at nought but gall and venim comprehended,
And wicked wordes that God and man offended:
Her lying tongue was in two parts divided,
And both the parts did speake, and both contended;
And as her tongue, so was her hart discided,
That never thoght one thing, but doubly stil was guided."

Note the fine old meaning of "discided," cut in two; it is a great pity
we have lost this powerful expression. We might keep "determined" for
the other sense of the word.

Sec. LXXII. _Fourth side._ Patience. A female figure, very expressive and
lovely, in a hood, with her right hand on her breast, the left extended,
inscribed "PATIENTIA MANET MECUM."

She is one of the principal virtues in all the Christian systems: a
masculine virtue in Spenser, and beautifully placed as the _Physician_
in the House of Holinesse. The opponent vice, Impatience, is one of the
hags who attend the Captain of the Lusts of the Flesh; the other being
Impotence. In like manner, in the "Pilgrim's Progress," the opposite of
Patience is Passion; but Spenser's thought is farther carried. His two
hags, Impatience and Impotence, as attendant upon the evil spirit of
Passion, embrace all the phenomena of human conduct, down even to the
smallest matters, according to the adage, "More haste, worse speed."

Sec. LXXIII. _Fifth side._ Despair. A female figure thrusting a dagger into
her throat, and tearing her long hair, which flows down among the leaves
of the capital below her knees. One of the finest figures of the series;
inscribed "DESPERACIO MOS (mortis?) CRUDELIS." In the Renaissance copy
she is totally devoid of expression, and appears, instead of tearing her
hair, to be dividing it into long curls on each side.

This vice is the proper opposite of Hope. By Giotto she is represented
as a woman hanging herself, a fiend coming for her soul. Spenser's
vision of Despair is well known, it being indeed currently reported that
this part of the Faerie Queen was the first which drew to it the
attention of Sir Philip Sidney.

Sec. LXXIV. _Sixth side._ Obedience: with her arms folded; meek, but rude
and commonplace, looking at a little dog standing on its hind legs and
begging, with a collar round its neck. Inscribed "OBEDIENTI * *;" the
rest of the sentence is much defaced, but looks like [Illustration:
Graphic signs]. I suppose the note of contraction above the final A has
disappeared and that the inscription was "Obedientiam domino exhibeo."

This vir