe 1596: sleep 1609

[53] xli 3 euer] euery 1590: corr. F. E.

[54] xlii 2 waste 1590, 1609

[55] retournd 1590

[56] 4 thrust] trust 1596

[57] 8 sights] sighes 1590: corr. F. E.

[58] xliii 4 lompish 1590

[59] 6 Hether 1590

[60] xlvi 7 vsage] visage 1609

[61] xlvii 8 boy, 1590, 1596

[62] xlviii 3 weene, 1590, 1596

[63] 9 with om. 1596, 1609

[64] xlix 3 starteth 1590

[65] mistrust, 1590, 1596

[66] l 3 t’haue 1609

[67] 7 womens 1609

[68] lii 4 begonne 1590

[69] liii 6 sith n’vntruth 1609

[70] liv 8 chose 1590