If you are at present unfamiliar with Elizabethan spelling and usage, I recommend that, in the beginning, you read each stanza first in the Shadow Text, just to get the mechanical meaning. Then go to the original and read that, for its structure, for its rhythm and its music, and to absorb the idiom of the language. After a short while you will be able to read the Original Text immediately, referring to the Shadow Text only when difficulty is encountered. The following passages provide a brief survey of the variety of Spenser's style. 101. The sequence in Error's den (101.11-27) is perhaps the most crudely allegorical in the _FQ_, and shows signs of having been drafted before Spenser hit upon his "dark conceit". None the less, the whole of this canto should be read as an introduction to the poem. Stanzas 39-41 are especially beautiful. 102.15-19. The first of many titanic battles between armed knights. 103.0-9. Una finds her champion in the gentle lion. 104.17-36. Spenser's rendition of the Seven Deadly Sins is grotesquely medieval in tone. 105.19-28. The goddess Night prepares to descend into hell. The quality of Spenser's imagination defeats what may have been his original intention to produce a pastiche here. For example, the choice of the word "tarre" at 105.28:8 evinces artistry of the highest order. 107.1-7. The Redcross Knight brought low. You are challenged not to want to continue reading this canto! 107.38-41. Prince Arthur's "goodly reason, and well guided speach". 108.45-50. The spoiling of Duessa. 109.35-54. The counsel of Despair. The central stanzas are often quoted out of context; 109.40 was raided by Joseph Conrad for his epitaph. 111.8-55. The Redcross Knight slays the dragon. 112.9-11. Spenser's sense of humour, at its most savage in Book III, here shows a gentler face. 204.16-32. The confession of Phedon. Spenser's handling of this old story is both vivid and economical. 205.28-34. Cymochles in the Bower of Bliss. The sensuousness of the poet's imagination is still, unbelievably, developing, and has yet further to go. 207. Mammon's cave. One of Milton's favourite cantos. The word-picture of Mammon himself (207.3-4) is quite superb. 210.7-11. The long chronicle of Britain, often dismissed as tedious, nevertheless contains many striking images. See the potted _King Lear_ at 210.27-32. 212.30-33. Guyon tempted by the mermaids. The whole of this canto is recommended to the new reader; see especially 212.42-45, 212.58-82. 301.20-30. Britomart rescues the Redcross Knight. 302.17-27. Britomart falls for Arthegall. 304.17 is one of the most graphic stanzas in the _FQ_. Cymodoce's grief, 304.29-39, is wonderfully portrayed. 305.41-48. Timias's love for Belphoebe. 308.0-19. The Snowy Florimell. This is just a specimen: cantos 308-310 are mercilessly funny. 311.47-49. The image of Cupid, quite different in conception from Venus's "little sonne" of 306.11 ff.