The Political Allegory in " The Faerie Queene " 9 



position of a half-protestant England united to a Queen whose 

 love of Rome and Spain was greater than her love of her coun- 

 try, which she would at all costs betray to her faith ; and finally 

 England's resolute turning away from Spanish and Catholic 

 intrigue and insisting on political and religious freedom from 

 foreign interference. The queen, however, was still obeyed though 

 her unfitness to rule had more than once been demonstrated. 

 Now came the crowning disaster of Mary's reign, due directly 

 to her love for Philip and Rome. 



In the meanwhile, however, the adventures of Una are taken 

 up (Canto vi). True Religion, as we remember, was left in a 

 rather unpleasant situation, carried ofif in the lawless arms of 

 Sans Loy. I understand this as a reference to the hardships 

 suffered by the Dutch protestants at the hands of Alva. She is 

 saved by the wild satyrs, the " Salvage folk "^^ who protect her, 

 and whom she teaches the way of truth. Here she remains until 

 she meets Sir Satyrane, a noble knight, the son of a Satyr by 

 Thyamis, who is married to a loose, unruly swain, Therion. 

 They wander forth to find the Red-Cross Knight but fall in with 

 Sans Loy who is wandering in search of her. A battle follows 

 whose issue we are not told. Upton would regard the satyrs as 

 the rural population of England, and Satyrane, from the circum- 

 stances of his birth and general character, as Sir John Perrot, the 

 illegitimate son of Henry VHI. This may be true. Yet I feel 

 that he had in mind the suffering of the Dutch. The Satyrs, the 

 wild men of the woods, were perhaps the Beggars of the Sea, who 

 defied the force of Alva, and Satyrane, who was long in fight 

 with Alva, the Prince of Orange, who also gave much aid to 

 Elizabeth in her conflict with Spain. 



The story now (Canto vii) goes back to the Red-Cross Knight 

 and Duessa. In an hour of careless ease, while they are disport- 

 ing themselves near the well of feebleness, he is set upon unex- 



^* The taming of the Salvage Folk by Una may be an echo of one of the 

 incidents of the entertainment at Kenilworth. At the gate of the castle, 

 as the queen entered, was a huge " Salvage man " armed with a club who 

 denied entrance in the most imperious manner ; but at the sight of the 

 queen, he humbled himself, and paid his allegiance to her truth and beauty. 



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