No More Learning

"Spenser delighted Shakespeare," says Mr. Church; "he was the
poetical master of Cowley, and then of Milton, and in a sense of Dryden,
and even Pope. " Giles and Phineas Fletcher, William Browne, Sir William
Alexander, Shenstone, Collins, Cowley, Gray, and James Thomson were all
direct followers of Spenser. His influence upon the poets of the romantic
revival of the nineteenth century is even more marked. "Spenser begot
Keats," says Mr. Saintsbury, "and Keats begot Tennyson, and Tennyson begot
all the rest. " Among this notable company of disciples should be mentioned
especially Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. If we include within the sphere
of Spenser's influence also those who have made use of the stanza which he
invented, we must add the names of Burns, Shelley, Byron, Beattie,
Campbell, Scott, and Wordsworth. When we consider the large number of poets
in whom Spenser awakened the poetic gift, or those to whose powers he gave
direction, we may safely pronounce him the most seminal poet in the
language.

III. STUDY OF THE _FAERIE QUEENE_

1. A ROMANTIC EPIC. --The _Faerie Queene_ is the most perfect type which we
have in English of the purely _romantic poem_. Four elements enter into its
composition: "it is pastoral by association, chivalrous by temper, ethical
by tendency, and allegorical by treatment" (Renton). Its subject was taken
from the old cycle of Arthurian legends, which were brightened with the
terrorless magic of Ariosto and Tasso.
The scene of the adventures is laid
in the enchanted forests and castles of the far away and unreal fairyland
of mediaeval chivalry, and the incidents themselves are either highly
improbable or frankly impossible. The language is frequently archaic and
designedly unfamiliar. Much of the machinery and properties used in
carrying on the story, such as speaking myrtles, magic mirrors, swords,
rings, impenetrable armor, and healing fountains, is supernatural. All the
characters--the knights, ladies, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, nymphs,
satyrs, and giants--are the conventional figures of pastoral romance.

The framework of the plot of the _Faerie Queene_ is vast and loosely put
together. There are six main stories, or legends, and each contains several
digressions and involved episodes. The plan of the entire work, which the
author only half completed, is outlined in his letter to Sir Walter
Raleigh. This letter serves as an admirable introduction to the poem, and
should be read attentively by the student. Gloriana, the Queen of
Fairyland, holds at her court a solemn feudal festival, lasting twelve
days, during which she sends forth twelve of her greatest knights on as
many separate adventures. The knights are commissioned to champion the
cause of persons in distress and redress their wrongs. The ideal knight,
Prince Arthur, is the central male figure of the poem. He is enamoured of
Gloriana, having seen her in a wondrous vision, and is represented as
journeying in quest of her. He appears in all of the legends at opportune
moments to succor the knights when they are hard beset or in the power of
their enemies. The six extant books contain respectively the legends of (I)
the Knight of the Redcrosse, or Holiness, (II) Sir Guyon, the Knight of
Temperance, (III) Britomart, the female Knight of Chastity, (IV) Sir
Campbell and Sir Triamond, the Knights of Friendship, (V) Sir Artegall, the
Knight of Justice, and (VI) Sir Caledore, the Knight of Courtesy. Book I is
an allegory of man's relation to God, Book II, of man's relation to
himself, Books III, IV, V, and VI, of man's relation to his fellow-man.
Prince Arthur, the personification of Magnificence, by which Spenser means
Magnanimity (Aristotle's [Greek: megalopsychia]), is the ideal of a perfect
character, in which all the private virtues are united.