Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) The Shepheardes Calender (1579) The Faerie Queene (1590; 1596)

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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.

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Spensers 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.

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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.

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• 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
  poems characters. She represents Queen
  Elizabeth.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• Kirkrapine ("church robber") represent
  monasticism
• Abessa (the daughter) abbess also ab esse
  (Latin) from being, e.g. without substance
• Corceca (the mother) blind heart

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• 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.

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• Sansloy without law of god lawless
• Sansfoy without faith faithlessness
• Archimago, whose name means "arch-image"--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.

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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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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Sources

• Italian poets Ariostos Orlando Furioso (Orlando
  Mad, 1516) and Tassos Gerusalemme Liberata
  (Jerusalem Delivered, 1575)
• Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.
• Ovid

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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).

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• 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.

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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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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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.

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• 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.