1. HL 2002 Renaissance Literature Week 2: Spenser’s Faerie Queene Book III (I)

2. The Chivalric Romance
The principal kind of romance found in medieval Europe from the 12th century onwards, describing (usually in verse) the adventures of legendary knights, and celebrating an idealized code of civilized behaviour that combines loyalty, honour, and courtly love.
The emphasis on heterosexual love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the chanson de geste and other kinds of epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates.
The most famous examples are the Arthurian romances recounting the adventures of Lancelot, Galahad, Gawain, and the other Round Table knights. These include the Lancelot (late 12th century) of Chrétien de Troyes, the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th century), and Malory's prose romance Le Morte Darthur (1485)
From Oxford Reference

3. Characteristics of Chivalric Romance (in the medieval tradition)
Tale of adventure, usually with a particular goal: a conquest or crusade (or both).
The rescue of a significant character (often virtuous) from villains or monsters.
Promotes code of chivalry; idealizes courage and other virtuous behaviour, triumph of good over evil.
Imaginative settings, often with supernatural elements.
At times preoccupied with myth.

4. Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
Edmund Spenser

5. Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
Influenced by Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516/32)
About Orlando’s fight (with Charlemagne’s Christian knights) against Saracen invasion of Europe; essentially a tale of love and war.
Spenser’s Faerie Queene was originally conceptualized for 12 books, but only 6 were completed, with fragments of what may be the 7th book (these fragments are entitled The Mutability Cantos).

6. Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
It is believed that Spenser’s 12 virtues are modeled after Aristotle’s 12 moral virtues:
Courage and Continence
Temperance and Incontinence
Liberality and Benovolence
Magnificence and Heroic Virtue
Megalopsychia and Appropriate Ambition
Good Temper and Forgiveness
Wit and Wounding
Friendliness and Civility
Truthfulness and Integrity

7. Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
But Spenser’s virtues are also heavily influenced by religion—particularly Protestant virtues.
In 1534, England passed the Act of Supremacy, which declares the monarch of England as the supreme head of the church of England, cutting off all ties with the Catholic faith and Rome.
The struggle between Catholics and Protestants raged on for more nearly a century after the break.

8. Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
The Spenserian Stanza (9 lines): 8 in iambic pentameter, last line in iambic hexameter. Rhyme: ababbcbcc.
The Faerie Queene was written as an homage to Elizabeth I, as Spenser attempted to seek the patronage of the queen.

9. Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
Letter to [Walter] Raleigh:
SIR, knowing how doubtfully all allegories may be construed, and this booke of mine, which I have entituled the Faery Queene, being a continued allegory, or darke conceit, I have thought good, as well for avoyding of gealous opinions and misconstructions, as also for your better light in reading thereof, (being so by you commanded,) to discover unto you the general intention and meaning, which in the whole course thereof I have fashioned, without expressing of any particular purposes or by accidents therein occasioned. The generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline: which for that I conceived shoulde be most plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historicall fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for variety of matter then for profite of the ensample, I chose the historye of King Arthure, as most fitte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many mens former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy, and suspition of present time.

10. Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596)
Allegory:
A story, poem, or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. The word comes (in late Middle English) via Old French and Latin from Greek allēgoria, from allos ‘other’ + -agoria ‘speaking’. (Oxford Reference).
Allegories use characters and events to convey abstract ideas, symbolic meanings, often considered as observations that cannot or should not be explicitly stated because 1) censorship, 2) offensive to the real figures/events that are being allegorized, 3) self-protection for the author.

11. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Continued from Book II: Arthur and Guyon leaves the House of Alma and meet Britomart.
2 stories:
Arthur, Guyon rides after Florimell, Timias (Arthur’s squire) goes after the forester chasing after Florimell.
Britomart comes upon Malecasta (the Lady of Castle Joyous).
Britomart as a character that represents Britain but also an allegorical figure of Elizabeth.

12. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Britomart as knight:
Embraces the notion of the virgin queen.
Tilbury speech (before the arrival of the Spanish Armada):
"I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too."
Britomart defends Redcrosse Knight, who is being attacked by the 6 knights at Castle Joyous.

13. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Depiction of Venus on the tapestry on the walls: parallels between Venus and Britomart? Why does Spenser tell the story of Venus and Adonis in the context of the castle? (stanzas 34-38).
What is “wrong” with Castle Joyous?
Excess, indulgence, temptation, deception; descriptions of the castle (I.i.31) and the effect on Britomart and Redcrosse Knight (41-42).
Malecasta: lust and shame (48, 49), and tries to disarm Britomart (52).
The implications of getting Britomart to disarm (to “undress,” “despoil” highlights the nature of the warrior queen, both masculine yet feminine); Malecasta’s attempt to violate Britomart.

14. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Spenser tells us that women are often neglected for their achievements of knightly feats.
The story of Britomart’s love for Artegall, whom she sees in a mirror, by Merlin’s prophecy.
What are some of the contradictions here for the modern reader?
Britomart’s virtues undermined when she lies to Redcrosse but her deception is swiftly justified; see her version of the story to Redcrosse (8).
She sees Artegall in Merlin’s glass; consumed with passion for him but Spenser again quickly undermines this seeming unchaste act [21-23]

15. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Britomart’s lovesickness and Glauce’s advice
The transition from girlhood (“maydenhead”) to womanhood (“womanhead”), from innocence to lust.
The confusion and difficulty in controlling her feelings (not just of being in love with Artegall but a profound desire that is emotional and spiritual, all of which is in conflict with chastity) (27-29).
Glauce’s advice (30-33).
Britomart’s anxieties also stem from her uncertainty of what Artegall is like: she has only seen him with his visor lifted and thinks the man is a figment of her imagination.
Britomart’s self-reproach; perceives her restlessness as “monstrous” (40): “But wicked fortune mine, though minde be good” (44).
How to balance chastity and desire?

16. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Backstory that takes place before Canto 2, which explains why Britomart and Glauce are disguised as knights and squire.
Britomart and Glauce goes in search of Merlin for answers; even though he is irritated that they came with false pretenses, he still reveals the prophecy.
Anchoring British history with myth (Merlin links Britomart’s and Artegall’s line to Elizabeth) (26).
Does the prophecy (which focuses on the ends rather than the means) “erase” the very powerful unchaste feelings that Britomart has for Artegall?

17. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Canto 4: Marinell’s story
Spenser opens the Canto lamenting about the decline of chivalric culture; highlights Marinell’s plight and tensions of romantic love.
Marinell’s destiny is similar to Achilles (The Iliad) in a few ways:
He is born of a sea nymph and destined to have an honorable life.
Prophecy that his life will be cut short by “womankind” (though Achilles’ life is cut short if he joins the Trojan war).
Consider the ways in which love is depicted in stanzas 25 and 26
What is the significance of Britomart’s attack of Marinell? What is incompatible about their destinies?

18. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Canto 5: Florimell’s Story
Florimell is in love with Marinell, and upon hearing of his plight, departs faery court to find him.
Compare Florimell’s pursuit of Marinell and Britomart’s pursuit of Artegall.
This story brings Timias (Arthur’s squire) and Belphoebe (another allegorical figure of Elizabeth) into the narrative in Canto 5.
Belphoebe as the feminine version of Britomart; one “balances” the other out; see her treatment of Timias and Venus’ treatment of Adonis (Canto 1, 37).

19. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Timias’ guilt suggests that honorable knights must restrain from “dishonorable” thoughts; chastises himself for having feelings for Belphoebe when she treats him. [44]
The significance in the act of healing and recovery; lust and desire as a kind of sickness, or “malady” (50).
Belphoebe as an example of virtue. Spenser emphasizes the value of restrain and chastity (53, 54).

20. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Canto 6: Belphoebe’s Story
In this Canto, Spenser explains to readers how Belphoebe is so virtuous even though she was born in the wilderness of the forest.
The basis of the argument is problematic: he argues that nurture matters more than nature (and this is an issue that keeps coming up in the Faerie Queene). Keep in mind that nature is natural, nurture is that which is not natural and is created or made (by circumstances and environment).
The birth of Belphoebe is already unnatural—is Spenser going to far with his praise of chastity?

21. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Chrysogonee: Belphoebe’s mother.
Amoretta: Belphoebe’s younger sister.
The twins are born in the forest but in the most magical and unnatural manner (6); “Unawares she them conceivd, unawares she bore:/ She bore withouten paine, that she conceiv’d/ Withouten pleasure” (27).
Belphoebe’s fosterage by Diana is tied to the story of Venus, who is looking for Cupid; she goes to Diana’s forest to search for him but is not well-received (24). Amoretta is fostered by Venus, who puts her in the care of Psyche (lover of Cupid, who bears a child with him, named Voluptas, which also means pleasure).

22. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
The end of Canto 6 necessitates that chastity and desire cannot be reconciled.
The twin sisters, Belphoebe and Amoretta, both demonstrates this.
The two are raised by opposing forces: Venus will raise Amoretta in “goodly womanhead” and Diana will raise Belphoebe in “goodly maydenhead.” Amoretta, we are told at the end of the Canto, is in love with Scudamour.

23. Faerie Queene Book III (Cantos 1-6)
Critical Questions
Spenser’s aim is to portray chastity as the most important of female virtues; if a knight’s value is his honor, a woman’s value is her chastity. Britomart and Belphoebe are figures who epitomize this idea but are they “perfect” in their representation of chastity? What are some of their flaws and how do those flaws undermine Spenser’s aim?
How does the story of missing Cupid (in Canto 6) underscore the impossibility of reconciling womanhood and maidenhood, in fact, are these two ideas entirely different?