Satheraw 8-8-29 248154-5 PREFACE HE introduction to this volume is not intended for THE young students, but for older students and teachers; the latter will, I hope, find material which may be of service to them in the task of understanding and explaining Spenser. The historical interpretation of the allegory in Book I is, I believe, the most important contribution I have been able to make to Spenserian scholarship and will, I trust, prove of general interest. I have spared no pains to make it accurate. L. W. ABERYSTWYTH. October 1914. INTRODUCTION I. TABLE OF DATES 1552? Birth of Edmund Spenser. 1558 Accession of Elizabeth. 1569 Spenser enters Pembroke College, Cambridge. 1572 Massacre of St Bartholomew. 1578 Elizabeth helps the Netherlands. 1579 Spenser publishes The Shepheards Calender. 1580 Spenser goes to Ireland. 1581 Publication of Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata. 1584 Assassination of William the Silent. 1585 Drake sails round the world. Leicester goes to the Netherlands. 1587 Death of Sir Philip Sidney. Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. 1588 Defeat of the Armada. 1589 Sir Walter Raleigh in Ireland. Accession of Henry IV of France. 1590 Spenser publishes The Faerie Queene (Books I-III). 1591 Spenser publishes Complaints ("Ruins of Time," Tears of the Muses," Mother Hubbard's Tale," 66 1595 Spenser publishes Colin Clouts Come Home Again, Astrophel, Amoretti and Epithalamion. 1596 Second edition of The Faerie Queene, including Books IV-VI, Foure Hymnes, Prothalamion. 1598 Rebellion in Munster. Spenser's flight from Ireland. 1599 Spenser dies in Westminster. 1633 A View of the Present State of Ireland. II. HISTORICAL ALLEGORY OF BOOK I The ethical meaning of the allegory in the first book of The Faerie Queene is not difficult to trace; though different editors have put varying constructions on certain minor details, the main outline is clear. The Redcrosse Knight represents man in his search for Holiness; his great task is the slaying of the dragon of sin which keeps mankind (i.e. the parents of Una) in subjection. The Redcrosse Knight is the patron saint of England and stands for the country's religious faith. He is guided by Una who typifies the Truth or, in the practical aspect, Protestantism or the Reformed Faith. He struggles against Error and, with the aid of Truth, conquers. He is separated from Una by the wiles of Archimage who is, as the author plainly states, in the moral sense Hypocrisy but who seems to represent also one form of Catholicism (i.e. the papal or ecclesiastical form). He falls in with Duessa-false faith- -or Roman Catholicism and is by her led to the House of Pride from which he with difficulty escapes. Una or Truth is found and defended by the Lion, who seems to stand for the power of Reason; these two together terrify Corceca-Blind Devotion-and AbessaSuperstition. Truth is threatened with destruction by Lawlessness (Sans Loy) but is rescued by the Satyrs who stand obviously for plain uncultivated mankind, for the poorer classes receiving the Truth when the wealthier cast it out. In the meantime the Redcrosse Knight falls a victim to Orgoglio who, as his name implies, is another type of Pride, sometimes interpreted as spiritual and ecclesiastical pride contrasted with the more worldly pride of Lucifera. |