[182.] So hardly he, etc. So he with difficulty coaxes the life which has flown to return into her body. According to the Platonic teaching, the body is the prison-house of the soul. Cf Psalms, cxlii, 7.
[202.] But seeled up with death, but closed in death. "Seel" was a term in falconry, meaning "to sew up" (the eyes of the hawk).
[219.] the bitter balefull stound, the bitter, grievous moment during which she listens to the story.
[220.] If lesse then that I feare, etc., if it is less bitter than I fear it is, I shall have found more favor (been more fortunate) than I expected.
[231.] sorrowfull assay, the assault of sorrow (on her heart).
[236.] Was never Lady, etc., there never was lady who loved day (life) dearer.
[249.] A goodly knight. Prince Arthur, son of King Uther Pendragon and Queen Ygerne, the model English gentleman, in whom all the virtues are perfected (Magnificence). According to Upton and most editors, Prince Arthur represents Lord Leicester; according to another tradition, Sir Philip Sidney. Could the author have possibly intended in him compliment to Sir Walter Raleigh? See Spenser's Letter to Raleigh. Arthur is the beau ideal of knighthood, and upon him the poet lavishes his richest descriptive powers. His armor, his shield Pridwen, his lance Roan, and sword Exculibur, were made by the great enchanter Merlin in the isle of Avallon.
[259.] Shapt like a Ladies head, an effigy of Queen Elizabeth, the Faerie Queene.
[260.] Like Hesperus, the evening star. Cf. Phosphorus, the morning star.
[268.] The dragon couchant was also the crest of Arthur's father, Uther, surnamed on this account Pen-dragon. The description in this stanza is imitated from Tasso's description of the helmet of the Sultan in Jerusalem Delivered, ix, 25, which in turn follows Vergil's Æneid, vii, 785 seq.