and Greene's _Friar Bacon and Friar
Bungay_, both based on the popular belief in magic, were presented on the
London stage.

328. BLACKE PLUTOES GRIESLY DAME, Proserpine, the avenger of men, and
inflicter of curses on the dead. She is identified with Shakespeare's
Hecate, the goddess of sorcery, and with Milton's Cotytto, goddess of lust.
To this latter sin the knight is tempted.

332. GREAT GORGON, Demogorgon, whose name might not be uttered, a magician
who had power over the spirits of the lower world. The poet is here
imitating the Latin poets Lucan and Statius.

333. COCYTUS, the river of wailing, and STYX, the river of hate, both in
Hades. There were two others, _Acheron_, the river of sorrow, and
_Phlegethon_, the river of fire.

335. LEGIONS OF SPRIGHTS. In this stanza and the preceding Spenser follows
Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, xiii, 6-11, where the magician Ismeno,
guarding the Enchanted Wood, conjures "legions of devils" with the "mighty
name" (l. 332).

339. CHOSE. Imitation of Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_, ii, 15, in which a
false spirit is called up by a hypocritical hermit. The description of the
House of Sleep in st. xxxix _seq_. is modelled on the same poet, _Orlando
Furioso_, ii, 15 _seq_. The influence of Homer's _Odyssey_, xi, 16 is seen
in st. xxxix, ll. 348 _seq_.

348. TETHYS, the ocean. In classical mythology she is the daughter of
Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth), and the wife of Oceanus.

349. CYNTHIA, the moon. The allusion is to the story of Diana and Endymion.
See Lyly's play _Endymion_.

352. WHOSE DOUBLE GATES. Homer, _Odyssey_, xix, 562, and Vergil, _Aeneid_,
vi, 893, give the House of Dreams a horn and an ivory gate. Spenser
substitutes silver for horn, mirrors being overlaid with silver in his
time. From the ivory gate issued false dreams; from the other, true ones.

361. SLUMBER SOFT. This stanza shows Spenser's wonderful technique. His
exquisite effects are produced, it will be noticed, partly by the choice of
musical words and partly by the rhythmical cadence of the verse phrases. It
is an example of perfect "keeping," or adaptation of sound to sense. Cf.
Chaucer's description of the waterfalls in the Cave of Sleep in his _Boke
of the Duchesse_, 162.

376. WHOSE DRYER BRAINE, whose brain too dry. In the old physiology, a dry
brain was the cause of slow and weak perception, and a moist brain of
quickness.

378. ALL, entirely, altogether.

381. HECATE, queen of phanto