At this
juncture National Honor and Consciousness comes to the relief of
Protestantism.
juncture National Honor and Consciousness comes to the relief of
Protestantism.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
CANTO VII
I. _The Plot:_ (Continuation of Canto V). Duessa pursues the Redcross
Knight, and overtakes him sitting by an enchanted fountain, weary and
disarmed. He is beguiled into drinking from the fountain, and is quickly
deprived of strength. In this unnerved and unarmed condition he is suddenly
set upon by the giant Orgoglio. After a hopeless struggle he is struck down
by the giant's club and is thrust into a dungeon. Una is informed by the
dwarf of the Knight's misfortune and is prostrated with grief. Meeting
Prince Arthur, she is persuaded to tell her story and receives promise of
his assistance.
II. _The Allegory:_ 1. The Christian soldier, beguiled by Falsehood, doffs
the armor of God, and indulges in sinful pleasures, and loses his purity.
He then quickly falls into the power of Carnal Pride, or the brutal tyranny
of False Religion (Orgoglio). He can then be restored only by an appeal to
the Highest Honor or Magnificence (Prince Arthur) through the good offices
of Truth and Common Sense.
2. In the reaction from the Reformation, Protestant England by dallying
with Romanism (Duessa, Mary Queen of Scots) falls under the tyrannic power
of the Pope (Orgoglio), with whom Catholic England was coquetting.
At this
juncture National Honor and Consciousness comes to the relief of
Protestantism. There is personal compliment to either Lord Leicester or Sir
Philip Sidney.
19. HE FEEDES UPON, he enjoys. A Latinism: cf. Vergil's _AEneid_, iii.
37. PHOEBE, a surname of Diana, or Artemis, the goddess of the moon.
45. Spenser probably takes the suggestion from the fountain in the gardens
of Armida in Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, xiv, 74. Cf. also the fountain
of Salmacis in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, xv, 819 _seq_.
56. POURD OUT, a metaphor borrowed from Euripides (_Herac. _, 75) and Vergil
(_AEneid_, ix, 317).
62.
