"Book I Canto i Canto: Ital. ‘song’ used, e.g. by Ariosto; here first used in English for the twelve divisions of a book, the usual epic division from Homer (24) by way of Virgil (12). Drayton 1931–41:2.5 comments: ‘The Italians use Canto’s; and so our first late great Reformer, Master Spenser’."
"Canto. I. The Patrone of true Holinesse, Foule Errour doth defeate: Hypocrisie him to entrappe, Doth to his home entreate."
"Patrone: protector and defender (from Lat. patronus); hence Guyon is addressed as one ‘that for that vertue [temperance] fights’ (II xii 1.6). Bryskett 1970:22 records that S. told him that he had undertaken a work ‘to represent all the moral vertues, assigning to every vertue, a Knight to be the pa"
"Stanzas 1–6 On the legend of St George with the maiden and her lamb, see ‘George, St’ in the SEnc; on his cult in England, see Bengston 1997. In his note to Drayton’s reference to St George as England’s patron, Selden records the story of the knight’s delivery of the king’s daughter from the dragon "
"siluer shielde: the ‘shield of faith’ (Eph. 6.16). The silver shield with its cross of blood was known as St George’s arms, as ii 11.9 indicates. Hardyng 1812:84 records that they were given to Arviragus when Joseph converted him to Christianity ‘long afore sainct George was gotten or borne’."
"3 dints: dents, a S. neologism that combines the blow (‘dint’ OED 1), and its effect. The knight’s unproven role corresponds to David’s when he ‘girded … his sworde vpon his rayment and began to go: for he neuer proued it’ (1 Sam. 17.39). Unlike David who doffs his armour to prove his God, Una’s kni"
"5–9.9 On the ‘groue’ (7.2) as a literary topos, see Curtius 1953:194–95. The list of trees displays S.’s craftsmanship as the poet of faery land. Being a traditional epic catalogue, it announces his poetical kinship with Chaucer (Parl. Fowls 176–82), Virgil (Aen. 6.179–82, Georg. 2.440–53), and Ovid"
目录
序言/
第一卷 红十字骑士(圣洁)传奇/
The Legend of the Knight of the Red Crosse, or of Holiness