Question

Read the lines from The Faerie Queene.

So down he fell, as a huge rocky clift,
Whose false foundation waves have washed away,
With dreadful poyse is from the mainland rift,
And rolling down, great Neptune doth dismay;
So down he fell, and like a heaped mountain lay.

Which option mostclearly describes how a student could infer the archaic meaning of false from context clues in the surrounding text?

A. The Faerie Queene
B. The student could infer that since the dragon went into the water, false means "oceanic."
C. The student could infer that since false means "fake," the Redcrosse knight had destroyed the foundation as a trap.
D. The student could infer that since false means the opposite of true, the Redcrosse knight discovered that there had never been a foundation.
E. The student could infer that since the dragon fell, false means "unreliable and weak."

Answer 1

Answer: I would contend that the right answer is the E) The student could infer that since the dragon fell, false means "unreliable and weak."

Explanation: Just to elaborate a little on the answer, it can be added that option A should be discarded, since this poem by Edmund Spenser praises Queen Elizabeth I, who is represented by the Faerie Queene, Gloriana, so that negative term couldn't have been linked to her. The passage relates the dragon's fall to earth—not to water—and describes the cruel beast as "a huge rocky clift, whose false foundation waves have washed away." A foundation, by definition, is meant to be sturdy and stable; water should not be able to wash it away. The dragon's foundation, however, was a false foundation, or, in other words, an unreliable and weak foundation, which couldn't prevent him from falling.