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Renaissance Criticism and the Diction of the Faerie Queene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Emma Field Pope
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Extract

Three and a half centuries of criticism confront the student of today who attacks the problem of Spenser's diction. The purpose of the following study is not so much to present new material in the field of Spenserian scholarship as to effect a synthesis of the many theories which have been put forward and thus to present the whole subject more comprehensively.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , September 1926 , pp. 575 - 619
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1926

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References

Note 1 in page 575 This article is an excerpt from an unpublished study, The Reflection of Renaissance Criticism in Spenser's Faerie Queene, deposited in the library of the University of Chicago in 1920; see F. I. Carpenter, A Reference Guide to Spenser (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1923), p. 294. In revising for publication I have added references to articles published since 1920.

Note 2 in page 575 See C. R. Baskervill, “The Early Fame of The Shepheard's Calender,” P.M.L.A., XXVIII, 291-313.

Note 3 in page 575 Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy (1581) (ed. A. S. Cook, New York, 1890), p. 47; G. Harvey, Three Proper and wittie familiar Letters (1580), Works (ed. Grosart, Huth Library), I, 76, 95, 100-103. This criticism, ostensibly directed toward quantitative verse, shows Harvey's fear of Spenser's excesses. He condemns the Faerie Queene for deficiency in “the finenesse of plausible Elocution” (p. 195). He warns that “to bring our language in Arte” it is necessary “first of all universally to agree upon one and the same Ortographie” and that “we are not to goe a little farther, either for Prosody or the Orthography .... then we are licenced and authorified by the ordinarie use and custome,and proprietie, and Idiome, and, as it were Maiestie of our Speach: which I accounte the only infallible and souveraine Rule of all Rules.” “Corrupte Orthography,” he says, is the principal cause of “corrupte Prosodye” and he illustrates his meaning by examples showing the difference in pronunciation and in syllable number induced by variant spelling; Puttenham, The Arte of Poesie, Bk. II, Chap IX; Bk. III, Chap IV. The critic, in detail, condemns methods employed by Spenser but does not name the poet. S. Daniel, Delia (1591), Sonnet LII; Edmund Bolton, Eypercritica, Ancient Critical Essays (ed. Jos. Haslewood, London, 1815), II, 249: Ben Jonson, Discoveries (1620-1635) (ed. F. Schelling, Boston, 1892), p. 57; Sir William Davenant, “Preface to Gondibert” (1650), Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century (ed, J. Spingarn, Oxford, 1908), II, 6.

Note 4 in page 576 William Webbe, Of English Poetry, Elizabethan Critical Essays (ed. G. Smith, Oxford, 1904), I, 263: Webbe declares Spenser equal to “Theocritus or Virgill, whom in mine opinion, if the coursenes of our speech (.....) had been no more let [hindrance] unto him then theyr pure native tongues were unto them, he would have (if it might be) surpassed them.” He then cites E. K. in praise of the “framing hys wordes.” Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England (1662), ed. J. Nichols (London, 1812), II, 80; Edward Phillips, Preface to Theatrum Poetarum (1675), Crit. Ess. of the 17th Cent., op. cit., p. 271: Fuller states that Spenser's “energie” “shines through the roughest, most unpolish't and antiquated language,” and that he has “majeste” despite “his Rustie obsolete words, with all his rough-hewn, clowterly Verses.”

Note 5 in page 576 Logonomia Anglica, ed. Jiriczek, Quellen und Forschungen, XC, 103-29, 145. Note on p. 107 a brief discussion of foreign and old words.

Note 6 in page 576 Works (ed. Saintsbury, Edinburgh, 1889), XIV, 227.

Note 7 in page 576 Ibid., “Dedication Prefixed to Works of Virgil,” XIII, 324.

Note 8 in page 577 Ibid., “Essay on Satire,” pp. 17-18.

Note 9 in page 577 Ibid., “Dedication,” p. 325.

Note 10 in page 577 Op. cit., pp. 323-4.

Note 11 in page 577 Op. cit., “Essay on Satire,” pp. 17, 18, 19, 21.

Note 12 in page 577 “A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry (1709),” Works (ed. Croker and Elwin, London, 1871), I, 265.

Note 13 in page 577 Works (ed. N. Y. 1903), III, 61, 62; Rambler, 121 (Cited in part by H. C. Corey, Critics of Spenser (Univ. of Cal. Pub. 1912), p. 153.

Note 14 in page 577 Observations on the Faerie Queene (1754), London, 1807. Sect. IV, pp. 162-185.

Note 15 in page 577 Cf. Todd, Works of Spenser (London, 1805), I, xiii.

Note 16 in page 578 Hughes (1715); Upton (1758); Todd (1805).

Note 17 in page 578 Biographia Literaria (ed. E. L. Shawcross, Oxford, 1907), II, 58, 59.

Note 18 in page 578 “Spenser” (1875), Prose Works (Riverside Ed.) IV, 276, 283, 301-2, 208, 347. Cf. Church. R. W., “Spenser” (1879), English Men of Letters (London, 1909), pp. 2, 14, 35, 46, 131-140.

Note 19 in page 579 English Writers (London, 1892), IX, Bk. VIII, 84-88.

Note 20 in page 579 See Georg Wagner, On Spenser's Use of Archaisms, Halle, 1879; S. F. Barrow, Studies in the Language of Spenser, (MS. Diss. in Univ. of Chicago Libraries) 1902. J. W. Draper, “Spenser's Linguistics in the Present Stale of Ireland,” Mod. Phil. XVII, 471-86; and reply by F. F. Covington, Jr., “Another View of Spenser's Linguistics,” Studies in Philol., XIX, 244-6.

Note 21 in page 579 Spenser's Works, ed Grosart, I, App., p. 408 ff; see also Wilkinson, “Edmund Spenser and the Lancashire Dialect,” Trans. Hist. Soc. of Lancashire and Cheshire, VII, 87 ff.

Note 22 in page 579 P. W. Long, “Spenser's Rosalind,” Anglia, XXXI (1908), 72 ff.

Note 23 in page 579 “Die Dialektwörter in Spenser's ‘Shepherd's Calendar’ ” (1914) Herrig's Archiv, CXXXII, 401-4.

Note 24 in page 579 “Spenserian Biography,” The Colonnade, XIV (1921-22), 35-46; J.E.G. Phil., XXI (1922), 675-79; Ibid., XVIII, 556-583.

Note 25 in page 579 A. J. Ellis, Early Engl. Pronunciation, E.E.T.S. 1871, Part III, 845-871; H. Bradley, The Making of English, N.Y. 1904, p. 227; The Shepheards Calendar, ed C. H. Herford, Lond. 1907, Introd., pp. xlviii-lxiii.

Note 26 in page 579 J. B. Fletcher “Areopagus and Pleiade,” Jour. of Germ. Phil., II, 429-453.

Note 27 in page 579 Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, N. Y., 1912.

Note 28 in page 579 Quarterly Review, 1822, p. 229; Church, op. cit., p. 2. Morley, op. cit., pp. 84-88; Sidney Lee, Eliz. Sonnets, Intro., pp. xcii-xcix. Geo. Wyndham, “The Pleiade and the Elizabethans” (1907); Edin. Review, 205, p. 357; Lowell, op. cit., p. 283; Courthope, Hist. of Eng. Poetry, II, 244.

Note 29 in page 579 Op. cit., pp. 439-445; MacKail, J. W., The Springs of Helicon (London, 1909), p. 75.

Note 30 in page 580 “The Critical Origins of Spenser's Diction,” Mod. Lang. Rev., XVII, 1-16.

Note 31 in page 580 See M. Y. Hughes, “Spenser and the Greek Pastoral Triad,” Studies in Philol. XX, 184-215; see R. M. Parker, “Spenser's Language and the Pastoral Tradition,” Language, I, 80-87. Mr. Parker reviews Mr. Hughes' article and ably upholds the view that Spenser followed both classic and pastoral tradition and the principle of decorum.

Note 32 in page 580 Selincourt, Edition of Spenser's Works (1912), Introduction, pp. xviii-xix, lxi. G. H. Palmer, Formative Types of English Poetry, (Cambridge, 1918), pp. 76-77; Lowell, op. cit., p. 302; Quar. Rev., (1922), op. cit., p. 287.

Note 33 in page 580 Bradley, op. cit., p. 228; G. L. Craik, Eng. Lit. and Lang., I, 506, 529. Courthope, op. cit., p. 287.

Note 34 in page 580 See Thos. Rymer, Pref. to Rapin (1674), Crit. Ess. of the 17th Cent., op. cit., II, 168: “We must blame the Italians for debauching great Spenser's judgment (Ref. is to epic form);” L. Emstein, The Italian Renaissance in England (N. Y. 1913), pp. 341-360: “A learned poet like Spenser would find there [Italy] as well a more serious couception of the dignity of poetry, an artistic conscience, and a love of beauty for its own sake, which he could well emulate (p. 347);” “It seemed in many cases as if antiquity interpreted by Italians was more congenial to the English than the ancient works themselves (p. 347) ;” for discussion of language see pp. 360-61.

Note 35 in page 581 Einstein, op. cit., p. 344: “Art was the common bond uniting them; it drew Spenser toward Italy, and made his greatness as a poet shine in the austerity and purity of his spirit, presented with the beauty of his art.”

Note 36 in page 581 Thos. Nashe (Pref. to Greene's Menaphon) upholds Spenser as “the tutchstone of Arte” against Spain, France, Italy, the “worlde.”

Note 37 in page 581 L'Ethica d'Aristotele, Firenze, 1549, p. 191.

Note 38 in page 581 Poetices Libri Septem, Apud Antonium Vincentium, 1561, II, 214. [Method or art is to be learned through the comparison of Homer and Vergil]: “Homeri ingenium maximum: ars eiusmodi, vt earn potius inuenisse, quàm excoluisse videatur. Quare neque mirandum est, si in eo naturae Idea quaedam, non ars extare dicatur. Neque censura haec pro calumnia accipienda. Vergilius verò artem ab eo rudem acceptam lectioris naturae studiis atque iudicio, ad summum extulit fastigium perfectionis.” Cf. Vauquelin de la Fresnaye: L'Art Poetique François, (1574; pub.. 1605), ed. Georges Pellissier, Paris, 1885, pp. 3-4, w. 55 ff.;vv.69-71;vv.77-80;vv.439-42. Art vs. Nature:

De mesme en tous les arts formez sur la Nature,
Sans art il ne faut point marche à l'aventure:
Autrement Apollon ne guidant point nos pas,
Monter au double mont ne nous souffriroit pas;
Les chemins sont tracez, qui veut par autre voye
Regaigner les devants, bien souvent se fourvoyé:
Car nos sçauans maieurs nous ont desia tracé
Vn sentier qui de nous ne doit estre laissé.
Pour ce ensuiuant les pas du fils de Nicomache,
Du harpeur de Calabre, et tout ce que remache
Vide, et Minturne après, i'ay cet ceuvre apresté.
...........................................................................
Mais qui selon cet Art du tout se formera
Hardiment peut oser tout ce qui luy plaira
Escriuant en françois;
...........................................................................
Mais tout par art se fait, tout par art se construit,
Par art guide les Naux le Nautonnier instruit,
Et sur tous le Poète en son dous exercice
Mesle avec la nature vn plaisant artifice;
Tesmoin en est cet Art, qui par les vers conté
À tous les autres arts aisément surmonté.
...........................................................................
Mais il faut de cet Art tous les preceptes prendre,
Quand tu voudras parfait vn tel ouvrage rendre:
Par ci par là meslé rien ici tù ne lis,
Qui ne rende les vers d'un tel oeuvre embellis.

Note 1 in page 583 The Poetics (Trans. by S. H. Butcher, ed., Macmillan and Co. Lim., London, 1911), ch.XXL, 2.

Note 2 in page 583 Ibid., See also citations of Cretan (ch.XXV, 9), Dorian, and Athenian words (ch.III,3).

Note 3 in page 583 Ibid., XXII, 2.

Note 4 in page 583 Ibid., XXII, 10.

Note 5 in page 583 Ibid., XXIV, 5.

Note 6 in page 584 Ibid., XXII, 4.

Note 7 in page 584 Ibid., XXII, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Note 8 in page 584 Ibid., XXII, 4, 6.

Note 9 in page 584 Ibid., XV, 1-5; cf. VI, 17; IX, 4; and XIII, 1-3.

Note 10 in page 585 The free vocabulary of the authors quoted is notable. Cato and Ennius used old, harsh, and dialect words: Plautus drew on the vocabulary of the middle and lower classes for slang and foreign importations. Caecilius (Statius), himself a foreigner, wrote a florid Latin, mixed with foreign phrasings and terms. See Cicero Ad Atticus vii, 3, 10.

Note 11 in page 585 Ars Poetica, vv. 46-72.

Note 12 in page 585 Ibid., vv. 126-7; v. 309; cf. vv. 89-98.

Note 13 in page 585 Ibid., vv. 114 ff.

Note 14 in page 585 Quintilian has been omitted here solely because his criticism is directed toward prose rather than poetic diction. He is, however, at times startlingly close in thought and phrasing to the Poetics of Aristotle. He makes the three divisions of style depend chiefly upon diction (Institutio Orat., I, v, 1-2; XII, x, 58-80), and classifies words as native or foreign, simple or compound, literal or metaphorical, current or coined (I, v, 3). He discusses barbarisms, solecisms, dialect words, importaions, especially from the Greek and notes the difficulty in adapting these words to Latin inflections (I, v, 5-72; vi, 1-38). He notes, as does Aristotle, the majesty and charm of old words (I, vi, 39; VIII, iii, 24-30) and discusses the authority of example in their use, but warns against both vulgarity and obscurity. Coinage also falls under his ban (VIII, iii, 31-37) although he admits the efficacy of such words. He deals in detail with propriety (VIII, ii, 1-11), traduclio (IX, iii, 70ff), change (X, i, 27-31), that is the lengthening, contraction, transposition, and division of words, the acquisition of vocabulary (X, i, 7), and with denotation and connotation (V, xi, 26-27).

Note 15 in page 586 De Vulgari Eloquentia, Bk. I, cap. x.

Note 16 in page 586 Ibid., Bk. I, cap. xvi; Trissino (De La Poetica, Div. I, p. 2: Tutte le Opere, Verona, 1729) recognized that the language of Dante was based primarily on the Tuscan dialect. This is now a matter of philological certainty.

Note 17 in page 586 Op. cit., Bk. II, cap. v.; cap. iii.

Note 18 in page 586 Ibid., cap. ii.

Note 19 in page 586 Ibid., cap. iv.

Note 20 in page 587 De Arte Poetica: Bk. III, vv. 170ff.

Note 21 in page 587 Ibid., vv. 267-271.

Note 22 in page 587 Ibid., vv. 272-287.

Note 23 in page 587 Ibid., vv. 288-293.

Note 24 in page 587 Ibid., vv. 305 ff.

Note 25 in page 587 Familiarity with Latin inflection made this an easy task. The practice was universal both before and during the Renaissance. It met the exigencies of metre and softened otherwise inharmonious elements. Contemporary familiarity with the names prevented the obscurity which the custom has occasionally caused in later times.

Note 26 in page 587 Op. cit., vv. 341-345.

Note 27 in page 587 See Poetices libri septem, Lib. VII, cap. 6; IV, 45, 46, 47.

Note 28 in page 587 De La Poetica: Div. I, p. 3, 4: Mixture of dialects demands a common language. Words should be in use by living authors and accepted everywhere; Authors may invent words. Of words not found in authors, but still in use, although it is, and will be lawful to use them, caution is necessary. If common to all languages they may be used safely. “Ma se sono particulari di una lingua, hanno bisogno di sottile considerazione; perciò che, se sono belle, e tali, che si possano intendere facilmente da tutti, si ponno sicuramente usare siano di che lingua si voglia;” .... “e queste specialmente stano bene ad usarsi ne lo Eroico, nel quale la varietà di langue come dice Aristotele, si ricerca; e massimamente dove interviene il costume; cioè quando s'induce a parlare une di un paese, il cui costume è di usare comunemente parole di quello, il che fa spesso Dante et altri singularissiml Poeti.”

Note 29 in page 588 Ibid., pp. 3, 4. Of ancient words there are two classes: those entifely obsolete, those in use by peasants and mountaineers; these are not to be used, “se non rarissime volte; e denno porsi in luogo commodo; et ove stia bene l'altezza, et ammirazione, le quali nasceno spesse volte de la novità.”

Note 30 in page 588 For general reference see: Op. cit., Div. I., pp. 3-5; Div. V.; Preface to Sofonisba (Opere, 1300); translation of Dante: De La Volgare Eloquenza (Opere, I, 147 ff).

Note 31 in page 588 The Doric is recognized as the most rustic and unpolished of Greek dialects.

Note 32 in page 588 Op. cit., Div. VI, p. 137.

Note 33 in page 589 Dell 'Arte Poetica, Venice, 1551, p. 69.

Note 34 in page 589 Ibid., p. 70.

Note 35 in page 589 Ibid., p. 70; Battaglie per diffensa dell' Italica lingua, Naples, 1743, p. 3.

Note 36 in page 589 Ibid., p. 70; pp. 88-89.

Note 37 in page 589 De Poeta, Venice, 1559, Bk. VI, p. 447.

Note 38 in page 590 Ibid., p. 555.

Note 39 in page 590 L'Arte Poetica, Bk. IV, p. 340.

Note 40 in page 590 Ibid., Bk. I, p. 30.

Note 41 in page 590 Ibid., Bk. IV, p. 321.

Note 42 in page 590 Ibid., Bk. IV, pp. 301, 321.

Note 43 in page 590 Ibid., Bk. I, pp. 45-49; Bk. II, pp. 113-129; Bk. IV, pp. 426-427; De Poeta, Bk. I, p. 26.

Note 44 in page 590 Founded in 1582. The academy was the offshoot of older organizations. Its purpose was the purification of the language, its standard the Tuscan of Dante and Petrarch. The extreme conservatism of its standards gave rise, to furious opposition, and led to the famous Anti-Cruscan disputations.

Note 45 in page 590 Del Poema Eroico (Le Prose Diverse, ed. Guasti, Firenze, 1873, Vol. I), Lib. IV, p. 200.

Note 46 in page 591 Ibid., p. 259.

Note 47 in page 591 Ibid., p. 260. Examples of onomatopoeia: Dull thud—procumbit humi bos; calmness:—ruit oceano nox; noise of battle: “ .... perfractaque quairupedantum ........ Pectora pectoribus rumpunt ....”

Note 48 in page 592 Ibid., p. 262.

Note 49 in page 592 Op. cit., Apologia Del Poema, p. 374.

Note 50 in page 592 Ibid., p. 375.

Note 51 in page 592 Ibid., p. 374-375.

Note 52 in page 592 Ibid., p. 376.

Note 53 in page 592 L'Anticrusca : overo Il Paragone dell 'Italiana Lingua, pp. 2-4.

Note 54 in page 592 Ibid., p. 7 ff.

Note 55 in page 592 Ibid., p. 5. He refers with praise to Salviati's edition, reconstructed from ancient texts with singular diligence, and restored to a true reading.

Note 56 in page 592 Ibid., p. 60.

Note 57 in page 593 Apologia Gli Amori di Dafne e Cloe, Rime di Annibal Caro, (Società Editrice Sonzogns, Milan, 1900), pp. 35-37.

Note 58 in page 594 Introduction to Rime et Prose of Minturno, p. 11; cf. Ruscelli's preface to I Fiori delle Rime (Venice, 1569); see also Belieforest's Epistres des Princes (Trans. from Ruscelli, Paris, 1572), pp. 203-4.

Note 69 in page 594 Le Grand et Vrai Art de Pleine Rhetorique de Pierre Fabri (1521), ed. par A. Héron (Rouen, 1889), pp. 22, 27, 66-67.

Note 60 in page 594 Art Poetique Françoys (1548), ed. par Gaiffe, Paris, 1910, chap. iv, pp. 29-33.

Note 61 in page 595 Ibid., p. 31, note 2.

Note 62 in page 595 La Defense et illustration (1549) : Œuvres Choisies, ed. De Fouquieres, (Paris, 1878), chap. vi, pp. 44-46.

Note 63 in page 596 Pref. to Françiade: Œuvres de Ronsard (Paris, 1866), VII. 32.

Note 64 in page 596 Cf. L'Abrégé: Op. cit., II, 321. Here Ronsard warns against the language of the court as affected and often very bad.

Note 65 in page 596 Pref. to Françiade, pp. 33-34.

Note 66 in page 596 L'Abrégé, p. 320.

Note 67 in page 596 Ibid., p. 335.

Note 68 in page 596 Ibid., p. 321.

Note 69 in page 596 Ibid., p. 335.

Note 70 in page 597 Ibid., p. 321.

Note 71 in page 597 L'Art Poetique, ed. par Pellissier, (Paris, 1855) L. I, 315-345 ff.; 1. 365 ff.; 1. 385; 11. 301-2; 11. 595-601; 11. 835-870; 11. 408 ff.

Note 72 in page 597 Ibid., L. II, 11. 907 ff ; 11. 975 ff.

Note 73 in page 597 L'Art Poetique, L. IV, chap. 3, p. 133 ff ; L. III, p. 77.

Note 74 in page 597 Thos. Wilson, Arte of Rhetorique, (1560) Bk. III, pp. 160-166; Ascham's School-master (London, 1909), Bk. I, pp. 72-92; the controversial writings of Harvey and Nash; Robt. Greene's Quips for an Upstart Courtier; Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie: Bk. III, chap. IV; Wm. Webbe, A Discourse of Englishe Poetrie : Elizabethan Critical Essays, ed. G. C. Moore Smith, I, 246.

Note 75 in page 598 Op. cit., ed. G. H. Mar (Clarendon Press, 1909), Bk. III: “Among all other lessons this should first be learned, that wee neuer affect any straunge or ynkehorne termes, but to speake as is commonly receiued: neither seeking to be ouer fine nor yet liuing ouer-carelesse vsing our speeche as most men doe, and ordering our wittes as the fewest haue done. Some seeke so far for outlandish English that they forget altogether their mothers language. And I dare sweare this, if some of their mothers were aliue, thei were not able to tell what they say; and yet these fine English clerkes will say, they speake in their mother tongue, if a man should charge them for counterfeiting the Kings English. Some farre iourneyed gentleman at their retime home, like as they loue to goe in forraine apparell, so thei will pouder their talke with ouer sea language. He that commeth lately out of Fraunce, will talke French English and neuer blush at the matter. An other chops in with English Italianated, and applieth the Italian phrase to our English speaking, the which is, as if an Oratour that professeth to vtter his mind in plaine Latine, would needes speake Poetrie, and farre fetched colours of straunge antiquitie..... The fine courtier will talke nothing but Chaucer. The misticall wiseman and Poeticall Clerkes will speake nothing but quaint Prouerbes, and blinde Allegories, delighting much in their owne darkenesse, especially, when none can tell what they doe say. The vnlearned or foolish phantasticall, that smelles but of learning (such fellowes as haue seen learned men in their daies) wil so Latin their tongues, that the simple can not but wonder at their talke, and thinke surely they speake by some reuelation.

Note 76 in page 599 Letter to Thos. Hoby prefixed to his translation of the Courtier, Tudor Translations (London, 1900), XXIII, 12-13.

Note 77 in page 599 A group of noble young men were, in the eleventh year of Henry VIII'! reign, by public remonstrance of the ministers, banished from the court for no other reason than they “were so high in love with the French court” that they saw no good in England (Hall's Chronicles, p. 592). Lyly in his Euphues (pp. 314,-15,-16.) records hatred of all things Italian,

Note 78 in page 599 A Short 'Treatise on Verse (1584) : Mis. Crit. Ess., I, 218.

Note 79 in page 600 The letter of E. K. is excepted as being a direct expression of Spenser's views.

Note 80 in page 600 The Arte of English Poesie (1569), Bk. III, chap. 4: “This part [diction] in our maker or Poet must be heedyly looked vnto, that it be naturall, pure, and the most vsuall of all his countrey; and for the same purpose rather that which is spoken in the kings court, or in the good townes and Cities within the land, then in the marches and frontiers, or in port townes, where straungers haunt for traffike sake, or yet in Vniuersities where Schollers vse much peeuish affectation of words out of the primatiue languages, or finally, in any vplandish village or corner of a Realme, where is no resort but of poore rusticall or vnciuill people: neither shall he follow the speach of a craftes man or carter or other of the inferiour sort, though he be inhabitant or bred in the best towne and Citie in this Realme, for such persons doe abuse good speaches by strange accents or ill shapen soundes and false ortographie. But he shall follow generally the better brought vp sort, such as the Greekes call charientes, men ciuill and graciously behauored and bred. Our maker therfor at these dayes shall not follow Piers plowman, nor Gower, nor Lydgate nor yet Chaucer, for their language is now out of vse with vs; neither shall he take the termes of Northern-men, such as they vse in dayly talke, whether they be noble men or gentlemen or of their best clarkes, all is a matter; nor in effect any speech vsed beyond the riuer of Trent, though no man can deny but that theirs is the purer English Saxon at this day, yet it is not so Courtly nor so currant as our Southerne English is; no more is the far Westerne mans speach.”

Note 81 in page 601 Ibid., chapters iv, v, vi, vii, viii.

Note 82 in page 601 Defense of Poesy (1595), ed. A. S. Cook (N. Y., 1890), pp. 52, 54.

Note 83 in page 601 See also Webbe, op., cit., pp. 227 ff.

Note 84 in page 601 Spenser's letter to Harvey, Works of Spenser, ed. Grosart, IX, 273.

Note 85 in page 601 Op. cit., p. 47.

Note 86 in page 602 Here mention should be made of Hoby's translation (1561) of Castiglione's Courtier.

Note 87 in page 602 Ascham attests the popularity of such works: “Yet I know when God's Bible was banished the Court and ”Morte Arthur“ received into the prince's chamber.” For popular taste see also Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books, or Robt. Laneham's Letter (1575), Ballad Soc., London, 1871.

Note 88 in page 602 Lyly's Euphues (1578), should be cited here. Although the work is primarily noted for precision and artificiality of style, the diction forms no mean part of that style, and had its influence even among those who ridiculed the author's excesses. The work was created under foreign influence, exerted both directly and through translations, and in turn, through its own influence, should be reckoned with as criticism.

Note 89 in page 603 Du Bellay, Deff. et Illus. (1549), chap, vi, p. 128. The use of ancient words gives “grande maiesté;” Muzio; Dell' Arte Poetica, p. 71; Minturno; L'Arte Poética, Bk. IV, p. 301 : To give to the verse majesty it is granted to the poet to use ancient and disused words; Ibid., p. 321. “Per la qual cosa le parole, che rendono il verso magnifico, e maiesteuole, sono l'Antiche dalla consuetudine del parlare accettate: e le Pellegrini, purche non ui sia Barbaresimo, e le Fatte, se le nuouamente trovate, se l'uso le riceue, e gli orecchi non le schifano: e le Traslate, ch'a guisa di matutine stelle adornano, & illuminano il dire.” Tasso, Del Poema Eroico:-“e particularmente le parole disusate la fanno più venerabile, perchè sono come forestieri tra cittadini.”

Note 1 in page 603 This term is deliberately adopted by the writer to designate the old and less familiar forms used by Spenser, for, : a) It does not necessarily carry the connotation obsolete; b) It is the term employed in all criticism to denote old words; c) It is a term already familiar in materia critica relating to Spenser.

Note 2 in page 604 See Wm. Riedner, Spenser's Belesenheit, Leipzig, 1908.

Note 3 in page 604 Cf. Ascham: op. cit. pp. 132-186; Vives: On Education, trans, by Foster Watson (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 139-141, 147-8, 154.

Note 4 in page 604 Vives holds an opposite view: “Vergil strove to catch the charm of the country dialects, in which kind of effort Theocritus allowed himself considerable indulgence.” Op. cit., p. 137. Cf. supra. p. 14.

Note 5 in page 604 Op. cit., p. 47. It is worthy of note here that Bruno, whose influence over Sidney in other matters is evident, names among a list of vain pursuits “the revival of obsolete words, and the attempt to lift them again to the stars.” (Gli Eroici Furori, Pt. II, p. 404). Æneas Silvius, whose writings were well known in England, also condemns the use of old terms. He quotes Aulus Gellius of Phavorinus : “Copy the virtues of the great men of old, but let their archaisms die with them.” Vittorino da Fellre, ed. Wm. H. Woodward, (Cambridge University Press, 1905), pp. 147-148). Cf. the implied criticism of Daniel:

“Let others sing of Knights and palladines

In aged accents and untimely words“ (Delia, Sonnet LII.)

Note 6 in page 605 Discoveries, ed. Schelling, p. 57, I. 26.

Note 7 in page 605 Cf. Trissino, op. cit., Div. VI., p. 113.

Note 8 in page 606 The fragment of the so-called Bk. VII is not included here.

Note 9 in page 606 The Glosse of E. K. added to the Shepheardes Calendar supports this statement with specific evidence: Feb. Ec., (vv. 35-36); “heardgromes, Chaucers verse almost whole E.K.,” cf. Hous of Fame (iii, 135-6) ; May Ec. (v. 92), “chevisaunce, sometimes of Chaucer used for gaine: sometime of other for spoyle, or bootie, or enterprise, and sometime for chiefdome.—E. K.”; May Ec. (v. 251), “clincke, a keyhole. Whose diminutive is clicket, used of Chaucer for a Key.—E. K.”; July Ec. (v. 177), “glitterand, a participle used sometime in Chaucer, but altogether in I. Gower.—E. K.”; etc. The glossary of E. K. has not been accorded the full significance due. it, as an exposition of Spenser's diction. It confirms to a degree the claim advanced that Spenser's purpose was not the reproduction of an earlier diction but the enrichment of the vernacular through the restoration of old and dialect words, and the incorporation of new and legitimate terms. The commentator usually contents himself with a mere definition of the words. Sometimes he gives a source as in the examples cited above and in: “overture, an open place. The word is borrowed of the French and used in good writers.—E. K.” (July Ec. v. 28); “Woe, Woe, Northernly— E. K.” (Sept. Ec., v. 25); and in (Apr. Ec. v. 155): “Yblent, y is a poeticall addition, blent, blinded.—E. K.”; May Ec. (v. 6), “yclad, arraye, y redoundeth as before. E. K.”; Apr. Ec. (v. 28), “frenne, a straunger. The worde, I thinke, was first poetically put, and afterwards used in common custome of speach for forene.—E. K.” The words are drawn from various sources, and E. K.'s glossary is sufficiently complete to enable the ordinary reader to understand the crabbed diction of the Shepheardes Calender. The comments and exact references for classic allusion give illuminating testimony as to the classical training of the day.

Note 10 in page 607 For my predecessors in this field see the opening section of Part I of this discussion. My own observations, and numerical statements have been checked by reference to Osgood's Concordance.

Note 11 in page 607 F. Q. III, iii, 34, 8; IV, iii, 45, 7.

Note 12 in page 607 Ibid., I, XII, 37, 9.

Note 13 in page 607 S. C., Feb. Ec., v. 212.

Note 14 in page 607 S. C., Aug. Ec., v. 134.

Note 15 in page 608 F. Q., II, x, 7, 7: S. C., Feb. Ec., V. 212; ibid., July Ec., v. 167.

Note 16 in page 608 F. Q., II, XI, 29, 9; V, IX, 21, 3; VI, XI, 44, 1.

Note 17 in page 608 See Wilson: Arte of Rhetorique, Bk. III, p. 165, doen; Ded. of Rule of Reason doen; Elyot's Gouverour, Bk. I, p. 26, doen; Bk. II, p. 157, founden; Bk. II, p. 131, striken, aboden; Bk. II, pp. 144 to 146, commen; Bk. II, p. 145, knowen.

Note 18 in page 608 F, Q., I, iv, 16, 9; vii, 29, 4; II, vii, 42, 1; II, xi, 17, 1; Shepkeards Calendar, July Ec., 1.177.

Note 19 in page 608 F. Q., I, i, 17,3; I, xi, 24, 1.

Note 20 in page 608 Ibid., V, v, 9, 1.

Note 21 in page 608 Wagner (op. cit., p. 47) cites thrilland as an example of the Northern form. 1 have examined thirteen editions of Spenser including one each of 1599, 1609, and 1679; in all of these the spelling is thrillant, and it is so noted in the N.E.D.; see F. Q., I, xi, 20, 2; II, iv, 46. 1.

Note 22 in page 608 F. Q., I, x, 47, 5; II, iii, 23, 4; III, ix, 20, 9.

Note 23 in page 608 “Full low inclinand—”: Dunbar, Ellis's Spec; “Our sovereign havand” .... Lord Hemes (1568) (N.E.D.);

Note 24 in page 609 Sir Degrevant: Lincoln MS. “Glemerand hir sycle”; The Wars of Alexander: Chasteand, 1. 4607, flatband; schemerand, 11. 483, 5592; shemerand, 1. 1544; lazand, 1. 4367, gletirand, 1. 3346, 3797, 3686, 5536; glyssynand, 1. 3015. Cf. E. K.'s comment, July Ec., 1. 177.

Note 25 in page 609 See Glossary: Ritson's Ancient Metrical Romances.

Note 26 in page 609 Guy of Warwick, 1. 10215.

Note 27 in page 609 Erle of Toulous, 1. 94.

Note 28 in page 609 See Childe Maurice, (Child's Ballads; II, p. 314) yodest; Wm. of Palerne, 1. 3672; Leg. of the Holy Rood, p. 115, 1. 253; Erle of Toulons, 1. 617; Le Bone Florence, 1. 391; Lydgate: Temple of Glas, 1. 205; Guy of Warwick, 1. 2769; Drant: “Years yead away faces fair deflowre”; Bryskett; Pastoral Aeclogue.

Note 29 in page 610 See Guy of Warwick: 1. 1468, “That er sperys can toschyder”; 1. 1600; “Forthe in fere can they goo”; 1. 2701, “The emperoure can thens wende.”; 1. 3745, “He can mete a straunger swevon”; See also Bp. Percy's Folio Ms., Vol. III, The Carle off Carlile, 11.15,36, 48, 250, 274.

Note 30 in page 610 Cf. Elyot, op. cit., Bk. II, p. 137; Bk. I, p. 26.

Note 31 in page 610 Cf. Erl. of Toulous, 1. 459.

Note 32 in page 610 F. Q., II, X, 47, 1; Drayton, Polyolbion (Spenser Soc. Pub., XXii), Pt.III. p. 36; see Wright's Dial. Dict. for citations as late as 1855.

Note 33 in page 610 See Troilus, Bk. II, 1. 162.; cf. N.E.D.

Note 34 in page 611 Cf. Wagner, op. cit., p. 40.

Note 35 in page 611 Sh Cal., May Ec., 1. 60; Sept. Ec., 1. 39.

Note 36 in page 612 The use of her as plural was comparatively common in Shakespeare: Lucreece, 1. 1588; Troilus I, 3, 118 (Folio) ; Othello, III, 3, 66.

Note 37 in page 612 Walkington; Opt. Glass, (1607), p. 145; Shakespeare, Pericles, V, ii. Elyot: II, 35, 36; Lyly, Euphues (Arb. Rep., Vol. IX), p. 65.

Note 38 in page 612 F. Q., III, iii, 4, 7.

Note 39 in page 612 Ibid., IV, X, 17, 5; IV, XII, 30, 4.

Note 40 in page 612 See Miss Barrow, op., cit., p. 17. The word is related to but not derived from O. F. eswart or esguart.

Note 41 in page 612 Skeat, Etymol. Dict.

Note 42 in page 613 F. Q., IV, vi, 10, 2; IV, iv, 45, 8.

Note 43 in page 613 F. Q., I, V, vi, 4; I, viii, 22, 3.

Note 44 in page 614 Wright's Dialed Dict.; Century Dict., N.E.D.

Note 45 in page 614 Note his use of trenchand, trenchant, rased, rast, brenned, brent.

Note 46 in page 614 See Godefroy: glatir, glatissant; Mort D'Arthur: the Questing Beast, the Beast glatissant.

Note 47 in page 614 Cf. Scottish dialect word yan—sick, wretched.

Note 48 in page 614 The two spellings appear.

Note 49 in page 614 See Cal. of St. Papers: Henry VIII, and Eliz.; Camden's Brittania, Vols. I, II, III, IV.; Fuller's Worthies: Hertfordshire, p. 385.

Note 50 in page 615 See Dict. of Nat. Biog. This identification was reached before a reference to the D.N.B. showed that it had been previously made.

Note 51 in page 615 The name is common as Ruddiman, but the related form Ruddimanus proves origin.

Note 52 in page 615 Cf. Chaucer's “sir Ollifaunte,” Sir Thopas, 1.97; The Wars of Alexander, 1. 5597, “Fyve thousand ollifants in ferre.”

Note 53 in page 615 Priamour and Triamour are found in romances. That Spenser should make a slight change and add the numerical link is characteristic of his invention. Triamour: in Sir Trislrem: (Scot. Text. Soc. Vol. 8), 1. 2301 ; in Guy of Warwick, 1. 8314. For other romance names see Maleager (a classic name: Arist. Poetics, XIII, 5) in Ypomedon; Sir Cadore, the curtayes, in Morte Arthure (ed. Perry), p. 15, l. 481.

Note 54 in page 615 See references given above, p. 579.

Note 55 in page 616 Puttenham, in the same paragraph both condemns and allows the practice of eye-rhyming. See above, pp. 576, 577.

Note 56 in page 618 G. Harvey, Marginalia, p. 178. (On certain old words allowable). “All theise in Spenser, & manie like : but with discretion : & tolerably, though sumtime not greatly commendably.” p. 169. “Spenser hath reuiued, vncouth, whilom, of yore, for thy.”

Note 57 in page 618 A detailed comparison between the diction of Elyot's Gouvernour and of the Faerie Queene would prove enlightening.

Note 58 in page 619 Thus: liveden, keight, lig, selcouth, stadie, sam (together), meny (group), nonce, handsell, wesand. The following forms appear twice: seely (simple), bren (brenne), heried (herried).