425. TO HER LAST DECAY, to her utter ruin.
426. Spenser leaves the fight between Sansloy
and Sir Satyrane unfinished. Both warriors appear
in later books of the Faerie Queene.
(Canto VI)
1. Who rescued Una from Sansloy? 2. How
does Una repay their kindness? 3. How was she
treated by them? 4. Explain the references to
the various classes of nymphs. 5. Look up the
classical references in xvi and xviii. 6. Why
is Una described as “luckelesse lucky”?
7. What customs of the early Christians are referred
to in xix? 8. What does Sir Satyrane symbolize
in the allegory? 9. What was his character and
education? 10. Note the Elizabethan conception
of the goddess Fortune in xxxi. 11. Did Una act
ungratefully in leaving the Satyrs as she did? 12.
Who is the weary wight in xxxiv? 13. What
news of St. George did he give? Was it true? 14.
Who is the Paynim mentioned in xl? 15. Note Euphuistic
antithesis in xlii. 16. Explain the figures in
iv, vi, x, xliv. 17. Paraphrase ll. 289, 296.
18. Find Latinisms in xxv; xxvi; xxviii;
xxxi; and xxxvii. 19. Describe the fight at the
end of the Canto.
I. The Plot: (Continuation of Canto V).
Duessa pursues the Redcross Knight, and overtakes
him sitting by an enchanted fountain, weary and disarmed.
He is beguiled into drinking from the fountain, and
is quickly deprived of strength. In this unnerved
and unarmed condition he is suddenly set upon by the
giant Orgoglio. After a hopeless struggle he is
struck down by the giant’s club and is thrust
into a dungeon. Una is informed by the dwarf
of the Knight’s misfortune and is prostrated
with grief. Meeting Prince Arthur, she is persuaded
to tell her story and receives promise of his assistance.
II. The Allegory: 1. The Christian soldier,
beguiled by Falsehood, doffs the armor of God, and
indulges in sinful pleasures, and loses his purity.
He then quickly falls into the power of Carnal Pride,
or the brutal tyranny of False Religion (Orgoglio).
He can then be restored only by an appeal to the Highest
Honor or Magnificence (Prince Arthur) through the good
offices of Truth and Common Sense.
2. In the reaction from the Reformation, Protestant
England by dallying with Romanism (Duessa, Mary Queen
of Scots) falls under the tyrannic power of the Pope
(Orgoglio), with whom Catholic England was coquetting.
At this juncture National Honor and Consciousness
comes to the relief of Protestantism. There is
personal compliment to either Lord Leicester or Sir
Philip Sidney.
19. HE FEEDES UPON, he enjoys. A Latinism:
cf. Vergil’s Aeneid, iii.
37. PHOEBE, a surname of Diana, or Artemis, the
goddess of the moon.
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.
