An Annotated Copy of 'The Faerie Queene' (II.ix.22)

Abstract

A footnote to the recent scholarly interest in the so-called "arithmological stanza" in Book II of Spenser's poem is provided by an annotated copy of the 1596 edition (that is, the first edition to contain all six books) in the library of Lincoln Minster. The text of the first volume is lightly annotated mainly by way of correcting misprints and by the underlining of certain passages. No clear purpose to this latter class of annotations may be discerned except, perhaps, an interest in sensuous, mildly erotic verse.