How can he mercy ever hope to have?" - Meaning and context.">
Canto 2, stanza 42
“

Who will not mercie unto others show,
How can he mercy ever hope to have?

— Edmund Spenser

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Who will not mercie unto others show,
How can he mercy ever hope to have?" in the context of "Canto 2, stanza 42" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Edmund Spenser" (Quotes, The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book V) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Edmund Spenser

About Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet, who wrote such pastorals as The Shepheardes Calendar, Astrophell and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, but is most famous for the multi-layered allegorical romance, The Faerie Queene.