Reference
- The Faerie QueeneAlthough never finished, Edmund Spenser's allegorical epic nonetheless remains the longest poem in the English language. Influenced by native English, by French, and by Italian chivalric romance, Spenser set out to write a national, Anglican epic that celebrated in a complex allegory the glories of Britain's actual and mythic history, of the Anglican Church establishment, and above all of the reigning monarch Elizabeth I. To honor her, Spenser presented his ruler in various allegorical guises throughout his work. She appears as Gloriana, the Faerie Queene herself; as Belphoebe, the virgin huntress of the woods; as Medina, who represents the golden mean between excessive and faint commitment to virtue; and as Britomart, a female knight who rescues Amoretta from the enchanter Busirane...
- Spenser, EdmundWidely regarded as one of the most skillful and musical craftsmen of English verse, Spenser was born in London and educated at the Merchant Taylor's School in that city. In the last year of his attendance there, 1569, Spenser published several verse translations in Jan van der Noodt's Theater of … Voluptuous Worldlings. These expert early translations held promise of greater things to come...
- SPENSERIAN STANZAThe Spenserian stanza has been taken up by poets from Robert Burns to John Keats to Alfred, Lord Tennyson; but as its name suggests, it has never escaped association with its inventor, Edmund Spenser (1552–99). Its combination of versatility and idiosyncrasy may be unmatched: nine lines long, with a mix of alternating rhyme and *couplets (ababbcbcc), it proceeds in strict *pentameter up to its concluding *alexandrine. Spenser's principal sources were doubtless the Chaucerian *rhyme-royal stanza, which shifts, like his, to couplets at the fifth line (ababbcc), and the *ottava rima of It. epic (abababcc). The stanza is also shaped by the manifold narrative, imagistic, argumentative, and visionary uses to which The Faerie Queene puts it...
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The Faerie Queene: The Secret Life of Books
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Considered one of the most influential poems in the English language, Edmund Spenser’s "The Faerie Queene" is a fusion of Arthurian romance and Italian Renaissance epic styles. Written in the 16th century, the poem is heavily laced with allegory and metaphor. Spenser wrote the bulk of the poem while serving as a private secretary in Ireland, and dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth I. Divided into six books, the fantastical "Faerie Queene" explores a world of queens, knights, dragons, nymphs, and enchantments. Art historian Dr. Janina Ramirez examines the intricacies of Spenser’s work and interviews various experts for a comprehensive study of the poem.
Online Resources
- Edmund Spenser: BritannicaEdmund Spenser, (born 1552/53, London, England—died January 13, 1599, London), English poet whose long allegorical poem The Faerie Queene is one of the greatest in the English language. It was written in what came to be called the Spenserian stanza...
- Edmund Spenser: Poetry FoundationEdmund Spenser is considered one of the preeminent poets of the English language. He was born into the family of an obscure cloth maker named John Spenser, who belonged to the Merchant Taylors’ Company and was married to a woman named Elizabeth, about whom almost nothing is known. Since parish records for the area of London where the poet grew up were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, his birth date is uncertain, though the dates of his schooling and a remark in one of his sonnets (Amoretti 60) lend credence to the date traditionally assigned, which is around 1552...
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, 1590: British LibraryThe Faerie Queene (1590) is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599), which follows the adventures of a number of medieval knights. The poem, written in a deliberately archaic style, draws on history and myth, particularly the legends of Arthur. Each book follows the adventures of a knight who represents a particular virtue (holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice and courtesy) and who has that quality in him or herself tested by the plot. The Faerie Queene is an allegorical work in praise of Elizabeth I (represented by Gloriana – the Faerie Queene herself – and the virgin Belphoebe) and of Elizabethan notions of virtue...
- SPENSER'S THE FAERIE QUEENE: Project GutenbergRead Edmund Spenser's Faierie Queene online at Project Gutenberg.
Perspectives
The Oxford Handbook of Edmund Spenser
Written by a team of international experts, the forty-two essays in The Oxford Handbook of Edmund Spenser examine the entire canon of Spenser's work and the social and intellectual environments in which it was produced, providing new readings of the texts, extensive analysis of formercriticism, and up-to-date bibliographies. Section I, 'Contexts', elucidates the circumstances in which the poetry and prose were written, and suggests some of the major political, social, and professional issues with which the work engages. Section 2, 'Works', presents a series of new readings ofthe canon informed by the most recent scholarship. Section 3, 'Poetic Craft', provides a detailed analysis of what Spenser termed the poet's 'cunning', the linguistic, rhetorical, and stylistic skills that distinguish his writing. Section 4, 'Sources and Influences', examines a wide range ofsubtexts, intertexts ,and analogues that contextualise the works within the literary conventions, traditions and genres upon which Spenser draws and not infrequently subverts. Section 5, 'Reception', grapples with the issue of Spenser's effect on succeeding generations of editors, writers, painters,and book-illustrators, while also attempting to identify the most salient and influential strands in the critical tradition. The volume serves as both companion and herald to the Oxford University Press edition of Spenser's Complete Works. No 'agreed' view of Spenser emerges from this work or isintended to. The contributors approach the texts from a variety of viewpoints and employ diverse methods of critical interpretation with a view to stimulating informed discussion and future scholarship.
Spenser: the Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is a scholarly masterpiece that has influenced, inspired, and challenged generations of writers, readers and scholars since its completion in 1596. Hamilton's edition is itself, a masterpiece of scholarship and close reading. It is nownbsp;the standardnbsp;edition for allnbsp;readers of Spenser. The entire work is revised, and the text of The Faerie Queene itself has been freshly edited, the first such edition since the 1930s.nbsp; This volume also contains additional original material, including a letter to Raleigh, commendatory verses and dedicatory sonnets, chronology of Spenser's life and works and provides a compilation of list of characters and their appearances in The Faerie Queene.
Edmund Spenser's Poetry
This revised and enlarged Fourth Edition expands and improves on the strengths of the previous three editions. All selections are based on early and established texts, fully glossed, and carefully annotated. An Editor's Note follows each section. This new edition addresses the shifts in scholarly and critical interests in Spenser studies since 1993 as well as access provided by new technology.
The Cambridge Companion to Spenser
The Cambridge Companion to Spenser provides an introduction to Spenser that is at once accessible and rigorous. Fourteen specially commissioned essays by leading scholars bring together the best recent writing on the work of the most important non-dramatic Renaissance poet. The contributions provide all the essential information required to appreciate and understand Spenser's rewarding and challenging work. The Companion guides the reader through Spenser's poetry and prose, and provides extensive commentary on his life, the historical and religious context in which he wrote, his wide reading in Classical, European and English poetry, his sexual politics and use of language. Emphasis is placed on Spenser's relationship to his native England, and to Ireland - where he lived for most of his adult life - as well as the myriad of intellectual contexts which inform his writing. A chronology and further reading lists make this volume indispensable for any student of Spenser.
Spenser, Milton, and the Renaissance Arthur
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In a relatively sparse era of Arthurian literary output, trace noteworthy currents of the saga in Spenser, Milton, and the work of Renaissance historians. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, note the rise of Arthur’s presence in popular ballads, songs, and poetry, and his remarkable portrayal on the stage in English and Cornish.