[414.] Cf. Genesis, iii, 2. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden lest they should eat and live forever.
[434.] deadly made, a creature of death, i.e. hell-born.
[469.] An imitation of an incident in the Seven Champions in which a winged serpent attempts to swallow St. George; i, 1.
[477.] And back retyrd, and as it was withdrawn. A Gallicism.
[490.] which she misdeem'd, in which she was mistaken. Una feared that the dragon was not dead.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Describe the three days' fight between the Knight and the Dragon. 2. What advantages does each gain? 3. Study the Dragon as a type of the conventional monster of romance, contrasting his brutal nature with the intellectuality and strategy of the Knight. 4. Study the battle as an allegory of the victory of mind over matter, of virtue over vice, of Protestantism over Romanism. 5. By what devices does Spenser obtain the effects of terror? Mystery and terror are prime elements in romance. 6. Find examples of another romantic characteristic, exaggeration. 7. Do you think that in his use of hyperbole and impossibilities Spenser shows that he was deficient in a sense of humor? 8. Observe the lyric note in iii and liv. 9. How does the poet impress the reader with the size of the Dragon? 10. Which Muse does he invoke? 11. Spenser's poetry is richly sensuous: find passages in which he appeals to the sense of sight ([iv], [viii], [xiv]), of sound ([iv], [ix]), of touch ([x], [xi], [vii]), of smell ([xiii]), of taste ([xiii]), of pain ([xxxvii], [xxvi], [xxii]), of motion ([x], [xv], [xviii]). 12. Where do you find an allegory of baptism? Of regeneration? Of the resurrection of Christ (the three days)? 13. Analyze the descriptions of the coming of darkness and of dawn.
[CANTO XII]
I. The Plot: The death of the dragon is announced by the watchman on the tower of the city, and Una's parents, the King and Queen, accompanied by a great throng, come forth rejoicing at their deliverance. The Knight and Una are conducted with great honors into the palace. On the eve of their betrothal, Archimago suddenly appears as Duessa's messenger and claims the Knight. Their wicked attempt is frustrated, and the pair are happily betrothed. After a long time spent in Una's society, the Knight sets out to engage in the further service of the Faerie Queene.