ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY IN THE FAERIE QUEENE.
The Faerie Queene. The Plan Proposed. Illustrations of the History. The
Knight and the Lady. The Wood of Error and the Hermitage. The Crusades.
Britomartis and Sir Artegal. Elizabeth. Mary Queen of Scots. Other
Works. Spenser's Fate. Other Writers.
THE FAERIE QUEENE.
The Faerie Queene is an allegory, in many parts capable of more than one
interpretation. Some of the characters stand for two, and several of them
even for three distinct historical personages.
The general plan and scope of the poem may be found in the poet's letter
to his friend, Sir Walter Raleigh. It is designed to enumerate and
illustrate the moral virtues which should characterize a noble or gentle
person--to present "the image of a brave knight perfected in the twelve
private morall vertues, as Aristotle hath devised." It appears that the
author designed twelve books, but he did not accomplish his purpose. The
poem, which he left unfinished, contains but six books or legends, each of
which relates the adventures of a knight who is the patron and
representative of a special virtue.
_Book_ I. gives the adventures of St. George, the Red-Cross Knight, by
whom is intended the virtue of Holiness.
_Book_ II., those of Sir Guyon, or Temperance.
_Book_ III., Britomartis, a lady-knight, or Chastity.
_Book_ IV., Cambel and Triamond, or Friendship.
_Book_ V., Sir Artegal, or Justice.
_Book_ VI., Sir Calydore, or Courtesy.
The perfect hero of the entire poem is King Arthur, chosen "as most fitte,
for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many men's former
workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy and suspition of
present time."
It was manifestly thus, too, that the poet solved a difficult and delicate
problem: he pleased the queen by adopting this mythic hero, for who else
was worthy of her august hand?
And in the person of the faerie queene herself Spenser informs us: "I mean
_glory_ in my general intention, but in my particular, I conceive the most
excellent and glorious person of our sovereign, the _Queene_."
Did we depend upon the poem for an explanation of Spenser's design, we
should be left in the dark, for he intended to leave the origin and
connection of the adventures for the twelfth book, which was never
written; but he has given us his plan in the same preliminary letter to
Raleigh.
THE PLAN PROPOSED.--"The beginning of my history," he says, "should be in
the twelfth booke, which is the last; where I devise that the Faerie
Queene kept her Annual Feaste XII days; uppon which XII severall days the
occasions of the XII severall adventures hapned, which being undertaken by
XII severall knights, are in these XII books handled and discoursed."
First, a tall, clownish youth falls before the queen and desires a boon,
which she might not refuse, viz. the achievement of any adventure which
might present itself. Then appears a fair lady, habited in mourning, and
riding on an ass, while behind her comes a dwarf, leading a caparisoned
war-horse, upon which was the complete armor of a knight. The lady falls
before the queen and complains that her father and mother, an ancient king
and queen, had, for many years, been shut up by a dragon in a brazen
castle, and begs that one of the knights may be allowed to deliver them.
The young clown entreats that he may take this adventure, and
notwithstanding the wonder and misgiving of all, the armor is found to fit
him well, and when he had put it on, "he seemed the goodliest man in all
the company, and was well liked by the lady, and eftsoones taking on him
knighthood, and mounting on that strounge courser, he went forth with her
on that adventure; where beginneth the First Booke."
In a similar manner, other petitions are urged, and other adventures
undertaken.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY.--The history in this poem lies directly upon
the surface. Elizabeth was the Faery Queen herself--faery in her real
person, springing Cinderella-like from durance and danger to the most
powerful throne in Europe. Hers was a reign of faery character, popular
and august at home, after centuries of misrule and civil war; abroad
English influence and power were exerted in a magical manner. It is she
who holds a court such as no Englishman had ever seen; who had the power
to transform common men into valiant warriors, elegant courtiers, and
great statesmen; to send forth her knights upon glorious
adventures--Sidney to die at Zutphen, Raleigh to North and South America,
Frobisher--with a wave of her hand as he passes down the Thames--to try
the northwest passage to India; Effingham, Drake, and Hawkins to drive off
to the tender mercy of northern storms the Invincible Armada, and then to
point out to the coming generations the distant fields of English
enterprise.
"Chivalry was dying; the abbey and the castle were soon together to
crumble into ruins; and all the forms, desires, beliefs, convictions of
the old world were passing away, never to return;"[27] but this virgin
queen was the founder of a new chivalry, whose deeds were not less
valiant, and far more useful to civilization.
It is not our purpose, for it would be impossible, to interpret all the
history contained in this wonderful poem: a few of the more striking
presentations will be indicated, and thus suggest to the student how he
may continue the investigation for himself.
THE KNIGHT AND THE LADY.--In the First Book we are at once struck with the
fine portraiture of the Red Crosse Knight, the Patron of Holinesse, which
we find in the opening lines:
A gentle knight was pricking on the plain,
Ycladd in mighty arms and silver shield.
As we read we discover, without effort, that he is the St. George of
England, or the impersonation of England herself, whose red-cross banner
distinguishes her among the nations of the earth. It is a description of
Christian England with which the poet thus opens his work:
And on his brest a bloodie cross he bore,
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living ever, Him adored.
Upon his shield the like was also scored,
For sovereign hope which in his help he had.
Then follows his adventure--that of St. George and the Dragon. By slaying
this monster, he will give comfort and aid to a peerless lady, the
daughter of a glorious king; this fair lady, _Una_, who has come a long
distance, and to whom, as a champion, the Faery Queene has presented the
red-cross knight. Thus is presented the historic truth that the reformed
and suffering Church looked to Queen Elizabeth for succor and support, for
the Lady Una is one of several portraitures of the Church in this poem.
As we proceed in the poem, the history becomes more apparent. The Lady
Una, riding upon a lowly ass, shrouded by a veil, covered with a black
stole, "as one that inly mourned," and leading "a milk-white lamb," is the
Church. The ass is the symbol of her Master's lowliness, who made even his
triumphant entry into Jerusalem upon "a colt the foal of an ass;" the
lamb, the emblem of the innocence and of the helplessness of the "little
flock;" the black stole is meant to represent the Church's trials and
sorrows in her former history as well as in that naughty age. The dragon
is the old serpent, her constant and bitter foe, who, often discomfited,
returns again and again to the attack in hope of her overthrow.
THE WOOD OF ERROR.--The adventures of the knight and the lady take them
first into the Wood of Error, a noble and alluring grove, within which,
however, lurks a loathsome serpent. The knight rushes upon this female
monster with great boldness, but
... Wrapping up her wreathed body round,
She leaped upon his shield and her huge train
All suddenly about his body wound,
That hand and foot he strove to stir in vain.
God help the man so wrapt in Error's endless chain.
The Lady Una cries out:
... Now, now, sir knight, shew what ye bee,
_Add faith unto thy force_, and be not faint.
Strangle her, else she sure will strangle thee.
He follows her advice, makes one desperate effort, Error is slain, and the
pilgrimage resumed.
Thus it is taught that the Church has waged successful battle with Error
in all its forms--paganism, Arianism, Socinianism, infidelity; and in all
ages of her history, whether crouching in the lofty groves of the Druids,
or in the more insidious forms of later Christian heresy.
THE HERMITAGE.--On leaving the Wood of Error, the knight and Lady Una
encounter a venerable hermit, and are led into his hermitage. This is
_Archimago_, a vile magician thus disguised, and in his retreat foul
spirits personate both knight and lady, and present these false doubles to
each. Each sees what seems to be the other's fall from virtue, and,
horrified by the sight, the real persons leave the hermitage by separate
ways, and wander, in inextricable mazes lost, until fortune and faery
bring them together again and disclose the truth.
Here Spenser, who was a zealous Protestant, designs to present the
monastic system, the disfavor into which the monasteries had fallen, and
the black arts secretly studied among better arts in the cloisters,
especially in the period just succeeding the Norman conquest.
THE CRUSADES.--As another specimen of the historic interpretation, we may
trace the adventures of England in the Crusades, as presented in the
encounter of St. George with _Sansfoy_, (without faith,) or the Infidel.
From the hermitage of Archimago,
The true St. George had wandered far away,
Still flying from his thoughts and jealous fear,
Will was his guide, and grief led him astray;
At last him chanced to meet upon the way
A faithless Saracen all armed to point,
In whose great shield was writ with letters gay
SANSFOY: full large of limb, and every joint
He was, and cared not for God or man a point.
Well might the poet speak of Mohammedanism as large of limb, for it had
stretched itself like a Colossus to India, and through Northern Africa
into Spain, where it threatened Christendom, beyond the Pyrenees. It was
then that the unity of the Church, the concurrence of Europe in one form
of Christianity, made available the enthusiasm which succeeded in stemming
the torrent of Islam, and setting bounds to its conquests.
It is not our purpose to pursue the adventures of the Church, but to
indicate the meaning of the allegory and the general interpretation; it
will give greater zest to the student to make the investigation for
himself, with the all-sufficient aids of modern criticism.
Assailed in turn by error in doctrine, superstition, hypocrisy,
enchantments, lawlessness, pride, and despair, the red-cross knight
overcomes them all, and is led at last by the Lady Una into the House of
Holiness, a happy and glorious house. There, anew equipped with the shield
of Faith, the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, he goes
forth to greater conquests; the dragon is slain, the Lady Una triumphant,
the Church delivered, and Holiness to the Lord established as the law of
his all-subduing kingdom on earth.
BRITOMARTIS.--In the third book the further adventures of the red-cross
knight are related, but a heroine divides our attention with him.
_Britomartis_, or Chastity, finds him attacked by six lawless knights, who
try to compel him to give up his lady and serve another. Here Britomartis
represents Elizabeth, and the historic fact is the conflict of English
Protestantism carried on upon land and sea, in the Netherlands, in France,
and against the Invincible Armada of Philip. The new mistress offered him
in the place of Una is the Papal Church, and the six knights are the
nations fighting for the claims of Rome.
The valiant deeds of Britomartis represent also the power of chastity, to
which Scott alludes when he says,
She charmed at once and tamed the heart,
Incomparable Britomarte.[28]
And here the poet pays his most acceptable tribute to the Virgin Queen.
She is in love with Sir Artegal--abstract justice. She has encountered him
in fierce battle, and he has conquered her. It was the fond boast of
Elizabeth that she lived for her people, and for their sake refused to
marry. The following portraiture will be at once recognized:
And round about her face her yellow hair
Having, thro' stirring, loosed its wonted band,
Like to a golden border did appear,
Framed in goldsmith's forge with cunning hand;
Yet goldsmith's cunning could not understand
To frame such subtle wire, so shiny clear,
For it did glisten like the glowing sand,
The which Pactolus with his waters sheer,
Throws forth upon the rivage, round about him near.
This encomium upon Elizabeth's hair recalls the description of another
courtier, that it was like the last rays of the declining sun. Ill-natured
persons called it red.
SIR ARTEGAL, OR JUSTICE.--As has been already said, Artegal, or Justice,
makes conquest of Britomartis or Elizabeth. It is no earthly love that
follows, but the declaration of the queen that in her continued maidenhood
justice to her people shall be her only spouse. Such, whatever the honest
historian may think, was the poet's conceit of what would best please his
royal mistress.
It has been already stated that by Gloriana, the Faerie Queene, the poet
intended the person of Elizabeth in her regnant grandeur: Britomartis
represents her chastity. Not content with these impersonations, Spenser
introduces a third: it is Belphœbe, the abstraction of virginity; a
character for which, however, he designs a dual interpretation. Belphœbe
is also another representation of the Church; in describing her he rises
to great splendor of language:
... her birth was of the morning dew,
And her conception of the glorious prime.
We recur, as we read, to the grandeur of the Psalmist's words, as he
speaks of the coming of her Lord: "In the day of thy power shall the
people offer thee free-will offerings with a holy worship; the dew of thy
birth is of the womb of the morning."
ELIZABETH.--In the fifth book a great number of the statistics of
contemporary history are found. A cruel sultan, urged on by an abandoned
sultana, is Philip with the Spanish Church. Mercilla, a queen pursued by
the sultan and his wife, is another name for Elizabeth, for he tells us
she was
... a maiden queen of high renown;
For her great bounty knowen over all.
Artegal, assuming the armor of a pagan knight, represents justice in the
person of Solyman the Magnificent, making war against Philip of Spain. In
the ninth canto of the sixth book, the court of Elizabeth is portrayed; in
the tenth and eleventh, the war in Flanders--so brilliantly described in
Mr. Motley's history. The Lady Belge is the United Netherlands; Gerioneo,
the oppressor, is the Duke of Alva; the Inquisition appears as a horrid
but nameless monster, and minor personages occur to complete the historic
pictures.
The adventure of Sir Artegal in succor of the Lady Irena, (Erin,)
represents the proceedings of Elizabeth in Ireland, in enforcing the
Reformation, abrogating the establishments of her sister Mary, and thus
inducing Tyrone's rebellion, with the consequent humiliation of Essex.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.--With one more interpretation we close. In the fifth
book, Spenser is the apologist of Elizabeth for her conduct to her cousin,
Mary Queen of Scots, and he has been very delicate in his distinctions. It
is not her high abstraction of justice, Sir Artegal, who does the
murderous deed, but his man _Talus_, retributive justice, who, like a
limehound, finds her hidden under a heap of gold, and drags her forth by
her fair locks, in such rueful plight that even Artegal pities her:
Yet for no pity would he change the course
Of justice which in Talus hand did lie,
Who rudely haled her forth without remorse,
Still holding up her suppliant hands on high,
And kneeling at his feet submissively;
But he her suppliant hands, those _hands of gold_,
And eke her feet, those feet of _silver try_,
Which sought unrighteousness and justice sold,
Chopped off and nailed on high that all might them behold.
She was a royal lady, a regnant queen: her hands held a golden sceptre,
and her feet pressed a silver footstool. She was thrown down the castle
wall, and drowned "in the dirty mud."
"But the stream washed away her guilty blood." Did it wash away
Elizabeth's bloody guilt? No. For this act she stands in history like Lady
Macbeth, ever rubbing her hands, but "the damned spot" will not out at her
bidding. Granted all that is charged against Mary, never was woman so
meanly, basely, cruelly treated as she.
What has been said is only in partial illustration of the plan and manner
of Spenser's great poem: the student is invited and encouraged to make an
analysis of the other portions himself. To the careless reader the poem is
harmonious, the pictures beautiful, and the imagery gorgeous; to the
careful student it is equally charming, and also discloses historic
pictures of great value.
It is so attractive that the critic lingers unconsciously upon it.
Spenser's tributes to the character of woman are original, beautiful, and
just, and the fame of his great work, originally popular and designed for
a contemporary purpose only, has steadily increased. Next to Milton, he is
the most learned of the British poets. Warton calls him the _serious
Spenser_. Thomson says he formed himself upon Spenser. He took the ottava
rima, or eight-lined stanza of the Italian poets, and by adding an
Alexandrine line, formed it into what has since been called the Spenserian
stanza, which has been imitated by many great poets since, and by Byron,
the greatest of them, in his Childe Harold. Of his language it has already
been said that he designedly uses the archaic, or that of Chaucer; or, as
Pope has said,
Spenser himself affects the obsolete.
The plan of the poem, neglecting the unities of an epic, is like that of a
general history, rambling and desultory, or like the transformations of a
fairy tale, as it is: his descriptions are gorgeous, his verse exceedingly
melodious, and his management of it very graceful. The Gerusalemme
Liberata of Tasso appeared while he was writing the Faery Queene, and he
imitated portions of that great epic in his own, but his imitations are
finer than the original.
HIS OTHER WORKS.--His other works need not detain us: Hymns in honor of
Love and Beauty, Prothalamion, and Epithalamion, Mother Hubbard's Tale,
Amoretti or Sonnets, The Tears of the Muses or Brittain's Ida, are little
read at the present day. His Astrophel is a tender "pastoral elegie" upon
the death of the most noble and valorous knight, Sir Philip Sidney; and is
better known for its subject than for itself. This was a favorite theme of
the friendly and sensitive poet; he has also written several elegies and
æglogues in honor of Sidney.
SPENSER'S FATE.--The fate of Spenser is a commentary upon courtiership,
even in the reign of Elizabeth, the Faery Queene. Her requital of his
adoration was an annual pension of fifty pounds, and the ruined castle and
unprofitable estate of Kilcolman in Ireland, among a half-savage
population, in a period of insurrections and massacres, with the
requirement that he should reside upon his grant. An occasional visit from
Raleigh, then a captain in the army, a rambler along the banks of the
picturesque Mulla, and the composition and arrangement of the great poem
with the suggestions of his friend, were at once his labors and his only
recreations. He sighed after the court, and considered himself as hardly
used by the queen.
At length an insurrection broke out, and his home was set on fire: he fled
from his flaming castle, and in the confusion his infant child was left
behind and burned to death. A few months after, he died in London, on
January 16, 1598-9, broken-hearted and poor, at an humble tavern, in King
Street. Buried at the expense of the Earl of Essex, Ann Countess of Dorset
bore the expense of his monument in Westminster Abbey, in gratitude for
his noble championship of woman. Upon that are inscribed these words:
_Anglorum poetarum nostri seculi facile princeps_--truer words, great as
is the praise, than are usually found in monumental inscriptions.
Whatever our estimate of Spenser, he must be regarded as the truest
literary exponent and representative of the age of Elizabeth, almost as
much her biographer as Miss Strickland, and her historian as Hume: indeed,
neither biographer nor historian could venture to draw the lineaments of
her character without having recourse to Spenser and his literary
contemporaries.
OTHER WRITERS OF THE AGE OF SPENSER.
_Richard Hooker_, 1553-1598: educated at Oxford, he became Master of the
Temple in London, a post which he left with pleasure to take a country
parish. He wrote a famous work, entitled "A Treatise on the Laws of
Ecclesiastical Polity," which is remarkable for its profound learning,
powerful logic, and eloquence of style. In it he defends the position of
the Church of England, against Popery on the one hand and Calvinism on the
other.
_Robert Burton_, 1576-1639: author of "The Anatomy of Melancholie," an
amusing and instructive medley of quotations and classical anecdotes,
showing a profound erudition. In this all the causes and effects of
melancholy are set forth with varied illustrations. His _nom de plume_ was
Democritus, Jr., and he is an advocate of the laughing philosophy.
_Thomas Hobbes_, 1588-1679: tutor to Charles II., when Prince of Wales,
and author of the _Leviathan_. This is a philosophical treatise, in which
he advocates monarchical government, as based upon the fact that all men
are selfish, and that human nature, being essentially corrupt, requires an
iron control: he also wrote upon _Liberty and Necessity_, and on _Human
Nature_.
John Stow, 1525-1605: tailor and antiquary. Principally valuable for his
"Annales," "Summary of English Chronicles," and "A Survey of London." The
latter is the foundation of later topographical descriptions of the
English metropolis.
Raphael Hollinshed, or Holinshed, died about 1580: his _Chronicles of
Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande_, were a treasure-house to Shakspeare,
from which he drew materials for King Lear, Cymbeline, Macbeth, and other
plays.
Richard Hakluyt, died 1616: being greatly interested in voyages and
travels, he wrote works upon the adventures of others. Among these are,
"Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America," and "Four Voyages
unto Florida," which have been very useful in the compilation of early
American history.
Samuel Purchas, 1577-1628: like Hakluyt, he was exceedingly industrious in
collecting material, and wrote "Hakluyt's Posthumus, or Purchas, his
Pilgrimes," a history of the world "in Sea Voyages and Land Travels."
Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552-1618: a man famous for his personal strength and
comeliness, vigor of mind, valor, adventures, and sufferings. A prominent
actor in the stirring scenes of Elizabeth's reign, he was high in the
favor of the queen. Accused of high treason on the accession of James I.,
and imprisoned under sentence of death, an unsuccessful expedition to
South America in search of El Dorado, which caused complaints from the
Spanish king, led to his execution under the pending sentence. He wrote,
chiefly in prison, a History of the World, in which he was aided by his
literary friends, and which is highly commended. It extends to the end of
the second Macedonian war. Raleigh was also a poet, and wrote several
special treatises.
William Camden, 1551-1623: author of Britannia, or a chorographic
description of the most flourishing kingdoms of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and the adjacent islands, from the earliest antiquity. This work,
written in Latin, has been translated into English. He also wrote a sketch
of the reign of Elizabeth.
_George Buchanan_, 1506-1581: celebrated as a Latin writer, an historian,
a poet, and an ecclesiastical polemic. He wrote a _History of Scotland_, a
Latin version of the Psalms, and a satire called _Chamæleon_. He was a
man of profound learning and indomitable courage; and when told, just
before his death, that the king was incensed at his treatise _De Jure
Regni_, he answered that he was not concerned at that, for he was "going
to a place where there were few kings."
Thomas Sackville, Earl Dorset, Lord Buckhurst, 1536-1608: author, or
rather originator of "The Mirror for Magistrates," showing by illustrious,
unfortunate examples, the vanity and transitory character of human
success. Of Sackville and his portion of the Mirror for Magistrates, Craik
says they "must be considered as forming the connecting link between the
Canterbury Tales and the Fairy Queen."
_Samuel Daniel_, 1562-1619: an historian and a poet. His chief work is
"The Historie of the Civile Warres between the Houses of York and
Lancaster," "a production," says Drake, "which reflects great credit on
the age in which it was written." This work is in poetical form; and,
besides it, he wrote many poems and plays, and numerous sonnets.
Michael Drayton, 1563-1631: a versatile writer, most favorably known
through his _Polyolbion_, a poem in thirty books, containing a detailed
description of the topography of England, in Alexandrine verses. His
_Barons' Wars_ describe the civil commotions during the reign of Edward
II.
Sir John Davies, 1570-1626: author of _Nosce Teipsum_ and _The Orchestra_.
The former is commended by Hallam; and another critic calls it "the best
poem, except Spenser's Faery Queen, in Queen Elizabeth's, or even, in
James VI.'s time."
John Donne, 1573-1631: a famous preacher, Dean of St. Paul's: considered
at the head of the metaphysical school of poets: author of
_Pseudo-Martyr_, _Polydoron_, and numerous sermons. He wrote seven
_satires_, which are valuable, but his style is harsh, and his ideas
far-fetched.
Joseph Hall, 1574-1656: an eminent divine, author of six books of
_satires_, of which he called the first three _toothless_, and the others
_biting_ satires. These are valuable as presenting truthful pictures of
the manners and morals of the age and of the defects in contemporary
literature.
Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, 1554-1628: he wrote the Life of Sidney,
and requested to have placed upon his tomb, "The friend of Sir Philip
Sidney." He was also the author of numerous treatises: "Monarchy," "Humane
Learning," "Wars," etc., and of two tragedies.
George Chapman, 1557-1634: author of a translation of Homer, in verses of
fourteen syllables. It retains much of the spirit of the original, and is
still considered one of the best among the numerous versions of the
ancient poet. He also wrote _Cæsar and Pompey, Byron's Tragedy_, and other
plays.