Edmund Spenser was born in 1552 or 1553. No documentation exists to establish his exact date of birth, but the year is known in part due to Spenser's own poetry. In Amoretti Sonnet 60, Spenser writes that he is forty-one years old. We know this poem was published in 1594 (and written only shortly prior to its publication), so the year of his birth can be closely guessed.
Spenser matriculated at the University of Cambridge on May 20, 1569. Ten years later he published his first...
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In Elizabethan England it became increasingly difficult to decide what could be deemed magic. Everyday occurrences such as folk medicine, a common practice by women, were considered to be magical. As a result, it is no surprise that magic worked...
Canto 7 in Book 1 of The Faerie Queene follows Redcrosse and Duessa after Redcross escapes from the house of Pryde, and it explores the consequences of Redcross’ choice to remove his armor while he heals his battle wounds. The second stanza in...
The depiction of the Seven Deadly Sins serves a vital role in understanding the contexts through which works of literature explore religiosity and morality. Within both Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, the portrayal of the...
The Romantic era saw a wave of primitivism sweep through its literature and art. The dissatisfaction of the present led to a glorification of the past, and it was explored and philosophized by looking at the 'noble savage'. However, a branch of...
The role of the magic mirror in Britomart's encounter with Arthegall extends beyond the fact that it drives her quest to find him. It is also the center point of Spenser's theme of reflection and representation and its influence on his use of...
The work of art is a central image in The Faerie Queene, though it rarely appears as a neutral force. On the contrary: art often seems to act as a tool of the post-lapsarian world, dragging once-pure characters into earthly knowledge and moral...
SpenserÃÂÂs Faerie Queene fights against reduction; there is no one-to-one correspondence of thing to meaning. Spenser recasts figures and images throughout the poem, allowing meanings to be changed and complicated through the course of reading....
The consequence that Spenser faces in casting the Redcrosse knight as the obvious hero of The Faerie Queene is that all who oppose him throughout the poem are immediately branded as inherently evil figures. Such is the case with Despaire, whose...
In many ways The Faerie Queene presents a unique challenge to the English reader. It can be described as epic, romance or fantasy and covers a wide range of topics religious and romantic, political and spiritual, Christian and Pagan. It is also...
Fidessa's character in Edmund Spenser's "The Fairy Queene", introduced in the second canto of book 1, is essential to the understanding of one of Spenser's main messages in the poem: the Roman Catholic Church is corrupt and falsely interprets...
Spenser's Faerie Queene evinces the New Testament religious doctrine that God shows infinite mercy toward man, and by "heauenly grace doth...vphold" (VIII.1.3) him despite his weaknesses. This philosophy, shown in The Faerie Queene through...
The Chaste Chase: Britomart's Naivety in The Faerie Queen
Juliette Tang
June 1, 2005
For a text of Elizabethan literature, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene is unique in its portrayal of chastity-a virtue generally associated with the domestic...
The socio-religious climate of sixteenth century post-Reformation England, despite being during a time often noted as one of the most glorious eras in history, was also one of great change, the country tearing itself apart with warring doctrines....
Spenser's The Faerie Queene was written mainly to fulfil an allegorical purpose and to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline." However, the moralistic tone is softened by the fact that the whole complex allegory is...
Many poets draw on the theme of nature to symbolize the message they are trying to convey. In many cases, nature is juxtaposed with artistic design to emphasize the conflict or the relationship between the natural and the human worlds. Millar...
This Great Stage of Fools: The Journey of Delusion and Deceit in
Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Shakespeare's King Lear
Perhaps more than any other period in British history, the English Renaissance embodied the themes of deception and...
Spencer’s Faerie Queene is perhaps the most intricate allegory written in the history of the English language. In this poem Spencer not only releases his creative genius by twisting the letters within his words to create perfect puns but also...
Edmund Spenser’s revolting description of Duessa being stripped in <i>The Faerie Queen</i> (Book I, Canto VIII, Stanzas 45-49) emotionally contrasts with John Donne’s glorifying description of his lover’s body in the poem “Elegy XIX:...
Serene landscapes and seductive relationships are key themes throughout Edmund Spenser’s work and are major assets to the plot and character development in “The Faerie Queene” and “Epithalamion.” Spenser’s early works are all in the pastoral...
The literature of the English Renaissance demonstrates a remarkable range of attitudes towards women. While there are significant proclamations of chivalric attitudes towards women such as Walter Raleigh's devotion to Queen Elizabeth I, nearly...
Though he is by no means a single-minded man, Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti focus largely on the beauty and physical form of the woman he addresses these poems to. In seven of these sonnets, he calls this woman’s beauty her “hew”, or in the modern...
In the period of Early Modern English, romantic love was a major subject in literature. From Hoby’s translation of The Courtier to the various sonnets written during this time, everyone seemed to have something to add regarding their opinions on...
Varying representations of both genders are abundant in romantic literature of the Renaissance period in general, a fine example of which can be found in Edmund Spenser’s allegorical epic poem, The Faerie Queene. The poem depicts the tale of seven...
In his prefatory letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser sets out his intention in constructing The Faerie Queene as allegory. Its aim, he writes, is to ‘fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous or gentle discipline’ He continues; the...
