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Spenser: Commendatory Verses

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Richard Kroll, UCI

Commendatory Verses: A vision vpon this conceipt of the Faery Queene

Me thought I saw the graue, where Laura lay,
Within that Temple, where the vestall flame
Was wont to burne, and passing by that way,
To see that buried dust of liuing fame,
Whose tumbe faire loue, and fairer vertue kept,
All suddeinly I saw the Faery Queene:
At whose approch the soule of Petrarke wept,
And from thenceforth those graces were not seene.
For they this Queene attended, in whose steed
Obliuion laid him downe on Lauras herse:
Hereat the hardest stones were seene to bleed,
And grones of buried ghostes the heuens did perse.
Where Homers spright did tremble all for griefe.
And curst th'accesse of that celestiall theife.
Another of the Same
The prayse of meaner wits this worke like profit brings,
As doth the Cuckoes song delight when Philumena sings.
If thou hast formed right true vertues, face herein:
Vertue her selfe can best discerne, to whom they writen bin.
If thou hast beauty praysd, let her sole lookes diuine
Iudge if ought therein be amis, and mend it by her eine.
If Chastitie want ought, or Temperaunce her dew,
Behold her Princely mind aright, and write thy Queene anew:
Meanewhile she shall perceiue, how far her vertues sore
Aboue the reach of all that liue, or such as wrote of yore:
And thereby will excuse and fauour thy good will:
Whose vertue can not be exprest, but by an Angels quill.
Of me no lines are lou'd, nor letters are of price.
Of all which speak our English tongue, but those of thy deuice.

W.R.

Things to watch for while reading The Faerie Queene, Book I. (R.F.W. Kroll)

"seemd"

light-dark

eloquence; fiction; lying; dreams, etc.

Una's and Archimago's names are not given at first

air/sound versus sight and the "eye of reason"

"charms versus true knowledge (narrative, parable, prophecy)

form/shape

doubling (Una/Duessa)

seeing versus gazing--c.f. I.iv.15

maze/amazing

self-defeating activity of sin (I.iv.30)

wandering

caves