[43] 70 Paraphrased from an Italian madrigal
... Non so conoscer poi
Se voi le rose, o sian le rose in voi.
[44] 72 crystal: fairness.
[45] 73 stare: starling.
— 74 This 'Spousal Verse' was written in honour of the Ladies Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset. Nowhere has Spenser more emphatically displayed himself as the very poet of Beauty: The Renaissance impulse in England is here seen at its highest and purest.
The genius of Spenser, like Chaucer's, does itself justice only in poems of some length. Hence it is impossible to represent it in this volume by other pieces of equal merit, but of impracticable dimensions. And the same applies to such poems as the Lover's Lament or the Ancient Mariner.
[46] — entrailed: twisted. Feateously: elegantly.
[48] — shend: shame.
[49] — 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.
— — Elisa: Elizabeth.