lO Philo M. Buck, Jr. 



pectedly, while unarmed, by Orgoglio, the giant Pride, and is 

 captured and thrown into a dungeon. Duessa now gladly becomes 

 the highly honored mistress of Orgoglio, and is mounted on a 

 huge, seven-headed serpent. Clearly the sudden capture of 

 Calais, 1558, is here alluded to. Mary had left the citadel entirely 

 in an unprovided condition, while she made war, to please her 

 husband, against France. Francis, Duke of Guise, the embodi- 

 ment of pride and arrogance, captured the undefended place, and 

 England's cup of humiliation was full. Duessa, I think, has 

 suddenly shifted her political role, and is now Mary, Queen of 

 Scots, ^'^ the young Queen of France, whom the Guise and Spanish 

 party would advance to the crown of England. 



Such was the condition of affairs when Elizabeth came to the 

 throne in 1558. Una has left Satyrane and Sans Loy fighting, 

 and meets her dwarf who tells her that her natural protector is in 

 the power of Orgoglio. A champion appears in the person of 

 Arthur,-^ Leicester, and the task of freeing England from foreign 

 domination is begun. Always Leicester was to the popular mind, 

 at least, identified with the party that opposed the Spanish and 

 French influence. In 1586 he led the English expedition against 

 Spain in Flanders. He was the popular English hero. 



Arthur, with the help of his magic shield, kills Orgoglio, 

 although Duessa had nearly over-powered his Squire with her 

 poison. The allegory is, of course, the reuniting of England and 

 True Religion, or the accession of Elizabeth, owing, according to 

 Spenser, to the faithfulness and might of the Earl of Leicester. 

 A French fleet and force under D'Oysel sent into Scotland to 

 prepare that country for a war on England, to enforce the claim 

 of Mary Stuart to the English crown, was defeated at Leith by 

 Lord Grey, a close relative of Leicester, in 1560, and England was 

 saved. The beauty of Duessa is stripped from her, and her 

 native hue is shown. The claims of Mary, Queen of Scots, to 



^''' Duessa is called by the poet the Scarlet whore. The English, and 

 especially the Scotch under John Knox, were no less complimentary to 

 the illfated Mary. In a later book Duessa is certainly Mary Queen of 

 Scots. 



^" Arthur is accompanied by his squire Timias whom most commentators 

 have understood to be Sir Walter Raleigh, but of him more later. 



168 



