The Faerie Queene
Faerie Queene, The,the greatest work of Spenser , of which the first three books were published 1590 , and the second three 1596 .
The general scheme of the work is proposed in the author's introductory letter addressed to Ralegh . By the Faerie Queene the poet signifies Glory in the abstract and Elizabeth I in particular (who also figures under the names of Britomart , Belphoebe , Mercilla , and Gloriana ). Twelve of her knights, the ‘patrons’ or examples of 12 different virtues, each undertake an adventure, on the 12 successive days of the queen's annual festival, and an account of their origins was to have been given in the last of 12 books. Prince Arthur symbolizes ‘magnificence’, in the Aristotelian sense (says the author) of the perfection of all the other virtues (he must have meant not ‘magnificence’ but ‘magnanimity’, or ‘gentlemanliness’). Arthur has a vision of the Faerie...
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