III. xi. 4 ll. 4 and 9. These two transpositions support each other, the first being made for grammar, the second for rhythm. See note on I. v. 7 l. 9.
III. xi. 12 l. 1. singultes] singulfes 1590, 1596. This word occurs again in F. Q. V. vi. 13, Colin Clout 168, Tears of the Muses 232; and in all four places is spelt with ‘f’ in the original editions. We must suppose, either that the printers made the same mistake four times, or that Spenser misspelt a word with whose Latin form he must have been quite familiar. Neither alternative is acceptable; but I find the second incredible.
III. xi. 19 l. 9. death] life conj. Jortin. Jortin’s emendation gives the sense required; yet Spenser was capable of writing ‘death’. Cf. Introduction, p. ix.
III. xi 22 l. 8. See note on I. v. 7 l. 9.
III. xi. 23 l. 2. Inglorious, beastlike 1611, to avoid the trisyllabic foot. See note on I. i. 15 l. 6.
III. xi. 26 1. 7. See note on I. ii. 29 l. 2.
III. xi. 39 l. 8. Stag conj. Jortin: Hag 1590 &c. In support of Jortin’s emendation Upton quotes Natalis Comes, Mythologia, iv. 10 ‘Fertur hic deus [i.e. Apollo] in varias formas ob amores fuisse mutatus, in leonem, in cervum, in accipitrem’. As the chapter deals with Apollo, and mentions Hyacinth, Coronis, &c., it is clear that Spenser had been reading it, and Jortin’s emendation is irresistible. (Spenser would have written ‘an Hag’, not ‘a Hag’.)
III. xi. 47 l. 9. heauen bright] heauens hight conj. Church. But identical rhymes are not infrequent in this particular place in a stanza. Yet the possibility of parablepsy lowers the authority of the quartos in such cases. The printers would be peculiarly liable to this error in this place if, in Spenser’s manuscript, the Alexandrine overflowed into the eighth line of the stanza. (Church spells ‘heuens’, following 1590).
III. xii. 12 l. 6. wingyheeld] winged heeld 1590. The change seems to have been made for euphony. See note on I. v. 7 l. 9.
III. xii. 18 l. 8. hony-lady. ‘Hony-laden’ is a tempting suggestion of Upton’s, and Morris adopts it.