An intimate
relation
exists between the
history of the English nation and the works of English authors.
history of the English nation and the works of English authors.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
?
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Title: Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I
Author: Edmund Spenser
Release Date: March 7, 2005 [eBook #15272]
Language: English
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SPENSER'S
THE FAERIE QUEENE
BOOK I
EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
GEORGE ARMSTRONG WAUCHOPE, M. A. , Ph. D.
Professor of English in the South Carolina College
_Velut inter ignes luna minores_
New York
The Macmillan Company
London: Macmillan & Co. , Ltd.
1921
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1903.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:
I. The Age which produced the Faerie Queene
II. The Author of the Faerie Queene
III. Study of the Faerie Queene:
1. A Romantic Epic
2. Influence of the New Learning
3. Interpretation of the Allegory
4. The Spenserian Stanza
5. Versification
6. Diction and Style
IV. Chronological Table of Events
THE FAERIE QUEENE. BOOK I:
Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh
Sonnet to Sir Walter Raleigh
Dedication to Queen Elizabeth
Canto I
Canto II
Canto III
Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI
Canto VII
Canto VIII
Canto IX
Canto X
Canto XI
Canto XII
NOTES
GLOSSARY
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
I. THE AGE WHICH PRODUCED THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
The study of the _Faerie Queene_ should be preceded by a review of the
great age in which it was written. An intimate relation exists between the
history of the English nation and the works of English authors. This close
connection between purely external events and literary masterpieces is
especially marked in a study of the Elizabethan Age. To understand the
marvelous outburst of song, the incomparable drama, and the stately prose
of this period, one must enter deeply into the political, social, and
religious life of the times.
The _Faerie Queene_ was the product of certain definite conditions which
existed in England toward the close of the sixteenth century. The first of
these national conditions was the movement known as the _revival of
chivalry_; the second was the _spirit of nationality_ fostered by the
English Reformation; and the third was that phase of the English
Renaissance commonly called the _revival of learning_.
The closing decade of Queen Elizabeth's reign was marked by a strong
reaction toward romanticism. The feudal system with its many imperfections
had become a memory, and had been idealized by the people. The nation felt
pride in its new aristocracy, sprung largely from the middle class, and
based rather on worth than ancestry. The bitterness of the Wars of the
Roses was forgotten, and was succeeded by an era of reconciliation and good
feeling. England was united in a heroic queen whom all sects, ranks, and
parties idolized. The whole country exulting in its new sense of freedom
and power became a fairyland of youth, springtime, and romantic
achievement.
Wise and gallant courtiers, like Sidney, Leicester, and Raleigh, gathered
about the queen, and formed a new chivalry devoted to deeds of adventure
and exploits of mind in her honor. The spirit of the old sea-kings lived
again in Drake and his bold buccaneers, who swept the proud Spaniards from
the seas. With the defeat of the Invincible Armada, the greatest naval
expedition of modern times, the fear of Spanish and Catholic domination
rolled away. The whole land was saturated with an unexpressed poetry, and
the imagination of young and old was so fired with patriotism and noble
endeavor that nothing seemed impossible. Add to this intense delight in
life, with all its mystery, beauty, and power, the keen zest for learning
which filled the air that men breathed, and it is easy to understand that
the time was ripe for a new and brilliant epoch in literature. First among
the poetic geniuses of the Elizabethan period came Edmund Spenser with his
_Faerie Queene_, the allegory of an ideal chivalry.
This poem is one of the fruits of that intellectual awakening which first
fertilized Italian thought in the twelfth century, and, slowly spreading
over Europe, made its way into England in the fifteenth century. The mighty
impulse of this New Learning culminated during the reign of the Virgin
Queen in a profound quickening of the national consciousness, and in
arousing an intense curiosity to know and to imitate the rich treasures of
the classics and romance. Its first phase was the _classical revival_. The
tyrannous authority of ecclesiasticism had long since been broken; a
general reaction from Christian asceticism had set in; and by the side of
the ceremonies of the church had been introduced a semi-pagan religion of
art--the worship of moral and sensuous beauty. Illiteracy was no longer the
style at court. Elizabeth herself set the example in the study of Greek.
Books and manuscripts were eagerly sought after, Scholars became conversant
with Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and the great tragic poets Sophocles,
Euripides, and AEschylus; and translations for the many of Vergil, Ovid,
Plautus, Terence, and Seneca poured forth from the printing-presses of
London. The English mind was strongly tempered by the idealistic philosophy
of Plato and Aristotle, and the influence of Latin tragedy and comedy was
strongly felt by the early English drama.
Along with this classical culture came a higher appreciation of the _beauty
of mediaevalism_. The romantic tendency of the age fostered the study of the
great epics of chivalry, Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ and Tasso's _Jerusalem
Delivered_, and of the cycles of French romance. From the Italian poets
especially Spenser borrowed freely. Ariosto's fresh naturalness and magic
machinery influenced him most strongly, but he was indebted to the
semi-classical Tasso for whole scenes. On the whole, therefore, Spenser's
literary affinities were more with the Gothic than the classical.
Spenser was also the spokesman of his time on religious questions. The
violent controversies of the Reformation period were over. Having turned
from the beliefs of ages with passionate rejection, the English people had
achieved religious freedom, and were strongly rooted in Protestantism,
which took on a distinctly national aspect. That Calvinism was at that time
the popular and aristocratic form of Protestantism is evident from
references in the _Faerie Queene_.
Spenser lived in the afterglow of the great age of chivalry. The passing
glories of knighthood in its flower impressed his imagination like a
gorgeous dream, and he was thus inspired to catch and crystallize into
permanent art its romantic spirit and heroic deeds. Into the framework of
his romance of chivalry he inserted a veiled picture of the struggles and
sufferings of his own people in Ireland. The _Faerie Queene_ might almost
be called the epic of the English conquest of Ireland. The poet himself and
many of his friends were in that unhappy island as representatives of the
queen's government, trying to pacify the natives, and establish law and
order out of discontent and anarchy. Spenser's poem was written for the
most part amidst all these scenes of misery and disorder, and the courage,
justice, and energy shown by his countrymen were aptly portrayed under the
allegory of a mighty spiritual warfare of the knights of old against the
power of evil.
Spenser's essay on _A View of the Present State of Ireland_ shows that, far
from shutting himself up in a fool's paradise of fancy, he was fully awake
to the social and political condition of that turbulent island, and that it
furnished him with concrete examples of those vices and virtues, bold
encounters and hair-breadth escapes, strange wanderings and deeds of
violence, with which he has crowded the allegory of the _Faerie Queene_.
II. THE AUTHOR OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
Edmund Spenser was born in London near the Tower in the year 1552. His
parents were poor, though they were probably connected with the Lancashire
branch of the old family of Le Despensers, "an house of ancient fame," from
which the Northampton Spencers were also descended. The poet's familiarity
with the rural life and dialect of the north country supports the theory
that as a boy he spent some time in Lancashire. Beyond two or three facts,
nothing is known with certainty of his early years. He himself tells us
that his mother's name was Elizabeth, and that London was his "most kindly
nurse. " His name is mentioned as one of six poor pupils of the Merchant
Taylors' School, who received assistance from a generous country squire.
At the age of seventeen, Master Edmund became a student in Pembroke Hall,
one of the colleges of the great University of Cambridge. His position was
that of a sizar, or paid scholar, who was exempt from the payment of
tuition fees and earned his way by serving in the dining hall or performing
other menial duties. His poverty, however, did not prevent him from forming
many helpful friendships with his fellow-students. Among his most valued
friends he numbered Launcelot Andrews, afterward Bishop of Winchester,
Edward Kirke, a young man of Spenser's own age, who soon after edited his
friend's first important poem, the _Shepheards Calender_, with elaborate
notes, and most important of all, the famous classical scholar, a fellow of
Pembroke, Gabriel Harvey, who was a few years older than Spenser, and was
later immortalized as the Hobbinoll of the _Faerie Queene_. It was by
Harvey that the poet was introduced to Sir Philip Sidney, the most
accomplished gentleman in England, and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth.
Spenser's residence in Cambridge extended over seven years, during which he
received the usual degrees of bachelor and master of arts. He became one of
the most learned of English poets, and we may infer that while at this seat
of learning he laid the foundations for his wide scholarship in the
diligent study of the Greek and Latin classics, the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle, the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Vergil, and the great
mediaeval epics of Italian literature. On account of some misunderstanding
with the master and tutors of his college, Spenser failed to receive the
appointment to a fellowship, and left the University in 1576, at the age of
twenty-four. His failure to attain the highest scholastic recognition was
due, it is supposed, to his being involved in some of the dangerous
controversies which were ripe in Cambridge at that time "with daily
spawning of new opinions and heresies in divinity, in philosophy, in
humanity, and in manners. "
On leaving the University, Spenser resided for about a year with relatives
in Lancashire, where he found employment. During this time he had an
unrequited love affair with an unknown beauty whom he celebrated in the
_Shepheards Calender_ under the name of Rosalind, "the widow's daughter of
the glen. " A rival, Menalchas, was more successful in finding favor with
his fair neighbor. Although he had before this turned his attention to
poetry by translating the sonnets of Petrarch and Du Bellay (published in
1569), it was while here in the North country that he first showed his high
poetic gifts in original composition.
After a visit to Sir Philip Sidney at Penshurst, Spenser went down to
London with his friend in 1578, and was presented to Sidney's great uncle,
the Earl of Leicester. He thus at once had an opportunity for advancement
through the influence of powerful patrons, a necessity with poor young
authors in that age. An immediate result of his acquaintance with Sidney,
with whom he was now on relations of intimate friendship, was an
introduction into the best society of the metropolis. This period of
association with many of the most distinguished and cultivated men in
England, together with the succession of brilliant pageants, masks, and
processions, which he witnessed at court and at Lord Leicester's mansion,
must have done much to refine his tastes and broaden his outlook on the
world.
In personal appearance Spenser was a fine type of a sixteenth century
gentleman. The grace and dignity of his bearing was enhanced by a face of
tender and thoughtful expression in which warmth of feeling was subdued by
the informing spirit of refinement, truthfulness, simplicity, and nobility.
He possessed a fine dome-like forehead, curling hair, brown eyes, full
sensuous lips, and a nose that was straight and strongly moulded. His long
spare face was adorned with a full mustache and a closely cropped Van Dyke
beard.
The _Shepheards Calender_ was published in the winter of 1579 with a
grateful and complimentary dedication to Sidney. It is an academic exercise
consisting of a series of twelve pastoral poems in imitation of the
eclogues of Vergil and Theocritus. The poem is cast in the form of
dialogues between shepherds, who converse on such subjects as love,
religion, and old age. In three eclogues the poet attacks with Puritan zeal
the pomp and sloth of the worldly clergy, and one is devoted to the courtly
praise of the queen. It was at once recognized as the most notable poem
that had appeared since the death of Chaucer, and placed Spenser
immediately at the head of living English poets.
In 1580 Spenser went over to Ireland as private secretary to Lord Grey of
Wilton, the Artegall of the Legend of Justice in the _Faerie Queene_. After
the recall of his patron he remained in that turbulent island in various
civil positions for the rest of his life, with the exception of two or
three visits and a last sad flight to England. For seven years he was clerk
of the Court of Chancery in Dublin, and then was appointed clerk to the
Council of Munster. In 1586 he was granted the forfeited estate of the Earl
of Desmond in Cork County, and two years later took up his residence in
Kilcolman Castle, which was beautifully situated on a lake with a distant
view of mountains. In the disturbed political condition of the country,
life here seemed a sort of exile to the poet, but its very loneliness and
danger gave the stimulus needed for the development of his peculiar genius.
"Here," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, "at the foot of the Galtees, and bordered
to the north by the wild country, the scenery of which is frequently
painted in the _Faerie Queene_ and in whose woods and savage places such
adventures constantly took place in the service of Elizabeth as are
recorded in the _Faerie Queene_, the first three books of that great poem
were finished. " Spenser had spent the first three years of his residence at
Kilcolman at work on this masterpiece, which had been begun in England,
under the encouragement of Sidney, probably before 1580. The knightly
Sidney died heroically at the battle of Zutphen, in 1586, and Spenser
voiced the lament of all England in the beautiful pastoral elegy
_Astrophel_ which he composed in memory of "the most noble and valorous
knight. "
Soon after coming to Ireland, Spenser made the acquaintance of Sir Walter
Raleigh, which erelong ripened into intimate friendship. A memorable visit
from Raleigh, who was now a neighbor of the poet's, having also received a
part of the forfeited Desmond estate, led to the publication of the _Faerie
Queene_. Sitting under the shade "of the green alders of the Mulla's
shore," Spenser read to his guest the first books of his poem. So pleased
was Raleigh that he persuaded the poet to accompany him to London, and
there lay his poem at the feet of the great queen, whose praises he had so
gloriously sung. The trip was made, Spenser was presented to Elizabeth, and
read to her Majesty the three Legends of Holiness, Temperance, and
Chastity. She was delighted with the fragmentary epic in which she heard
herself delicately complimented in turn as Gloriana, Belphoebe, and
Britomart, conferred upon the poet a pension of ? 50 yearly, and permitted
the _Faerie Queene_ to be published with a dedication to herself. Launched
under such auspices, it is no wonder that the poem was received by the
court and all England with unprecedented applause.
The next year while still in London, Spenser collected his early poems and
issued them under the title of _Complaints_. In this volume were the _Ruins
of Time_ and the _Tears of the Muses_, two poems on the indifference shown
to literature before 1580, and the remarkable _Mother Hubberds Tale_, a
bitter satire on the army, the court, the church, and politics. His
_Daphnaida_ was also published about the same time. On his return to
Ireland he gave a charming picture of life at Kilcolman Castle, with an
account of his visit to the court, in _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_. The
story of the long and desperate courtship of his second love, Elizabeth,
whom he wedded in 1594, is told in the _Amoretti_, a sonnet sequence full
of passion and tenderness. His rapturous wedding ode, the _Epithalamion_,
which is, by general consent, the most glorious bridal song in our
language, and the most perfect of all his poems in its freshness, purity,
and passion, was also published in 1595. The next year Spenser was back in
London and published the _Prothalamion_, a lovely ode on the marriage of
Lord Worcester's daughters, and his four _Hymns_ on Love and Beauty,
Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty. The first two _Hymns_ are early poems,
and the two latter maturer work embodying Petrarch's philosophy, which
teaches that earthly love is a ladder that leads men to the love of God. In
this year, 1596, also appeared the last three books of the _Faerie Queene_,
containing the Legends of Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy.
At the height of his fame, happiness, and prosperity, Spenser returned for
the last time to Ireland in 1597, and was recommended by the queen for the
office of Sheriff of Cork. Surrounded by his beloved wife and children, his
domestic life was serene and happy, but in gloomy contrast his public life
was stormy and full of anxiety and danger. He was the acknowledged prince
of living poets, and was planning the completion of his mighty epic of the
private virtues in twelve books, to be followed by twelve more on the civic
virtues. The native Irish had steadily withstood his claim to the estate,
and continually harassed him with lawsuits. They detested their foreign
oppressors and awaited a favorable opportunity to rise. Discord and riot
increased on all sides. The ever growing murmurs of discontent gave place
to cries for vengeance and unrepressed acts of hostility. Finally, in the
fall of 1598, there occurred a fearful uprising known as Tyrone's
Rebellion, in which the outraged peasants fiercely attacked the castle,
plundering and burning. Spenser and his family barely escaped with their
lives. According to one old tradition, an infant child was left behind in
the hurried flight and perished in the flames; but this has been shown to
be but one of the wild rumors repeated to exaggerate the horror of the
uprising. Long after Spenser's death, it was also rumored that the last six
books of the _Faerie Queene_ had been lost in the flight; but the story is
now utterly discredited.
Spenser once more arrived in London, but he was now in dire distress and
prostrated by the hardships which he had suffered. There on January 16,
1599, at a tavern in King Street, Westminster, the great poet died
broken-hearted and in poverty. Drummond of Hawthornden states that Ben
Jonson told him that Spenser "died for lack of bread in King Street, and
refused 20 pieces sent to him by my Lord of Essex, and said He was sorrie
he had no time to spend them. " The story is probably a bit of exaggerated
gossip. He was buried close to the tomb of Chaucer in the Poets' Corner in
Westminster Abbey, his fellow-poets bearing the pall, and the Earl of Essex
defraying the expenses of the funeral. Referring to the death of Spenser's
great contemporary, Basse wrote:--
"Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb. "
"Thus," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, appropriately, "London, 'his most kindly
nurse,' takes care also of his dust, and England keeps him in her love. "
Spenser's influence on English poetry can hardly be overestimated. Keats
called him "the poets' poet," a title which has been universally approved.
"He is the poet of all others," says Mr. Saintsbury, "for those who seek in
poetry only poetical qualities. " His work has appealed most strongly to
those who have been poets themselves, for with him the poetical attraction
is supreme. Many of the greatest poets have delighted to call him master,
and have shown him the same loving reverence which he gave to Chaucer.
Minor poets like Sidney, Drayton, and Daniel paid tribute to his
inspiration; Milton was deeply indebted to him, especially in _Lycidas_;
and many of the pensive poets of the seventeenth century show traces of his
influence. "Spenser delighted Shakespeare," says Mr. Church; "he was the
poetical master of Cowley, and then of Milton, and in a sense of Dryden,
and even Pope. " Giles and Phineas Fletcher, William Browne, Sir William
Alexander, Shenstone, Collins, Cowley, Gray, and James Thomson were all
direct followers of Spenser. His influence upon the poets of the romantic
revival of the nineteenth century is even more marked. "Spenser begot
Keats," says Mr. Saintsbury, "and Keats begot Tennyson, and Tennyson begot
all the rest. " Among this notable company of disciples should be mentioned
especially Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. If we include within the sphere
of Spenser's influence also those who have made use of the stanza which he
invented, we must add the names of Burns, Shelley, Byron, Beattie,
Campbell, Scott, and Wordsworth. When we consider the large number of poets
in whom Spenser awakened the poetic gift, or those to whose powers he gave
direction, we may safely pronounce him the most seminal poet in the
language.
III. STUDY OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
1. A ROMANTIC EPIC. --The _Faerie Queene_ is the most perfect type which we
have in English of the purely _romantic poem_. Four elements enter into its
composition: "it is pastoral by association, chivalrous by temper, ethical
by tendency, and allegorical by treatment" (Renton). Its subject was taken
from the old cycle of Arthurian legends, which were brightened with the
terrorless magic of Ariosto and Tasso. The scene of the adventures is laid
in the enchanted forests and castles of the far away and unreal fairyland
of mediaeval chivalry, and the incidents themselves are either highly
improbable or frankly impossible. The language is frequently archaic and
designedly unfamiliar. Much of the machinery and properties used in
carrying on the story, such as speaking myrtles, magic mirrors, swords,
rings, impenetrable armor, and healing fountains, is supernatural. All the
characters--the knights, ladies, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, nymphs,
satyrs, and giants--are the conventional figures of pastoral romance.
The framework of the plot of the _Faerie Queene_ is vast and loosely put
together. There are six main stories, or legends, and each contains several
digressions and involved episodes. The plan of the entire work, which the
author only half completed, is outlined in his letter to Sir Walter
Raleigh. This letter serves as an admirable introduction to the poem, and
should be read attentively by the student. Gloriana, the Queen of
Fairyland, holds at her court a solemn feudal festival, lasting twelve
days, during which she sends forth twelve of her greatest knights on as
many separate adventures. The knights are commissioned to champion the
cause of persons in distress and redress their wrongs. The ideal knight,
Prince Arthur, is the central male figure of the poem. He is enamoured of
Gloriana, having seen her in a wondrous vision, and is represented as
journeying in quest of her. He appears in all of the legends at opportune
moments to succor the knights when they are hard beset or in the power of
their enemies. The six extant books contain respectively the legends of (I)
the Knight of the Redcrosse, or Holiness, (II) Sir Guyon, the Knight of
Temperance, (III) Britomart, the female Knight of Chastity, (IV) Sir
Campbell and Sir Triamond, the Knights of Friendship, (V) Sir Artegall, the
Knight of Justice, and (VI) Sir Caledore, the Knight of Courtesy. Book I is
an allegory of man's relation to God, Book II, of man's relation to
himself, Books III, IV, V, and VI, of man's relation to his fellow-man.
Prince Arthur, the personification of Magnificence, by which Spenser means
Magnanimity (Aristotle's [Greek: megalopsychia]), is the ideal of a perfect
character, in which all the private virtues are united. It is a poem of
culture, inculcating the moral ideals of Aristotle and the teachings of
Christianity.
2. INFLUENCE OF THE NEW LEARNING. --Like Milton, Gray, and other English
poets, Spenser was a scholar familiar with the best in ancient and modern
literature. As to Spenser's specific indebtedness, though he owed much in
incident and diction to Chaucer's version of the _Romance of the Rose_ and
to Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, the great epic poets, Tasso and Ariosto,
should be given first place. The resemblance of passages in the _Faerie
Queene_ to others in the _Orlando Furioso_ and the _Jerusalem Delivered_ is
so striking that some have accused the English poet of paraphrasing and
slavishly borrowing from the two Italians. Many of these parallels are
pointed out in the notes. To this criticism, Mr. Saintsbury remarks: "Not,
perhaps, till the _Orlando_ has been carefully read, and read in the
original, is Spenser's real greatness understood. He has often, and
evidently of purpose, challenged comparison; but in every instance it will
be found that his beauties are emphatically his own. He has followed
Ariosto only as Vergil has followed Homer, and much less slavishly. "
The influence of the New Learning is clearly evident in Spenser's use of
_classical mythology_. Greek myths are placed side by side with Christian
imagery and legends. Like Dante, the poet did not consider the Hellenic
doctrine of sensuous beauty to be antagonistic to the truths of religion.
There is sometimes an incongruous confusion of classicism and mediaevalism,
as when a magician is seen in the house of Morpheus, and a sorcerer goes to
the realm of Pluto. Spenser was guided by a higher and truer sense of
beauty than the classical purists know.
A very attractive element of his classicism is his _worship of beauty_. The
Greek conception of beauty included two forms--the sensuous and the
spiritual.
An intimate relation exists between the
history of the English nation and the works of English authors. This close
connection between purely external events and literary masterpieces is
especially marked in a study of the Elizabethan Age. To understand the
marvelous outburst of song, the incomparable drama, and the stately prose
of this period, one must enter deeply into the political, social, and
religious life of the times.
The _Faerie Queene_ was the product of certain definite conditions which
existed in England toward the close of the sixteenth century. The first of
these national conditions was the movement known as the _revival of
chivalry_; the second was the _spirit of nationality_ fostered by the
English Reformation; and the third was that phase of the English
Renaissance commonly called the _revival of learning_.
The closing decade of Queen Elizabeth's reign was marked by a strong
reaction toward romanticism. The feudal system with its many imperfections
had become a memory, and had been idealized by the people. The nation felt
pride in its new aristocracy, sprung largely from the middle class, and
based rather on worth than ancestry. The bitterness of the Wars of the
Roses was forgotten, and was succeeded by an era of reconciliation and good
feeling. England was united in a heroic queen whom all sects, ranks, and
parties idolized. The whole country exulting in its new sense of freedom
and power became a fairyland of youth, springtime, and romantic
achievement.
Wise and gallant courtiers, like Sidney, Leicester, and Raleigh, gathered
about the queen, and formed a new chivalry devoted to deeds of adventure
and exploits of mind in her honor. The spirit of the old sea-kings lived
again in Drake and his bold buccaneers, who swept the proud Spaniards from
the seas. With the defeat of the Invincible Armada, the greatest naval
expedition of modern times, the fear of Spanish and Catholic domination
rolled away. The whole land was saturated with an unexpressed poetry, and
the imagination of young and old was so fired with patriotism and noble
endeavor that nothing seemed impossible. Add to this intense delight in
life, with all its mystery, beauty, and power, the keen zest for learning
which filled the air that men breathed, and it is easy to understand that
the time was ripe for a new and brilliant epoch in literature. First among
the poetic geniuses of the Elizabethan period came Edmund Spenser with his
_Faerie Queene_, the allegory of an ideal chivalry.
This poem is one of the fruits of that intellectual awakening which first
fertilized Italian thought in the twelfth century, and, slowly spreading
over Europe, made its way into England in the fifteenth century. The mighty
impulse of this New Learning culminated during the reign of the Virgin
Queen in a profound quickening of the national consciousness, and in
arousing an intense curiosity to know and to imitate the rich treasures of
the classics and romance. Its first phase was the _classical revival_. The
tyrannous authority of ecclesiasticism had long since been broken; a
general reaction from Christian asceticism had set in; and by the side of
the ceremonies of the church had been introduced a semi-pagan religion of
art--the worship of moral and sensuous beauty. Illiteracy was no longer the
style at court. Elizabeth herself set the example in the study of Greek.
Books and manuscripts were eagerly sought after, Scholars became conversant
with Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and the great tragic poets Sophocles,
Euripides, and AEschylus; and translations for the many of Vergil, Ovid,
Plautus, Terence, and Seneca poured forth from the printing-presses of
London. The English mind was strongly tempered by the idealistic philosophy
of Plato and Aristotle, and the influence of Latin tragedy and comedy was
strongly felt by the early English drama.
Along with this classical culture came a higher appreciation of the _beauty
of mediaevalism_. The romantic tendency of the age fostered the study of the
great epics of chivalry, Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ and Tasso's _Jerusalem
Delivered_, and of the cycles of French romance. From the Italian poets
especially Spenser borrowed freely. Ariosto's fresh naturalness and magic
machinery influenced him most strongly, but he was indebted to the
semi-classical Tasso for whole scenes. On the whole, therefore, Spenser's
literary affinities were more with the Gothic than the classical.
Spenser was also the spokesman of his time on religious questions. The
violent controversies of the Reformation period were over. Having turned
from the beliefs of ages with passionate rejection, the English people had
achieved religious freedom, and were strongly rooted in Protestantism,
which took on a distinctly national aspect. That Calvinism was at that time
the popular and aristocratic form of Protestantism is evident from
references in the _Faerie Queene_.
Spenser lived in the afterglow of the great age of chivalry. The passing
glories of knighthood in its flower impressed his imagination like a
gorgeous dream, and he was thus inspired to catch and crystallize into
permanent art its romantic spirit and heroic deeds. Into the framework of
his romance of chivalry he inserted a veiled picture of the struggles and
sufferings of his own people in Ireland. The _Faerie Queene_ might almost
be called the epic of the English conquest of Ireland. The poet himself and
many of his friends were in that unhappy island as representatives of the
queen's government, trying to pacify the natives, and establish law and
order out of discontent and anarchy. Spenser's poem was written for the
most part amidst all these scenes of misery and disorder, and the courage,
justice, and energy shown by his countrymen were aptly portrayed under the
allegory of a mighty spiritual warfare of the knights of old against the
power of evil.
Spenser's essay on _A View of the Present State of Ireland_ shows that, far
from shutting himself up in a fool's paradise of fancy, he was fully awake
to the social and political condition of that turbulent island, and that it
furnished him with concrete examples of those vices and virtues, bold
encounters and hair-breadth escapes, strange wanderings and deeds of
violence, with which he has crowded the allegory of the _Faerie Queene_.
II. THE AUTHOR OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
Edmund Spenser was born in London near the Tower in the year 1552. His
parents were poor, though they were probably connected with the Lancashire
branch of the old family of Le Despensers, "an house of ancient fame," from
which the Northampton Spencers were also descended. The poet's familiarity
with the rural life and dialect of the north country supports the theory
that as a boy he spent some time in Lancashire. Beyond two or three facts,
nothing is known with certainty of his early years. He himself tells us
that his mother's name was Elizabeth, and that London was his "most kindly
nurse. " His name is mentioned as one of six poor pupils of the Merchant
Taylors' School, who received assistance from a generous country squire.
At the age of seventeen, Master Edmund became a student in Pembroke Hall,
one of the colleges of the great University of Cambridge. His position was
that of a sizar, or paid scholar, who was exempt from the payment of
tuition fees and earned his way by serving in the dining hall or performing
other menial duties. His poverty, however, did not prevent him from forming
many helpful friendships with his fellow-students. Among his most valued
friends he numbered Launcelot Andrews, afterward Bishop of Winchester,
Edward Kirke, a young man of Spenser's own age, who soon after edited his
friend's first important poem, the _Shepheards Calender_, with elaborate
notes, and most important of all, the famous classical scholar, a fellow of
Pembroke, Gabriel Harvey, who was a few years older than Spenser, and was
later immortalized as the Hobbinoll of the _Faerie Queene_. It was by
Harvey that the poet was introduced to Sir Philip Sidney, the most
accomplished gentleman in England, and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth.
Spenser's residence in Cambridge extended over seven years, during which he
received the usual degrees of bachelor and master of arts. He became one of
the most learned of English poets, and we may infer that while at this seat
of learning he laid the foundations for his wide scholarship in the
diligent study of the Greek and Latin classics, the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle, the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Vergil, and the great
mediaeval epics of Italian literature. On account of some misunderstanding
with the master and tutors of his college, Spenser failed to receive the
appointment to a fellowship, and left the University in 1576, at the age of
twenty-four. His failure to attain the highest scholastic recognition was
due, it is supposed, to his being involved in some of the dangerous
controversies which were ripe in Cambridge at that time "with daily
spawning of new opinions and heresies in divinity, in philosophy, in
humanity, and in manners. "
On leaving the University, Spenser resided for about a year with relatives
in Lancashire, where he found employment. During this time he had an
unrequited love affair with an unknown beauty whom he celebrated in the
_Shepheards Calender_ under the name of Rosalind, "the widow's daughter of
the glen. " A rival, Menalchas, was more successful in finding favor with
his fair neighbor. Although he had before this turned his attention to
poetry by translating the sonnets of Petrarch and Du Bellay (published in
1569), it was while here in the North country that he first showed his high
poetic gifts in original composition.
After a visit to Sir Philip Sidney at Penshurst, Spenser went down to
London with his friend in 1578, and was presented to Sidney's great uncle,
the Earl of Leicester. He thus at once had an opportunity for advancement
through the influence of powerful patrons, a necessity with poor young
authors in that age. An immediate result of his acquaintance with Sidney,
with whom he was now on relations of intimate friendship, was an
introduction into the best society of the metropolis. This period of
association with many of the most distinguished and cultivated men in
England, together with the succession of brilliant pageants, masks, and
processions, which he witnessed at court and at Lord Leicester's mansion,
must have done much to refine his tastes and broaden his outlook on the
world.
In personal appearance Spenser was a fine type of a sixteenth century
gentleman. The grace and dignity of his bearing was enhanced by a face of
tender and thoughtful expression in which warmth of feeling was subdued by
the informing spirit of refinement, truthfulness, simplicity, and nobility.
He possessed a fine dome-like forehead, curling hair, brown eyes, full
sensuous lips, and a nose that was straight and strongly moulded. His long
spare face was adorned with a full mustache and a closely cropped Van Dyke
beard.
The _Shepheards Calender_ was published in the winter of 1579 with a
grateful and complimentary dedication to Sidney. It is an academic exercise
consisting of a series of twelve pastoral poems in imitation of the
eclogues of Vergil and Theocritus. The poem is cast in the form of
dialogues between shepherds, who converse on such subjects as love,
religion, and old age. In three eclogues the poet attacks with Puritan zeal
the pomp and sloth of the worldly clergy, and one is devoted to the courtly
praise of the queen. It was at once recognized as the most notable poem
that had appeared since the death of Chaucer, and placed Spenser
immediately at the head of living English poets.
In 1580 Spenser went over to Ireland as private secretary to Lord Grey of
Wilton, the Artegall of the Legend of Justice in the _Faerie Queene_. After
the recall of his patron he remained in that turbulent island in various
civil positions for the rest of his life, with the exception of two or
three visits and a last sad flight to England. For seven years he was clerk
of the Court of Chancery in Dublin, and then was appointed clerk to the
Council of Munster. In 1586 he was granted the forfeited estate of the Earl
of Desmond in Cork County, and two years later took up his residence in
Kilcolman Castle, which was beautifully situated on a lake with a distant
view of mountains. In the disturbed political condition of the country,
life here seemed a sort of exile to the poet, but its very loneliness and
danger gave the stimulus needed for the development of his peculiar genius.
"Here," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, "at the foot of the Galtees, and bordered
to the north by the wild country, the scenery of which is frequently
painted in the _Faerie Queene_ and in whose woods and savage places such
adventures constantly took place in the service of Elizabeth as are
recorded in the _Faerie Queene_, the first three books of that great poem
were finished. " Spenser had spent the first three years of his residence at
Kilcolman at work on this masterpiece, which had been begun in England,
under the encouragement of Sidney, probably before 1580. The knightly
Sidney died heroically at the battle of Zutphen, in 1586, and Spenser
voiced the lament of all England in the beautiful pastoral elegy
_Astrophel_ which he composed in memory of "the most noble and valorous
knight. "
Soon after coming to Ireland, Spenser made the acquaintance of Sir Walter
Raleigh, which erelong ripened into intimate friendship. A memorable visit
from Raleigh, who was now a neighbor of the poet's, having also received a
part of the forfeited Desmond estate, led to the publication of the _Faerie
Queene_. Sitting under the shade "of the green alders of the Mulla's
shore," Spenser read to his guest the first books of his poem. So pleased
was Raleigh that he persuaded the poet to accompany him to London, and
there lay his poem at the feet of the great queen, whose praises he had so
gloriously sung. The trip was made, Spenser was presented to Elizabeth, and
read to her Majesty the three Legends of Holiness, Temperance, and
Chastity. She was delighted with the fragmentary epic in which she heard
herself delicately complimented in turn as Gloriana, Belphoebe, and
Britomart, conferred upon the poet a pension of ? 50 yearly, and permitted
the _Faerie Queene_ to be published with a dedication to herself. Launched
under such auspices, it is no wonder that the poem was received by the
court and all England with unprecedented applause.
The next year while still in London, Spenser collected his early poems and
issued them under the title of _Complaints_. In this volume were the _Ruins
of Time_ and the _Tears of the Muses_, two poems on the indifference shown
to literature before 1580, and the remarkable _Mother Hubberds Tale_, a
bitter satire on the army, the court, the church, and politics. His
_Daphnaida_ was also published about the same time. On his return to
Ireland he gave a charming picture of life at Kilcolman Castle, with an
account of his visit to the court, in _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_. The
story of the long and desperate courtship of his second love, Elizabeth,
whom he wedded in 1594, is told in the _Amoretti_, a sonnet sequence full
of passion and tenderness. His rapturous wedding ode, the _Epithalamion_,
which is, by general consent, the most glorious bridal song in our
language, and the most perfect of all his poems in its freshness, purity,
and passion, was also published in 1595. The next year Spenser was back in
London and published the _Prothalamion_, a lovely ode on the marriage of
Lord Worcester's daughters, and his four _Hymns_ on Love and Beauty,
Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty. The first two _Hymns_ are early poems,
and the two latter maturer work embodying Petrarch's philosophy, which
teaches that earthly love is a ladder that leads men to the love of God. In
this year, 1596, also appeared the last three books of the _Faerie Queene_,
containing the Legends of Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy.
At the height of his fame, happiness, and prosperity, Spenser returned for
the last time to Ireland in 1597, and was recommended by the queen for the
office of Sheriff of Cork. Surrounded by his beloved wife and children, his
domestic life was serene and happy, but in gloomy contrast his public life
was stormy and full of anxiety and danger. He was the acknowledged prince
of living poets, and was planning the completion of his mighty epic of the
private virtues in twelve books, to be followed by twelve more on the civic
virtues. The native Irish had steadily withstood his claim to the estate,
and continually harassed him with lawsuits. They detested their foreign
oppressors and awaited a favorable opportunity to rise. Discord and riot
increased on all sides. The ever growing murmurs of discontent gave place
to cries for vengeance and unrepressed acts of hostility. Finally, in the
fall of 1598, there occurred a fearful uprising known as Tyrone's
Rebellion, in which the outraged peasants fiercely attacked the castle,
plundering and burning. Spenser and his family barely escaped with their
lives. According to one old tradition, an infant child was left behind in
the hurried flight and perished in the flames; but this has been shown to
be but one of the wild rumors repeated to exaggerate the horror of the
uprising. Long after Spenser's death, it was also rumored that the last six
books of the _Faerie Queene_ had been lost in the flight; but the story is
now utterly discredited.
Spenser once more arrived in London, but he was now in dire distress and
prostrated by the hardships which he had suffered. There on January 16,
1599, at a tavern in King Street, Westminster, the great poet died
broken-hearted and in poverty. Drummond of Hawthornden states that Ben
Jonson told him that Spenser "died for lack of bread in King Street, and
refused 20 pieces sent to him by my Lord of Essex, and said He was sorrie
he had no time to spend them. " The story is probably a bit of exaggerated
gossip. He was buried close to the tomb of Chaucer in the Poets' Corner in
Westminster Abbey, his fellow-poets bearing the pall, and the Earl of Essex
defraying the expenses of the funeral. Referring to the death of Spenser's
great contemporary, Basse wrote:--
"Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb. "
"Thus," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, appropriately, "London, 'his most kindly
nurse,' takes care also of his dust, and England keeps him in her love. "
Spenser's influence on English poetry can hardly be overestimated. Keats
called him "the poets' poet," a title which has been universally approved.
"He is the poet of all others," says Mr. Saintsbury, "for those who seek in
poetry only poetical qualities. " His work has appealed most strongly to
those who have been poets themselves, for with him the poetical attraction
is supreme. Many of the greatest poets have delighted to call him master,
and have shown him the same loving reverence which he gave to Chaucer.
Minor poets like Sidney, Drayton, and Daniel paid tribute to his
inspiration; Milton was deeply indebted to him, especially in _Lycidas_;
and many of the pensive poets of the seventeenth century show traces of his
influence. "Spenser delighted Shakespeare," says Mr. Church; "he was the
poetical master of Cowley, and then of Milton, and in a sense of Dryden,
and even Pope. " Giles and Phineas Fletcher, William Browne, Sir William
Alexander, Shenstone, Collins, Cowley, Gray, and James Thomson were all
direct followers of Spenser. His influence upon the poets of the romantic
revival of the nineteenth century is even more marked. "Spenser begot
Keats," says Mr. Saintsbury, "and Keats begot Tennyson, and Tennyson begot
all the rest. " Among this notable company of disciples should be mentioned
especially Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. If we include within the sphere
of Spenser's influence also those who have made use of the stanza which he
invented, we must add the names of Burns, Shelley, Byron, Beattie,
Campbell, Scott, and Wordsworth. When we consider the large number of poets
in whom Spenser awakened the poetic gift, or those to whose powers he gave
direction, we may safely pronounce him the most seminal poet in the
language.
III. STUDY OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
1. A ROMANTIC EPIC. --The _Faerie Queene_ is the most perfect type which we
have in English of the purely _romantic poem_. Four elements enter into its
composition: "it is pastoral by association, chivalrous by temper, ethical
by tendency, and allegorical by treatment" (Renton). Its subject was taken
from the old cycle of Arthurian legends, which were brightened with the
terrorless magic of Ariosto and Tasso. The scene of the adventures is laid
in the enchanted forests and castles of the far away and unreal fairyland
of mediaeval chivalry, and the incidents themselves are either highly
improbable or frankly impossible. The language is frequently archaic and
designedly unfamiliar. Much of the machinery and properties used in
carrying on the story, such as speaking myrtles, magic mirrors, swords,
rings, impenetrable armor, and healing fountains, is supernatural. All the
characters--the knights, ladies, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, nymphs,
satyrs, and giants--are the conventional figures of pastoral romance.
The framework of the plot of the _Faerie Queene_ is vast and loosely put
together. There are six main stories, or legends, and each contains several
digressions and involved episodes. The plan of the entire work, which the
author only half completed, is outlined in his letter to Sir Walter
Raleigh. This letter serves as an admirable introduction to the poem, and
should be read attentively by the student. Gloriana, the Queen of
Fairyland, holds at her court a solemn feudal festival, lasting twelve
days, during which she sends forth twelve of her greatest knights on as
many separate adventures. The knights are commissioned to champion the
cause of persons in distress and redress their wrongs. The ideal knight,
Prince Arthur, is the central male figure of the poem. He is enamoured of
Gloriana, having seen her in a wondrous vision, and is represented as
journeying in quest of her. He appears in all of the legends at opportune
moments to succor the knights when they are hard beset or in the power of
their enemies. The six extant books contain respectively the legends of (I)
the Knight of the Redcrosse, or Holiness, (II) Sir Guyon, the Knight of
Temperance, (III) Britomart, the female Knight of Chastity, (IV) Sir
Campbell and Sir Triamond, the Knights of Friendship, (V) Sir Artegall, the
Knight of Justice, and (VI) Sir Caledore, the Knight of Courtesy. Book I is
an allegory of man's relation to God, Book II, of man's relation to
himself, Books III, IV, V, and VI, of man's relation to his fellow-man.
Prince Arthur, the personification of Magnificence, by which Spenser means
Magnanimity (Aristotle's [Greek: megalopsychia]), is the ideal of a perfect
character, in which all the private virtues are united. It is a poem of
culture, inculcating the moral ideals of Aristotle and the teachings of
Christianity.
2. INFLUENCE OF THE NEW LEARNING. --Like Milton, Gray, and other English
poets, Spenser was a scholar familiar with the best in ancient and modern
literature. As to Spenser's specific indebtedness, though he owed much in
incident and diction to Chaucer's version of the _Romance of the Rose_ and
to Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, the great epic poets, Tasso and Ariosto,
should be given first place. The resemblance of passages in the _Faerie
Queene_ to others in the _Orlando Furioso_ and the _Jerusalem Delivered_ is
so striking that some have accused the English poet of paraphrasing and
slavishly borrowing from the two Italians. Many of these parallels are
pointed out in the notes. To this criticism, Mr. Saintsbury remarks: "Not,
perhaps, till the _Orlando_ has been carefully read, and read in the
original, is Spenser's real greatness understood. He has often, and
evidently of purpose, challenged comparison; but in every instance it will
be found that his beauties are emphatically his own. He has followed
Ariosto only as Vergil has followed Homer, and much less slavishly. "
The influence of the New Learning is clearly evident in Spenser's use of
_classical mythology_. Greek myths are placed side by side with Christian
imagery and legends. Like Dante, the poet did not consider the Hellenic
doctrine of sensuous beauty to be antagonistic to the truths of religion.
There is sometimes an incongruous confusion of classicism and mediaevalism,
as when a magician is seen in the house of Morpheus, and a sorcerer goes to
the realm of Pluto. Spenser was guided by a higher and truer sense of
beauty than the classical purists know.
A very attractive element of his classicism is his _worship of beauty_. The
Greek conception of beauty included two forms--the sensuous and the
spiritual. So richly colored and voluptuous are his descriptions that he
has been called the painters' poet, "the Rubens," and "the Raphael of the
poets. " As with Plato, Spenser's idea of the spiritually beautiful includes
the true and the good. Sensuous beauty is seen in the forms of external
nature, like the morning mist and sunshine, the rose gardens, the green
elders, and the quiet streams. His ideal of perfect sensuous and spiritual
beauty combined is found in womanhood. Such a one is Una, the dream of the
poet's young manhood, and we recognize in her one whose soul is as fair as
her face--an idealized type of a woman in real life who calls forth all our
love and reverence.
3. INTERPRETATION OF THE ALLEGORY. --In the sixteenth century it was the
opinion of Puritan England that every literary masterpiece should not only
give entertainment, but should also teach some moral or spiritual lesson.
"No one," says Mr. Patee, "after reading Spenser's letter to Raleigh, can
wander far into Spenser's poem without the conviction that the author's
central purpose was didactic, almost as much as was Bunyan's in _Pilgrim's
Progress. _" Milton doubtless had this feature of the _Faerie Queene_ in
mind when he wrote in _Il Penseroso_:--
"And if aught else great bards beside
In sage and solemn tunes have sung
Of turneys, and of trophies hung,
Of forests and enchantments drear,
_Where more is meant than meets the ear_. "
That the allegory of the poem is closely connected with its aim and ethical
tendency is evident from the statement of the author that "the generall end
therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in
vertuous and gentle discipline. Which for that I conceived should be most
plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historical fiction, the
which the most part of men delight to read, rather for varietie of matter
then for profite of the ensample. " The _Faerie Queene_ is, therefore,
according to the avowed purpose of its author, a poem of culture. Though it
is one of the most highly artistic works in the language, it is at the same
time one of the most didactic. "It professes," says Mr. Church, "to be a
veiled exposition of moral philosophy. "
The allegory is threefold,--moral, religious, and personal.
(a) _Moral Allegory. _--The characters all represent various virtues and
vices, whose intrigues and warfare against each other symbolize the
struggle of the human soul after perfection. The Redcross Knight, for
example, personifies the single private virtue of holiness, while Prince
Arthur stands for that perfect manhood which combines all the moral
qualities; Una represents abstract truth, while Gloriana symbolizes the
union of all the virtues in perfect womanhood.
(b) _Religious or Spiritual Allegory. _--Under this interpretation the
Redcross Knight is a personification of Protestant England, or the church
militant, while Una represents the true religion of the Reformed Church. On
the other hand, Archimago symbolizes the deceptions of the Jesuits and
Duessa the false Church of Rome masquerading as true religion.
(c) _Personal and Political Allegory. _--Here we find a concrete
presentation of many of Spenser's chief contemporaries.
Edmund Spenser, et al, Edited by George Armstrong Wauchope
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Title: Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I
Author: Edmund Spenser
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SPENSER'S
THE FAERIE QUEENE
BOOK I
EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
GEORGE ARMSTRONG WAUCHOPE, M. A. , Ph. D.
Professor of English in the South Carolina College
_Velut inter ignes luna minores_
New York
The Macmillan Company
London: Macmillan & Co. , Ltd.
1921
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1903.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:
I. The Age which produced the Faerie Queene
II. The Author of the Faerie Queene
III. Study of the Faerie Queene:
1. A Romantic Epic
2. Influence of the New Learning
3. Interpretation of the Allegory
4. The Spenserian Stanza
5. Versification
6. Diction and Style
IV. Chronological Table of Events
THE FAERIE QUEENE. BOOK I:
Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh
Sonnet to Sir Walter Raleigh
Dedication to Queen Elizabeth
Canto I
Canto II
Canto III
Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI
Canto VII
Canto VIII
Canto IX
Canto X
Canto XI
Canto XII
NOTES
GLOSSARY
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
I. THE AGE WHICH PRODUCED THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
The study of the _Faerie Queene_ should be preceded by a review of the
great age in which it was written. An intimate relation exists between the
history of the English nation and the works of English authors. This close
connection between purely external events and literary masterpieces is
especially marked in a study of the Elizabethan Age. To understand the
marvelous outburst of song, the incomparable drama, and the stately prose
of this period, one must enter deeply into the political, social, and
religious life of the times.
The _Faerie Queene_ was the product of certain definite conditions which
existed in England toward the close of the sixteenth century. The first of
these national conditions was the movement known as the _revival of
chivalry_; the second was the _spirit of nationality_ fostered by the
English Reformation; and the third was that phase of the English
Renaissance commonly called the _revival of learning_.
The closing decade of Queen Elizabeth's reign was marked by a strong
reaction toward romanticism. The feudal system with its many imperfections
had become a memory, and had been idealized by the people. The nation felt
pride in its new aristocracy, sprung largely from the middle class, and
based rather on worth than ancestry. The bitterness of the Wars of the
Roses was forgotten, and was succeeded by an era of reconciliation and good
feeling. England was united in a heroic queen whom all sects, ranks, and
parties idolized. The whole country exulting in its new sense of freedom
and power became a fairyland of youth, springtime, and romantic
achievement.
Wise and gallant courtiers, like Sidney, Leicester, and Raleigh, gathered
about the queen, and formed a new chivalry devoted to deeds of adventure
and exploits of mind in her honor. The spirit of the old sea-kings lived
again in Drake and his bold buccaneers, who swept the proud Spaniards from
the seas. With the defeat of the Invincible Armada, the greatest naval
expedition of modern times, the fear of Spanish and Catholic domination
rolled away. The whole land was saturated with an unexpressed poetry, and
the imagination of young and old was so fired with patriotism and noble
endeavor that nothing seemed impossible. Add to this intense delight in
life, with all its mystery, beauty, and power, the keen zest for learning
which filled the air that men breathed, and it is easy to understand that
the time was ripe for a new and brilliant epoch in literature. First among
the poetic geniuses of the Elizabethan period came Edmund Spenser with his
_Faerie Queene_, the allegory of an ideal chivalry.
This poem is one of the fruits of that intellectual awakening which first
fertilized Italian thought in the twelfth century, and, slowly spreading
over Europe, made its way into England in the fifteenth century. The mighty
impulse of this New Learning culminated during the reign of the Virgin
Queen in a profound quickening of the national consciousness, and in
arousing an intense curiosity to know and to imitate the rich treasures of
the classics and romance. Its first phase was the _classical revival_. The
tyrannous authority of ecclesiasticism had long since been broken; a
general reaction from Christian asceticism had set in; and by the side of
the ceremonies of the church had been introduced a semi-pagan religion of
art--the worship of moral and sensuous beauty. Illiteracy was no longer the
style at court. Elizabeth herself set the example in the study of Greek.
Books and manuscripts were eagerly sought after, Scholars became conversant
with Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and the great tragic poets Sophocles,
Euripides, and AEschylus; and translations for the many of Vergil, Ovid,
Plautus, Terence, and Seneca poured forth from the printing-presses of
London. The English mind was strongly tempered by the idealistic philosophy
of Plato and Aristotle, and the influence of Latin tragedy and comedy was
strongly felt by the early English drama.
Along with this classical culture came a higher appreciation of the _beauty
of mediaevalism_. The romantic tendency of the age fostered the study of the
great epics of chivalry, Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ and Tasso's _Jerusalem
Delivered_, and of the cycles of French romance. From the Italian poets
especially Spenser borrowed freely. Ariosto's fresh naturalness and magic
machinery influenced him most strongly, but he was indebted to the
semi-classical Tasso for whole scenes. On the whole, therefore, Spenser's
literary affinities were more with the Gothic than the classical.
Spenser was also the spokesman of his time on religious questions. The
violent controversies of the Reformation period were over. Having turned
from the beliefs of ages with passionate rejection, the English people had
achieved religious freedom, and were strongly rooted in Protestantism,
which took on a distinctly national aspect. That Calvinism was at that time
the popular and aristocratic form of Protestantism is evident from
references in the _Faerie Queene_.
Spenser lived in the afterglow of the great age of chivalry. The passing
glories of knighthood in its flower impressed his imagination like a
gorgeous dream, and he was thus inspired to catch and crystallize into
permanent art its romantic spirit and heroic deeds. Into the framework of
his romance of chivalry he inserted a veiled picture of the struggles and
sufferings of his own people in Ireland. The _Faerie Queene_ might almost
be called the epic of the English conquest of Ireland. The poet himself and
many of his friends were in that unhappy island as representatives of the
queen's government, trying to pacify the natives, and establish law and
order out of discontent and anarchy. Spenser's poem was written for the
most part amidst all these scenes of misery and disorder, and the courage,
justice, and energy shown by his countrymen were aptly portrayed under the
allegory of a mighty spiritual warfare of the knights of old against the
power of evil.
Spenser's essay on _A View of the Present State of Ireland_ shows that, far
from shutting himself up in a fool's paradise of fancy, he was fully awake
to the social and political condition of that turbulent island, and that it
furnished him with concrete examples of those vices and virtues, bold
encounters and hair-breadth escapes, strange wanderings and deeds of
violence, with which he has crowded the allegory of the _Faerie Queene_.
II. THE AUTHOR OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
Edmund Spenser was born in London near the Tower in the year 1552. His
parents were poor, though they were probably connected with the Lancashire
branch of the old family of Le Despensers, "an house of ancient fame," from
which the Northampton Spencers were also descended. The poet's familiarity
with the rural life and dialect of the north country supports the theory
that as a boy he spent some time in Lancashire. Beyond two or three facts,
nothing is known with certainty of his early years. He himself tells us
that his mother's name was Elizabeth, and that London was his "most kindly
nurse. " His name is mentioned as one of six poor pupils of the Merchant
Taylors' School, who received assistance from a generous country squire.
At the age of seventeen, Master Edmund became a student in Pembroke Hall,
one of the colleges of the great University of Cambridge. His position was
that of a sizar, or paid scholar, who was exempt from the payment of
tuition fees and earned his way by serving in the dining hall or performing
other menial duties. His poverty, however, did not prevent him from forming
many helpful friendships with his fellow-students. Among his most valued
friends he numbered Launcelot Andrews, afterward Bishop of Winchester,
Edward Kirke, a young man of Spenser's own age, who soon after edited his
friend's first important poem, the _Shepheards Calender_, with elaborate
notes, and most important of all, the famous classical scholar, a fellow of
Pembroke, Gabriel Harvey, who was a few years older than Spenser, and was
later immortalized as the Hobbinoll of the _Faerie Queene_. It was by
Harvey that the poet was introduced to Sir Philip Sidney, the most
accomplished gentleman in England, and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth.
Spenser's residence in Cambridge extended over seven years, during which he
received the usual degrees of bachelor and master of arts. He became one of
the most learned of English poets, and we may infer that while at this seat
of learning he laid the foundations for his wide scholarship in the
diligent study of the Greek and Latin classics, the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle, the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Vergil, and the great
mediaeval epics of Italian literature. On account of some misunderstanding
with the master and tutors of his college, Spenser failed to receive the
appointment to a fellowship, and left the University in 1576, at the age of
twenty-four. His failure to attain the highest scholastic recognition was
due, it is supposed, to his being involved in some of the dangerous
controversies which were ripe in Cambridge at that time "with daily
spawning of new opinions and heresies in divinity, in philosophy, in
humanity, and in manners. "
On leaving the University, Spenser resided for about a year with relatives
in Lancashire, where he found employment. During this time he had an
unrequited love affair with an unknown beauty whom he celebrated in the
_Shepheards Calender_ under the name of Rosalind, "the widow's daughter of
the glen. " A rival, Menalchas, was more successful in finding favor with
his fair neighbor. Although he had before this turned his attention to
poetry by translating the sonnets of Petrarch and Du Bellay (published in
1569), it was while here in the North country that he first showed his high
poetic gifts in original composition.
After a visit to Sir Philip Sidney at Penshurst, Spenser went down to
London with his friend in 1578, and was presented to Sidney's great uncle,
the Earl of Leicester. He thus at once had an opportunity for advancement
through the influence of powerful patrons, a necessity with poor young
authors in that age. An immediate result of his acquaintance with Sidney,
with whom he was now on relations of intimate friendship, was an
introduction into the best society of the metropolis. This period of
association with many of the most distinguished and cultivated men in
England, together with the succession of brilliant pageants, masks, and
processions, which he witnessed at court and at Lord Leicester's mansion,
must have done much to refine his tastes and broaden his outlook on the
world.
In personal appearance Spenser was a fine type of a sixteenth century
gentleman. The grace and dignity of his bearing was enhanced by a face of
tender and thoughtful expression in which warmth of feeling was subdued by
the informing spirit of refinement, truthfulness, simplicity, and nobility.
He possessed a fine dome-like forehead, curling hair, brown eyes, full
sensuous lips, and a nose that was straight and strongly moulded. His long
spare face was adorned with a full mustache and a closely cropped Van Dyke
beard.
The _Shepheards Calender_ was published in the winter of 1579 with a
grateful and complimentary dedication to Sidney. It is an academic exercise
consisting of a series of twelve pastoral poems in imitation of the
eclogues of Vergil and Theocritus. The poem is cast in the form of
dialogues between shepherds, who converse on such subjects as love,
religion, and old age. In three eclogues the poet attacks with Puritan zeal
the pomp and sloth of the worldly clergy, and one is devoted to the courtly
praise of the queen. It was at once recognized as the most notable poem
that had appeared since the death of Chaucer, and placed Spenser
immediately at the head of living English poets.
In 1580 Spenser went over to Ireland as private secretary to Lord Grey of
Wilton, the Artegall of the Legend of Justice in the _Faerie Queene_. After
the recall of his patron he remained in that turbulent island in various
civil positions for the rest of his life, with the exception of two or
three visits and a last sad flight to England. For seven years he was clerk
of the Court of Chancery in Dublin, and then was appointed clerk to the
Council of Munster. In 1586 he was granted the forfeited estate of the Earl
of Desmond in Cork County, and two years later took up his residence in
Kilcolman Castle, which was beautifully situated on a lake with a distant
view of mountains. In the disturbed political condition of the country,
life here seemed a sort of exile to the poet, but its very loneliness and
danger gave the stimulus needed for the development of his peculiar genius.
"Here," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, "at the foot of the Galtees, and bordered
to the north by the wild country, the scenery of which is frequently
painted in the _Faerie Queene_ and in whose woods and savage places such
adventures constantly took place in the service of Elizabeth as are
recorded in the _Faerie Queene_, the first three books of that great poem
were finished. " Spenser had spent the first three years of his residence at
Kilcolman at work on this masterpiece, which had been begun in England,
under the encouragement of Sidney, probably before 1580. The knightly
Sidney died heroically at the battle of Zutphen, in 1586, and Spenser
voiced the lament of all England in the beautiful pastoral elegy
_Astrophel_ which he composed in memory of "the most noble and valorous
knight. "
Soon after coming to Ireland, Spenser made the acquaintance of Sir Walter
Raleigh, which erelong ripened into intimate friendship. A memorable visit
from Raleigh, who was now a neighbor of the poet's, having also received a
part of the forfeited Desmond estate, led to the publication of the _Faerie
Queene_. Sitting under the shade "of the green alders of the Mulla's
shore," Spenser read to his guest the first books of his poem. So pleased
was Raleigh that he persuaded the poet to accompany him to London, and
there lay his poem at the feet of the great queen, whose praises he had so
gloriously sung. The trip was made, Spenser was presented to Elizabeth, and
read to her Majesty the three Legends of Holiness, Temperance, and
Chastity. She was delighted with the fragmentary epic in which she heard
herself delicately complimented in turn as Gloriana, Belphoebe, and
Britomart, conferred upon the poet a pension of ? 50 yearly, and permitted
the _Faerie Queene_ to be published with a dedication to herself. Launched
under such auspices, it is no wonder that the poem was received by the
court and all England with unprecedented applause.
The next year while still in London, Spenser collected his early poems and
issued them under the title of _Complaints_. In this volume were the _Ruins
of Time_ and the _Tears of the Muses_, two poems on the indifference shown
to literature before 1580, and the remarkable _Mother Hubberds Tale_, a
bitter satire on the army, the court, the church, and politics. His
_Daphnaida_ was also published about the same time. On his return to
Ireland he gave a charming picture of life at Kilcolman Castle, with an
account of his visit to the court, in _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_. The
story of the long and desperate courtship of his second love, Elizabeth,
whom he wedded in 1594, is told in the _Amoretti_, a sonnet sequence full
of passion and tenderness. His rapturous wedding ode, the _Epithalamion_,
which is, by general consent, the most glorious bridal song in our
language, and the most perfect of all his poems in its freshness, purity,
and passion, was also published in 1595. The next year Spenser was back in
London and published the _Prothalamion_, a lovely ode on the marriage of
Lord Worcester's daughters, and his four _Hymns_ on Love and Beauty,
Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty. The first two _Hymns_ are early poems,
and the two latter maturer work embodying Petrarch's philosophy, which
teaches that earthly love is a ladder that leads men to the love of God. In
this year, 1596, also appeared the last three books of the _Faerie Queene_,
containing the Legends of Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy.
At the height of his fame, happiness, and prosperity, Spenser returned for
the last time to Ireland in 1597, and was recommended by the queen for the
office of Sheriff of Cork. Surrounded by his beloved wife and children, his
domestic life was serene and happy, but in gloomy contrast his public life
was stormy and full of anxiety and danger. He was the acknowledged prince
of living poets, and was planning the completion of his mighty epic of the
private virtues in twelve books, to be followed by twelve more on the civic
virtues. The native Irish had steadily withstood his claim to the estate,
and continually harassed him with lawsuits. They detested their foreign
oppressors and awaited a favorable opportunity to rise. Discord and riot
increased on all sides. The ever growing murmurs of discontent gave place
to cries for vengeance and unrepressed acts of hostility. Finally, in the
fall of 1598, there occurred a fearful uprising known as Tyrone's
Rebellion, in which the outraged peasants fiercely attacked the castle,
plundering and burning. Spenser and his family barely escaped with their
lives. According to one old tradition, an infant child was left behind in
the hurried flight and perished in the flames; but this has been shown to
be but one of the wild rumors repeated to exaggerate the horror of the
uprising. Long after Spenser's death, it was also rumored that the last six
books of the _Faerie Queene_ had been lost in the flight; but the story is
now utterly discredited.
Spenser once more arrived in London, but he was now in dire distress and
prostrated by the hardships which he had suffered. There on January 16,
1599, at a tavern in King Street, Westminster, the great poet died
broken-hearted and in poverty. Drummond of Hawthornden states that Ben
Jonson told him that Spenser "died for lack of bread in King Street, and
refused 20 pieces sent to him by my Lord of Essex, and said He was sorrie
he had no time to spend them. " The story is probably a bit of exaggerated
gossip. He was buried close to the tomb of Chaucer in the Poets' Corner in
Westminster Abbey, his fellow-poets bearing the pall, and the Earl of Essex
defraying the expenses of the funeral. Referring to the death of Spenser's
great contemporary, Basse wrote:--
"Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb. "
"Thus," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, appropriately, "London, 'his most kindly
nurse,' takes care also of his dust, and England keeps him in her love. "
Spenser's influence on English poetry can hardly be overestimated. Keats
called him "the poets' poet," a title which has been universally approved.
"He is the poet of all others," says Mr. Saintsbury, "for those who seek in
poetry only poetical qualities. " His work has appealed most strongly to
those who have been poets themselves, for with him the poetical attraction
is supreme. Many of the greatest poets have delighted to call him master,
and have shown him the same loving reverence which he gave to Chaucer.
Minor poets like Sidney, Drayton, and Daniel paid tribute to his
inspiration; Milton was deeply indebted to him, especially in _Lycidas_;
and many of the pensive poets of the seventeenth century show traces of his
influence. "Spenser delighted Shakespeare," says Mr. Church; "he was the
poetical master of Cowley, and then of Milton, and in a sense of Dryden,
and even Pope. " Giles and Phineas Fletcher, William Browne, Sir William
Alexander, Shenstone, Collins, Cowley, Gray, and James Thomson were all
direct followers of Spenser. His influence upon the poets of the romantic
revival of the nineteenth century is even more marked. "Spenser begot
Keats," says Mr. Saintsbury, "and Keats begot Tennyson, and Tennyson begot
all the rest. " Among this notable company of disciples should be mentioned
especially Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. If we include within the sphere
of Spenser's influence also those who have made use of the stanza which he
invented, we must add the names of Burns, Shelley, Byron, Beattie,
Campbell, Scott, and Wordsworth. When we consider the large number of poets
in whom Spenser awakened the poetic gift, or those to whose powers he gave
direction, we may safely pronounce him the most seminal poet in the
language.
III. STUDY OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
1. A ROMANTIC EPIC. --The _Faerie Queene_ is the most perfect type which we
have in English of the purely _romantic poem_. Four elements enter into its
composition: "it is pastoral by association, chivalrous by temper, ethical
by tendency, and allegorical by treatment" (Renton). Its subject was taken
from the old cycle of Arthurian legends, which were brightened with the
terrorless magic of Ariosto and Tasso. The scene of the adventures is laid
in the enchanted forests and castles of the far away and unreal fairyland
of mediaeval chivalry, and the incidents themselves are either highly
improbable or frankly impossible. The language is frequently archaic and
designedly unfamiliar. Much of the machinery and properties used in
carrying on the story, such as speaking myrtles, magic mirrors, swords,
rings, impenetrable armor, and healing fountains, is supernatural. All the
characters--the knights, ladies, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, nymphs,
satyrs, and giants--are the conventional figures of pastoral romance.
The framework of the plot of the _Faerie Queene_ is vast and loosely put
together. There are six main stories, or legends, and each contains several
digressions and involved episodes. The plan of the entire work, which the
author only half completed, is outlined in his letter to Sir Walter
Raleigh. This letter serves as an admirable introduction to the poem, and
should be read attentively by the student. Gloriana, the Queen of
Fairyland, holds at her court a solemn feudal festival, lasting twelve
days, during which she sends forth twelve of her greatest knights on as
many separate adventures. The knights are commissioned to champion the
cause of persons in distress and redress their wrongs. The ideal knight,
Prince Arthur, is the central male figure of the poem. He is enamoured of
Gloriana, having seen her in a wondrous vision, and is represented as
journeying in quest of her. He appears in all of the legends at opportune
moments to succor the knights when they are hard beset or in the power of
their enemies. The six extant books contain respectively the legends of (I)
the Knight of the Redcrosse, or Holiness, (II) Sir Guyon, the Knight of
Temperance, (III) Britomart, the female Knight of Chastity, (IV) Sir
Campbell and Sir Triamond, the Knights of Friendship, (V) Sir Artegall, the
Knight of Justice, and (VI) Sir Caledore, the Knight of Courtesy. Book I is
an allegory of man's relation to God, Book II, of man's relation to
himself, Books III, IV, V, and VI, of man's relation to his fellow-man.
Prince Arthur, the personification of Magnificence, by which Spenser means
Magnanimity (Aristotle's [Greek: megalopsychia]), is the ideal of a perfect
character, in which all the private virtues are united. It is a poem of
culture, inculcating the moral ideals of Aristotle and the teachings of
Christianity.
2. INFLUENCE OF THE NEW LEARNING. --Like Milton, Gray, and other English
poets, Spenser was a scholar familiar with the best in ancient and modern
literature. As to Spenser's specific indebtedness, though he owed much in
incident and diction to Chaucer's version of the _Romance of the Rose_ and
to Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, the great epic poets, Tasso and Ariosto,
should be given first place. The resemblance of passages in the _Faerie
Queene_ to others in the _Orlando Furioso_ and the _Jerusalem Delivered_ is
so striking that some have accused the English poet of paraphrasing and
slavishly borrowing from the two Italians. Many of these parallels are
pointed out in the notes. To this criticism, Mr. Saintsbury remarks: "Not,
perhaps, till the _Orlando_ has been carefully read, and read in the
original, is Spenser's real greatness understood. He has often, and
evidently of purpose, challenged comparison; but in every instance it will
be found that his beauties are emphatically his own. He has followed
Ariosto only as Vergil has followed Homer, and much less slavishly. "
The influence of the New Learning is clearly evident in Spenser's use of
_classical mythology_. Greek myths are placed side by side with Christian
imagery and legends. Like Dante, the poet did not consider the Hellenic
doctrine of sensuous beauty to be antagonistic to the truths of religion.
There is sometimes an incongruous confusion of classicism and mediaevalism,
as when a magician is seen in the house of Morpheus, and a sorcerer goes to
the realm of Pluto. Spenser was guided by a higher and truer sense of
beauty than the classical purists know.
A very attractive element of his classicism is his _worship of beauty_. The
Greek conception of beauty included two forms--the sensuous and the
spiritual.
An intimate relation exists between the
history of the English nation and the works of English authors. This close
connection between purely external events and literary masterpieces is
especially marked in a study of the Elizabethan Age. To understand the
marvelous outburst of song, the incomparable drama, and the stately prose
of this period, one must enter deeply into the political, social, and
religious life of the times.
The _Faerie Queene_ was the product of certain definite conditions which
existed in England toward the close of the sixteenth century. The first of
these national conditions was the movement known as the _revival of
chivalry_; the second was the _spirit of nationality_ fostered by the
English Reformation; and the third was that phase of the English
Renaissance commonly called the _revival of learning_.
The closing decade of Queen Elizabeth's reign was marked by a strong
reaction toward romanticism. The feudal system with its many imperfections
had become a memory, and had been idealized by the people. The nation felt
pride in its new aristocracy, sprung largely from the middle class, and
based rather on worth than ancestry. The bitterness of the Wars of the
Roses was forgotten, and was succeeded by an era of reconciliation and good
feeling. England was united in a heroic queen whom all sects, ranks, and
parties idolized. The whole country exulting in its new sense of freedom
and power became a fairyland of youth, springtime, and romantic
achievement.
Wise and gallant courtiers, like Sidney, Leicester, and Raleigh, gathered
about the queen, and formed a new chivalry devoted to deeds of adventure
and exploits of mind in her honor. The spirit of the old sea-kings lived
again in Drake and his bold buccaneers, who swept the proud Spaniards from
the seas. With the defeat of the Invincible Armada, the greatest naval
expedition of modern times, the fear of Spanish and Catholic domination
rolled away. The whole land was saturated with an unexpressed poetry, and
the imagination of young and old was so fired with patriotism and noble
endeavor that nothing seemed impossible. Add to this intense delight in
life, with all its mystery, beauty, and power, the keen zest for learning
which filled the air that men breathed, and it is easy to understand that
the time was ripe for a new and brilliant epoch in literature. First among
the poetic geniuses of the Elizabethan period came Edmund Spenser with his
_Faerie Queene_, the allegory of an ideal chivalry.
This poem is one of the fruits of that intellectual awakening which first
fertilized Italian thought in the twelfth century, and, slowly spreading
over Europe, made its way into England in the fifteenth century. The mighty
impulse of this New Learning culminated during the reign of the Virgin
Queen in a profound quickening of the national consciousness, and in
arousing an intense curiosity to know and to imitate the rich treasures of
the classics and romance. Its first phase was the _classical revival_. The
tyrannous authority of ecclesiasticism had long since been broken; a
general reaction from Christian asceticism had set in; and by the side of
the ceremonies of the church had been introduced a semi-pagan religion of
art--the worship of moral and sensuous beauty. Illiteracy was no longer the
style at court. Elizabeth herself set the example in the study of Greek.
Books and manuscripts were eagerly sought after, Scholars became conversant
with Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and the great tragic poets Sophocles,
Euripides, and AEschylus; and translations for the many of Vergil, Ovid,
Plautus, Terence, and Seneca poured forth from the printing-presses of
London. The English mind was strongly tempered by the idealistic philosophy
of Plato and Aristotle, and the influence of Latin tragedy and comedy was
strongly felt by the early English drama.
Along with this classical culture came a higher appreciation of the _beauty
of mediaevalism_. The romantic tendency of the age fostered the study of the
great epics of chivalry, Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ and Tasso's _Jerusalem
Delivered_, and of the cycles of French romance. From the Italian poets
especially Spenser borrowed freely. Ariosto's fresh naturalness and magic
machinery influenced him most strongly, but he was indebted to the
semi-classical Tasso for whole scenes. On the whole, therefore, Spenser's
literary affinities were more with the Gothic than the classical.
Spenser was also the spokesman of his time on religious questions. The
violent controversies of the Reformation period were over. Having turned
from the beliefs of ages with passionate rejection, the English people had
achieved religious freedom, and were strongly rooted in Protestantism,
which took on a distinctly national aspect. That Calvinism was at that time
the popular and aristocratic form of Protestantism is evident from
references in the _Faerie Queene_.
Spenser lived in the afterglow of the great age of chivalry. The passing
glories of knighthood in its flower impressed his imagination like a
gorgeous dream, and he was thus inspired to catch and crystallize into
permanent art its romantic spirit and heroic deeds. Into the framework of
his romance of chivalry he inserted a veiled picture of the struggles and
sufferings of his own people in Ireland. The _Faerie Queene_ might almost
be called the epic of the English conquest of Ireland. The poet himself and
many of his friends were in that unhappy island as representatives of the
queen's government, trying to pacify the natives, and establish law and
order out of discontent and anarchy. Spenser's poem was written for the
most part amidst all these scenes of misery and disorder, and the courage,
justice, and energy shown by his countrymen were aptly portrayed under the
allegory of a mighty spiritual warfare of the knights of old against the
power of evil.
Spenser's essay on _A View of the Present State of Ireland_ shows that, far
from shutting himself up in a fool's paradise of fancy, he was fully awake
to the social and political condition of that turbulent island, and that it
furnished him with concrete examples of those vices and virtues, bold
encounters and hair-breadth escapes, strange wanderings and deeds of
violence, with which he has crowded the allegory of the _Faerie Queene_.
II. THE AUTHOR OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
Edmund Spenser was born in London near the Tower in the year 1552. His
parents were poor, though they were probably connected with the Lancashire
branch of the old family of Le Despensers, "an house of ancient fame," from
which the Northampton Spencers were also descended. The poet's familiarity
with the rural life and dialect of the north country supports the theory
that as a boy he spent some time in Lancashire. Beyond two or three facts,
nothing is known with certainty of his early years. He himself tells us
that his mother's name was Elizabeth, and that London was his "most kindly
nurse. " His name is mentioned as one of six poor pupils of the Merchant
Taylors' School, who received assistance from a generous country squire.
At the age of seventeen, Master Edmund became a student in Pembroke Hall,
one of the colleges of the great University of Cambridge. His position was
that of a sizar, or paid scholar, who was exempt from the payment of
tuition fees and earned his way by serving in the dining hall or performing
other menial duties. His poverty, however, did not prevent him from forming
many helpful friendships with his fellow-students. Among his most valued
friends he numbered Launcelot Andrews, afterward Bishop of Winchester,
Edward Kirke, a young man of Spenser's own age, who soon after edited his
friend's first important poem, the _Shepheards Calender_, with elaborate
notes, and most important of all, the famous classical scholar, a fellow of
Pembroke, Gabriel Harvey, who was a few years older than Spenser, and was
later immortalized as the Hobbinoll of the _Faerie Queene_. It was by
Harvey that the poet was introduced to Sir Philip Sidney, the most
accomplished gentleman in England, and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth.
Spenser's residence in Cambridge extended over seven years, during which he
received the usual degrees of bachelor and master of arts. He became one of
the most learned of English poets, and we may infer that while at this seat
of learning he laid the foundations for his wide scholarship in the
diligent study of the Greek and Latin classics, the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle, the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Vergil, and the great
mediaeval epics of Italian literature. On account of some misunderstanding
with the master and tutors of his college, Spenser failed to receive the
appointment to a fellowship, and left the University in 1576, at the age of
twenty-four. His failure to attain the highest scholastic recognition was
due, it is supposed, to his being involved in some of the dangerous
controversies which were ripe in Cambridge at that time "with daily
spawning of new opinions and heresies in divinity, in philosophy, in
humanity, and in manners. "
On leaving the University, Spenser resided for about a year with relatives
in Lancashire, where he found employment. During this time he had an
unrequited love affair with an unknown beauty whom he celebrated in the
_Shepheards Calender_ under the name of Rosalind, "the widow's daughter of
the glen. " A rival, Menalchas, was more successful in finding favor with
his fair neighbor. Although he had before this turned his attention to
poetry by translating the sonnets of Petrarch and Du Bellay (published in
1569), it was while here in the North country that he first showed his high
poetic gifts in original composition.
After a visit to Sir Philip Sidney at Penshurst, Spenser went down to
London with his friend in 1578, and was presented to Sidney's great uncle,
the Earl of Leicester. He thus at once had an opportunity for advancement
through the influence of powerful patrons, a necessity with poor young
authors in that age. An immediate result of his acquaintance with Sidney,
with whom he was now on relations of intimate friendship, was an
introduction into the best society of the metropolis. This period of
association with many of the most distinguished and cultivated men in
England, together with the succession of brilliant pageants, masks, and
processions, which he witnessed at court and at Lord Leicester's mansion,
must have done much to refine his tastes and broaden his outlook on the
world.
In personal appearance Spenser was a fine type of a sixteenth century
gentleman. The grace and dignity of his bearing was enhanced by a face of
tender and thoughtful expression in which warmth of feeling was subdued by
the informing spirit of refinement, truthfulness, simplicity, and nobility.
He possessed a fine dome-like forehead, curling hair, brown eyes, full
sensuous lips, and a nose that was straight and strongly moulded. His long
spare face was adorned with a full mustache and a closely cropped Van Dyke
beard.
The _Shepheards Calender_ was published in the winter of 1579 with a
grateful and complimentary dedication to Sidney. It is an academic exercise
consisting of a series of twelve pastoral poems in imitation of the
eclogues of Vergil and Theocritus. The poem is cast in the form of
dialogues between shepherds, who converse on such subjects as love,
religion, and old age. In three eclogues the poet attacks with Puritan zeal
the pomp and sloth of the worldly clergy, and one is devoted to the courtly
praise of the queen. It was at once recognized as the most notable poem
that had appeared since the death of Chaucer, and placed Spenser
immediately at the head of living English poets.
In 1580 Spenser went over to Ireland as private secretary to Lord Grey of
Wilton, the Artegall of the Legend of Justice in the _Faerie Queene_. After
the recall of his patron he remained in that turbulent island in various
civil positions for the rest of his life, with the exception of two or
three visits and a last sad flight to England. For seven years he was clerk
of the Court of Chancery in Dublin, and then was appointed clerk to the
Council of Munster. In 1586 he was granted the forfeited estate of the Earl
of Desmond in Cork County, and two years later took up his residence in
Kilcolman Castle, which was beautifully situated on a lake with a distant
view of mountains. In the disturbed political condition of the country,
life here seemed a sort of exile to the poet, but its very loneliness and
danger gave the stimulus needed for the development of his peculiar genius.
"Here," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, "at the foot of the Galtees, and bordered
to the north by the wild country, the scenery of which is frequently
painted in the _Faerie Queene_ and in whose woods and savage places such
adventures constantly took place in the service of Elizabeth as are
recorded in the _Faerie Queene_, the first three books of that great poem
were finished. " Spenser had spent the first three years of his residence at
Kilcolman at work on this masterpiece, which had been begun in England,
under the encouragement of Sidney, probably before 1580. The knightly
Sidney died heroically at the battle of Zutphen, in 1586, and Spenser
voiced the lament of all England in the beautiful pastoral elegy
_Astrophel_ which he composed in memory of "the most noble and valorous
knight. "
Soon after coming to Ireland, Spenser made the acquaintance of Sir Walter
Raleigh, which erelong ripened into intimate friendship. A memorable visit
from Raleigh, who was now a neighbor of the poet's, having also received a
part of the forfeited Desmond estate, led to the publication of the _Faerie
Queene_. Sitting under the shade "of the green alders of the Mulla's
shore," Spenser read to his guest the first books of his poem. So pleased
was Raleigh that he persuaded the poet to accompany him to London, and
there lay his poem at the feet of the great queen, whose praises he had so
gloriously sung. The trip was made, Spenser was presented to Elizabeth, and
read to her Majesty the three Legends of Holiness, Temperance, and
Chastity. She was delighted with the fragmentary epic in which she heard
herself delicately complimented in turn as Gloriana, Belphoebe, and
Britomart, conferred upon the poet a pension of ? 50 yearly, and permitted
the _Faerie Queene_ to be published with a dedication to herself. Launched
under such auspices, it is no wonder that the poem was received by the
court and all England with unprecedented applause.
The next year while still in London, Spenser collected his early poems and
issued them under the title of _Complaints_. In this volume were the _Ruins
of Time_ and the _Tears of the Muses_, two poems on the indifference shown
to literature before 1580, and the remarkable _Mother Hubberds Tale_, a
bitter satire on the army, the court, the church, and politics. His
_Daphnaida_ was also published about the same time. On his return to
Ireland he gave a charming picture of life at Kilcolman Castle, with an
account of his visit to the court, in _Colin Clout's Come Home Again_. The
story of the long and desperate courtship of his second love, Elizabeth,
whom he wedded in 1594, is told in the _Amoretti_, a sonnet sequence full
of passion and tenderness. His rapturous wedding ode, the _Epithalamion_,
which is, by general consent, the most glorious bridal song in our
language, and the most perfect of all his poems in its freshness, purity,
and passion, was also published in 1595. The next year Spenser was back in
London and published the _Prothalamion_, a lovely ode on the marriage of
Lord Worcester's daughters, and his four _Hymns_ on Love and Beauty,
Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty. The first two _Hymns_ are early poems,
and the two latter maturer work embodying Petrarch's philosophy, which
teaches that earthly love is a ladder that leads men to the love of God. In
this year, 1596, also appeared the last three books of the _Faerie Queene_,
containing the Legends of Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy.
At the height of his fame, happiness, and prosperity, Spenser returned for
the last time to Ireland in 1597, and was recommended by the queen for the
office of Sheriff of Cork. Surrounded by his beloved wife and children, his
domestic life was serene and happy, but in gloomy contrast his public life
was stormy and full of anxiety and danger. He was the acknowledged prince
of living poets, and was planning the completion of his mighty epic of the
private virtues in twelve books, to be followed by twelve more on the civic
virtues. The native Irish had steadily withstood his claim to the estate,
and continually harassed him with lawsuits. They detested their foreign
oppressors and awaited a favorable opportunity to rise. Discord and riot
increased on all sides. The ever growing murmurs of discontent gave place
to cries for vengeance and unrepressed acts of hostility. Finally, in the
fall of 1598, there occurred a fearful uprising known as Tyrone's
Rebellion, in which the outraged peasants fiercely attacked the castle,
plundering and burning. Spenser and his family barely escaped with their
lives. According to one old tradition, an infant child was left behind in
the hurried flight and perished in the flames; but this has been shown to
be but one of the wild rumors repeated to exaggerate the horror of the
uprising. Long after Spenser's death, it was also rumored that the last six
books of the _Faerie Queene_ had been lost in the flight; but the story is
now utterly discredited.
Spenser once more arrived in London, but he was now in dire distress and
prostrated by the hardships which he had suffered. There on January 16,
1599, at a tavern in King Street, Westminster, the great poet died
broken-hearted and in poverty. Drummond of Hawthornden states that Ben
Jonson told him that Spenser "died for lack of bread in King Street, and
refused 20 pieces sent to him by my Lord of Essex, and said He was sorrie
he had no time to spend them. " The story is probably a bit of exaggerated
gossip. He was buried close to the tomb of Chaucer in the Poets' Corner in
Westminster Abbey, his fellow-poets bearing the pall, and the Earl of Essex
defraying the expenses of the funeral. Referring to the death of Spenser's
great contemporary, Basse wrote:--
"Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb. "
"Thus," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, appropriately, "London, 'his most kindly
nurse,' takes care also of his dust, and England keeps him in her love. "
Spenser's influence on English poetry can hardly be overestimated. Keats
called him "the poets' poet," a title which has been universally approved.
"He is the poet of all others," says Mr. Saintsbury, "for those who seek in
poetry only poetical qualities. " His work has appealed most strongly to
those who have been poets themselves, for with him the poetical attraction
is supreme. Many of the greatest poets have delighted to call him master,
and have shown him the same loving reverence which he gave to Chaucer.
Minor poets like Sidney, Drayton, and Daniel paid tribute to his
inspiration; Milton was deeply indebted to him, especially in _Lycidas_;
and many of the pensive poets of the seventeenth century show traces of his
influence. "Spenser delighted Shakespeare," says Mr. Church; "he was the
poetical master of Cowley, and then of Milton, and in a sense of Dryden,
and even Pope. " Giles and Phineas Fletcher, William Browne, Sir William
Alexander, Shenstone, Collins, Cowley, Gray, and James Thomson were all
direct followers of Spenser. His influence upon the poets of the romantic
revival of the nineteenth century is even more marked. "Spenser begot
Keats," says Mr. Saintsbury, "and Keats begot Tennyson, and Tennyson begot
all the rest. " Among this notable company of disciples should be mentioned
especially Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. If we include within the sphere
of Spenser's influence also those who have made use of the stanza which he
invented, we must add the names of Burns, Shelley, Byron, Beattie,
Campbell, Scott, and Wordsworth. When we consider the large number of poets
in whom Spenser awakened the poetic gift, or those to whose powers he gave
direction, we may safely pronounce him the most seminal poet in the
language.
III. STUDY OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_
1. A ROMANTIC EPIC. --The _Faerie Queene_ is the most perfect type which we
have in English of the purely _romantic poem_. Four elements enter into its
composition: "it is pastoral by association, chivalrous by temper, ethical
by tendency, and allegorical by treatment" (Renton). Its subject was taken
from the old cycle of Arthurian legends, which were brightened with the
terrorless magic of Ariosto and Tasso. The scene of the adventures is laid
in the enchanted forests and castles of the far away and unreal fairyland
of mediaeval chivalry, and the incidents themselves are either highly
improbable or frankly impossible. The language is frequently archaic and
designedly unfamiliar. Much of the machinery and properties used in
carrying on the story, such as speaking myrtles, magic mirrors, swords,
rings, impenetrable armor, and healing fountains, is supernatural. All the
characters--the knights, ladies, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, nymphs,
satyrs, and giants--are the conventional figures of pastoral romance.
The framework of the plot of the _Faerie Queene_ is vast and loosely put
together. There are six main stories, or legends, and each contains several
digressions and involved episodes. The plan of the entire work, which the
author only half completed, is outlined in his letter to Sir Walter
Raleigh. This letter serves as an admirable introduction to the poem, and
should be read attentively by the student. Gloriana, the Queen of
Fairyland, holds at her court a solemn feudal festival, lasting twelve
days, during which she sends forth twelve of her greatest knights on as
many separate adventures. The knights are commissioned to champion the
cause of persons in distress and redress their wrongs. The ideal knight,
Prince Arthur, is the central male figure of the poem. He is enamoured of
Gloriana, having seen her in a wondrous vision, and is represented as
journeying in quest of her. He appears in all of the legends at opportune
moments to succor the knights when they are hard beset or in the power of
their enemies. The six extant books contain respectively the legends of (I)
the Knight of the Redcrosse, or Holiness, (II) Sir Guyon, the Knight of
Temperance, (III) Britomart, the female Knight of Chastity, (IV) Sir
Campbell and Sir Triamond, the Knights of Friendship, (V) Sir Artegall, the
Knight of Justice, and (VI) Sir Caledore, the Knight of Courtesy. Book I is
an allegory of man's relation to God, Book II, of man's relation to
himself, Books III, IV, V, and VI, of man's relation to his fellow-man.
Prince Arthur, the personification of Magnificence, by which Spenser means
Magnanimity (Aristotle's [Greek: megalopsychia]), is the ideal of a perfect
character, in which all the private virtues are united. It is a poem of
culture, inculcating the moral ideals of Aristotle and the teachings of
Christianity.
2. INFLUENCE OF THE NEW LEARNING. --Like Milton, Gray, and other English
poets, Spenser was a scholar familiar with the best in ancient and modern
literature. As to Spenser's specific indebtedness, though he owed much in
incident and diction to Chaucer's version of the _Romance of the Rose_ and
to Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, the great epic poets, Tasso and Ariosto,
should be given first place. The resemblance of passages in the _Faerie
Queene_ to others in the _Orlando Furioso_ and the _Jerusalem Delivered_ is
so striking that some have accused the English poet of paraphrasing and
slavishly borrowing from the two Italians. Many of these parallels are
pointed out in the notes. To this criticism, Mr. Saintsbury remarks: "Not,
perhaps, till the _Orlando_ has been carefully read, and read in the
original, is Spenser's real greatness understood. He has often, and
evidently of purpose, challenged comparison; but in every instance it will
be found that his beauties are emphatically his own. He has followed
Ariosto only as Vergil has followed Homer, and much less slavishly. "
The influence of the New Learning is clearly evident in Spenser's use of
_classical mythology_. Greek myths are placed side by side with Christian
imagery and legends. Like Dante, the poet did not consider the Hellenic
doctrine of sensuous beauty to be antagonistic to the truths of religion.
There is sometimes an incongruous confusion of classicism and mediaevalism,
as when a magician is seen in the house of Morpheus, and a sorcerer goes to
the realm of Pluto. Spenser was guided by a higher and truer sense of
beauty than the classical purists know.
A very attractive element of his classicism is his _worship of beauty_. The
Greek conception of beauty included two forms--the sensuous and the
spiritual. So richly colored and voluptuous are his descriptions that he
has been called the painters' poet, "the Rubens," and "the Raphael of the
poets. " As with Plato, Spenser's idea of the spiritually beautiful includes
the true and the good. Sensuous beauty is seen in the forms of external
nature, like the morning mist and sunshine, the rose gardens, the green
elders, and the quiet streams. His ideal of perfect sensuous and spiritual
beauty combined is found in womanhood. Such a one is Una, the dream of the
poet's young manhood, and we recognize in her one whose soul is as fair as
her face--an idealized type of a woman in real life who calls forth all our
love and reverence.
3. INTERPRETATION OF THE ALLEGORY. --In the sixteenth century it was the
opinion of Puritan England that every literary masterpiece should not only
give entertainment, but should also teach some moral or spiritual lesson.
"No one," says Mr. Patee, "after reading Spenser's letter to Raleigh, can
wander far into Spenser's poem without the conviction that the author's
central purpose was didactic, almost as much as was Bunyan's in _Pilgrim's
Progress. _" Milton doubtless had this feature of the _Faerie Queene_ in
mind when he wrote in _Il Penseroso_:--
"And if aught else great bards beside
In sage and solemn tunes have sung
Of turneys, and of trophies hung,
Of forests and enchantments drear,
_Where more is meant than meets the ear_. "
That the allegory of the poem is closely connected with its aim and ethical
tendency is evident from the statement of the author that "the generall end
therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in
vertuous and gentle discipline. Which for that I conceived should be most
plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historical fiction, the
which the most part of men delight to read, rather for varietie of matter
then for profite of the ensample. " The _Faerie Queene_ is, therefore,
according to the avowed purpose of its author, a poem of culture. Though it
is one of the most highly artistic works in the language, it is at the same
time one of the most didactic. "It professes," says Mr. Church, "to be a
veiled exposition of moral philosophy. "
The allegory is threefold,--moral, religious, and personal.
(a) _Moral Allegory. _--The characters all represent various virtues and
vices, whose intrigues and warfare against each other symbolize the
struggle of the human soul after perfection. The Redcross Knight, for
example, personifies the single private virtue of holiness, while Prince
Arthur stands for that perfect manhood which combines all the moral
qualities; Una represents abstract truth, while Gloriana symbolizes the
union of all the virtues in perfect womanhood.
(b) _Religious or Spiritual Allegory. _--Under this interpretation the
Redcross Knight is a personification of Protestant England, or the church
militant, while Una represents the true religion of the Reformed Church. On
the other hand, Archimago symbolizes the deceptions of the Jesuits and
Duessa the false Church of Rome masquerading as true religion.
(c) _Personal and Political Allegory. _--Here we find a concrete
presentation of many of Spenser's chief contemporaries.
