THE FAERIE QUEENE

BY
SIR EDMUND SPENSER

GENRE: English Epic Poem

PUBLISHED: 1590

In The Faerie Queene, Spenser creates an allegory: The

characters of his far-off, fanciful "Faerie Land" are
meant to have a symbolic meaning in the real world. In
Books I and III, the poet follows the journeys of two
knights, Redcrosse and Britomart, and in doing so he
examines the two virtues he considers most important to
Christian life--Holiness and Chastity. Redcrosse, the
knight of Holiness, is much like the Apostle Peter: In his
eagerness to serve his Lord, he gets himself into
unforeseen trouble that he is not yet virtuous enough to
handle. His quest is to be united with Una, who signifies
Truth--Holiness cannot be attained without knowledge of
Christian truth. In his immature state, he mistakes
falsehood for truth by following the deceitful witch
Duessa. He pays for this mistake with suffering, but in
the end, this suffering makes way for his recovery in the
House of Holiness, aided by Faith, Hope, and Charity. With newfound strength and the grace of
God, he is able to conquer the dragon that represents all the evil in the world.

In a different manner, Britomart also progresses

in her virtue of chastity. She already has the
strength to resist lust, but she is not ready to
accept love, the love she feels when she sees a
vision of her future husband in a magic mirror.
She learns to incorporate chaste resistance with
active love, which is what Spenser sees as true
Christian love: moderation. Whereas Redcrosse
made his own mistakes (to show to us the
consequences of an unholy life), it is not
Britomart but the other characters in Book III
who show the destructive power of an unchaste
life. Spenser says in his Preface to the poem
that his goal is to show how a virtuous man
should live. The themes of Book I and Book III
come together in the idea that our native virtue
must be augmented or transformed if it is to become true Christian virtue. Spenser has a high
regard for the natural qualities of creatures; he shows that the satyrs, the lion, and many human
characters have an inborn inclination toward the good. And yet, he consistently shows their

failure when faced with the worst evils.

These evils can only be defeated by the
Christian good.

High on Spenser's list of evils is the

Catholic Church, and this enmity lends a
political overtone to the poem, since the
religious conflicts of the time were
inextricably tied to politics. The poet is
unashamed in his promotion of his
beloved monarch, Queen Elizabeth; he
takes considerable historical license in
connecting her line with King Arthur.
Spenser took a great pride in his country
and in his Protestant faith. He took aim at
very real corruption within the Catholic
Church; such attacks were by no means
unusual in his day, but his use of them in
an epic poem raised his criticism above
the level of the propagandists.

As a purely poetic work, The Faerie Queene was neither original nor always remarkable; Spenser
depends heavily on his Italian romantic sources (Ariosto & Tasso), as well as medieval and
classical works like The Romance of the Rose and The Aeneid . It is Spenser's blending of such
diverse sources with a high-minded allegory that makes the poem unique and remarkable. He is
able to take images from superficial romances, courtly love stories, and tragic epics alike, and
give them real importance in the context of the poem. No image is let fall from Spenser's pen that
does not have grave significance, and this gives The Faerie Queene the richness that has kept it
high among the ranks of the greatest poetry in the English language.