295. TO MOVE, moving. This is a French idiom.
300. AS EAGLE FRESH OUT OF THE OCEAN WAVE, etc.
There was an ancient belief, that once in ten years
the eagle would soar into the empyrean, and plunging
thence into the sea, would molt his plumage and renew
his youth with a fresh supply of feathers.
312. HIS BRIGHT DEAW-BURNING BLADE, his bright
blade flashing with the “holy water dew”
in which it had been hardened (l. 317).
322. NE MOLTEN METTALL IN HIS BLOOD EMBREW, i.e.
nor sword bathe itself in his (the dragon’s)
blood.
335. WITH SHARPE INTENDED STING, with sharp,
outstretched sting.
366. THE GRIPED GAGE, the pledge (shield) seized
(by the dragon).
386. MISSED NOT HIS MINISHT MIGHT, felt not the
loss of its diminished strength; i.e. though
cut off, the paw still held to the shield.
xliv. In comparing the fire-spewing dragon to
a volcano, Spenser follows Vergil’s Aeneid,
iii, 571, and Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered,
iv, 8.
406. A GOODLY TREE. Cf. Genesis,
ii, 9, and Revelation, xxii, 2.
409. OVER ALL WERE RED, everywhere were spoken
of.
414. Cf. Genesis, iii, 2. Adam and
Eve were expelled from the garden lest they should
eat and live forever.
434. DEADLY MADE, a creature of death, i.e.
hell-born.
469. An imitation of an incident in the Seven
Champions in which a winged serpent attempts to
swallow St. George; i, 1.
477. AND BACK RETYRD, and as it was withdrawn.
A Gallicism.
490. WHICH SHE MISDEEM’D, in which she
was mistaken. Una feared that the dragon was
not dead.
(Canto XI)
1. Describe the three days’ fight between
the Knight and the Dragon. 2. What advantages
does each gain? 3. Study the Dragon as a type
of the conventional monster of romance, contrasting
his brutal nature with the intellectuality and strategy
of the Knight. 4. Study the battle as an allegory
of the victory of mind over matter, of virtue over
vice, of Protestantism over Romanism. 5. By what
devices does Spenser obtain the effects of terror?
Mystery and terror are prime elements in romance. 6.
Find examples of another romantic characteristic, exaggeration.
7. Do you think that in his use of hyperbole
and impossibilities Spenser shows that he was deficient
in a sense of humor? 8. Observe the lyric note
in iii and liv. 9. How does the poet impress
the reader with the size of the Dragon? 10. Which
Muse does he invoke? 11. Spenser’s poetry
is richly sensuous: find passages in which
he appeals to the sense of sight (iv, viii,
xiv), of sound (iv, ix), of touch (x,
xi, vii), of smell (xiii), of taste
(xiii), of pain (xxxvii, xxvi, xxii), of motion
(x, xv, xviii). 12. Where do you find an allegory
of baptism? Of regeneration? Of the resurrection
of Christ (the three days)? 13. Analyze the descriptions
of the coming of darkness and of dawn.
