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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2019
On the fourth book of The Faerie Queene, Scudamour passes a restless night in the house of Care,
… a blacksmith by his trade,
That neither day nor night from working spared,
But to small purpose yron wedges made:
Those be unquiet thoughts, that carefull minds invade.
The smith is assisted by ‘sixe strong groomes’ who keep the visitor awake most of the evening with the din of their
… huge great hammers, that did never rest From heaping stroakes… .
When the knight finally falls asleep, Care awakens him with a pair of red-hot tongs.
That this episode ‘symbolizes Scudamour's jealous wretchedness’ is, as Lemmi observed, perfectly obvious. Indeed Spenser has made the meaning of his ‘darke conceit’ extremely clear.
1 Lemmi, C. W., ‘The Symbolism of the Classical Episodes in The Faerie Queene ’, PQ VIII (1929), 271 Google Scholar.
2 Ibid., pp. 271-272; Heffner, Ray, ed, The Faerie Queene, Book Four (Baltimore, 1935, Variorum Edition), pp. 196–199 Google Scholar. Cf. Boccaccio, Giovanni, Genealogiae deorum gentilium libri, ed. Romano, Vincenzo, I (Bari, 1951), 124–134 Google Scholar.
3 Florio, John, A Worlde of Wordes, Or, Most copious, and exact Dictionarie in Italian and English (London, 1598)Google Scholar, s.v. Martello.
4 Ibid.,s.v. Ammartellare, Ammartellato.
5 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Venezia, 1612), s.v. Martello.
6 Filippo Venuti da Cortona, Dittionario volgare, … Latino (Bolonia, 1578), p. 539.
7 Il primo libro dell’ opere burlesche. Di M. Francesco Berni, di M. Gio. della Casa, del Varchi, delMauro… (Firenze, 1548).
8 Le terze rime di Messer Giovanni dalla Casa di Messer Bino e d''altri (1542), in Tutte le opere del Bernia in terza rima (1545), 142-143. Lasca's poem ‘Sopra la gelosia’ (Rime di Anton Francesco Grazzini, II, Florence, 1742, pp. 146-151) also includes insomnia as a characteristic of jealousy:
Stà vigilante senza mai dormire
A ogni voce, a ogni cenno presta:
E per dare agli amanti piu martire,
Nel sonno ancor gli afflige e gli molesta
Con nuovo larve in foggia orrenda e nuova;
Così riposo alcun mai non si trovo.
9 Le rime di M. Agnolo Firenzuola Fiorentino (Fiorenza, 1549), 119.
10 Book I, v, 5.
11 Book I, xviii, 58.
12 Giovanni Fabrini da Fighine Fiorentino, Il Terentio Latino, comentato in lingua Toscana (Vinegia, 1558), p. 125. Cf. Le Comedie di Terentio volgari (Vinegia, 1546), p. 39, Yella lo lodara per farti martello, sai tu?’ See Terence's Eunuchus III. i.
13 For additional examples of martello in Italian literature, see Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, quinta impressione, s.v. Ammartellare, Ammartellato, Martello.
14 Ibid., s.v. Martello.
15 Adagiorum Des. Erasmi Roterodami chiliades quatuor … quibus adiectae sunt Henrici Stephani Animadversiones (Parisiis, 1579), col. 27, Proverb No. 1116. See Morris Palmer Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Ann Arbor, 1950), H62, ‘Between the HAMMER and the anvil.’
16 Hieroglyphica, sive de sacris Aegyptiorum, aliarumque gentium Uteris commentary Ioannis Pierii Valeriani (Basileae, 1575), p. 353 (‘De malleo’). An illustration entitled ‘Malorum Irritamentum’ depicts a man beating out two swords on an anvil with a hammer.
17 Freeman, Rosemary, English Emblem Books (London, 1948), p. 79 Google Scholar.
18 Ripa, Cesare, Iconologia overo descrittione d'imagini delle virtù, vitij, affetti, passioni humane (Padova, 1611), p. 521 Google Scholar.
19 Robertus Stephanus, Dictionarium seu thesaurus Latinae linguae (Venice, 1551), s.v. Zelotypus. Cf. Ambrosii Calepini Dictionarium (Venetiis, 1571), s.v. Zelotypus: ‘Zelotypus, . . suspiciosus in amore, quenque id solicitum habet, ne quis eo perfruatur, quod ipse amat: quasi dicas formae aemulatorem. Nam 
, aemulationem, & 
, formam significat.’ The same combination of words (zelos and typos) could also be interpreted as ‘blow of jealousy’, for typos meant not merely form, but also ‘a blow’ or ‘the effect or product of a blow’. (See Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford, 1901, s.v. Hnros.) The ‘heaping stroakes’ of Spenser’s blacksmiths derive their significance, in large part, from the root meaning of zelotypus; they represent, allegorically, the ‘blows of jealousy’.
20 Minsheu, John, Ductor in Linguas, The Guide into Tongues (London, 1617)Google Scholar, s.v. Gelous.
21 Deoratore, II, xxxix.
22 Bibliolheca Eliotae. Eliotes Dictionarie the second tyme enriched … by Thomas Cooper (Londini, l552), s.v. Incus. Cf. Stephanus, s.v. Incus.
23 Interpretations of I Kings vi. 7 sometimes associated the din of hammers with the blows of adversity. Rabanus Maurus, commenting on the prohibition against hammers, axes, and other iron tools in building Solomon's temple, contrasts the peace of the Church Triumphant with the ‘labores et certamina’ of this life: ‘ “Et malleus et securis et omne ferramentum, non sunt audita in domo, cum aedificaretur.” … Ubi malleus et securis, et omne ferramentum non auditur, quia hie tundimur adversitatibus, et disciplina veritatis exercemur.’ (Patrologia Latina CIX, Paris, 1864, col. 144.) Cf. Glossa ordinaria, P.L. CIX (Paris, 1852), col. 587.
24 Upton, John, ed., Spenser's Faerie Queene, II (London, 1768), p. 592 Google Scholar; Variorum Spenser IV, 197.
25 Boccaccio, pp. 129-134. Acheron's only son was Ascalaphus; his five daughters included the three furies (Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera), Victoria, and Styx.
26 Upton, II, 592.
27 Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum libri XX, Book v, Chapter 31, ‘De nocte’ (P.L LXXXII, Paris, 1850, col. 218). Cf. Rabanus Maurus, De uniuerso, Book x, Chapter 7, ‘De septem partibus noctis’ (P.L. CXI, Paris, 1864, col. 292-293). See also Honorius Augustodunensis, De imagine mundi, Book II, Chapter 32, ‘De septem temporibus noctis’ (P.L. CLXXH, Paris, 1854, col. 150-151).
28 The Geography of Strabo (London, 1927, Loeb Classical Library), IV, 168.
29 Pierius, p 353, ‘Sed super hoc plura legas homilia tertia in Hieremiam apud Adamantium’. See S. Eusebii Hieronymi translatio homiliarum Origenis in Jeremiam, ‘ Homilia tertia’, in P.L. XXV (Paris, 1845), col. 606-615; ‘Origenis in Jeremiam homilia XX, De eo quod scriptum est: Quomodo contractus et contritus est malleus universae terrae’, in P.G. xin (Paris, 1862), col. 525-534; cf. Jeremiah L, 23. For the source of Erasmus’ proverb and Pierius’ hammer symbolism, see P.G. xm, col. 526: ‘Jam quoddam est et apud nationes tritum vulgi sermone proverbium, ut de his qui anxietatibus et ingentibus malis premuntur, dicant, inter malleum sunt et incudem. Tu autem hoc refers ad Zabulum et draconem, qui istiusmodi semper in Scripturis pro varietate causarum nominibus insigniuntur.’
30 Ibid., p. 527. Italics mine.
31 Philo, tr. F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker (London and New York, 1929), II, 393.
32 Origen's homily may have suggested another detail in stanza 37. The massive hammer of the sixth servant ‘seem’d a rocke of Diamond it could rive.’ Though the diamond's strength was proverbial, it is significant that Origen develops at length (col. 526- 527) the comparison between the saint tried by temptations and the adamant tested by hammer and anvil: ‘… quaero materiam malleo fortiorem, quae nihil ab eo percussa patiatur….Refert autem de adamante historia, quia fortior sit omni caedenti se malleo, incontritus et inconvincibilis permanens. Licet supra stet malleus Zabulus, et suppositus sit draco, qui est quasi incus indomabilis, nihil tamen in many Dei, et in conspectu ejus consistens adamas perpetitur. Duo itaque contraria sunt adamanti isti malleus et incus improducibilis.… sanctus, qui quasi murus adamantinus, vel in manu Domini adamas est, non curet neque de malleo, neque de incude, sed quanto plus caesus fuerit, tanto plus ejus virtutem splendescere. Aiunt eos qui mercimoniam lapidum exercent, cum voluerint probare adamantem, ignorantes utrum sit adamas, annon sit, quandiu malleum et incudem non invenerint; tunc autem persuaderi esse verissimum adamantem, si indomitus lapis, si inter incudem et malleum perseverat, si percutiente desuper malleo, et incude supposita durior lapidum natura compingit. Talis vir est: ante tentationes ab his qui probare lapides nesciunt, ignoratur.’
33 Upton, p. 592; cf. Iliad, XVIII, 410, 
.
34 P.L. VI (Paris, 1844), col. 213n.
35 Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, tr. William Whiston (London and New York, n.d.), p. 4; Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum (P.L. LXXXH, Paris, 1850, col. 314, 318); Stephanus, s.v. Cyclops.
36 See the B-text of Piers Plowman, Passus 1, line 61.
37 Aeneid, VI, 274.
38 We need not, of course, infer that Spenser derived his conception of Care specifically from this source. Nevertheless the dictionaries provide a valuable compilation of classical references to care. Except where otherwise specified, all quotations from Cooper, Stephanus, or Calepine have been taken from their definitions of cura. The classical sources of these quotations are specified in the Renaissance dictionaries themselves, as well as in modern lexicons. For Spenser's relation to Renaissance dictionaries, see Starnes, D. T. and Talbert, E. W., Classical Myth and Learning in Renaissance Dictionaries (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1955). PP. 44–110 Google Scholar.
39 Lewis, and Short, , A Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1933)Google Scholar, s.v. cura; Thesaurus linguae Latinae (Lipsiae, 1909), s.v. cura; Totius latinitatis lexicon, ed. Aegidius Forcellinus and Josephus Furlanettus (Prati, 1861), s.v. cura
40 Stevenson, Burton, Stevenson's Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases (London, 1949), p. 288 Google Scholar.
41 Ripa, p. 521.
42 Calepine.
43 Stephanus.
44 Cf. N.E.D., s.v. care, ‘care-pined hearts’.
45 Stephanus. Cf. ibid., s.v. vigil: ‘Curae vigiles’, ‘Dolores mei vigilant sine fine’, ‘Curis vigilantibus excita’, etc.; Calepine, s.v. vigil, ‘Et renuant vigiles corpus miserabile curae’.
46 Cooper, Thesaurus (1573).
47 Aeneid, IV, 1-5.
48 Cf. the expression ‘Carebedd’, N.E.D., s.u. care.
49 The Complete Works of John Lyly, ed. R. Warwick Bond (Oxford, 1902), 11,410.
50 Book III, xii, 16.
51 N.E.D., s.v. pinch.
52 The Bible (Geneva, 1560). Cf. N.E.D., s.v. care, ‘carescorcht’.
53 Bond, II, 373.
54 The Bible (Geneva, 1560), Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 27-28. The Authorized Version substitutes ‘will waste his flesh’ for ‘dryeth his flesh’. The idea of wakefulness emerges more strongly in the Vulgate (‘vigilia sua’) and in the Authorized Version (’And he will be wakeful’).
55 Stephanus.
56 Thus Desportes refers to ‘le mari jaloux de la belle Cypris Qui forge a Jupiter le tonnerre et l’orage'. (See Oeuvres de Philippes Desportes, ed. Alfred Michiels, Paris, 1858, p. 73). Cf. Burton, Robert, The Anatomy of Melancholy (London, 1845), p. 634 Google Scholar, ‘Abraham was jealous of his wife because she was fair: so was Vulcan of his Venus, when he made her creaking shoes, saith Philostratus, ne moecharetur, sandalio scilicet deferente, that he might hear by them when she stirred.’
57 See The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York and London, 1902), s.v. Cain; Encyclopaedia Judaica (Berlin, 1932), s.v. Kain; Testamentum patris nostri Adam, ed. Michael Kmosko, Patrologia Syriaca, Pt. 1, Vol. II (Paris, 1907),cols. 1313-1314, 1344, 1349.
58 A Midsummer-Night's Dream, 11, ii.
59 N.E.D., s.v. Forgery.
60 Italics mine.
61 Due lezzioni di M. Benedetto Varchi (Lione, 1560), p. 25. Varchi observes (pp. 25-26) that Ariosto employs a similar device in describing jealousy (Orlando Furioso, Canto 31, Stanza 1): ‘II che fece ancora l’Ariosto nella prima stanza; il quale innanzi, che le dicesse il nome propio, la dinoto con cinque vocaboli peggior l'uno, che l'altro; che furono questi, sospetto, timore, martire, frenesia, & rabbia.’ Varchi's lecture on Casa's sonnet was subsequently translated into English by Robert Tofte, as The Blazon of Iealousie: a Subiect not written of by any heretofore (London, 1615). In Varchi's opinion (Tofte, p. 7), no poet had discussed the subject of jealousy ‘so much’ or ‘so learnedly’ as Ariosto and Casa.
62 See Appendix II, ‘Rime di Baldassare Stampa’, in Gaspara Stampa's Rime, ed. Abdelkader Salza (Bari, 1913), p. 204. Tofte translates this poem in the notes to The Blazon of Iealousie (p. 23) ‘because it is annext unto this Worke of Benedetto Varchies’.
63 Tofte, p. 22.
64 Ibid., pp. 9, 11.
65 A detailed discussion of the relationship of jealousy to envy, fear, and love also appears in an appendix entitled ‘Se la Gelosia può esser senza biasimo’ (Varchi, pp. 71-104). Jealousy is identified as a species of envy (p. 83), but (p. 88) ‘il genere vero, & propio, & prossimo della gelosia non e invidia, ma paura, o sospetto, o dolore.’ Moreover (pp. 98, 100), Tamore dilettevole non puo essere senza gelosia, & … dove non e gelosia, 6 tanto 6 quanto, non e amore.… Anzi dico piu, che quanto sara maggior l’amore, tanto sara maggior la gelosia, & all’ encontro ‘ Cf. also ‘Quistione Settima’ of Varchi’s Lezzione d'Amore ('Se Amore può essere senza gelosia’), in Lezzioni di M. Benedetto Varchi (Fiorenza, 1590), p. 375. See also Burton's discussion of jealousy, pp. 626-660.
66 Tofte, pp. 5-6, 12, 22, 55.
67 Ibid., pp. 44-45.
68 Lemmi, pp. 271-272.
69 Natalis ComitisMythologiae (Francofurti, 1584), p. 154.
70 Ibid., p. 250.
71 Ripa, p . 194.
72 wft»tt,p.49S.
73 Ibid., p. 488.
74 Ibid., p. 487.
75 Ibid., p. 533. The cock also represents solicitude and vigilance in Ripa's description of Studio (pp. 505-506), ‘II Gallo si pone da diversi per la sollecitudine, & per la vigilanza’.
76 Ibid., p. 265.
77 See the descriptions of Buio, Carro della Notte, and Hora Nona, ibid., pp. 54, 67, 229.
78 See Genio Cattivo, ibid., p. 196.
79 Ibid., p. 473.
80 Though the dog's conventional vigilance hardly requires comment, Spenser's reference to ‘the dogs’ which ‘did barke and howle’ all night is particularly appropriate, in view of Petronius’ description of care as latrans. See Thesaurus linguae Latinae, s.v. cura.
