Then there are problems introduced by deliberately ambiguous pointing. Spenser's immense command of the language, and his quicksilver gift for wordplay and puns, allow him, when he chooses, to pack great complexities of meaning into a line or even a single word, and in this his punctuation is frequently his accomplice.
A famous example comes right at the beginning of Book I:
But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore,
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead as liuing euer him ador'd:
Is the meaning of line 4: "dead, as living, ever him adored", or: "dead, as living ever, him adored"? In fact, both meanings are probably intended.
Thus it cannot be overemphasized that, where ambiguity is occasioned by the punctuation of the original, the Shadow Text can do no more than propose what seems to me the more or most likely interpretation. Sometimes (as in the case cited above) I suggest alternatives, but the pointing of the original poem should always be given precedence in case of doubt.
The Glossary does not seek to interpret the poem. From time to time it hints at what lies behind the bare words in order to aid understanding, but its sole purpose is to make the language more accessible to the modern reader. Interpretation is left to the teacher, and to the large and growing body of criticism devoted to The Faerie Queene.
THE NUMBERING SYSTEM
In the Glossary and Textual Appendix, references to parts of the poem are given in the condensed form BCN.SN, where B = book number (from 1 to 7), CN = canto number (from 01 to 12; canto 00 is the proem), and SN = stanza number (from 1 to a maximum of 87; stanza 0 is the argument).
If a line within a stanza needs to be specified, it is preceded by a colon. Ranges of cantos, stanzas, or lines are indicated by a dash.
For example: