The Political Allegory in " The Faerie Queeiie" 1 1 



the throne of England are shown to be no more than an idle 

 terror. All that now remains is to strengthen England and to 

 establish the true church. This is done in the cantos that follow. 



First England's despair of ever being able to make her way 

 unaided through the perils that surrounded her is admirably 

 portrayed in the adventures of the Red-Cross Knight and 

 Despair, and of Terwin and Trevisan, the latter of whom has 

 already fallen victim to Despair's alluring logic. Terwin and 

 Trevisan may well represent some continental states who had 

 found the Catholic oppression too strong. At the beginning of 

 Elizabeth's reign the power of the Protestants was at its lowest 

 ebb, and state after state was apparently succumbing to the attacks 

 of the revived Catholic vigor. This was especially true in France 

 and Saxony. In the first, the Guise faction was apparently in full 

 power; and in the other, the young Elector Maurice had appar- 

 ently sold himself to the reactionary party. Una, religion, how- 

 ever, saved the Red-Cross Knight, and he was taken to the House 

 of Holiness to recuperate. He there learns that he is the descend- 

 ant of the early Saxon Kings of England, and is sent forth to fight 

 the battle of the faith against the great dragon. 



The dragon is slain ; and Una and St. George, as he is now 

 called, are united. As he is about to be married to Una, the false 

 Duessa sends Archimago with a letter claiming that she has a 

 prior claim on his hand. This is probably the allegory of the 

 claim of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the throne of England.^^ 

 But Archimago is uncased and all ends happily. 



Book H. The Legend of Giiyoii, or Temperance 

 The Introduction to this Book makes it perfectly clear that in 

 what follows Spenser has a political significance. The hero of 

 this Book is Sir Guyon, the guide ; and he is bound on a quest to 

 avenge the death of the parents of Ruddymane (the bloody hand), 

 a babe whose parents, Mortdant and Amavia, had been slain by 

 the wiles of the wicked sorceress, Acrasia, who dwells in the 

 Bower of Bliss to entrap and utterly unman good knights. 



"' There may be an allusion here also to the accusation of Mary, Queen 

 of Scots, that Elizabeth had been too free with her favors with both 

 Leicester and Alengon. 



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