A DAMZELL SPYDE, Abessa, who
symbolizes
Flagrant or Secret Sin.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
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.
