Spensers The Faerie Queene Form: verse epic/romance Summary: The Knights of the Faerie Queene, embodying virtues

such as Holiness, Temperance, and Chastity, pursue their quests, opposed by allegorical monsters and aided at crucial moments by Prince Arthur. Organization: The unfinished poem consists of 6 books, each composed of 12 cantos, which are in turn composed of varying numbers of 9 line stanzas. Each canto is headed by a quatrain summarizing the action. Themes: The career of the soul, conflicts between Protestantism and Catholicism; the reign of Elizabeth I; Ireland, gender and sex, identity and disguise. Key passages: The generall end therefore of all the books is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline The monster Errors vomit full of books and paper was / With loathly frogs and toades, which eyes did lacke 1.1.20 An ages Sire, in long blacke weedes ycladSimple in shew and yoyde of malice bad 1.1.29 Redcrosses wet dream 1.1.47 The description of evil Lucifera sounds oddly like Queen Elizabeth 1.4.8 1.8.48 The temptation of Despair 1.9.47 Sir Guyon in the Bower of Bliss 2.12.83

Discussion Questions 1. How should we interpret the crowded and slightly comical scene at the beginning of Book 1? What is the significance of the battered state of Redcrosses Shield? Of Unas ass? Her lamb? The dwarf? Are there elements of this scene that do not have an allegorical role? 2. Why is Errors vomit full of books? 3. Why does Archimago use sexual dreams and visions to work the separation of Redcrosse and Una? What do Redcrosses responses to his series of dreams and visions reveal about him? 4. To what extent is there a right reading of the poems allegory? To what extent is its interpretation left up to the reader? Why are all the characters not given obvious allegorical names like Error and Despair? 5. Is the poem as enthusiastic in its praise of Queen Elizabeth as Spenser promises in his letter to Ralegh? What signs are there of coded criticism? How should we interpret the apparent resemblance between Elizabeth and Lucifera?

6. What does Spenser mean when he describes Duessas genitals as the shame of all her kind (1.8.48)? Should we understand her kind as women or as witches? Compare Fradubios description of her neather parts at 1.2.41. 7. How should we interpret Guyons destruction of the Bower of Bliss at the end of Book 2? Does Spenser wholly endorse the razing of an environment whose beauty he has praised in such loving detail? 8. As the selections from Book 3 make clear, Spenserian chastity means both more and less than mere sexual abstinence. How would you define it? Helpful Websites: Study Guide http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl331/fq.html with study questions and reading tips.