[202.] on groning beare, on a bier with groaning friends around.
[204.] O what of gods, etc., O what is it to be born of gods, if old Aveugle's (the father of the three Saracens) sons are so ill treated.
[219.] and good successes, etc., and good results which follow their foes.
[221.] or breake the chayne, refers to Jove's proposition to fasten a golden chain to the earth by which to test his strength. Homer's Iliad, viii, 19. Cf. Milton's Paradise Lost, ii, 1051.
[225.] bad excheat, bad gain by exchange. Escheat is an old legal term, meaning any lands or goods which fall to the lord of a fief by forfeiture. Cf. "rob Peter to pay Paul."
[229.] shall with his owne bloud, etc., shall pay the price of the blood that he has spilt with his own.
[263.] Here Spenser imitates Homer's Odyssey, xvi, 163.
[267.] the ghastly Owle. The poet follows the Latin rather than the Greek poets, who regard the owl as the bird of wisdom.
[273.] of deep Avernus hole. Avernus in the poets is a cavern (in an ancient crater), supposed to be the entrance to the infernal regions. Cf. Vergil's Æneid, vi, 237. In Strabo's Geography it is a lake in Campania.
[298.] Cerberus, the dog which guarded the lower regions. This stanza is an imitation of Vergil's Æneid, vi, 417 seq. In Dante's Inferno Vergil appeases him by casting handfuls of earth into his maw.