Poem 53.
This "Spousal Verse" was written in honour of the Ladies Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset. Although beautiful, it is inferior to the "Epithalamion" on Spenser's own marriage,—omitted with great reluctance as not in harmony with modern manners.
feateously: elegantly.
shend: put out.
a noble peer: Robert Devereux, second Lord Essex, then at the height of his brief triumph after taking Cadiz: hence the allusion following to the Pillars of Hercules, placed near Gades by ancient legend.
Eliza: Elizabeth; twins of Jove: the stars Castor and Pollux; baldric: belt, the zodiac.
Poem 57.
A fine example of a peculiar class of Poetry;—that written by thoughtful men who practised this Art but little. Wotton's, 72, is another. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Berkeley, Dr. Johnson, Lord Macaulay, have left similar specimens.
Poem 62.
whist: hushed; Pan: used here for the Lord of all; Lars and Lemures: household Gods and spirits of relations dead; Flamens: Roman priests; That twice-batter'd god: Dagon.