Edmund Spenser and The Faerie Queene

1. Edmund Spenser and The Faerie Queene The Poet’s Poet, Pastoral, and Allegory

2. Spenser – 1552-1599 Middle class childhood. Went to the Merchant Taylor’s School and later Cambridge. Wrote Shepheard’s Calendar when he was just 27. One goal was to prove that real literature could be written in English, to become the Chaucer of the Elizabethan era. Became Secretary to Lord Grey who was a ruler in Ireland, and lived in Ireland (working) most of his life. His work was essentially to assist Lord Grey to control the Irish people. He wrote A View of the Present State of Ireland which “categorizes the ‘evils’ of the Irish people into three prominent categories: laws, customs, and religion” (Spenser). In spite of his terrible politics, he is considered one of the greatest English poets.

3. Spenser on the Irish • Copied from Norton Topics Online: 16th Century • Spenser spent most of his adult life as an English planter in Ireland, where uprisings against English rule were a regular occurrence. A View, which is written as a dialogue between two Englishmen, examines the reasons why previous attempts to subdue the Irish had failed and proposes strategies by which English rule could be imposed once and for all. • In the first half of the work, Irenius, an expert on Irish affairs, describes to Eudoxus the evil customs of the Irish, condemning their nomadic herding practices, their religion, their social and familial organization, their bards, their hair and dress, and so on. He derives the origins of the Irish from the barbarous Scythians and explains the circumstances which led to the degeneration of the Old English.

4. Spenser on Irish, cont. • In the second half, he outlines a program for the military pacification of Ireland. The brutality of Spenser's proposals, and his insistence on martial rather than common law as the solution to the Irish problem, may account for the book's failure to appear in print until 1633; on the other hand, it may not have been Spenser's views in particular, but discussion of Ireland in general, that the authorities were anxious to keep out of the public sphere. • Irenius explains to Eudoxus how the Anglo-Norman families who had conquered and settled in Ireland four hundred years earlier had "degenerated," adopting the customs and language of the Irish. In the second passage, Irenius describes the famine in the Irish province of Munster in 1581. Spenser's proposal that famine was the best means to reduce the Irish to permanent submission was brutal even by the standards of English colonial policy. That Spenser could seriously advocate that the English deliberately starve the Irish population makes the bitter irony of Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal (1729; NAEL 8, 1.2462) even more devastating.

5. The Shepheard’s Calendar • Published to sell (even though there is material which flatters Queen Elizabeth) • It was illustrated • Every month has a different style of poetry – and he invented each one!!!

6. To His Booke GOE, little booke: thy selfe present, As child whose parent is unkent, To him that is the president Of noblesse and of chevalree: And if that Enviebarke at thee, As sure it will, for succoureflee Under the shadow of his wing; And asked, who thee forth did bring, A shepheardsswaine, saye, did thee sing, All as his straying flocke he fedde: And when his honor has thee redde, Crave pardon for my hardyhedde. But if that any aske thy name, Say thou wert base begot with blame: Forthy thereof thou takest shame. And when thou art past jeopardee, Come tell me what was sayd of mee: And I will send more after thee. IMMERITÔ.

7. Uses Colin Cloute as his stand-in A SHEPEHEARDS boye (no better doe him call) When winters wastfulspight was almost spent, All in a sunneshine day, as did befall, Led forth his flock, that had bene long ypent. So faynt they woxe, and feeble in the folde, That now unnethes their feete could them uphold

8. Shepheard’s Calendar is deliberately made to seem old-fashioned Willye THomalin, why sytten we soe, As weren ouerwent with woe, Vpon so fayre a morow? The ioyous time now nighest fast, That shall alegge this bitter blast, And slake the winters sorowe. Thomalin. Sicker Willye, thou warnest well: For Winters wrath beginnes to quell,And pleasant spring appeareth. The grasse now ginnes to be refresht, The Swallow peepes out of her nest, And clowdie Welkin cleareth. Willye. Seest not thilke same Hawthorne studde, How bragly it beginnes to budde, And vtter his tender head? Flora now calleth forth eche flower, And bids make ready Maias bowre, That newe is vpryst from bedde.

9. Pastoral Poetry • “the pastoral tradition refers to a lineage of creative works that idealize rural life and landscapes” (Poetic form: Pastoral) • “pastoral art often contains a strong element of social critique, disguised or otherwise. Pastoral's lovely settings and innocent-seeming characters provide artists cover for criticizing certain aspects of city life, or certain things about the political regime under which they live, and so forth. .” (Drake “English 252”)

10. The Faerie Queene • First part published 1590 • Second part: 1596 • Dedicated to Elizabeth (the “Faerie Queene”) in hopes of getting support from her (which he did – 50 pounds per year)

11. Faerie Queene is an epic, one of the two greatest of the period • "The epic is a long narrative poem involving heroic figures in the performance of heroic deeds, usually extended over a wide geographical area; it is written in a heroic or grandiose manner" (Norton and Rushton). • "a long narrative poem presenting characters of high position in a series of adventures which form an organic whole through their relation to a central figure of heroic proportions and through their development of episodes important to the development of a nation or race" (Thrall and Hibbard)

12. How is it an epic? • Is it written in an “heroic or grandiose manner”? • Are the characters “of high position”? • Does The Faerie Queene say it will connect to the development of the nation? • Does it start in medias res?

13. What is the other Great epic of the period?

14. And a Romance • As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose or verse narrative . . . They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. Some popular romances used the chivalric romance with ironic or satiric intent. (cut from “Romance heroic literature”)

15. How Is it a Romance? • Do you see marvels or adventures? • Is there a quest? • What about the style? • Do you see evidence of ironic or satiric intent?

16. Spenser deliberately makes it seem archaic (like Sir Gawain) • Spenserian spelling • Spenserian stanza • Faerie Land – really? • Part of his purpose is to establish a deeply-rooted English literature that connects all the way back to the Fall of Troy • Being connected to the Roman Empire (which the Brits could since they had been conquered by Rome) was a way of claiming a literary inheritance

17. Spenser uses and complicates allegory • From Concise Encyclopedia Work of written, oral, or visual expression that uses symbolic figures, objects, and actions to convey truths or generalizations about human conduct or experience. It encompasses such forms as the fable and parable. Characters often personify abstract concepts or types, and the action of the narrative usually stands for something not explicitly stated. Symbolic allegories, in which characters may also have an identity apart from the message they convey, have frequently been used to represent political and historical situations and have long been popular as vehicles for satire. Spenser’s long poem The Faerie Queen is a famous example of a symbolic allegory.

18. What does the red cross on the knight’s clothing mean?What implications do you see?

19. Eventually, the Red Crosse Knight discovers that his destiny is to be St. George, the patron saint of Britain. Paintings are ST. George and the Dragon by Ucello, which inspired Spenser.

20. Una is supposed to be Truth She is accompanied by a white lamb. What does that signify? Why can she get a lion as her protector?

21. Can you see the allegory? • Una travels with Red Crosse – but what if they get separated? • What if they fall into Error? • Una’s parents are being held captive in a castle by a dragon and she needs a knight to slay the dragon. What could this mean? • What does it mean that Una is accompanied by a Dwarf? What if he gets lost? • Do you see anything in the story that might represent the Catholic Church, which Elizabeth’s father (Henry VIII) and she have rejected?

22. Archimago and Duessa • Two great villains of Faerie Queene • Archimago means architect or Arch Mage (possible equivalent to the architect of the poem or the magician who creates the poem?)

23. Duessa, connected to Catholicism • She is two-sided, deceptive, different from Una (one sided)

24. Implications for American Literature • Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe all read Spenser • Hawthorne even named his first daughter Una

25. Melville reviewing Hawthorne’s short Stories • [one story] is the sweetest and sublimest thing that has been written since Spenser wrote. Nay, there is nothing in Spenser that surpasses it, perhaps, nothing that equals it. And the test is this: read any canto in "The Faery Queen," and then read "A Select Party," and decide which pleases you the most,--that is, if you are qualified to judge. Do not be frightened at this; for when Spenser was alive, he was thought of very much as Hawthorne is now--was generally accounted just such a "gentle" harmless man. It may be, that to common eyes, the sublimity of Hawthorne seems lost in his sweetness,--as perhaps in this same "Select Party" his; for whom, he has builded so august a dome of sunset clouds, and served them on richer plate, than Belshazzar's when he banquetted his lords in Babylon.

26. Attitudes toward allegory? Spenser writes like Hawthorne: “knowing how doubtfully all Allegories may be construed and this booke of mine, which I have entitled the Faerie Queene, being a continued Allegory, or darke conceit . . .To some I know this Methode will seemedispleasaunt . . . Thus clowdily enwrapped in Allegoricall devises”

27. Connecting to 48A • Do you see Hawthorne or Melville with an ironic or satiric intent? • Does either Hawthorne or Melville deliberately place the story in an older era? • Use historical style or themes so as to connect American literature to its roots in the past? • Does either Hawthorne or Melville write about a quest? • Is that quest connected to the nation and even the survival of that nation?

28. Does Hawthorne understand what melville did in Moby-Dick? • Melville to Hawthorne after receiving a letter about Moby-Dick: A sense of unspeakable security is in me this moment, on account of your having understood the book. I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. . . . I feel that the Godhead is broken up like the bread at the Supper, and that we are the pieces. My dear Hawthorne, the atmospheric skepticisms steal into me now, and make me doubtful of my sanity in writing you thus. But, believe me, I am not mad, most noble Festus! But truth is ever incoherent, and when the big hearts strike together, the concussion is a little stunning. Farewell. Don't write a word about the book. That would be robbing me of my miserly delight. I am heartily sorry I ever wrote anything about you -- it was paltry. Lord, when shall we be done growing? As long as we have anything more to do, we have done nothing. So, now, let us add Moby Dick to our blessing, and step from that. Leviathan is not the biggest fish; -- I have heard of Krakens.

29. Back to spenser • As you read Faerie Queene, think of Young Goodman Brown and Hester Prynne, the characters. • As Red Crosse Knight trusts Una, Young Goodman Brown begins by trusting Faith and Hester began (before the book) by trusting Dimmesdale • Both journey into the woods • Both make discoveries in the woods • Both are “allegories” • What is Spenser doing with allegory that Hawthorne may have learned? • Find a line that stands out for you.