The Faerie Queene

by Edmund Spenser

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The Faerie Queene Questions and Answers

Explain personal, historical, political allegories in Spenser's The Faerie Queene.

What was Spenser's primary purpose in writing The Faerie Queene?

Discuss color symbolism in The Faerie Queene, book 1.

What are the main features of a Spenserian Stanza (as seen in The Faerie Queen)?

What is the significance of the House of Holiness in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene?  

What is "dark conceit"?

Who is Archimago, and what is his significance in The Faerie Queene?

What is an explanation of stanzas 10, 11, and 12 in book 1, canto 1 of The Faerie Queene?

Spenser has been described as a "painter-poet." Comment on pictorial quality in his The Faerie Queen.

What do each of the characters represent in The Faerie Queene?

Who are the women Spenser refers to in Book One of The Faerie Queen?

Where can I get a paraphrase or modern English translation of The Faerie Queene?

What is the significance of the Spenserian rhyme scheme in The Faerie Queene?

"The Red Cross Knight is, in short, an Everyman figure shown ultimately to have achieved his knightly quest." Discuss.

Analyze stanzas 17, 18, and 19 from The Faerie Queene by Spenser.

In the Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, what are the specific themes and structure of Book 1 ? 

How is The Faerie Queene enjoyable as an adventure and allegory?

In The Faerie Queene, what religious references are mentioned in Canto I, Stanzas 1-5?

Pick one stanza to discuss from book 2, canto 12, stanzas 42–87 of The Faerie Queene. Close read the stanza and note any patterns, literary devices, ambiguities, how the stanza reflects on the episode as a whole, etc.

According to The Faerie Queene, what is Spenser's view of pagan values? How does he compare them to Christian values?

A. What is the meter of Edmund Spenser's poem, The Faerie Queen?  B. Using alphabetical representation, write the rhyme scheme for these lines:                      Eftsoones the dreadfull Dragon they epside,                      Where stretcht he lay upon the sunny side 

In The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spencer, how does Una save Redcrosse Knight from killing himself in Cave of Despair?  

Compare and contrast the Bower of Bliss and the Garden of Adonis in The Faerie Queene.

What is the explanation of stanzas 36, 37, and 38 in The Faerie Queene?  

"As when old father Nilus gins to swell With timely pride above the Aegyptian vale, His fattie waves do fertile slime outwell." What does this quote mean? 

What is one way in which Book 1 of Spenser's The Faerie Queene is theologically Protestant in nature? Would the answer lie in the theme of Faith vs. Works?

What are Spenser's aims in designing The Faerie Queene, and how far does he achieve it in Book One?

Please talk me through the different sounds and/or sound effects used in Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene.

How is physical suffering represented in book 1 of The Faerie Queene? What is its purpose?

What are the Christian elements in the Red Cross Knight's dream in Canto I, XLVI-LV, of The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser?

In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, identify what each character represents: the Redcrosse Knight, the dragon, Arthur, & Una in about two sentences. 

What are some examples of the blending of classical/"pagan" literary and cultural references with Christian/Biblical ones in The Faerie Queen and how does Spenser incorporate both the Bible/Christian belief with classical thought and mythology?

Do you think that The Faerie Queen was Spenser’s best work? Give reasons for your answer.

In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, identify what each character represents: the Redcrosse Knight, the dragon, Arthur, & Una.

How successful is Spenser in creating fanciful worlds in the Faerie Queene?

What evidence is there from the text that marks Spenser's The Faerie Queene as political allegory?

What is the meaning of the encounter between Duessa and the Redcrosse Knight on stanzas 44-51? How do the descriptions reflect this meaning?

What is one aspect you find interesting in this story?

What exactly is Spenser's idea of temperance? How is Spenserian temperance different from the classical temperance (from Aristotelian ethics)?

What can I write on dark conceit as it pertains to Spenser's The Faerie Queene?

write a note of the adventurous journey of Redcross by which he rescue the kind and queen from the clutches of a dragon? from the epic the faerie queene

My essay title is  on The Faerie Queene By what poetic means does Spenser represent a version or perversion of love in the following passage from Book lll of The Faerie Queene The Poem The Legend of Britomartis or  Of Chastity It falls me here to write of Chastity, The Rayrest vertue, far aboue the rest; For which what needes me fetch from Faery Forreine ensmples, it to haue exprest? Sith it is shrined in my Soueraines brest, And formed so liuely in each perfect part, That to all Ladies which haue it profest, Neede but behold the pourtraict of her hart,If pourtrayd it might bee by any liuing art. But liuing art may not least part expresse, Nor life-esembling pencil it can paynt, All were it Zeuxis or Praxiteles: His dsedale hand would faile, and greatly faynt, And her perfections with his error taynt: Ne Poets witt, tht passeth Painter farre In picturing the parts of beauty daynt, so hard a workemanship aduenture darre,

Is Spenser trying to redeem women in book 3 of The Faerie Queen? Does he want to break the patriarchal ideal of previous epic poems?

Analyze and mark the meter in lines 31-33 of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser that begin: "Eftsoones that dreadfull Dragon they epside/  Where stretcht he lay upon the sunny side..."

In Book 1, Canto 8 of The Faerie Queene, Lines 29-39 parallel a popular conception of the "Harrowing of Hell." What does this mean?

Name the literary element in this quotation, "The joyous day gan early to appeare, / And faire Aurora from the deawy bed/"

How does Britomartis turn into a knight in book 3 of The Faerie Quenne?

When was the 5th book of Faerie Queen written?