These two variants occur in 1590 and 1609, so that the word in question is different in all three editions.
hand > hond sugg. Morris
Morris (see Bibliography) suggested this alternative to the given text.
So that any reader will be able to start anywhere and understand any stanza immediately, I have glossed even the common archaisms throughout (e.g. "gan", "eftsoons", "wont"). Occasionally, however, as with "squire", or "palmer", or "foster", when repetitious glossing would be locally irritating, I have glossed the word once or twice only at the beginning of each canto. Thus it is possible that you will alight somewhere and find an unknown word unglossed.
If this should happen, you will almost certainly be able to find the word glossed in at least one other place earlier in the canto. Or, if it is does not seem to be glossed at all, you will find it in any competent concise English dictionary.
SUGGESTIONS FOR NEW READERS
Readers who are new to The Faerie Queene and who are working without the help of a teacher may be daunted by its sheer size. Such readers are invited to sample some of the poem before deciding to embark on a detailed reading.
If you are at present unfamiliar with Elizabethan spelling and usage, I recommend that, in the beginning, you read each stanza first in the Shadow Text, just to get the mechanical meaning. Then go to the original and read that, for its structure, for its rhythm and its music, and to absorb the idiom of the language. After a short while you will be able to read the Original Text immediately, referring to the Shadow Text only when difficulty is encountered.
The following passages provide a brief survey of the variety of
Spenser's style.
101. The sequence in Error's den (101.11-27) is perhaps the most crudely allegorical in the FQ, and shows signs of having been drafted before Spenser hit upon his "dark conceit". None the less, the whole of this canto should be read as an introduction to the poem. Stanzas 39-41 are especially beautiful.