568 Draper would seem the most plausible, were it not for E. K's seeming errors; and these are no less widely distributed than the list of lucky guesses just rehearsed. Several possible errors of E. K. have already been noted but the following seem the chief cases. The matter, however, is very difficult to determine; for we have only the text and the not-always-certain test of etymology to guide us; and, even if an error is made, it is often hard to tell whether Spenser might not have made it through ignorance or carelessness himself.
- Aequipage (X) may according to both text and etymology,
mean retinue, style, attire, or military accoutrements; but it can hardly mean, as E. K. glosses it, order. *Chevisaunce (V) is glossed with various and confused meanings; 50 and E. K. does not seem to know which one applies in the present instance; or perhaps he is simply indulging in another gratutious note. Cremosin Coronet (IV) is not explained at all by the gloss. Cremosin is a Middle English form of crimson; and E. K.'S comment, "He deviseth her crown to be of the finest and most delicate flowers," either mis-defines "crimosin," or else refers to the lines of the poem which follow the two words quoted in the gloss. In the former case, it is clearly mis-glossing; in the the latter, it is merely tautological. *Frenne (IV) is defined as stranger in the gloss, probably correctly; but E. K.'s remark that it was first used poetically and then used for foreign, is of dubious meaning and accuracy. Spenser, in fact, probably got it from the North English dialect fren; or it may possibly be, as N. E. D. suggests, a corruption of Middle English fremd or frend. On the other hand, Spenser might not have remem- bered where he picked up the word; and he certainly made errors of etymology quite as bad as this in his Present State of Ireland. Again the case is not certain. *Glen (IV), however, as N. E. D. notes, is unquestionably a mistake of the gloss: the sense "a country hamlet" is possible enough in the text; but this is the only case of the word in this sense recorded in literature or dialect. But Spenser is as liable to have made it himself, as E. K; and I am inclined to suppose it, whosever the respon- sibility, a careless mistake or possibly an intentional error "N.E.D. discusses the confusion of chevisaunce with chevance, chivalry,
chevauchee, etc.
