No More Learning

The Age which produced the Faerie Queene
II. The Author of the Faerie Queene
III. Study of the Faerie Queene:
1. A Romantic Epic
2. Influence of the New Learning
3. Interpretation of the Allegory
4. The Spenserian Stanza
5. Versification
6. Diction and Style
IV. Chronological Table of Events

THE FAERIE QUEENE. BOOK I:
Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh
Sonnet to Sir Walter Raleigh
Dedication to Queen Elizabeth
Canto I
Canto II
Canto III
Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI
Canto VII
Canto VIII
Canto IX
Canto X
Canto XI
Canto XII

NOTES

GLOSSARY

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INTRODUCTION

I. THE AGE WHICH PRODUCED THE _FAERIE QUEENE_

The study of the _Faerie Queene_ should be preceded by a review of the
great age in which it was written. An intimate relation exists between the
history of the English nation and the works of English authors. This close
connection between purely external events and literary masterpieces is
especially marked in a study of the Elizabethan Age. To understand the
marvelous outburst of song, the incomparable drama, and the stately prose
of this period, one must enter deeply into the political, social, and
religious life of the times.
The _Faerie Queene_ was the product of certain definite conditions which
existed in England toward the close of the sixteenth century. The first of
these national conditions was the movement known as the _revival of
chivalry_; the second was the _spirit of nationality_ fostered by the
English Reformation; and the third was that phase of the English
Renaissance commonly called the _revival of learning_.

The closing decade of Queen Elizabeth's reign was marked by a strong
reaction toward romanticism. The feudal system with its many imperfections
had become a memory, and had been idealized by the people. The nation felt
pride in its new aristocracy, sprung largely from the middle class, and
based rather on worth than ancestry. The bitterness of the Wars of the
Roses was forgotten, and was succeeded by an era of reconciliation and good
feeling. England was united in a heroic queen whom all sects, ranks, and
parties idolized. The whole country exulting in its new sense of freedom
and power became a fairyland of youth, springtime, and romantic
achievement.

Wise and gallant courtiers, like Sidney, Leicester, and Raleigh, gathered
about the queen, and formed a new chivalry devoted to deeds of adventure
and exploits of mind in her honor. The spirit of the old sea-kings lived
again in Drake and his bold buccaneers, who swept the proud Spaniards from
the seas. With the defeat of the Invincible Armada, the greatest naval
expedition of modern times, the fear of Spanish and Catholic domination
rolled away. The whole land was saturated with an unexpressed poetry, and
the imagination of young and old was so fired with patriotism and noble
endeavor that nothing seemed impossible. Add to this intense delight in
life, with all its mystery, beauty, and power, the keen zest for learning
which filled the air that men breathed, and it is easy to understand that
the time was ripe for a new and brilliant epoch in literature. First among
the poetic geniuses of the Elizabethan period came Edmund Spenser with his
_Faerie Queene_, the allegory of an ideal chivalry.

This poem is one of the fruits of that intellectual awakening which first
fertilized Italian thought in the twelfth century, and, slowly spreading
over Europe, made its way into England in the fifteenth century. The mighty
impulse of this New Learning culminated during the reign of the Virgin
Queen in a profound quickening of the national consciousness, and in
arousing an intense curiosity to know and to imitate the rich treasures of
the classics and romance.