Faerie Queene
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
The Shepheardes Calender (1579)
The Faerie Queene (1590; 1596)
The first three books of The
Faerie Queene were published in
1590 and then republished with
Books IV through VI in 1596.
Spenser’s poem
A courtesy book
Six books exhibit the virtues of Holiness,
Temperance, Chastity, Friendship,
Justice and Courtesy.
A romantic epic: adventures and
marvels
A national epic: celebrates the Tudors,
Queen Elizabeth, and the English nation.
Characters
Arthur - The central hero of the poem,
although he does not play the most
significant role in its action. Arthur is in
search of the Faerie Queene, whom he
saw in a vision. The "real" Arthur was a
king of the Britons in the 5th or 6th
century A.D., but the little historical
information we have about him is
overwhelmed by his legend.
Faerie Queene (also known as
Gloriana) - Though she never appears
in the poem, the Faerie Queene is the
focus of the poem; her castle is the
ultimate goal or destination of many of
the poem’s characters. She represents
Queen Elizabeth.
Redcrosse - The Redcrosse Knight is the
hero of Book I; he stands for the virtue of
Holiness. His real name is discovered to be
George, and he ends up becoming St.
George, the patron saint of England. On
another level, though, he is the individual
Christian fighting against evil--or the
Protestant fighting the Catholic Church.
Una - Redcrosse's future wife, and the
other major protagonist in Book I. She is
meek, humble, and beautiful, but strong
when it is necessary; she represents
Truth, which Redcrosse must find in
order to be a true Christian.
Duessa - The opposite of Una, she
represents falsehood and nearly succeeds in
getting Redcrosse to leave Una for good. She
appears beautiful, but it is only skin-deep.
Archimago - Next to Duessa, a major
antagonist in Book I. Archimago is a sorcerer
capable of changing his own appearance or
that of others; in the end, his magic is proven
weak and ineffective.
Kirkrapine ("church robber") represent
monasticism
Abessa (the daughter) : “abbess;” also
ab + esse (Latin): “from being,” e.g.
“without substance”
Corceca (the mother) : “blind heart”
Abessa's name recalls "Abbess," the head of
an abbey. Monasticism is a feature of the
Catholic Church, and in Spenser's time,
monasteries were often accused of taking
donations to the poor for themselves.
Abessa's deafness and dumbness, and
Corceca's blindness, display Spenser's belief
that monasteries (monks, friars, and nuns)
are ignorant of the needs of the world as they
live in seclusion.
Sansloy: without law of god; lawless
Sansfoy: without faith; faithlessness
Archimago, whose name means "archimage"--the Protestants accused the
Catholics of idolatry because of their
extensive use of images. The sorcerer is able,
through deception and lust, to separate
Redcrosse from Una--that is, to separate
Holiness from Truth. Once separated,
Holiness is susceptible to the opposite of truth,
or falsehood.
Allegory
The title character, the Faerie Queene herself,
is meant to represent Queen Elizabeth.
Redcrosse represents the individual Christian,
on the search for Holiness, who is armed with
faith in Christ, the shield with the bloody cross.
He is traveling with Una, whose name means
"truth." For a Christian to be holy, he must
have true faith, and so the plot of Book I
mostly concerns the attempts of evildoers to
separate Redcrosse from Una.
Most of these villains are meant by
Spenser to represent one thing in
common: the Roman Catholic Church.
The poet felt that, in the English
Reformation, the people had defeated
"false religion" (Catholicism) and
embraced "true religion" (Protestantism/
Anglicanism). Thus, Redcrosse must
defeat villains who mimic the falsehood
of the Roman Church.
Duessa also represents the Roman
Church, both because she is "false
faith," and because of her rich, purple
and gold clothing, which, for Spenser,
displays the greedy wealth and arrogant
pomp of Rome. Much of the poet's
imagery comes from a passage in the
Book of Revelation, which describes the
"whore of Babylon"--many Protestant
readers took this Biblical passage to
indicate the Catholic Church.
Sources
Italian poets Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso
(Orlando Mad, 1516) and Tasso’s
Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem
Delivered, 1575)
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's
Aeneid.
Ovid
Tudor
The ruling family of England from 1485
to 1603. Following the Plantagenets and
preceding the Stuarts, the Tudor line
included Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I,
and Elizabeth the Great (Elizabeth I).
Edward VI Elizabeth's younger half-brother,
he briefly ruled England from 1547 to 1553.
Mary I Mary Tudor, also known as "Bloody
Mary" for her persecution of non- Catholics,
was Elizabeth's older half-sister, and ruled
England from 1553 to her death in 1558. A
fervent Catholic, she was married to the
future Philip II of Spain.
Timeline: Elizabeth
September 7, 1533: Elizabeth born at
Greenwich Palace.
May 9, 1536: Ann Boleyn beheaded
February 3, 1542: Catherine Howard
beheaded
January 1547, Henry VIII dies July 6, 1553:
The sixteen-year-old Edward VI dies after a
six-year reign; Mary I takes the throne.
1554: Sir Thomas Wyat the Younger's
Rebellion
November 17, 1558: Mary I dies, Elizabeth
succeeds
January 15, 1559: Elizabeth's coronation
ceremony
1559: Elizabeth's Protestant/Catholic religious
settlement
1561: The French king Francis II dies, and
Mary Queen of Scots returns to Scotland.
1568: Elizabeth imprisons Mary Queen of
Scots
1570: Pope Pius V issues an interdict
against Elizabeth
1571: Ridolfi Plot to overthrow Elizabeth and
replace her with Mary Queen of Scots
1571: Elizabeth names William Cecil Lord
Treasurer and gives him the new title of
Lord Burleigh. She brings in Francis
Walsingham to replace him as Secretary of
State.
1575: Leicester entertains Elizabeth at
Kenilworth Castle
1579: Leicester secretly marries Lettice
Knollys, Elizabeth's cousin
1579: Elizabeth's marriage negotiations with
the French King's brother (Anjou) dissolve
1580: Pope Gregory XIII announces that
killing Elizabeth is not a sin
1582: Duke de Guise Plot on Elizabeth's life
1584: William the Silent assassinated
1584: Bond of Association enacted [Bond
of Association: A 1584 decree by which
Parliament forced all English men to sign a
pledge that, in the event of Elizabeth's
assassination, they would hunt down the
culprit.
1585: Act for the Preservation of the
Queen's Safety passed [This 1585 policy
was intended to quash conspiracies against
the Queen, and was enacted in response to
recent plots like the Duke de Guise Plot and
the earlier Ridolfi Plot.
1586: Babington Plot to overthrow Elizabeth
and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots
February 8, 1587: Mary Queen of Scots
executed
April 1587: Drake's surprise attack on
Spanish fleet at Cadiz
July 1588: Philip of Spain launches the
Spanish Armada
1588: Earl of Leicester (Sir Robert Dudley)
dies
1590: death of Francis Walsingham
1598: Lord Burleigh (William Cecil) dies
February 25, 1601: Robery Devereaux, Earl
of Essex, executed
March 24, 1603: death of Queen Elizabeth
Plots against
Queen Elizabeth
Ridolfi Plot: A 1570 to 1571 plot led by an
Italian conspirator (Roberto di Ridolfi) to
overthrow Elizabeth and install Mary Queen
of Scots on the throne of England. The plot
involved assassinating Elizabeth and using
the Spanish Army to conquer the countryside.
Duke de Guise Plot: A 1582 Catholic plot on
Elizabeth's life
Babington Plot: Anthony Babington led this
1586 plot to overthrow Elizabeth and put
Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. Mary
was thrown into the Tower of London and
subsequently executed for involvement in this
plot, which Walsingham cleverly detected and
exposed.
Edmund Spenser's poetry today seems a
description of impossible fantasy scenes.
However, a major inspiration for these faerie
realms was the glittering splendor he saw in
Elizabeth's court. We might also think that his
emphasis on knights and jousting is another
manifestation of fantasy; yet these, too, had
their basis in Elizabeth's court: although
gunpowder had put an end to the era of
armored knights carrying lances on
horseback in real battles, jousting and
tournaments were much alive as forms of
entertainment for Elizabeth and her
aristocracy.
Elizabethan Literature
Elizabeth's reign saw playwrights like
Christopher Marlowe, poets like
Edmund Spenser, and men of
science and letters like Francis
Bacon. The era also saw the beginning
of William Shakespeare's work.
Many of the writers, thinkers and artists
of the day enjoyed the patronage of
members of Elizabeth's court, and their
works often involved or referred to the
great Queen; indeed, she was the
symbol of the day. The "Elizabethan
Age," generally considered one of
golden ages in English literature, was
thus appropriately named.