TJie Political Allegory in " The Faerie Queene" 7 



the disguised magician is the slayer of his brother, the Lion 

 is slain, and she carried away as captive by the lawless one. 

 Elizabeth, even before the death of Mary, was courted by Philip 

 of Spain. One of the first ambassadors to come to congratulate 

 her upon her becoming Queen was the Spanish Duke of Feria. 

 And he again proposed the match between Elizabeth and 

 Philip 11.^'^ 



True Religion had a hard time of it after England and Mary 

 were united. It found itself protected only by the people of Eng- 

 land, and was safe only in the wilderness. It suffered from Blind 

 Devotion and the Monastic System (which Mary sought to re- 

 establish). It was tempted by the preaching of Gardiner and 

 Pole ; and finally, in the Netherlands especially, it was cruelly 

 oppressed by the Duke of Alva (Sans Loy), the man who re- 

 spected no laws in his treatment of Dutch nobles and burghers. 

 That Alva evidently is meant by the character of Sans Loy is 

 made a little clearer in a later canto. 



The story now turns to the Red-Cross Knight who is led by 

 Duessa to the House of Pride, the Court of Lucifera. The 

 palace is beautiful to the eye but built on an insecure foundation, 

 and already is in places ruinous and old. This is obviously the 

 Roman Church, and Lucifera, the maiden queen, the Scarlet 

 Woman. The description of her court is an extended moral 

 allegory taken partly from the Book of Revelation and partly 

 from mediaeval allegorical morality stories. Thus, the six un- 

 equal beasts who draw her chariot are, with Pride, the seven 

 deadly sins. The six wizards who enable her to uphold her 

 usurped power may be the College of Cardinals. It is a picture 

 of the decadent yet splendid court of Rome. 



The political allegory is as clear as the moral. Duessa (Mary) 

 brought England back into the fold of the Catholic Church. But 

 England's acceptance was not a joyful one, for he remained aloof 

 from Lucifera while Duessa rode next to her chair. There were 

 constant uprisings in England against the close alliance between 

 England, Philip, and the Pope, and especially against the mar- 



^"See Hume, Tivo English Queens and Philip, chapter v. 



165 



