Chapter 33

I. _The Plot_: The Redcross Knight reaches the Brazen Tower in which Una's parents, the King and Queen of Eden, are besieged by the Dragon. The monster is described. The first day's fight is described, in which the Knight is borne through the air in the Dragon's claws, wounds him under the wing with his lance, but is scorched by the flames from the monster's mouth. The Knight is healed by a bath in the Well of Life. On the second day the Knight gives the Dragon several sword-wounds, but is stung by the monster's tail and forced to retreat by the flames. That night he is refreshed and healed by the balm from the Tree of Life. On the third day he slays the Dragon by a thrust into his vitals.

II. _The Allegory_: 1. Mankind has been deprived of Eden by Sin or Satan (Dragon). The Christian overcomes the devil by means of the whole armor of God (shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, etc.). The soul is strengthened by the ordinances of religion: baptism, regeneration, etc.

2. There is a hint of the long and desperate struggle between Reformed England (St. George) and the Church of Rome, in which the power of the Pope and the King of Spain was broken in England, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe. Some may see a remoter allusion to the delivery of Ireland from the same tyranny.

13. BE AT YOUR KEEPING WELL, be well on your guard.

iii. This stanza is not found in the edition of 1590.

30. AND SEEMD UNEATH, etc., and seemed to shake the steadfast ground (so that it became) unstable. Church and Nares take _uneath_ to mean "beneath" or "underneath"; Kitchin conjectures "almost."

31. THAT DREADFUL DRAGON, symbolical of Satan. Spenser here imitates the combat between St. George and the Dragon in the _Seven Champions of Christendom_, i.

32. This description of the dragon watching the tower from the sunny hillside is justly admired for its picturesqueness, power, and suggestiveness. The language is extremely simple, but the effect is awe-inspiring. It has been compared with Turner's great painting of the Dragon of the Hesperides.

42. O THOU SACRED MUSE, Clio, the Muse of History, whom Spenser calls the daughter of Phoebus (Apollo) and Mnemosyne (Memory).

56. TILL I OF WARRES, etc. Spenser is here supposed to refer to his plan to continue the _Faerie Queene_ and treat of the wars of the English with Philip II ("Paynim King") and the Spanish ("Sarazin").

61. LET DOWNE THAT HAUGHTIE STRING, etc., cease that high-pitched strain and sing a second (or tenor) to my (lower) tune.

120. AS TWO BROAD BEACONS. Kitchin thinks this passage is a reminiscence of the beacon-fires of July 29, 1588, which signaled the arrival of the Armada off the Cornish coast.

158. HER FLITTING PARTS, her shifting parts; referring to the instability of the air.

161. LOW STOUPING, swooping low (to the ground); a term in falconry.

167. HAGARD HAUKE, a wild, untamed falcon.

168. ABOVE HIS HABLE MIGHT, beyond the strength of which he is capable.

172. HE SO DISSEIZED, etc., i.e. the dragon being thus dispossessed of his rough grip. The construction is nominative absolute.

185. AND GREEDY GULFE DOES GAPE, etc., i.e. the greedy waters gape as if they would devour the land.

187. THE BLUSTRING BRETHREN, the winds.

228. HIS WIDE DEVOURING OVEN, the furnace of his maw, or belly.

235. THAT GREAT CHAMPION, Hercules. The charmed garment steeped in the blood of the Centaur Nessus, whom Hercules had slain, was given him by his wife Dejanira in order to win back his love. Instead of acting as a philter, the poison-robe burned the flesh from his body. Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, ix, 105.

xxviii. Observe the correspondence between the adjectives in l. 244 and the nouns in l. 245. The sense is: "He was so faint," etc.

261. THE WELL OF LIFE. This incident is borrowed from _Bevis of Hampton_. The allegory is based on _John_, iv, 14, and _Revelation_, xxii, 1.

267. SILO, the healing Pool of Siloam, _John_, ix, 7. Jordan, by bathing in which Naaman was healed of leprosy, _II Kings_, v, 10.

268. BATH, in Somersetshire, a town famous from the earliest times for its medicinal baths. SPAU, a town in Belgium noted for its healthful waters, now a generic name for German watering-places.

269. CEPHISE, the river Cephissus in Boeotia whose waters possessed the power of bleaching the fleece of sheep. Cf. _Isaiah_, i, 18. HEBRUS, a river in Thrace, here mentioned because it awaked to music the head and lyre of the dead Orpheus, as he floated down its stream. Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, xi, 50.

295. TO MOVE, moving. This is a French idiom.

300. AS EAGLE FRESH OUT OF THE OCEAN WAVE, etc. There was an ancient belief, that once in ten years the eagle would soar into the empyrean, and plunging thence into the sea, would molt his plumage and renew his youth with a fresh supply of feathers.

312. HIS BRIGHT DEAW-BURNING BLADE, his bright blade flashing with the "holy water dew" in which it had been hardened (l. 317).

322. NE MOLTEN METTALL IN HIS BLOOD EMBREW, i.e. nor sword bathe itself in his (the dragon's) blood.

335. WITH SHARPE INTENDED STING, with sharp, outstretched sting.

366. THE GRIPED GAGE, the pledge (shield) seized (by the dragon).

386. MISSED NOT HIS MINISHT MIGHT, felt not the loss of its diminished strength; i.e. though cut off, the paw still held to the shield.