"Those Two Brethren Giants"Author(s): Allan GilbertSource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Feb., 1955), pp. 93-94Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3040647 .

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of public offices, or similar enactments, be of permanent help.20 The only way that these evils "maye be perfectlye cured and brought to a good and vpryght state " and that " perfecte wealthe shall euer be among men " 21 iS through the abolition of private property and the introduction of communism. This form of government insures a true commonwealth which looks to the interests of the many, not the few, and which secures a just distribution of the commodities of life- " that is to say, the matter of pleasure "-especially for the virtuous and hard-working members of the state. Consequently, Hythloday does not hesitate to proclaim of the Utopian state that, in his reasoned opinion, " the fourme and ordre of that commen wealthe . . . is not onlye the beste, but also . . . alone of good ryght may clayme and take vpon it the name of a common wealthe or publique weale." 22

Loyola University (Chicago) EDWARD SURTZ, S.J.

" Those Two Brethren Giants" Faerie Queene, 2.11.15

When the house of Temperance is assailed by the forces of Maleger

th' assieged Castles ward Their stedfast stonds did mightily maintaine, And many bold repulse, and many hard Atchievement wrought with perill and with paine, That goodly frame from ruine to sustaine: And those two brethren Giants did defend The walles so stoutly with their sturdie maine, That never entrance any durst pretend,

But they to direfull death their groning ghosts did send.

On the Giants, the Variorum editors repeat Kitchin's note: "Prince Arthur and Timias his squire-unless indeed it is a slip, and Spenser was thinking of Sir Guyon as still in the castle."

The latter part of the note, Kitchin's addition to earlier annotaters, implies that Spenser forgot easily, since Guyon left ten stanzas before. The positive part makes the poet still less attentive. In the stanza immediately following, the Prince, seeing the dismay of the Lady of the castle in "her wofull plight," offers his service and his life " for

20 Utopia, pp. 108-109. 21 Utopia, pp. 107, 109. 2 Utopia, p. 299.

VOL. LXX, Februcary 1955 93

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her defence, against that Carle to fight." She accepts and " eftsoones " the Prince puts on his armor and takes his weapons. Without them, he could hardly have been defending the walls and slaying the attackers. In addition, the Prince and Timias are neither brethren nor giants.

In this part of the poem, Spenser is still carrying on the figure developed in the two preceding cantos, that of the Castle of the Body, the "frame" of the stanza quoted above. This well-known organic concept is by Shakespeare's Menenius applied to the commonwealth, and the Second Citizen specifies

The Kingly crown'd head, the vigilant eye, The Counsailor Heart, the Arme our Souldier, Our Steed the Legge, the Tongue our Trumpeter.

(Coriolanus, 1.1.121-3)

This detailed development is not in the dramatist's immediate source. Similarly in Henry V:

While that the Armed hand doth fight abroad, Th' advised head defends it selfe at home.

(1.2.178-9)

This is in the tone of the Sieur Du Bartas: Mains, qui de corps humain tracez la pourtraiture, Oublirez-vous les mains, chambrieres de nature, Singes de l'Eternal, instrument A tous arts, Et pour sauver nos corps non soudoyez soudars.

(1 Sep., 6 Jour., 623-6)

In the Middle Ages John of Salisbury, developing the metaphor of the body from an Institutio Traiani attributed to Plutarch, wrote: "Officiales et milites manibus coaptantur." 1

It appears then that Spenser, familiar with the organic allegory, assumed that his readers would catch the meaning of his word those (meaning those defenders mentioned in allegories of the body), and would understand that " those two brethren giants " are the warrior hands.

Duke University ALLAN GILBERT

1 Policraticu8 (Oxford, 1909), v.2, 540 c 6, 7. Cf. vI.1, 589 ab: Manus itaque rei publicae aut armata est aut inermis. Armata quidem est quae cast- rensem et cruentam exercet militiam. . . . Neque enim rei publicae militant soli illi qui galeis toracibusque muniti in hostes exercent gladios aut tela quaelibet. ... Armata itaque manus in hostem dumtaxat exercetur ... Usus quoque maniium capitis sui protestatur imaginem.

There were two editions of the Policraticus in 1513 and one in 1595.

94 Modern Langutage Note8

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