[280.] greene Selinis, a town in Sicily.
[284.] His warlike shield. Spenser here follows closely the description of the shield of the magician Atlante in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, ii, 55.
[300.] silver Cynthia, the moon. It was popularly supposed that magicians and witches had power to cause eclipses of the moon.
[304.] All falsehood and deception. Truth and Wisdom are symbolized (Upton).
[306.] when him list, when it pleased him. Him is dative.
[314.] It Merlin was. Ambrose Merlin, the prince of enchanters, son of the nun Matilda, and an incubus, "half-angel and half-man." He made, in addition to Prince Arthur's armor and weapons, the Round Table for one hundred and fifty knights at Carduel, the magic fountain of love, and built Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. He died spellbound by the sorceress Vivien in a hollow oak. See Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
[326.] did trample as the aire, curveted as lightly as the air.
[335.] And for her humour, etc., and to suit her (sad) mood framed fitting conversation.
[355.] The subject of found is the substantive clause who... impart.
[xli.] Observe the antithetical structure of this stanza, both in the Stichomuthia, or balance of line against line, and in the lines themselves. In this rapid word-play Arthur wins his point by appealing to Una's faith.