The poet here follows a belief as old as Pliny
that the young of serpents fed on their mother's blood.
that the young of serpents fed on their mother's blood.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
181. NILUS. Pliny believed that the mud of the Nile had the power of
breeding living creatures like mice. _Hist. Nat. _ ix, 84. So Shakespeare,
_Antony and Cleopatra_, II, vii, 29.
199. GENTLE SHEPHEARD. In this pastoral simile, Spenser imitates Homer's
_Iliad_, ii, 469, and xvii, 641, and Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_, xiv, 109.
208. THUS ILL BESTEDD. There is a similar combat in the old romance _Guy of
Warwick_, ix, between the hero and a man-eating dragon.
217. HER SCATTRED BROOD.
The poet here follows a belief as old as Pliny
that the young of serpents fed on their mother's blood. In this entire
passage the details are too revolting for modern taste.
232. THE WHICH THEM NURST. The antecedent of _which_ is _her_. In the
sixteenth century _the_ was frequently placed before _which_, which was
also the equivalent of _who_. Cf. the Lord's Prayer.
234. HE SHOULD CONTEND, he should have had to contend.
237. BORNE UNDER HAPPY STARRE. Belief in astrology was once common, and
Spenser being a Pythagorean would hold the doctrine of the influence of the
stars on human destiny.
239. THAT ARMORIE, the armor of the Christian warrior. _Ephesians_, vi, 13.
