FAERIE (frer-6) QUEENE, The. An epic poem by Edmund Spenser, published in 1590 (Books I-III) and in 1596 (Books IV VI) ; a fragment of another book, consisting of two cantos on "Mutability," was published in 1609. The poem was planned in 12 books, each book containing 12 cantos; Spenser com pleted little' more than half his design. His purpose, as set forth in his letter to Raleigh, was "to fa.sliavleman or nobl "son in vitruolis _gen
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The plan was to be worked out by devoting each book to the exploits of a knight distin guished for a cardinal virtue. Saint George, the Red Cross Knight (Book I), represents Holiness; Guyon (Book II) represents Tem perance in the classical sense of self-restraint ; Britomart (III), a female knight, stands for Chastity; Cambell and Triamond (IV) for Friendship; Artegal (V) for Justice; and Cali dore (VI) for Courtesy. Prince Arthur, who stands for Magnificence or Magnanimity, ap pears in several books; first, in his quest for Gloriana, the Faerie Queene, and second, as an assistant to the hero of the book in a crisis. This does not indicate incoherence of design, as some critics maintain, but follows the famil iar construction of the Arthurian romances, where Gawain or Lancelot or Perceval, or who ever happens to be "the greatest knight in the world," is introduced at a crisis in the fortune of the hero whose adventures are being nar rated.
Spenser's use of the Arthurian romances is interesting and original. None of the great knights familiar in Malory and elsewhere ap pears; none of the great stories afterward used by Tennyson finds a place. The Holy Grail, for example, is barely mentioned. Yet the basis of the plot is familiar to any reader of the metrical romances of France and Eng land. The Faerie Queene holds a feast lasting 12 days, on each of which an "adventure*. takes plate. On the first day a "clownish young man," who reminds us of Perceval or of Gareth, begs the boon of any "adventure* that may be fall; he is sent with Una. to free her parents from the thraldom of a dragon. On the second day a Palmer bearing a babe with bloody hands calls for a champion to slay Acrasia, the en chantress who wrought the woe, and Sir Guyon is assigned the task. On the third day Scud amore is sent to free Amoret from an enchanter, but his adventure is completed by Britomart. But all this explanatory matter is set forth in the letter to Raleigh; Spenser follows Virgil and other poets in beginning "in the midst,* and the epic did not arrive at the point where the setting could be given in verse. Moreover, Spenser follows the late medieval romances in giving to familiar romance situations alle gorical or mystical significance.I Thus, Galahad's delivery of the Castle of Maidens, which in the Grail cycle had come to symbolize Christ delivering mankind from the Seven Deadly Sins, is used by Spenser. The quest, also, ap pears in many forms. For example, the quest of Red Cross for the dragon reaches a climax in a three days' battle in which the monster stands for Satan, who has long held the human race (Castle Mortal) in bondage; the three days' battle symbolizes Christ's victory over Death and Hell so often met in medieval legend. Spenser's poem is filled with such reminiscences of the Arthurian romances; their influence on him is far more pervasive than the debt, largely exaggerated, to Ariosto and Tasso, from whom he derives, as from the classics, many matters of detail.