402 THE STONES OF VENICE

Spenser’s Gluttony is more than usually fine:

“His belly was upblowne with luxury,

And eke with fatnesse swollen were his eyne,

And like a crane his necke was long and fyne,

Where with he swallowed up excessive feast,

For want whereof poore people oft did pyne.”¹

He rides upon a swine, and is clad in vine-leaves, with a garland of ivy. Compare the account of Excesse, above [§ 80], as opposed to Temperance.

§ 88. Third side. Pride. A knight, with a heavy and stupid face, holding a sword with three edges; his armour covered with ornaments in the form of roses, and with two ears attached to his helmet. The inscription undecipherable, all but “SUPERBIA.”

Spenser has analyzed this vice with great care. He first represents it as the Pride of life; that is to say, the pride which runs in a deep under-current through all the thoughts and acts of men. As such, it is a feminine vice, directly opposed to Holiness, and mistress of a castle called the House of Pryde, and her chariot is driven by Satan, with a team of beasts, ridden by the mortal sins. In the throne chamber of her palace she is thus described:

“So proud she shyned in her princely state,

Looking to Heaven, for Earth she did disdayne;

And sitting high, for lowly she did hate:

Lo, underneath her scornefull feete was layne

A dreadfull dragon with an hideous trayne;

And in her hand she held a mirrhour bright,

Wherein her face she often vewed fayne.”²

The giant Orgoglio is a baser species of pride, born of the Earth and Eolus; that is to say, of sensual and vain conceits. His foster-father and the keeper of his castle is Ignorance. (Book I. Canto VIII.)

Finally, Disdain is introduced, in other places, as the form of pride which vents itself in insult to others.³

¹ [Book i. canto iv. 21.]

² [Book i. canto iv. 10.]

³ [Book ii. cantos vii. and viii; v. canto xi. 8; vi. canto vii. 44.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]