III. xii. 26 l. 7. with that Damozell] by the Damozell 1590. According to 1596 the Damozell is Amoret, according to 1590 Britomart.
III. xii. 27 l. 3. and bore all away] nothing did remaine 1590. A striking change, designed to remove the imperfect rhyme. l. 8. It] In 1611.
III. xii. 29 l. 1. wandering] wondering 1611.
III. xii. 34 l. 4. her] him 1590, 1596. Comparison with the variants in stanza 42 suggests some oblivion in Spenser’s mind of the sex of his Championess.
III. xii. 43 to 45. On these stanzas see Introduction, p. xvi.
IV. ii. 22 l. 7. aduizing] auising 1609. For ‘aduize’ = observe cf. II. ix. 38 l. 3. Similarly we find ‘adward’ 1596, but ‘award’ 1609; conversely ‘dis-auentrous’ 1596, ‘disaduentrous’ 1609. Todd quotes from Sir T. More, ‘Whoso well aduise her visage, &c.’
IV. iii. 43 l. 5. quite age] quiet-age Morris. Morris’s reading (originally suggested to Jortin by a friend) is very plausible, though the word does not occur elsewhere in F. Q.
IV. iv. 1 l. 4. minds] lines 16(11)-12-13. Morris reports ‘liues 1609’: not so in genuine copies examined. See Bibliographical Note.
IV. iv. 2 l. 3. als] els 1596. I now think that 1596 is right. The proposition illustrated is twofold:—(1) ‘For enmitie, that of no ill proceeds, But of occasion, with th’occasion ends’; (2) ‘And friendship, which a faint affection breeds Without regard of good, dyes like ill grounded seeds’. Reading ‘As als’ we have two illustrations of this twofold proposition. Reading ‘As els’ we have an independent illustration of each of its parts. For ‘As els’ cf. the second letter to Harvey:—‘For, why a Gods name, may not we, as else the Greeks, &c.’