28 Philo M. Buck, Jr. 



two of his notes entire. Florimel " is pursued by Prince Arthur, 

 who, in the historical allusion, is the Earl of Leicester, and who 

 was talked of, and that too, by Queen Elizabeth's consent, as the 

 intended husband of the Queen of Scots. But what persecutions 

 does she undergo in this canto? I don't say that the monster 

 pursuing her, ' with thousand spots of colours quaint elected,' 

 typifies the motley dress of the Queen of Scots' subjects; whom 

 to avoid she hastens to the seas, ' for in the seas to drown her- 

 self she fared,' rather than to be caught of that Motley Crezv, 

 her false tyrannical courtiers and subjects now pursuing her: she 

 leaps therefore into a boat, ' so safety found at sea, which she 

 found not at land.' 



'"The Queen of Scots having escaped out of prison, and levied 

 a hasty army, which was easily defeated, she was so terrified, 

 that she rode that day above sixty miles ; and then rather chose 

 to commit herself to the miseries of the sea, than to the false 

 fidelity of her people: ' " (from Camden, p. ii8). There she was 

 oppressed first by the fisherman and later by Proteus who impris- 

 oned her and sought her love. Upton remarks '' Tis said that the 

 Queen of Scots, when flung into prison, was committed to the care 

 of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and was hardly dealt with by him, 

 because she hearkened not to his solicitations." 



In the first place, it is hardly necessary to remark that the Queen 

 was not misused by Shrewsbury, and if she had been, it would have 

 been highly improper for Spenser the court poet to have slandered 

 the noble earl. The chief difficulty with this view is that it makes 

 a heroine of Mary, a person who was utterly odious in the sight 

 of the puritan poet, a character, too, whom he has shown up in 

 the blackest possible colors in the character of Duessa and 

 Acrasia.'^^ 



The adventures of Florimel are in brief as follows : she escapes 

 from Arthur ; spends the night in a witch's hut where the son, 

 a lazy good-for-nothing boy, falls in love with her; she escapes 

 soon after, but the witch sends after her a dreadful monster; to 

 save her life, she leaps into a boat, only to be assailed by the old 

 fisherman, master of the boat ; and is at last rescued by Proteus 



'" See Book V, Canto ix. 



i86 



