Spenser, Faerie Queene bk 1 Flashcards
FQ: 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.
FQ: Arthur
A 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.
FQ: 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, among others, as discussed
FQ: 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.
FQ: 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.
FQ: 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.
FQ: Britomart
The hero of Book III, the female warrior virgin, who represents Chastity. She is a skilled fighter and strong of heart, with an amazing capacity for calm thought in troublesome circumstances. Of course, she is chaste, but she also desires true Christian love. She searches for her future husband, Arthegall, whom she saw in a vision through a magic mirror.
FQ: Florimell
Another significant female character in Book III, Florimell represents Beauty. She is also chaste but constantly hounded by men who go mad with lust for her. She does love one knight, who seems to be the only character that does not love her.
FQ: Name S’s sources
Ariosto, Tasso, Virgil, Homer
FQ: religious backdrop of the moment S writes
- 1570 Pope decrees it isn’t a cardinal sin to murder Elizabeth; anti-Catholic sentiment is strong
FQ: talking point about genre/style/allegory
- The reference to Ariosto in the opening—“And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds”—is supplemented by the assertion that “Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song.” In the moralizing we have the suggestion of the “dark conceit” or allegory that runs beneath the ostensible romance.
o Spenser was far from being the first to fuse allegory to romance, as there’s something fundamentally allegorical about earlier romances—even when Ariosto seems completely caught up in the story, characters tend to be simplified into daemonic agents and objects become cosmic images—still, the romance is content to let the allegorical subtexts remain secondary to the delights, surprises, and mysteries of the story. Even if we decide not to call romance allegorical, it’s hard to deny that the romance lends itself to allegorization, as does the epic.
Call romance the allegorization of the legend or tale and epic the allegorization of history. I think allegory is what unites them. So I don’t think Spenser’s genre-mashing is quite as radically new as people seem to think; which isn’t to say that he isn’t being innovative.
o Innovations include stanza form and a much clearer invitation to exegesis.
FQ: talking point, detail
Every detail has allegorical significance–the invitation to exegesis is constant–as consistently as Pilgrim’s Progress even though it has far more detail
FQ: what does Spenser say is the intention of the work?
“to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline”
FQ: why does S use Arthurian legend for his allegory?
According to S it is “coloured with an historical fiction…for variety of matter” rather than for “profite of the ensample.”
FQ: why does Spenser choose allegory rather than a sermon?
He’s in favor of the contemporaneous vogue for showing rather than telling–at least this is how he explains it: “more profitable and gratious is doctrine by ensample, then by rule.”
