172. HE SO DISSEIZED, etc., i.e. the dragon being thus dispossessed of his rough grip. The construction is nominative absolute. 185. AND GREEDY GULFE DOES GAPE, etc., i.e. the greedy waters gape as if they would devour the land. 187. THE BLUSTRING BRETHREN, the winds. 228. HIS WIDE DEVOURING OVEN, the furnace of his maw, or belly. 235. THAT GREAT CHAMPION, Hercules. The charmed garment steeped in the blood of the Centaur Nessus, whom Hercules had slain, was given him by his wife Dejanira in order to win back his love. Instead of acting as a philter, the poison-robe burned the flesh from his body. Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, ix, 105. xxviii. Observe the correspondence between the adjectives in l. 244 and the nouns in l. 245. The sense is: "He was so faint," etc. 261. THE WELL OF LIFE. This incident is borrowed from _Bevis of Hampton_. The allegory is based on _John_, iv, 14, and _Revelation_, xxii, 1. 267. SILO, the healing Pool of Siloam, _John_, ix, 7. Jordan, by bathing in which Naaman was healed of leprosy, _II Kings_, v, 10. 268. BATH, in Somersetshire, a town famous from the earliest times for its medicinal baths. SPAU, a town in Belgium noted for its healthful waters, now a generic name for German watering-places. 269. CEPHISE, the river Cephissus in Boeotia whose waters possessed the power of bleaching the fleece of sheep. Cf. _Isaiah_, i, 18. HEBRUS, a river in Thrace, here mentioned because it awaked to music the head and lyre of the dead Orpheus, as he floated down its stream. Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, xi, 50. 295. TO MOVE, moving. This is a French idiom. 300. AS EAGLE FRESH OUT OF THE OCEAN WAVE, etc. There was an ancient belief, that once in ten years the eagle would soar into the empyrean, and plunging thence into the sea, would molt his plumage and renew his youth with a fresh supply of feathers. 312. HIS BRIGHT DEAW-BURNING BLADE, his bright blade flashing with the "holy water dew" in which it had been hardened (l. 317). 322. NE MOLTEN METTALL IN HIS BLOOD EMBREW, i.e. nor sword bathe itself in his (the dragon's) blood. 335. WITH SHARPE INTENDED STING, with sharp, outstretched sting. 366. THE GRIPED GAGE, the pledge (shield) seized (by the dragon). 386. MISSED NOT HIS MINISHT MIGHT, felt not the loss of its diminished strength; i.e. though cut off, the paw still held to the shield. xliv. In comparing the fire-spewing dragon to a volcano, Spenser follows Vergil's _Aeneid_, iii, 571, and Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, iv, 8. 406. A GOODLY TREE. Cf. _Genesis_, ii, 9, and _Revelation_, xxii, 2. 409. OVER ALL WERE RED, everywhere were spoken of. 414. Cf. _Genesis_, iii, 2. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden lest they should eat and live forever. 434. DEADLY MADE, a creature of death, i.e. hell-born. 469. An imitation of an incident in the _Seven Champions_ in which a winged serpent attempts to swallow St. George; i, 1. 477. AND BACK RETYRD, and as it was withdrawn. A Gallicism.