Chapter 26

I. _The Plot:_ Prince Arthur and Una are conducted by the Dwarf to Orgoglio's Castle. At the blast of the Squire's horn the Giant comes forth attended by Duessa mounted on the seven-headed Beast. In the battle which ensues Arthur wounds the Beast, slays the Giant and captures Duessa. Prince Arthur finds the Redcross Knight half starved in a foul dungeon and releases him. Duessa is stripped of her gaudy clothes and allowed to hide herself in the wilderness.

II. _The Allegory:_ 1. Magnificence, the sum of all the virtues, wins the victory over Carnal Pride, and restores Holiness to its better half, Truth. With the overthrow of Pride, Falsehood, which is the ally of that vice, is stripped of its outward show and exposed in all its hideous deformity.

2. The false Romish Church becomes drunk in the blood of the martyrs. There is a hint of the persecutions in the Netherlands, in Piedmont, of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day and the burnings under Bloody Mary. Protestant England is delivered from Popish tyranny by the honor and courage of the English people. Militant England (Prince Arthur) is assisted by the clergy (Squire) with his horn (Bible) and is guided by Truth and Common Sense (Dwarf).

23. HORNE OF BUGLE SMALL, the English Bible. Spenser here imitates the description of the magic horn of Logistilla in Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_, xv, 15, 53. Such horns are frequently mentioned in romance, e.g., _Chanson de Roland_, _Morte d' Arthur_, Hawes' _Pastime_, Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, _Huon of Bordeaux_, _Romance of Sir Otarel_, Cervantes' _Don Quixote_, etc.

50. LATE CRUELL FEAST, a probable reference to the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in Paris in 1572, and to the persecutions of Alva's Council of Blood in the Netherlands in 1567.

ix. This stanza is an imitation of Homer's _Iliad_, xiv, 414.

95. IN CYMBRIAN PLAINE, probably the Crimea, the ancient Tauric Chersonese. Some connect it with the Cimbric Chersonese, or Jutland, which was famous for its herds of bulls.

96. KINDLY RAGE, natural passion.

105. Note the Latinism "threatened his heads," and the imperfect rhyme "brands."

118. HER GOLDEN CUP, suggested by Circe's magic cup in Homer's _Odyssey_, x, 316, and the golden cup of the Babylonish woman in _Revelation_, xvii, 4.

148. THROUGH GREAT IMPATIENCE OF HIS GRIEVED HED, etc., through inability to endure (the pain of) his wounded head, he would have cast down his rider, etc.

155. IN ONE ALONE LEFT HAND, in one hand alone remaining. His left arm had been cut off (x).

xix. The uncovered shield represents the open Bible. The incident is an imitation of Ruggiero's display of his shield in _Orlando Furioso_, xxii, 85.

246. YOUR FORTUNE MAISTER, etc., be master of your fortune by good management.

268. UNUSED RUST, rust which is due to disuse; a Latinism.

296. WITH NATURES PEN, etc., i.e. by his gray hairs, at that age to which proper seriousness belongs. "I cannot tell" did not become his venerable looks.

310. THAT GREATEST PRINCES, etc. This may mean (1) befitting the presence of the greatest princes, or (2) that the greatest princes might deign to behold in person. The first interpretation is preferable.

312. A general reference to the bloody persecutions without regard to age or sex carried on for centuries by the Romish Church, often under the name of "crusades," "acts of faith," "holy inquisition," etc.

315. This may refer to the burning of heretics, under the pretext that the Church shed no blood. Kitchin thinks that it means "accursed ashes."

317. AN ALTARE, cf. _Revelation_, vi, 9. CARV'D WITH CUNNING YMAGERY, "in allusion to the stimulus given to the fine arts by the Church of Rome" (Percival).

366. BRAWNED BOWRS, brawny muscles.

375. WHAT EVILL STARRE, etc. In Spenser's day, belief in astrology, the pseudo-science of the influence of the stars on human lives, was still common.

381. There was an old familiar ballad entitled _Fortune my Foe_.

384. i.e. your good fortune will be threefold as great as your evil fortune.

384. GOOD GROWES OF EVILS PRIEFE, good springs out of our endurance of the tests and experience of evil.

391. BEST MUSICKE BREEDS DELIGHT, etc. A troublesome passage. Upton and Jortin emend _delight_ to _dislike_; Church inserts _no_ before _delight_ and omits _best_; Kitchin suggests _despight_; Grosart prefers the text as it stands with the meaning that although the best music pleases the troubled mind, it is no pleasure to renew the memory of past sufferings. I venture to offer still another solution, based on the context. When Una shows a desire to hear from her Knight a recountal of his sufferings in the dungeon, and he is silent, being loath to speak of them, Arthur reminds her that a _change of subject is best_, for the best music is that which breeds delight in the troubled ear.