SIX WIZARDS OLD, the
remaining
six of the Seven Deadly Sins, Wrath,
Envy, Lechery, Gluttony, Avarice, and Idleness.
Envy, Lechery, Gluttony, Avarice, and Idleness.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
21. HAVING SCAPED HARD, having escaped with difficulty.
24. LAZARS. Leprosy was a common disease in England even as late as the
sixteenth century.
49. MALVENU, ill-come, as opposed to _Bienvenu_, welcome.
73. LIKE PHOEBUS FAIREST CHILDE, Phaethon, the son of Helios. He was killed
by a thunderbolt from the hand of Zeus, as a result of his reckless driving
of the chariot of the sun.
86. A DREADFULL DRAGON, Fallen Pride.
94. This genealogy of Pride is invented by the poet in accord with the
Christian doctrine concerning this sin.
107.
SIX WIZARDS OLD, the remaining six of the Seven Deadly Sins, Wrath,
Envy, Lechery, Gluttony, Avarice, and Idleness. See Chaucer's _Parson's
Tale_ for a sermon on these mortal sins, Gower's _Dance of the Seven Deadly
Sins_, and Laugland's _Piers Plowman_.
145. COCHE. Spenser imitates Ovid and Homer in this description of Juno's
chariot. The peacock was sacred to the goddess, who transferred to its tail
the hundred eyes of the monster Argus. See Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, i, 625
_seq_.
157. WITH LIKE CONDITIONS, etc. The behests were of a kind similar to the
nature of the six Sins.
174. HE CHALENGED ESSOYNE, he claimed exemption.
185. LIKE A CRANE. This refers to Aristotle's story of a man who wished
that his neck were as long as a crane's, that he might the longer enjoy the
swallowing of his food. _Nic.
