The Questing Knights Of The Faerie Queen

This version of Edmund Spenser's classic tale is retold in an accessible manner, bringing stories of knights, dragons, sorcerers and princesses to a new generation.

Edmund Spenser's vast epic poem The Faerie Queene is the most challenging masterpiece in early modern literature and is praised as the work most representative of the Elizabethan age. In it he fused traditions of medieval romance and classical epic, his religious and political allegory creating a Protestant alternative to the Catholic romances rejected by humanists and Puritans. The poem was later made over as children's literature, retold in lavish volumes and schoolbooks and appreciated in pedagogical studies and literary histories. Distinguished writers for children simplified the stories and noted artists illustrated them. Children were less encouraged to consider the allegory than to be inspired to the moral virtues. This book studies The Faerie Queene's many adaptations for a young audience in order to provide a richer understanding of both the original and adapted texts.

"Despite its canonical prestige, Edmund Spenser's epic six-part poem The Faerie Queene (1590-96) has never been easy or altogether pleasurable to read. As this book describes, the poem's first known reader, Spenser's friend Gabriel Harvey, did so under duress, and returned the manuscript with a plea that Spenser write something else instead. Virginia Woolf's tongue-in-cheek advice to twentieth-century readers eager to cultivate a taste for The Faerie Queene-"The first essential is, of course, not to read The Faerie Queene"-sums up a tradition of readerly resistance to the poem. As a consequence of its difficulty, the poem has an extraordinary capacity to induce doubt in readers-about Spenser, about themselves, and about the enterprise of reading itself. Each of the six chapters in Nicholson's book considers the poem through the lens of a different readership: scholars; schoolchildren; compilers of commonplace books, who value specific elements about the poem; Queen Elizabeth, the ostensible subject of the poem; and readers who, across the centuries, ultimately failed to understand the poem. Rather than tell us how to read Spenser's work, Nicholson describes how these individual readers, from learned scholars to precocious schoolboys, jealous queens to algorithmic search engines, have generated meaning and pleasure from an unusual and difficult text. Throughout, the author argues that that The Faerie Queene can be read not simply as literature but as literary theory, a reflection on what reading does to texts, readers, and the worlds they live in"--

Britomart, a female knight, is the embodiment and champion of Chastity. She is young and beautiful, and falls in love with Artegal upon first seeing his face in her father's magic mirror. Though they have never met, she falls in love with him, and travels, dressed as a knight, accompanied by her nurse, Glauce, in search of her beloved Artegal. She carries an enchanted spear that allows her to defeat every Knight she encounters. Guyon and Arthur meet Britomart, who wins a joust with Guyon. They separate as Arthur and Guyon leave to rescue Florimell, while Britomart rescues the Redcrosse Knight. Britomart reveals to the Redcrosse Knight that she is pursuing Sir Artegal because she is destined to marry him. They proceed to meet Merlin, who explains that Britomart's destiny is to found the English monarchy. Britomart leaves and fights Sir Marinell while Arthur searches for Florimell. He is joined by Sir Satyrane and Britomart, and they witness and resist sexual temptation. It is only at the end of her quest Britomart is challenged by two knights who both seek to avenge their previous defeats at the hand of the unknown "Knight with the Ebony Spear," who is in reality Britomart. Both challenge, but again, are unseated by Britomart. In the heat of the challenge the face of Sir Artegal is revealed and Britomart's she at once recalls the day she first saw his face. Only then does her courage falter and her spirit grow tame, so that she softly withdraws her uplifted hand. Sir Scudamore observes sarcastically that Artegal has lived to become a lady's thrall! When Britomart hears the name of Artegal, her heart leaps and trembles with joy. She flushes deeply, and tries to hide her agitation by feigning anger. But all is put right and Britomart and Artegal fall deeply in love and can't bear to be parted. But Sir Artegal is on a quest, and parted they must be. So with a heavy heart Britomart joins Sir Scudamore in his search for Lady Amouret. Britomart is a female knight, the embodiment and champion of Chastity. She is young and beautiful, and falls in love with Artegal upon first seeing his face in her father's magic mirror. Though there is no interaction with him, she falls in love with him, and travels, dressed as a knight and accompanied by her nurse, Glauce, in search of her beloved Artegal. She carries an enchanted spear that allows her to defeat every Knight she encounters. After many adventures, it is only at the end of her quest Britomart is challenged by two knights who both seek to avenge their previous defeat at the hand of the unknown "Knight with the Ebony Spear," who is in reality Britomart. Both challenge, but again are unseated by Britomart. In his defeat the beautiful face of Sir Artegal is revealed and her mind at once recalls the day she first saw his face in her father's enchanted mirror. Only then does her courage began to falter, and her spirit grow tame, so that she softly withdraws her uplifted hand. Sir Scudamore, who has been observing the joust is glad at heart and exclaims with jest, "Truly, Sir Artegal, I rejoice to see you bow so low, and that you have lived to become a lady's thrall!" When Britomart hears the name of Artegal, her heart leaps and trembles with joy. She flushes deeply, and tries to hide her agitation by feigning anger. But all is put right and Britomart and Artegal fall deeply in love and can't bear to be parted. But a happy ending is not yet in sight as Sir Artegal is on a quest and takes his leave. Britomart is upset and can hardly bear to be parted. Britomart then joins Sir Scudamour on his quest to find his Lady Amoret and they return to where Britomart had last seen her."

Elizabeth I was one of the most powerful women rulers in European history. What can feminism reveal about the attitudes of her male subjects towards this enigmatic figure? Through readings of key Elizabethan texts by Lyly, Ralegh, Chapman, Shakespeare, and Spenser, Philippa Berry shows that while Elizabeth's combination of chastity with political and religious power was repeatedly idealized, it was also perceived as extremely disturbing. The figure of the unmarried queen implicitly challenged the masculine focus of Renaissance discourses of love, philosophy and absolutist political ideology. In her exploration of the potent combination of themes of sexuality and politics with classical myth and Neoplatonic mysticism, Berry offers a radical reassessment of the status of ẁoman' as a bearer of meaning within Renaissance literature and culture.--Amazon.com.

The great story motifs of romance were transmitted directly from the Middle Ages to the age of print in an abundance of editions. Spenser and Shakespeare assumed a familiarity with them and therefore exploited it, with new texts aimed at both elite and popular audiences

A reference book for scholarship on Edmund Spenser offering a detailed, literary guide to his life, works and influence. Over 700 entries by 422 contributors, an index and extensive bibliography.

Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is among the most important literary products of the Elizabethan age, and the vast sweep of its moral, political and social concerns tells us more about the age than any other work. This volume, first published in 1989, offers detailed readings of each of the poem’s seven books, along with introductory chapters on Spenser’s career, and the roots of the poem in the English and continental traditions. Humphrey Tonkin pays particular attention to the work’s political and cultural role and its contribution to the development of Elizabethan ideology. A comprehensive analysis, this reissue will be of particular value to literature students and academics alike.