[352.] Whose double gates. Homer, Odyssey, xix, 562, and Vergil, Aeneid, vi, 893, give the House of Dreams a horn and an ivory gate. Spenser substitutes silver for horn, mirrors being overlaid with silver in his time. From the ivory gate issued false dreams; from the other, true ones.
[361.] slumber soft. This stanza shows Spenser's wonderful technique. His exquisite effects are produced, it will be noticed, partly by the choice of musical words and partly by the rhythmical cadence of the verse phrases. It is an example of perfect "keeping," or adaptation of sound to sense. Cf. Chaucer's description of the waterfalls in the Cave of Sleep in his Boke of the Duchesse, 162.
[376.] whose dryer braine, whose brain too dry. In the old physiology, a dry brain was the cause of slow and weak perception, and a moist brain of quickness.
[378.] all, entirely, altogether.
[381.] Hecate, queen of phantoms and demons in Hades, and mistress of witches on earth. See xxxvii.
[387.] the sleepers sent, the sleeper's sense.
[405.] most like to seeme, etc.. most likely fit to seem for (represent) Una. Like is an adv. A very awkward inversion.
[411.] borne without her dew, i.e. created by him in an unnatural manner.
[425.] Fayre Venus, the daughter of Jupiter, or Zeus, and the sea-nymph Dione. She is the same as Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
[430.] the Graces, Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, daughters of Zeus and Aphrodite.