That Love, too, continued to be looked at from a material point of view,
long after the chivalric efforts to idealise it, is shown strikingly by
the way in which Spenser compares love with friendship and family
affection. In the fifth book of the _Faery Queene_ he asks—
“Whither shall weigh the balance down; to wit,
The dear affection unto kindred sweet,
Or raging fire of love to womankind,
Or zeal of friends, combined by virtues meet?”