Faerie Queene, The, is an epic poem by the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser. The poem is a romance—that is, a long work that describes exciting adventures and strange events. It consists of 6 complete books (sections within the poem) out of 12 originally planned by the poet. Although it is unfinished, it is considered a masterpiece of English literature. The first three books were published in 1590, and the second three in 1596.
Spenser was greatly influenced by the English medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer and by the Italian epic romances of the 1500’s. In “The Faerie Queene,” he aimed to present an ideal of courtly virtue as existing within the mythical world of the Faerie Queene. The Faerie Queen is a symbol both for the abstract notion of glory and for Queen Elizabeth I, to whom the poem is dedicated. The 12 books that Spenser planned were to correspond with 12 knights, each of whom represents a virtue. The knights all undergo adventures that serve to illustrate their virtues. The six virtues covered by the six existing books of “The Faerie Queene” are Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy.
The extract that follows comes from Book VI, which concerns the adventures of the knight Sir Calidore, who represents the virtue of Courtesy. The section, which is sometimes given the title “The Hill of the Graces,” describes how Sir Calidore, here described as the “Elfin Knight,” comes across a magical place in a wood and secretly witnesses the dancing (“dauncing”) of maidens, including the three Graces, the classical personifications of grace and beauty.
Unto this place when as the Elfin Knight Approacht, him seemed that the merry sound Of a shrill pipe he playing heard on hight, And many feete fast thumping th’hollow ground, That through the woods their Eccho did rebound. He nigher drew, to weete what mote it be; There he a troupe of Ladies dauncing found Full merrily, and making gladfull glee, And in the midst a Shepheard piping he did see. He durst not enter into th’open greene, For dread of them unawares to be descryde, For breaking of their daunce, if he were seene; But in the covert of the wood did byde, Beholding all, yet of them unespyde. There he did see, that pleased much his sight, That even he him selfe his eyes envyde, An hundred naked maidens lilly white, Al raunged in a ring, and dauncing in delight. All they without were raunged in a ring, And danced round; but in the midst of them Three other Ladies did both daunce and sing, The whilest the rest them round about did hemme, And like a girlond did in compasse stem: And in the middest of those same three, was placed Another Damzell, as a precious gemme, Amidst a ring most richly well enchaced, That with her goodly presence all the rest much graced. Looke how the Crowne, which Ariadne wore Upon her yvory forehead that same day, That Theseus her unto his bridale bore, When the bold Centaures made that bloudy fray, With the fierce Lapithes, which did them dismay; Being now placed in the firmament, Through the bright heaven doth her beams display, And is unto the starres an ornament, Which round about her move in order excellent. Such was the beauty of this goodly band, Whose sundry parts were here too long to tell: But she that in the midst of them did stand, Seem’d all the rest in beauty to excell, Crownd with a rosie girlond, that right well Did her beseeme. And ever, as the crew About her daunst, sweet flowres, that far did smell, And fragrant odours they uppon her threw But most of all, those three did her with gifts endew. Those were the Graces, daughters of delight, Handmaides of Venus, which are wont to haunt Uppon this hill, and daunce there day and night: Those three to men all gifts of grace do graunt, And all, that Venus in her selfe doth vaunt, Is borrowed of them. But that faire one, That in the midst was place paravaunt, Was she to whom that shepheard pypt alone, That made him pype so merrily, as never none. She was to weete that jolly Shepheards lass, Which piped there unto that merry rout, That jolly shepheard, which there piped, was Poore Colin Clout (who knows not Colin Clout?) He pyped apace, whilest they him daunst about. Pype, jolly shepheard, pype thou now apace Unto thy love, that made thee low to lout: Thy love is present there with thee in place, Thy love is there advaunst to be another Grace.
Though “The Faerie Queene” is devoted to the illustration of high moral principles, passages such as these show the power of Spenser’s own imagination, so that what captures the reader is simply the beauty of the scene described. In the figure of Colin Cloute (who also appears in Spenser’s “The Shepheardes Calender” and “Colin Cloutes Come Home Again”), Spenser creates a symbol for the poet himself, a piper transfixed by the scene he has called forth, and inspired by his vision into making his own song.
Spenser’s work is distinctive for its deliberate use of old-fashioned language, its rich visual imagery, and the highly original metrical innovation known as the Spenserian stanza, invented by the poet himself for “The Faerie Queene.” This nine-line stanza consists of eight lines in iambic pentameter (a five-beat line) followed by a line in iambic hexameter (a six-beat line), also known as an alexandrine. Many poets since, including Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, have greatly admired the Spenserian stanza and imitated it.
For more information on Spenser, see Spenser, Edmund. See also English literature (Elizabethan poetry); Poetry (Rhythm and meter).
