For his historical fiction Spenser chose the ‘historye of king Arthure’, the most famous of the British kings and one of the Nine Worthies: Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus (Hebrew); Hector, Alexander, Julius Caesar (classical); Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Boulogne (Christian). Spenser’s desire to ‘overgo’ Ariosto and Tasso, his two Italian predecessors, who wrote of Charlemagne and Godfrey respectively, may have urged him to choose the one British worthy. At any rate, from the vast body of fable and fact surrounding Arthur, Spenser uses only the story of his birth and the figure of Merlin. Timon, Arthur’s teacher, is Spenser’s invention, as is Arthur’s vision of the Faerie Queene (I.o. 13-15). In fact, Arthur does not play an overwhelming role in the action of the poem as we have it. As magnificence, ‘which vertue for that (according to Aristotle and the rest) it is the perfection of all the rest [of the virtues] and conteineth in it them all’, Arthur is called into the fiction to help out the individual knights of each book when they fall short of the virtue required of them (he rescues Redcross in I.8 and Guyon in II.8). The heroine of the poem, the Faerie Queene, or Gloriana, is even more removed from previous (or later) literary associations. She is entirely Spenser’s creation and appears in the poem only in one fleeting apparition to Arthur in I.9.13-15. She is glory, the reward of heroic virtue, and hence the proper bride for Arthur, who as magnificence sums up all the virtues. Yet the Faerie Queene is not only glory but also the idealized image of Elizabeth I as the foundation of Spenser’s society. Spenser tells us that in the poem Elizabeth ‘beareth two persons’, her public role as monarch and her private role as virtuous virgin. As monarch she is figured by Gloriana and as virgin she is figured by Bel-phoebe, a militant Diana, an identification derived (Spenser implies) from the fact that Ralegh titles his poem to Elizabeth The Ocean’s Love to Cynthia, another name for Diana or Phoebe. We cannot judge the propriety of Spenser’s compliment to Ralegh since only one book of his poem survives.
Spenser ends the letter with a description of the first three books, the action of each initiated at the court of Gloriana, who commands each knight to take up a task on each day of the twelve-day feast she is holding (true only of Books I, II, V, VI). The description of Book I fits well with the poem (although the reader may want to know the full reference to Ephesians, which is chapter 6, verses 11-17, quoted in note to I.1.2). The letter and the poem are at variance with regard to II. The Palmer and Guyon are already together at the beginning, Gloriana is not mentioned, and the episode of the bloody baby is part of the action of cantos 1 and 2. The description of III is even more curious since it treats Sir Scudamour as if he were the main knight of the book whereas he appears for the first time only in canto 11, a difficulty of which Spenser seems to be aware since he describes as ‘Accidents’ most of the other adventures of the book: the love of Britomart (cantos 1-3), the overthrow of Marinell (canto 4), the misery of Florimell (cantos 7-8), the virtuousness of Belphoebe (cantos 5-6), and the lasciviousness of Hellenore (cantos 9-10). For a discussion of these difficulties see Roche, Kindly Flame, pp. 195-202, 31-50.
The date of the letter – 23 January 1589 – is actually 1590, since England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752 and the dating of the new year began on 25 March, L
NOTES TO COMMENDATORY VERSES
For the seven poems -written in commendation of The Faerie Queene only two authors have been identified. The first two poems, signed W. R., are by Sir Walter Ralegh, the friend who accompanied Spenser to England for the printing of the poem and its presentation at court.’ To the learned Shepeheard’, signed Hobynoll, is by Gabriel Harvey, Spenser’s friend and mentor at Cambridge, explicitly identified as Hobynoll in The Shepheardes Calender (1579). R. S., H. B., W. L., and Ignoto are still unknown.
A VISION
1 Laura: the woman loved by Petrarch, the theme of his poems.
2 Temple: the temple of Vesta at Rome, where the sacred fire of the state
was tended by Vestal Virgins.
ANOTHER OF THE SAME
2 Philumena: Philomel, the nightingale.
6 eine: eyes.
TO THE LEARNED SHEPEHEARD
1 Collyn: Colin Clout, poetic name adopted by Spenser in The Shepheardes Calender, Colin Clouts Come Home Again (1595) and The Faerie Queene VI.10.
7 Rosolinde: Rosalind, the name of Colin’s love.
28 Albion: name for England, from Albion the mythical founder. See II.10.11 and notes, II, 10, headnote.
35 dome: fate.
35 Empyring: ruling absolutely.
FAIRE THAMIS STREAMS
1 Thamis: the river Thames.
Ludds stately towne: London, founded by Lud.
GRAUE MUSES
3 dispenser: pun on the poet’s name.
7 Augustus: Augustus Caesar, patron of Virgil. Historically he did not give the laurel crown to Virgil.
WHEN STOUT ACHILLES …’
Achilles’ reluctance to go to the Trojan war is related by Apollodorus, 3.13.8, and Il. 9.410 ff.
NOTES TO DEDICATORY SONNETS
The dedicatory sonnets were originally ten in number and were addressed to Hatton, Essex, Oxford, Northumberland, Ormond, Howard, Grey, Ralegh, Lady Carew and ‘all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the Court’, in that order. When the first three books of 1590 were being bound, Spenser, for what reasons we do not know, must have realized the political error of omitting William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, from the list of dedicatees. Burleigh was the principal advisor to the Queen and a man of enormous influence. Earlier in his career he had been the principal opponent to the power of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite of the Queen and uncle of Sir Philip Sidney. Spenser is thought to have been in the service of the Earl in the late 1570s after he came down from Cambridge. We know that Spenser’s concern about the omission of Burleigh is more than scholarly supposition because Thomas Nashe in Pierce Pennilesse includes with praise for Spenser’s poem a sonnet about his grievous omission of Burleigh. Whatever the gossip and whatever the implications for the success of Spenser’s poem, the offensive omission was rectified. Since two sonnets were printed on each page, the leaf on which the sonnets to Hatton and Essex and (on the reverse side) to Oxford and Northumberland were printed had to be changed in order for Burleigh’s sonnet to appear in its proper place, next to Hatton’s. Two pages (containing the first eight sonnets as printed) were deleted and replaced by an insert that required additional sonnets to fill out the blank pages, for which Spenser provided the sonnets to Burleigh, Cumberland, Hunsdon, Buckhurst, Walsing-ham, Norris, and the Countess of Pembroke.
This error of Spenser’s political judgement is the chief means we have to distinguish the early printings of Books I-III. If a 1590 copy contains only the ten sonnets, it is the earlier printing (the first issue). If it contains the revised order of seventeen sonnets as printed in this edition, it is the second issue. Some copies of 1590 contain both the revised and unrevised pages, a variation that shows the puzzled binder trying to cope with Spenser’s afterthought. For a bibliographical description of the changes see Francis R, Johnson, A Critical Bibliography of the Works of Edmund Spenser Printed before 1700 (Baltimore, 1933). PP- I5-I6.
The dedicatees include the foremost men of England as well as Spenser’s friends. Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-91) as Lord High Chancellor was the highest in rank of Elizabeth’s ministers, but William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (1520-98), was the most powerful. There is some evidence that Burleigh did not approve of Spenser’s poem (see Proem to Book IV and note) and that he was responsible for Spenser’s failure to be adequately rewarded financially for the poem. Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604), was the patron and centre of a literary group and was married, until her death in 1588, to Burleigh’s daughter Anne. The enmity between Leicester and Burleigh was continued in a challenge that Oxford sent to Sir Philip Sidney, Leicester’s nephew, through Sir Walter Ralegh, the Queen’s new favourite in the 1580s. Ralegh’s refusal to engage in the quarrel earned him the undyi
ng enmity of Oxford. Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564-1632), ‘was a man of intellectual and literary taste and a friend of Ralegh’s. George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558-1605). was a ‘sea dog’ like Drake and Ralegh. Robert Devereux, and Earl of Essex (1567-1601), was a dashing young man of twenty-three at the time of the dedication, the brother of Sir Philip Sidney’s Stella (Penelope Devereux), and the latest favourite of the Queen. Eleven yean later he would be executed for rebellious treason against the Queen. Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond and Ossory (1532-1614), was Lord Treasurer of Ireland from 1559 and Lord General of Minister; Spenser and Lord Grey de Wilton pro bably stayed with him at his castle in Kilkenny. Charles Howard, Lord High Admiral (1534-1624), was the hero of the defeat of the Armada in 1588. Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon (1524-96), a favourite and first cousin to the Queen, the son of Anne Boleyn’s sister, was a soldier and patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Shakespeare’s acting company. Arthur Grey, 14th Lord Grey de Wilton (1536-93), was the Lord Deputy in Ireland from August 1580 to September 1582. Spenser was his secretary. Thomas Sackville, Baron Buckhurst (1536-1608), was one of the most accomplished poets of the mid sixteenth century. He wrote the ‘Induction’ to the Mirror for Magistrates (1559) and the lasttwo acts of Gorboduc (1560), the first tragedy in English. Sir Francis Walsingham (1530?-9o), as principal secretary to the Queen, was second in power only to Burleigh. His daughter Frances was married to Sir Philip Sidney in 1583. Captain Sir John Norris (1547?-97), in addition to being Lord President of Munster, was a famous soldier and hero in France and the Low Countries. He sailed with Drake against Spain. Sir Walter Ralegh (i5S2?-i6i8) was a close friend of Spenser, who addresses the prefatory letter to The Faerie Queene to him. He contributed two complimentary sonnets to the 1590 volume (see notes to the Letter and to the Commendatory Verses). Mary Her bert, Countess of Pembroke (1555?-1621), was sister to Sir Philip Sidney and wife to Henry Herbert, and Earl of Pembroke (15347-1601). She was extremely literate and a great patron of poets. Elizabeth Spencer Carew (or Carey; b 1552, fl. 1590) was a distant cousin of Spenser and the wife of George Carey, 2nd Lord Hunsdon, the patron of Thomas Nashe. Spenser dedicated his poem Muiopotmos to her.
HATTON
7 Ennius: the father of Latin poetry and a friend of the elder Scipio Africanus, he wrote an epic history of Rome, of which only a few fragments survive.
8 Maro: Publius Vergilius Maro wrote the Aeneid to celebrate Augustus Caesar.
12 Policy: government.
OXFORD
1 gree: favour, goodwill.
11 Heliconian ymps: i.e., poets.
CUMBERLAND
8 late assaies: probably a reference to his naval expedition to the Azores, from which he had returned late in 1589.
ESSEX
4 sdeigne: disdain.
9 sty: ascend (archaic).
ORMOND
1–4reference to Spenser’s experiences in Ireland, where he knew Ormond. 8 Ormond’s castle was at Kilkenny.
HOWARD
7 Castilian king: Philip of Spain, whose Armada Howard defeated in 1588.
HUNSDON
6 nearnes: Hunsdon was first cousin to the Queen.
10 Northerne rebels: much of Hunsdon’s career was spent in guarding the border between Scotland and England. Spenser may be referring specifically to the rebellions of 1569-70.
GREY
1–4Spenser was Grey’s secretary from 1580 until Grey’s recall.
6 reaue: rob.
12 Parnasso: Parnassus, mountain sacred to Apollo and the muses.
BUCKHUEST
14 Zoilus: a severe critic of Homer; his name became synonymous with carping criticism.
WALSINGHAM
1 Mantuane Poetes: Virgil, born in Mantua, whose patron Maecenas brought him to the attention of Augustus.
NORRIS
10 sad Belgicke: Norris was a great hero in the wars against Spain in the Low Countries as well as serving in France and Ireland.
12 Lusitanian soile: Drake and Norris were in command of the expedition against Spain in 1589.
RALEGH
2 soueraine Goddesses: i.c, Elizabeth’s.
PEMBROKE
I that most Heroicke spirit: Sir Philip Sidney, who died in 1586.
‘TO ALL THE GRATIOUS …’
1 Chian Peincter: see note to IV.5.12.7.
FAERIE QUEENE
BOOK I
PROEM
1 1 The opening lines of the Proem link Spenser and his poem to a tradition begun by Virgil in four lines that preface the famous ‘Arma virumque cam’.
We ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus avena
carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi
ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono:
gratum opus agricolis: at mine horrentia Mortis.
(‘I am that poet who in times past made the light melody of pastoral poetry. In my next poem I left the woods for the adjacent farmlands, teaching them to obey even the most exacting tillers of the soil; and the farmers liked my work. But now I turn to the terrible strife of Mars.’ Aen., translated W. F. Jackson Knight, Penguin Books, p. 27.) These lines, printed in Renaissance editions, even if not written by Virgil, describe the progress of the poet, from the Eclogues to the Georgics to the Aeneid. Since for the Renaissance Virgil was the ideal poet, it was considered proper to begin one’s poetic career by writing pastoral poetry, to move on to more complicated structures, and finally to undertake an epic. Spenser is referring to this tradition and reminding the reader that he too began by writing pastoral poetry in his anonymously published The Shepheardes Calender (1579).
1 2 weeds: clothes.
1 4 trumpets sterne: symbol of heroic poetry. Oaten reeds: symbol of pastoral poetry.
1 7 meane: lowly.
1 8 To blazon: to give praise.
1 9 An imitation of the opening lines of Ariosto’s Orlando furioso:
Le donne, i cauallier, I’arme, gli amort,
le cortesie, Vaudaci imprese io canto.
(‘Of Dames, of Knights, of armes, of love’s delight,/Of courtesies, of high attempts I speake,’ translated Sir John Harington, 1591.)
2 1 holy Virgin chiefe of nine: foremost of the nine Muses, traditionally Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry.
2 3 scryne: chest, box for valuables.
2 4 antique rolles: ancient records.
2 5 Tanaquill: Caia Tanaquil, the wife of the first Etruscan king of Rome; she was considered a model queen. Here and in II. 10.76 Spenser uses this name for Gloriana, Queen of Faeryland. See also Boccaccio, Il Filocolo, 2.58.
2 6 Briton Prince: Prince Arthur.
3 1 impe: child, i.e., Cupid, god of love. 3 3 roue: shoot.
3 5 Heben: ebony.
3 7 Mart: Man. Spenser is not invoking the usual association of Mars and Venus with adulterous lechery. They are invoked because of the ‘fierce warres’ (Mars) and ‘faithfull loues’ (Venus) that will ‘moralize’ Spenser’s poem.
4 1 Goddesse: i.e., Queen Elizabeth I.
4 4 Phoebus lampe: the sun; Phoebus Apollo was god of the sun.
4 6 vile: lowly.
4 7 type: pattern or symbol.
4 8 argument: subject. Cf. Milton, PL 1.24-6:
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
CANTO 1
1 2 Spenser in the Letter to Ralegh identifies Redcross’s armour as that described by Paul in Ephesians 6.11-17:
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the assaults of the devil… For this cause take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to resist in the evil day, and having finished all things, stand fast. Stand therefore, and your loins gird about with verity, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye may quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
All quotations from Genevan Bible, 1560, spelling modernized. A red cross on a white field forms the arms of St George, patron saint of England, with whom Redcross is identified in I.2.11.9 and 10.61 S.
1 9 giusts: jousts.
2 5 scor’d: marked. 4 9 in a line: on a lead.
5 9 compeld: summoned.
6 1 Dwarfe: some editors allegorize the Dwarf as reason, prudence, or common sense.
7 9 them seemes: dative: to them seems.
8 6 ff Spenser’s catalogue of trees imitates Chaucer, Parlement of Fouless 176-82, who was following the tradition established by Ovid, Met. 10.90 ff, Statius, Thebaid 6.98 fF, and Boccaccio, Teseida 11.33-4, a source which Chaucer also used in “The Knight’s Tale’, II.2921 ff. The epithets describing the trees are intended to show the use to which society puts each tree (e.g., ‘sayling Pine’ because ships’ masts were made of pine). The catalogue gives a picture in miniature of a world in which the diversity of choices can make man lose his way as Redcross and Una do, and relates this wood to the dark wood (selua oscura) in which Dante finds himself lost at the beginning of the Divine Comedy.
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