Ver. 8.—_Verlame._ Veralam, or Verulamium, was a British and Roman
town, near the present city of St. Alban’s in Hertfordshire. Some
remains of its walls are still perceptible. H.
Ver. 64.—_Th’Assyrian Lyonesse._ These types of
nations are taken from the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel. H.
Ver. 190.—_I saw him die_. Leicester died at Cornbury Lodge, in
Oxfordshire. Todd suggests that he may have fallen sick at St. Alban’s,
and that Spenser, hearing the report in Ireland, may havo concluded
without inquiry that this was the place of his subsequent death, C.
Ver. 225.—_Colin Cloute._ Spenser himself, who had been befriended by
Leicester. H.
Ver. 239.—_His brother._ Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick.
Ver. 245.—_His noble spouse._ Anne, the eldest daughter of Francis
Russell, Earl of Bedford.
Ver. 260.—_His sister_. Lady Mary Sidney.
Ver. 261.—_That good earle_, &c. This Earl of Bedford died in 1585.—
TODD.
Ver. 267.—_He, noble bud_, &c. Edward Russell, grandson of Francis Earl
of Bedford, succeeded in the earldom, his father, Francis, having been
slain by the Scots.—OLDYS.
Ver. 275.—_That goodly ladie_, &c. Lady Mary Sidney,
mother of Sir
Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke.
Ver. 281.—_Most gentle spirite._ Sir Philip Sidney.
Ver. 317.—_Thine owne sister,_ &c. The Countess of Pembroke, to whom
this poem is dedicated. “The Dolefull Lay of Clorinda” (Vol. IV. p.
426) appears to have been written by her.
Ver. 436.—_Good Melibae_. Sir Francis Walsingham, who died April
6,1590. The _poet_ is Thomas Watson.—OLDYS.
Ver. 447-455.—These lines are aimed at Burghley, who was said to have
opposed the Queen’s intended bounty to the poet. C.
Ver 491.—These allegorical representations of the vanity of exalted
position, stately buildings, earthly pleasures, bodily strength, and
works of beauty and magnificence, admit of an easy application to the
splendid career of the Earl of Leicester,—his favor and influence with
the Queen, his enlargement of Kenilworth, his princely style of living,
and particularly (IV.) his military command in the Low Countries. The
sixth of these “tragick pageants” strongly confirms this
interpretation. The two bears are Robert and Ambrose Dudley. While
Leicester was lieutenant in the Netherlands, he was in the habit of
using the Warwick crest (a bear and ragged staff) instead of his own.
Naunton, in his Fragmenta Regalia, calls him _Ursa Major_. C.
Ver. 497.—_The holie brethren_, &c. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Daniel, ch. iii. C.
Ver. 582-586.—A paraphrase of Sir Philip’s last words to his brother.
“Above all, govern your will and affection by the will and word of your
Creator, in me beholding the end of this world with all her vanities.”
This is pointed out by Zouch, Life of Sidney, p. 263. C.
Ver 590.—This second series of pageants is applicable exclusively to
Sir Philip Sidney. The meaning of the third and fourth is hard to make
out; but the third seems to have reference to the collection of the
scattered sheets of the Arcadia, and the publication of this work by
the Countess of Pembroke, after it had been condemned to destruction by
the author. The fourth may indeed signify nothing more than Lady
Sidney’s bereavement by her husband’s death; but this interpretation
seems too literal for a professed allegory. The sixth obviously alludes
to the splendid obsequies to Sidney, performed at the Queen’s expense,
and to the competition of the States of Holland for the honor of
burying his body. C.
L’ENVOY: _L’Envoy_ was a sort of postscript _sent with_ poetical
compositions, and serving either to recommend them to the attention of
some particular person, or to enforce what we call the moral of them.—
TYRWHITT.