148. THROUGH GREAT IMPATIENCE OF HIS GRIEVED HED, etc., through inability to endure (the pain of) his wounded head, he would have cast down his rider, etc.
155. IN ONE ALONE LEFT HAND, in one hand alone remaining. His left arm had been cut off (x).
xix. The uncovered shield represents the open Bible. The incident is an imitation of Ruggiero's display of his shield in _Orlando Furioso_, xxii, 85.
246. YOUR FORTUNE MAISTER, etc., be master of your fortune by good management.
268. UNUSED RUST, rust which is due to disuse; a Latinism.
296. WITH NATURES PEN, etc., i.e. by his gray hairs, at that age to which proper seriousness belongs. "I cannot tell" did not become his venerable looks.
310. THAT GREATEST PRINCES, etc. This may mean (1) befitting the presence of the greatest princes, or (2) that the greatest princes might deign to behold in person. The first interpretation is preferable.
312. A general reference to the bloody persecutions without regard to age or sex carried on for centuries by the Romish Church, often under the name of "crusades," "acts of faith," "holy inquisition," etc.
315. This may refer to the burning of heretics, under the pretext that the Church shed no blood. Kitchin thinks that it means "accursed ashes."
317. AN ALTARE, cf. _Revelation_, vi, 9. CARV'D WITH CUNNING YMAGERY, "in allusion to the stimulus given to the fine arts by the Church of Rome" (Percival).
375. WHAT EVILL STARRE, etc. In Spenser's day, belief in astrology, the pseudo-science of the influence of the stars on human lives, was still common.
381. There was an old familiar ballad entitled _Fortune my Foe_.
384. i.e. your good fortune will be threefold as great as your evil fortune.
384. GOOD GROWES OF EVILS PRIEFE, good springs out of our endurance of the tests and experience of evil.
391. BEST MUSICKE BREEDS DELIGHT, etc. A troublesome passage. Upton and Jortin emend _delight_ to _dislike_; Church inserts _no_ before _delight_ and omits _best_; Kitchin suggests _despight_; Grosart prefers the text as it stands with the meaning that although the best music pleases the troubled mind, it is no pleasure to renew the memory of past sufferings. I venture to offer still another solution, based on the context. When Una shows a desire to hear from her Knight a recountal of his sufferings in the dungeon, and he is silent, being loath to speak of them, Arthur reminds her that a _change of subject is best_, for the best music is that which breeds delight in the troubled ear.