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Now whenas darkesome night had all displayd

Her coleblacke curtein over brightest skye,

The warlike youthes on dayntie couches layd,

Did chace away sweet sleepe from sluggish eye,

To muse on meanes of hoped victory.

But whenas Morpheus had with leaden mace

Arrested all that courtly company,

Up-rose Duessa from her resting place,

And to the Paynims lodging comes with silent pace.

In this stanza night has befallen the Proud Palace of Queen Lucifera and both our knight and Sans joy are wide awake contemplating each victory over the other. Previously Sans joy had challenged the knight to a duel, but the Queen insisted they wait until morning for it to proceed. Both men agreed and now lie down in their overly lavish couches for the night. Just as the God of sleep makes everyone else in the court fall to bed, Duessa wakes up and goes to speak to Sans joy about his brother Sans foy whom our knight did slay. This is a significant moment because it is the calm before the storm. The knight and Sans joy are mentally preparing for battle and Duessa sneaks away to side with Sans joy. This is the setting up of the battle in the next Canto.

This passage is a contrast of evil (paired with dark) and good (paired with light). Not only is it literally the waiting point before the next significant event occurs, but it also gives some forboding of what will come in the future. The first two lines describe the blackness of night covering the "brightest skye". There are two points here. First Spenser uses personification when he gives life to the knight saying that she "displayd / Her coleblack curtein over brightest skye". Second, I think Spenser uses such vivid and bleak imagery to create a memory in our heads (as readers) for what is soon to come. Here the black night (evil) is completely covering even the brightest light of day (good). I think we're supposed to understand that our knight has many more trials to go through where evil will seem to completely overcome him in deception. Even if he wins the battle, their are darker forces to face.

Spenser uses a lot of alliteration in this passage as well. Adding even more to the first two lines, the letter C is alliterated in "coleblacke curtein". I think this description is not only being highlighted here, but also sounds a certain way. The hard "C" sound reminds me of the word "cold": it's harsh and unwelcoming. Again this forbodes what is to become of the knights journey in the near future. The fourth line in this passage alliterates the "s" sound with the verbs sweet, sleepe, and sluggish. These are all very "innocent-like" words. They are hardly negative and have a relaxed gererality amongst them. The fact that the men are awake and at a loss to these three words shows their lack of innocense. Not only are they lying in an evil sinful place (the Proud Palace --- which also has alliteration for rememberance), but they are contemplating the demise of one another. They keep themselves awake with proud thoughts of victory, which also coincides with the palace in which they stay. Here most everything is evil and sinful. All that is good seems to be floudering out in this passage.

Another literary device I noticed in this particular piece from Spenser, was caesura. For the last time (I promise) I want to use the first two lines of the passage as an example. They have this pause between them, splitting them up so that each will carry its own heavy importance. First the darkness of night comes in, and then the second line comes in with the harsh description of its "coleblacke curtein". The use of the caesura makes each line stand out although they are supposed to be read as one sentence. This occurs again with the description of Morpheus making the rest of the court fall asleep. The first line contains yet another dark description with the two words "leaden mace". The first word has two meanings. Leaden is both something heavy and dragged, and dull, gray, and gloomy (dictionary.com). The double-meaning here is very significant because it gives even more to this specific word. Mace was a "clublike armor-breaking weapon of war" from the Middle Ages (dictionary.com). You can see how these two words together can sound very powerful. But this is only the first line to the seperated sentence. The next line begins with the word "arrested," another powerful choice of diction. Morpheus has not just sprinkled some fairy dust over the people of the palace so that they could drift off into Sleepyland; he's seized all of their company from under them. This sentence is stuctured to capture the reader. It could either be more forboding or perhaps represent the helplessness in deceit the knight has endured so far. He is not always aware of the evils around him, but they occur without the consensus of choice.