HOW THE GLOSSARY WORKS

Entries relating to each line of Shadow Text are shown below that line. In cases where a glossed word appears more than once in a line, plus signs are used if necessary to highlight the particular word being glossed. For example, in the line:

Till some end they find, +or+ in or out,

it is the first "or" which is glossed.

Editorial policy in the Glossary is as follows. Words which appear in modern concise dictionaries and whose meanings are unchanged are rarely glossed. The reader is expected to understand words such as "quoth", "hither", and "aught" in their modern senses. Where an apparently modern form has a different contextual meaning, it is glossed; and where the modern sense is also to be understood, this is included in the definition. Similar senses are grouped with commas; changes in sense are indicated by semicolons. For example:

sad > heavy, heavily laden; sad

The commoner obsolete forms have been silently converted: "thee" to "you", "dost" to "does", "mought" to "might", "whenas" to "when", and so on. Others (generally speaking, those less common words sufficiently distinct from their modern counterparts to merit a separate entry in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary) have been unified to the spelling preferred by that and its parent dictionary. This should allow the reader, during very close scrutiny of any passage, quickly to find any of Spenser's words in the OED.

All the Glossary entries are context-sensitive: Spenser often uses the same word in several different ways. Thus no single Glossary entry should be taken as generally definitive.

Types of entry

(a) Translations

An entry not enclosed in brackets should be read as a straight translation of the quoted text which can be directly substituted for it.

For example, in stanza 1 of the proem to Book I, line 1:

whilom > formerly

Line 1 can thus be understood to mean:

Lo I, the man whose Muse formerly did mask

Very often, additional meanings are given in such definitions:

weeds > clothes, garb

These additional meanings may complement one another, indicating the hybrid sense which seems to be required, or they may constitute a set of alternative meanings, any or all of which may have been intended by Spenser. Each entry in any unbracketed list may always be substituted for the original without disturbing the syntax.

Similar senses are grouped with commas; changes in sense are indicated with semicolons. For example:

gentle > noble; courteous, generous

In this case, an apparently modern form has a different contextual meaning, and so it is glossed; and when the modern sense is also to be understood, this is included in the definition:

dull > dull, lacklustre; blunt

Where the contrast between alternatives is particularly great, words are separated by or, also, etc.

Sometimes the meaning is forced or metaphorical. In these cases the straight "dictionary" meaning of the word is given first, and hence, thus, or so are used to indicate contextual departure from this. For example:

style > literary composition; hence: poem, song (cf. SC,
"Januarie", 10)

In this example, parenthesized editorial comment has also been included.

Editorial comment in entries of this class is either enclosed in round brackets, as above, or set in "italic" type, as in this entry:

bale > torment; infliction of death; also, mainly in northern
usage: great consuming fire, funeral pyre; hence,
perhaps: hell-fire

A question-mark, as may be expected, indicates doubt, usually about words which are not found in the OED but whose meaning might be inferred from the context. For example:

mill > ?mill-wheel; ?cogs of the mill (or because the sallow grows by water)

(b) Definitions

An entry in curly brackets should be read as a dictionary definition of the quoted text which cannot be directly fitted into the syntax of the original line. For example:

scrine > {Casket or cabinet for archival papers}

Entries in round brackets should be read as if they were footnotes, typically giving background information or editorial speculation. For example:

Muse > (The nine Muses are usually represented as the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory); each goddess presides over an area of the arts and sciences and gives inspiration to its practitioners)

and:

chief > chief, first; best (here Spenser is addressing either Clio, the Muse of history, or Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry; probably Clio. Clio is the first of the nine Muses in Hesiod's Theogony, and is usually represented with an open roll of paper or a chest of books. Spenser calls her "thou eldest Sister of the crew" at TM 53. See 111.5:6- 8, 303.4:6, 706.37:9, 707.1:1)

It should be added that on occasion the distinction between a "note", requiring round brackets, and a "definition", requiring curly brackets, is somewhat moot.

(d) Hints and expansions

Entries in square brackets are hints or expansions to make the quoted text more intelligible, and can be thought of as being preceded by the qualifications "that is", "in other words", or "what Spenser appears to mean is". For example:

in his help > [to help him; in his armoury]

Such entries can be mentally substituted for the quoted word or phrase in order to aid comprehension.

Sometimes square brackets are employed in other sorts of definitions to indicate words which should be understood. For example:

mask > {Disguise [herself]; take part in a masque or masquerade}

and:

time > [her] term of apprenticeship

(e) Explanations of character-names

Most of the names of major characters in the poem have special meanings. These are briefly explained as follows:

Archimago > "Arch Mage", "Arch Magician"

Sometimes there is a qualifying parenthesis giving information on the etymology or adding comment:

Una > "One" (Latin; she is the sole Truth)

Character-names from the poem and from classical mythology are typically explained once only, on their first occurrence. If you encounter a name which is not defined, then it has appeared somewhere before. The list of proper nouns will quickly help you to find it.