249. AFTER FAIRE AREEDES, afterwards graciously tells.
267. WITH DYING FEARE, with fear of dying.
269. WHOSE LIKE INFIRMITIE, etc., i.e. if you are a victim of love, you may also fall into the hands of despair.
270. BUT GOD YOU NEVER LET, but may God never let you, etc.
272. TO SPOYLE THE CASTLE OF HIS HEALTH, to take his own life. Cf. Eliot's _Castell of Helthe_, published in 1534.
273. I WOTE, etc. I, whom recent trial hath taught, and who would not (endure the) like for all the wealth of this world, know (how a man may be so gained over to destroy himself).
275. This simile is a very old one. See Homer's _Iliad_, i, 249; _Odyssey_, xviii, 283; _Song of Solomon_, iv, 11; and Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, ii, 51.
286. FOR GOLD NOR GLEE. Cf. for love or money.
294-296. Imitated from Vergil's _Æneid_, vi, 462.
320. A DREARIE CORSE, Sir Terwin, mentioned in xxvii.
332. JUDGE AGAINST THEE RIGHT, give just judgment against thee.
336. WHAT JUSTICE, etc., what justice ever gave any other judgment but (this, that) he, who deserves, etc.
340. IS THEN UNJUST, etc., is it then unjust to give each man his due?
xxxix. Observe the subtle argument on suicide in this and st. xl.
xli. Spenser here puts into the mouth of the Knight Socrates' argument to Cebes in their dialogue on the immortality of the soul. Plato's _Phædo_, vi.
403. THY DATE, the allotted measure or duration of thy life.
408. THY SINFULL HIRE, thy service of sin.
431. AS HE WERE CHARMED, etc., as if he were under the spell of magic incantation.
438. IN A TABLE, in a picture. The horrors of the Last Judgment and the torments of the lost were favorite subjects of the mediæval Catholic painters.
468. FIRE-MOUTHED DRAGON. The dragons of romance are all described as fire-breathing,
473. THAT CHOSEN ART, a reference to the doctrine of Election. _Mark_, xiii, 20.
476. ACCURST HAND-WRITING. A reference to Paul's letter to the _Colossians_, ii, 14, in which he declares that the gospel of grace has superseded the law of Moses.
484. HE SO HIMSELFE HAD DREST, he had thus attempted (to take his life).
1. Give an account of Prince Arthur's vision of the Faerie Queene. 2. Interpret his search for her as an allegory of the young man's quest after his ideal. 3. Observe in xvii an allusion to Spenser's patron, Lord Leicester, who was a favored suitor for Elizabeth's hand. 4. What presents did the Knights exchange at parting? 5. Characterize Sir Trevisan by his appearance, speech, and actions. What does he symbolize? 6. Note the skill with which Spenser arouses interest before telling of the interview with Despair. 7. What was the fate of Sir Terwin? Its moral significance? 8. Describe the Cave of Despair, and show what effects are aimed at by the poet. 9. Compare with Despair Bunyan's Giant Despair and the Man in the Iron Cage. 10. Trace the sophistries by which Despair works in the mind of the Knight, e.g. the arguments from necessity (fatalism), humanity, cowardice, discouragement and disgust on account of his past failures, dread of the future, of God's justice, and the relief of death. 11. Does Despair show knowledge of the Knight's past? 12. With what powerful truths does Una meet the arguments of Despair? 13. Where do you find reference to mediæval art?