The invention of
artillery
by
infernal ingenuity is an old conception of the poets.
infernal ingenuity is an old conception of the poets.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
45. Spenser probably takes the suggestion from the fountain in the gardens
of Armida in Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, xiv, 74. Cf. also the fountain
of Salmacis in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, xv, 819 _seq_.
56. POURD OUT, a metaphor borrowed from Euripides (_Herac. _, 75) and Vergil
(_AEneid_, ix, 317).
62. HIS LOOSER MAKE, his too dissolute companion.
67. AN HIDEOUS GEANT, Orgoglio, symbolizing Inordinate Pride, and the Pope
of Rome, who then claimed universal power over both church and state (x).
For a list of many other giants of romance see Brewer's _Handbook_, pp.
376-379.
104. THAT DIVELISH YRON ENGIN, cannon.
The invention of artillery by
infernal ingenuity is an old conception of the poets. There is a suggestion
of it in Vergil's _AEneid_, vi, 585 _seq. _, which is elaborated in Ariosto's
_Orlando Furioso_, ix, 91, which Milton in turn imitated in _Paradise
Lost_, vi, 516 _seq_. So in the romance of _Sir Triamour_.
112. TH' ONELY BREATH, the mere breath.
119. DO HIM NOT TO DYE, slay him not; cf. "done to death. "
138. A MONSTROUS BEAST, on which the woman of Babylon sat; _Revelation_,
xiii and xvii, 7.
139. This refers to the Romish policy of fostering ignorance among its
members.
140. THAT RENOWMED SNAKE, the Lernaean Hydra, a monster with nine or more
heads, offspring of Typhon and Echidna. It was slain by Hercules.
