Spenser seems here to have in
mind, not the Christian
_housel_
or Eucharist, but the Roman marriage rites
with their symbolic fire and water.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
Kitchin and Percival think this whole passage a clever compliment to
the parsimony of the Queen's court.
161. THAT PROUD PAYNIM KING, probably a reference to Philip of Spain.
168. NOR DOEN UNDO, nor undo what has been done.
173. IN SORT AS, even as.
205. ALL WERE SHE, although she had been. IN PLACE, in various places.
313. BAIT. In Spenser's time bear-baiting was a favorite pastime of the
people and received royal patronage.
328. THE HOUSLING FIRE, the sacramental fire.
Spenser seems here to have in
mind, not the Christian
_housel_
or Eucharist, but the Roman marriage rites
with their symbolic fire and water.
347. TRINALL TRIPLICITIES, the threefold three orders of the celestial
hierarchy according to the scholastic theologians. They were as follows:
(1) Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; (2) Dominations, Virtues, Powers; (3)
Princedoms, Archangels, and Angels. Cf. Dante's _Paradiso_, xxviii, Tasso's
_Jerusalem Delivered_, xviii, 96, and Milton's _Paradise Lost_, v, 748.
375. HER TACKLES SPENT, her worn-out rigging.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
(Canto XII)
1. Contrast the tone of this canto with the preceding two. 2. When does
Spenser drop into a lighter, humorous vein? 3. Find allusions to sixteenth
century customs, e.g. that of sitting on rush-strewn floors.
