All for love, and nothing for reward.

The line expresses an ideal of disinterested devotion: actions undertaken purely out of love, without expectation of payment, praise, or advantage. In Spenser’s poetic world—where love, virtue, and service are frequently tested against self-interest—the sentiment aligns with a chivalric and moral aspiration to act from inward principle rather than external recompense. Read more broadly, it frames love as its own sufficient motive and “reward,” implying that any ulterior motive diminishes the authenticity of affection or service. The aphoristic balance of the phrasing also makes it readily detachable from its original setting, which helps explain its later life as a general maxim.