WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 2 (of 2) cover

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

Chapter 44: FOOTNOTES:
Open in WeRead

About This Book

This second part continues an allegorical epic through linked legends that examine particular virtues—friendship, justice, courtesy—and the instability of fortune. Episodic chivalric quests, enchantments, and courtly encounters put characters through moral tests and political dilemmas, alternating martial exploits with romantic trials. Rich archaic imagery and formal stanzaic patterns present allegorical figures and moral exempla, while recurring motifs of honor, temptation, and transformation structure the narratives. The sequence closes with two brief cantos that dwell on mutability and the fleeting nature of worldly states, leaving moral questions unresolved rather than offering simple resolutions.

The VIII. Canto, vnperfite.

When I bethinke me on that speech whyleare, i
Of Mutability, and well it way:
Me seemes, that though she all vnworthy were
Of the Heav’ns Rule; yet very sooth to say,
In all things else she beares the greatest sway.
Which makes me loath this state of life so tickle,
And loue of things so vaine to cast away;
Whose flowring pride, so fading and so fickle,
Short Time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle.
Then gin I thinke on that which Nature sayd, ii
Of that same time when no more Change shall be,
But stedfast rest of all things firmely stayd
Vpon the pillours of Eternity,
That is contrayr to Mutabilitie:
For, all that moueth, doth in Change delight:
But thence-forth all shall rest eternally
With Him that is the God of Sabbaoth[633] hight:
O that great Sabbaoth God[634], graunt me that Sabaoths sight.

FOOTNOTES:

[633] ii 8 Sabaoth 1611

[634] 9 Sabaoth God 1611 Sabbath’s sight conj. Church

FINIS.