The Faerie Queene : The Reader's Library,Volume 16

By Spenser, Edmund

Book Id: WPLBN0004102326
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 3.05 MB
Reproduction Date: 2/8/2016

Title:	The Faerie Queene : The Reader's Library,Volume 16
Author:	Spenser, Edmund
Volume:	The Reader's Library, Volume 16
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Drama and Literature, Poetry
Collections:	Authors Community, Poetry
Historic Publication Date:	2016
Publisher:	William Ralph Press

Member Page:	Neil Azevedo
Citation APA MLA Chicago Spenser, B. E. (2016). The Faerie Queene : The Reader's Library,Volume 16. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) was an English Renaissance poet often considered to be the foremost poet of his time by many of his contemporaries. His early career, much like Virgil's, was spent writing pastoral and elegiac verse, but The Faerie Queene is his masterpiece, an unfinished allegorical epic intended to depict Aristotle's twelve moral virtues (twelve also being the number of books subsequently divided into twelve cantos for a proper epic), though he was only able to finish six. The poem is written entirely in what has come to be known as the Spenserian stanza: nine lines, eight of iambic pentameter followed by one of iambic hexameter rhyming ababbcbcc. The fairy queen, Gloriana, represents the glory of heaven and Queen Elizabeth I simultaneously. She is holding her twelve-day feast, each day of which the adventures in the twelve books were to take place, though in keeping with the epic tradition the first book does not begin at the beginning of the first day, but in medias res with the Red Cross Knight already on his adventure. Subsequently each book is meant to portray—in the embodiment of its corresponding knight—one of the moral virtues, which would have been brought together in the person of Prince Arthur who would unify them in perfection. The genius of Spenser is in the complexity he achieves in his allegorical construct, and in the shades of moral ambiguity he reveals in the action of his characters while keeping the enormity of his project well-structured and, more impressively, immediate, mostly through his deft use of the form he created, which gives structure and order to his narrative. Ultimately it is a story about a spiritual journey and one's quest for salvation, and how one's choices and refusals along the way affects that.

Summary
Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) was an English Renaissance poet often considered to be the foremost poet of his time by many of his contemporaries. The Faerie Queene is his masterpiece, an unfinished allegorical epic intended to portray Aristotle's twelve moral virtues (twelve also being the number of books or "cantos" for a proper epic), though he was only able to finish six.

Excerpt
I Lo! I the man, whose Muse whylome did maske, As time her taught, in lowly shephards weeds, Am now enforst, a farre unfitter taske, For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine oaten reeds, And sing of knights and ladies gentle deeds; Whose praises having slept in silence long, Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds To blazon broade emongst her learned throng: Fierce warres and faithfull loves shall moralize my song. II Helpe then, O holy virgin, chiefe of nyne, Thy weaker novice to performe thy will; Lay forth out of thine everlasting scryne The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still, Of Faerie knights, and fayrest Tanaquill, Whom that most noble Briton Prince so long Sought through the world, and suffered so much ill, That I must rue his undeserved wrong: O helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull tong. III And thou, most dreaded impe of highest Jove. Faire Venus sonne, that with thy cruell dart At that good knight so cunningly didst rove, That glorious fire it kindled in his hart, Lay now thy deadly heben bowe apart, And with thy mother mylde come to mine ayde: Come both, and with you bring triumphant Mart, In loves and gentle jollities arraid, After his murdrous spoyles and bloudie rage allayd. IV And with them eke, O Goddesse heavenly bright, Mirrour of grace and majestie divine, Great Ladie of the greatest Isle, whose light Like Phœbus lampe throughout the world doth shine, Shed thy faire beames into my feeble eyne, And raise my thoughtes, too humble and too vile, To thinke of that true glorious type of thine, The argument of mine afflicted stile: The which to heare vouchsafe, O dearest dread, a while.

Table of Contents
Introduction THE FAERIE QUEENE Commendatory Verses Dedicatory Sonnets Book I: The Legend of the Knight of the Red Crosse Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII Canto IX Canto X Canto XI Canto XII Book II: The Legend of Sir Guyon Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII Canto IX Canto X Canto XI Canto XII Book III: The Legend of Britomartis Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII Canto IX Canto X Canto XI Canto XII Book IV: The Legend of Cambel and Triamond Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII Canto IX Canto X Canto XI Canto XII Book V: The Legend of Artegall Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII Canto IX Canto X Canto XI Canto XII Book VI: The Legend of Sir Calidore Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII Canto IX Canto X Canto XI Canto XII Book VII: Two Cantos of Mutabilitie Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII About the Editor Also from William Ralph Press