The Political Allegory in "The Faerie Qiieene" 17 



them out again ; and it was left to Sir Henry Sidney to complete 

 the work. We shall see later that Pyrocles, whom I take to be 

 the Earl of Northumberland, unloosed the bonds of both Furor 

 and Occasion. 



The young man Phaon whom Guyon released w^as oppressed 

 by Furor because of his murder of his affianced bride Claribell 

 through the machinations of his false friend Philemon. Phaon 

 was descended from the famous Coradin. There is not enough 

 here given to make more than a guess at the allegory. Edward 

 de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in 1571 married Anne Cecil, the 

 daughter of his guardian Lord Burleigh. His waywardness and 

 extravagance coupled with a scandal, alienated him temporarily 

 from his wafe in 1575. He was in more than one of his troubles 

 backed by Sussex.-' Spenser had no special occasion to have 

 much affection for him, for in 1579, while Spenser was in London, 

 he insulted publicly Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser's literary patron, 

 and according to current gossip, tried to have him assassinated.-^ 



I am inclined to think that we meet him again in Book HI 

 under the name of Paridel, where his unbridled passions and ex- 

 travagance are more clearly drawn, as well as the " anticjue glory 

 of his ancestry, under a shady veil writ," according to the state- 

 ment of the poet in the introductory sonnet addressed to him. 

 Certainly the name Phaon, from the Greek <^«ivw, shine, sug- 

 gests his well known love of finery and magnificence. 



At this point (Cantos v-vi), Pyrocles is announced by Atin 

 (Strife), and Guyon must defend himself. My first temptation 

 was to follow Upton and see in Pyrocles and in his lustful 

 brother, Cymocles, the two Irish rebels, Sorley Boy MacDonnell 

 and Shan O'Neill. They were both in a way implicated in the 

 affairs of Mary Queen of Scots, receiving aid on her account 

 from the Duke of Albany. The characters of the two paynim 

 knights fit the two wild chieftains, but there are several difficulties. 

 Neither of them was slain during the deputy ship of Sussex, but 

 during that of Sidney. Further, both Pyrocles and Cymocles 

 were slain by x-Vrthur when they were on the point of making 



^ See Dictionary of Nat. Biography, articles on Sussex and Oxford. 

 * See Fox Bourne, Life of Sidney, p. 181. 



