ENGLISH UiKKATURE. 



Ml 



divided into twelve cantos ; and there is little doubt thmt 

 uu'l.-r tho guise of the Red CTOM Knight, the poet intended 

 to describe the various fortune* of the Church of England. 



i>urco and beginning of the adventures of thU book are 

 described by Spenser in the letter from which we have already 

 quoted. The twelve-day festival of the Fairy Queen was being 

 held. " In the beginning of the feast there presented himself 

 a tall, clownish young man, who, falling before the Queen of 

 Faeries, desired a boon (as the manner then was), which daring 

 that feast she might not refuse ; which was that he might have 

 tho achievement of any adventure which during that feast 

 should happen. That being granted, he rested him on the 

 floor, unfit through his rusticity for a better place. Soon after 

 entered a fair lady in mourning weeds, riding on a white an*, 

 with a dwarf behind her leading a warlike steed, that bore the 

 arms of a knight, and his spear in the dwarf's hand. She, 

 falling before the Queen of Faeries, complained that her father 

 and mother, an ancient king and queen, had been by an huge 

 dragon many years shut up in a brazen castle, who thence 

 suffered them not to issue ; and therefore besought the Faery 

 Queen to assign her some one of her knights to take on him 

 that exploit. Presently that clownish person, upstarting, de- 

 sired that adventure ; whereat the queen much wondering, and 

 the lady much gainsaying, yet he earnestly importuned his 

 desire. In the end, tho lady told him that unless that armour 

 which she brought would serve him (that is, the armour of a 

 Christian man specified by St. Paul, Ephes. v.), that he could 

 not succeed in that enterprise ; which being forthwith put upon 

 him, with due furnitures thereunto, he seemed the goodliest 

 man in all the company, and was well liked of the lady. And 

 eftsoons taking on him knighthood, and mounting on that 

 strange courser, he went forth with her on that adventure ; 

 where beginneth the first book." The once clownish young 

 man has become the Red Cross Knight, or St. George ; the lady 

 is Una, who represents true religion. They are thus introduced 

 to us: 



" A gentle knight was pricking on the plain, 

 Y-clad in mighty arms and silver shield, 

 Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain, 

 The cruel marks of many a bloody flnld ; 

 Yet arms till that time never did he wield ; 

 His angry steed did chide his foaming bit, 

 As much disdaining to the curb to yield ; 

 Full jolly knight he seemed, and fair did sit, 

 As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit. 



" And on his breast a bloody cross he bore, 

 The dear remembrance of his dying lord, 

 For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore, 

 And dead, as living ever, him adored ; 

 Upon his shield the like was also scored, 

 For sovereign hope, which in his help ho had. 

 Bight, faithful, true, he was in deed and word ; 

 But of his cheer did seem too solemn sad ; 

 Yet did he nothing fear, but ever was y-drad. 



** 



tt A lovely lady rode him fair beside, 



Upon a lowly ass more white than snow ; 

 Yet she much whiter ; but the same did hide 

 Under a vail, that wimpled was full low ; 

 And over all a block stole she did throw, 

 As one that inly mourned ; she was so sad, 

 And heavy sat upon her palfry slow, 

 Semed in heart some heavy care she had ; 

 And by her in a line a milk-white lamb she lad. 



" So pure and innocent, as that same lamb, 

 She was in life, and every virtuous lore ; 

 And by descent from royal lineage camo 

 Of ancient kings and queens, that had of yore 

 Their sceptres stretched from east to western shore, 

 And all the world in their subjection held ; 

 Till that infernal fiend with foul uproar 

 Forwosted all their land, and them expelled ; 

 Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far compelled." 



We find them first taking refuge from a storm in a wood, 

 which proves to be the Wandering Wood, in which is the den 

 of Error, a horrible monster, half woman, half snake, whom, 

 after a terrible combat, the knight at last slays. They next 

 moot an old man, seemingly a hermit, who leads them to his 

 cell for the night. 



A liliW lowly honoiUc* it WM. 

 Down In a dale, bard by a (oral* ride, 

 > *r (TOTS resort of people, who did pess 

 IB Uv) to sad fro." 



The hermit torn* out to be the great < 

 who throughout the " Fafey Queen " is the 

 tative of all that is false and evil. Here be stands for heresy 

 anddeoeit By bis deoeptioos the knight is led to believe that 

 the lady is false and unchaste, and leaving her behind, start* 

 by himself from the hermitage. He has not gone fa*, when he 

 meets and slays " a faithless sarawn " Sansfoy, one of the 

 three sons of Archimago. With Sansfoy was a lady calling 

 herself Fidesaa, bat really the witch Doeasa, daughter of 

 Archimago, the representative of falsehood, in opposition to 

 Una, or truth. Doessa represents herself as having been 

 held in unwilling captivity by Sansfoy, and the Bad Crow 

 Knight travels onward in her company. In the meantime 

 Una sets out in search of her lost knight. For some time 

 she travels alone ; bat one day she descends from her ass to 

 rest in the wood. 



" It fortuned ont 01 the thickest wood 

 A ramping lion rushed suddenly, 

 Hunting full greedy after savage blood. 

 Boon as the royal virgin he did spy. 

 With gaping mouth at her ran greedily, 

 To have at once devoured her tender corse ; 

 But to the prey when as be drew more ni*h. 

 His bloody rage assuaged with remorse, 

 And with the sight amazed forgot his furious force. 



" Instead thereof, he kissed her weary feet, 



And licked her lily hand with fawning tongue, 

 As he her wronged innocence did wet. 

 Oh, how can beauty master the most strong. 

 And simple truth subdue avenging wrong I 

 Whose yielded pride and proud submission, 

 Still dreading death, when she had marked long, 

 Her heart gan melt in great compassion. 

 And drizzling tears did shed for pure affection." 



The lion becomes her protector, and with him she reaches the 

 inhospitable cabin of Corceca, her daughter Abessa, and their 

 confederate, Kirk-rapine, who represent the superstitions and 

 corruptions of monasticism. Kirk-rapine is slain by the lion, 

 and Una goes upon her way ; this whole incident being mani- 

 festly an allusion to the suppression of the monasteries under 

 Henry Yin. Una soon afterwards, partly by the guiles of 

 Archimago, falls into the hands of Sansloy, another son of the 

 enchanter, who carries her away. 



The Red Cross Knight has been led by Duessa to the House 

 of Pride, and the fourth canto contains an elaborate and very 

 poetical allegorical description of the Court of Lucifera, or 

 Pride, with the deadly sins as her attendants. Sansjoy, the 

 third brother, comes likewise to the Court of Pride while the 

 Red Cross Knight is there ; they fight, and Sansjoy is over- 

 thrown. Duessa, to save him, visits the realms of darkness, 

 the description of which is most powerful, and retains with, 

 the cure she sought. But she finds the Red Cross Knight 

 departed. 



We next return to Una, who is rescued from the power of 

 Sansloy by a troop of fauns and satyrs, and a good Knight 

 Satyrane, whose history is told us; bat while Satyrane and 

 the sarazin are fighting, the lady takes to flight in terror. 

 In the meantime the Red Cross Knight has been rejoined by 

 Duessa, and having drunk of an enchanted fountain, falls into 

 the hands of the giant Orgoglio, by whom he is oast into a 

 horrible dungeon. The dwarf, after his master's fall, goes to 

 seek relief, and soon meets Una. They fall in with Prince 

 Arthur, and Prince Arthur slays the giant, rescues the knight, 

 and strips Duessa, who had become the mistress of the giant, 

 exposing her foulness and deformity. 



Prince Arthur then relates his own story and his wandering* 

 in March of the Fairy Queen, and leaves the Red Cross Knight 

 and Una. After he has parted with them, they meet Sir 

 Trevisa flying from Despair, and return with him to the Cave of 

 Despair, the description of which and of Despair himself, and 

 his arguments urging to desperation and suicide, as given in the 

 ninth canto, are among the most remarkable passages in the 

 whole of the " Faery Queen." The following lines are a part 

 of the plea for suicide : 



