" Three
kinds of elves are mentioned in the _Edda_: the black dwarfs, and brownies,
who both dwelt under ground, and the fair elves, who dwelt in
Fairyland
or
Alfheim.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
She is half human, half serpent, because error is partly true and
partly false. Dante's Fraud and Milton's Sin are similar monsters.
126. FULL OF VILE DISDAINE, full of vileness that bred disgust in the
beholder.
130. OF HER THERE BRED, etc., of her were born a thousand young ones. Her
offspring are lies and rumors of many shapes.
141. ARMED TO POINT, completely armed. Cf. Fr. _a point_, to a nicety.
145. THE VALIANT ELFE, because he was the reputed son of an Elfin or
Faerie, though really sprung from "an ancient race of Saxon kings.
" Three
kinds of elves are mentioned in the _Edda_: the black dwarfs, and brownies,
who both dwelt under ground, and the fair elves, who dwelt in
Fairyland
or
Alfheim.
"The difference between Spenser's elves and these Teutonic elves
shows how he perverts Fairy mythology in the same way as he does Classical
myths."--Percival.
168. HIS GALL DID GRATE FOR GRIEFE, his anger was aroused on account of
pain. In the old anatomy anger had its seat in the gallbladder. See
Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, I, i, 2.
177. HER VOMIT FULL OF BOOKES, etc. From 1570, when Pope Sixtus V issued
his bull of deposition against Queen Elizabeth, to 1590, great numbers of
scurrilous pamphlets attacking the Queen and the Reformed church had been
disseminated by Jesuit refugees.
181. NILUS. Pliny believed that the mud of the Nile had the power of
breeding living creatures like mice. _Hist. Nat._ ix, 84.