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 The political and ecclesiastical allegor 
 
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 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013125194 
 
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLISH 
 VOLUME II 
 
 THE POLITICAL AND ECCLESIAS- 
 TICAL ALLEGORY OF THE 
 FIRST BOOK OF THE 
 FAERIE QUEENE 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK MORGAN PADELFORD, Ph.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON • NEW YORK ■ CHICAGO • LONDON 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY FREDERICK MORGAN PADELFORD 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 911.8 
 
 /\.I*Tl5fe 
 
 tgfrt gtfteitanm great 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
 PRIETORS ■ BOSTON • U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In this monograph I attempt to elucidate the "dark 
 conceit" of the First Book of Spenser's " Faerie Queene." 
 I was stimulated to undertake this task by the interest 
 which a class of college sophomores took in the poem as 
 a historical document. The members of this class, with 
 Philistine obduracy, frankly refused the potpourri of history 
 furnished by the notes in the various editions, and even 
 questioned the introduction of the Spanish Armada into 
 a book that presumably was written some years before the 
 Armada set forth. My interpretation may be wrong, but 
 in these days of higher criticism it is allowed every man 
 to have his say. Of one thing at least I feel sure, — the 
 allegory is in no more parlous state than it was before. 
 
 F. M. P. 
 Seattle, Washington 
 
THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 THE FAERIE QUEENE 
 
 A century ago Sir Walter Scott, in reviewing Todd's 
 edition of Spenser, offered the following criticism of edi- 
 tors and students of the poet : 
 
 The plan of the Faery Queen is much more involved than appears 
 at first sight to a common reader. Spenser himself has intimated this 
 in his letter to Sir Walter Raleigh prefixed to the poem. For he 
 there mentions, that he has often a general and particular intention, 
 as when he figures, under Gloriana, the general cibstract idea of 
 glory, but also the particular living person of Queen Elizabeth. This 
 " continued allegory " or dark conceit, therefore, contains, besides the 
 general allegory or moral, many particular and minute allusions to per- 
 sons and events in the court of Queen Elizabeth, as well as to points 
 of general history. The ingenuity of a commentator would have been 
 most usefully employed in decyphering what, "for avoiding of jealous 
 opinions and misconstructions," our author did not choose to leave too 
 open to the contemporary reader. But although everything belonging 
 to the reign of the Virgin Queen carries with it a secret charm to 
 Englishmen, no commentator of the Faery Queen has taken the trouble 
 to go very deep into those annals, for the purpose of illustrating the 
 secret, and, as it were, esoteric allusions of Spenser's poem. 1 
 
 Were Scott writing to-day, his criticism would be al- 
 most as pertinent as it was in 1805, for during the past 
 century English scholars have left this absorbing problem 
 almost untouched. One contribution of moment, and only 
 one, has been made. In 1888 Mr. J. Ernest Whitney 
 
 1 Edinburgh Review, Vol. VII (Oct. 1805), p. 214. 
 1 
 
2 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 presented a paper before the American Philological Asso- 
 ciation, in which he elaborated the theory that there is a 
 general correspondence between the events of the First 
 Book and the progress of the Reformation in England. 1 
 The suggestion for such a thesis had previously been 
 made by Upton, — an editor still deserving to be ranked 
 as one of the foremost of the interpreters of Spenser, — who 
 proposed that the Re d Cross Knight might be identica l 
 with Hen ry- VIII, a s Defensor Fidei : but it remained for 
 Whitney to demonstrate the reasonableness of this pro- 
 posal. 2 Whitney surveyed the book as a whole, and saw 
 its general significance, but, aside from incorporating a few 
 of the chance suggestions of earlier scholars, he did not 
 attempt to identify the various personages of the romance 
 with actual historical characters, or to connect the detailed 
 episodes of the cantos with the actual events of history. 
 Perhaps he was wise in abandoning the problem at this 
 point, for one must needs feel apprehensive of results 
 when dealing with a question that \must always remain 
 more or less in the realm of conjecture. Yet, if we are 
 ever to discover the deeper meaning of this allegory, some 
 one must launch boldly, if rashly, forth. Accordingly I 
 have made a venture at the somewhat detailed interpreta- 
 tion of parts of this First Book. In some of my conclu- 
 sions I confess to a tolerable degree of confidence ; and 
 I comfort myself with the reflection that even if other 
 scholars cannot agree with my findings, I have yet reintro- 
 duced an important question into the forum of letters. 
 
 1 Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. XIX, 
 p. 40. 
 
 2 Mention should be made of the dissertation by Max Hoffmann, 
 "Uber die Allegorie in Spensers Faerie Queene" [Konigsberg], in 
 which this suggestion receives slight consideration. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 3 
 
 That the "Faerie Queene" allows of historical interpreta- 
 tion — indeed, that the author regarded the historical aspect 
 as intrinsic — is abundantly evident from his own words. In 
 the letter to Sir Walter Raleigh he specifically states that the 
 allegory shadows forth real events and persons, and gives a 
 clue to the interpretation by identifying Queen Elizabeth 
 with the Faerie Queene in her aspect as queen, and with Bel- 
 phcebe in her aspect as a " vertuous and beautifull Lady." In 
 the prologue to the First Book, which really serves as a pro- 
 logue to the entire poem, the poet appeals to Clio, the muse 
 of history, rather than to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, 
 — a choice that was not due to error, as some scholars have 
 suggested, but that was dictated by the main design of the 
 poem. In the opening stanzas of the Second Book, Eliza- 
 beth is told that "in this antique ymage" she may see her 
 "great auncestry," and a hint is given the reader that the 
 allegory, though designedly occult, allows of interpretation : 
 
 Of Faerie Lond yet if he more inquire, 
 By certain signes, here sett in sondry place, 
 He may it find : ne let him then admire, 
 But yield his sence to bee too blunt and bace, 
 That note without an hound fine footing trace. 
 
 It is indeed a question if Spenser did not attempt a 
 minuteness of historical delineation that proved increas- 
 ingly burdensome as the work progressed, and that re- 
 quired simplification of the original design ; there would 
 seem to be a hint of such a change in the closing stanza 
 of the opening book, when the poet complains that 
 
 We must land some of our passengers 
 
 And light this weary vessel of her lode. / 
 
 Our present knowledge of the poem, however, does not 
 allow a conclusive answer to this question. 
 
4 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 If this book is to be examined as allegorical church his- 
 tory, it will be well first to determine Spenser's ecclesias- 
 tical sympathies as they may be deduced from sources 
 outside of the book itself. Spenser came from a family 
 of pron ounced Pro testant^ ajj^poaejj^SgJhan Catholic, 
 sympathies. 1 Among the earliest and most vivid of his 
 "rnemonesTnust have been the Protestant martyrdoms at 
 Smithfield; for the poet was born at East Smithfield, in 
 1552 (?), and the persecutions of Mary began in 1555 and 
 claimed nearly three hundred victims before her death in 
 1558. The sensitive mind of the child must have been 
 deeply impressed with these horrors. He was certainly 
 old enough to feel the wave of relief at Mary's death and 
 to catch the spirit of Protestant rejoicing when Elizabeth 
 kissed the Bible presented her by the nobles at her entry 
 to London, and promised "diligently to read therein ! " As 
 a youth he doubtless pored over Foxe's great work, the 
 "Actes and Monuments," which was the sole authority 
 for church history in Protestant households and an armory 
 of arguments in defense of Protestantism against Catholi- 
 cism 2 ; a book which was so eagerly sought that three 
 editions had appeared before the poet, at the age of twenty- 
 seven, completed the "Shepheardes Calender" and began 
 the composition of the great poem which was to be the 
 supreme exponent of his ideals. 3 
 
 1 Cf. Grosart, "The Ancestry and Family of Spenser," Works of 
 Spenser, Vol. I. 
 
 3 Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. VII (ed. of 1908), p. 588. 
 
 8 On Oct. 5, 1579, Spenser wrote to Gabriel Harvey: " I wil in hand 
 forthwith with my ' Faerie Queene,' whyche I praye you hastily send me 
 with al expedition." On the 23d, Harvey replied : " In good faith I 
 had once again well nigh forgotten your ' Faerie Queene '; howbeit by 
 good chance I have now sent her home at the last, neither in better nor 
 worse case than I found her." D. N. B., Vol. XVI II, p. 796. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 5 
 
 As a very young man he showed his ecclesiastical predi- 
 lections in the "Shepheardes Calender," for the eclogues 
 for May, July, and September discuss the conditions of the 
 Church and the evils of th e papacy . In the eclogue for May, 
 Palinode argues ruTUefense of worldliness in the clergy, 
 whereas Piers pleads for a humble, devout priesthood. 
 E. K., who supplies the argument and the glossary, and 
 who must have been intimately acquainted with Spenser's 
 views, 1 says that this eclogue contrasts the Protestant and 
 the Catholic clergy, and explains the story of the kid and 
 the fox with which the eclogue closes as "the simple sorte 
 of the faythfull and true Christians" deceived by "the false 
 and faithlesse Papistes." The eclogue for July, in the words 
 of "the argument, " is made in the honour and commenda- 
 tion of good shepheardes, and to the shame and disprayse 
 of proude and ambitious Pastours." It pleads for the devo- 
 tion and simplicity of the early shepherds, condemns the 
 "purple and pall," and concludes with a description of the 
 corrupt practices of Rome. In both this and the preceding 
 eclogue Archbishop Grindal, under the name of Algrind, 
 is extolled as the ideal Churchman both in doctrine and 
 in life. In the eclogue for September, Diggon Davie 2 dis- 
 courses to Hobbinol 3 on the abuses and loose living of 
 popish prelates, their greed and lust, and on the cunning of 
 the wolves and foxes who often outwit the unwary shepherd. 
 
 1 For the present purpose, it is immaterial whether " E. K." is the 
 poet himself, his friend Edward Kirke, or, as Professor Fletcher sug- 
 gests, the two acting jointly. 
 
 2 Grosart would identify this character with Spenser's Brabantine 
 friend, Johan Vander Noodt, who sought refuge in England " as well 
 for that I would not beholde the abominations of the Romyshe Ante- 
 christ as to escape the handes of the bloudthirsty." Works of Spenser, 
 Vol. I, pp. 25-28. 
 
 8 Gabriel Harvey. 
 
6 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 The Protestant literature of the time is full of such pic- 
 tures of the corruption at Rome, 1 and such comparisons 
 of the papal prelates to foxes and wolves. 2 Spenser was 
 clearly Protestant, as opposed to Roman Catholic, in his 
 feelings. 
 
 But it is not enough to show that Spenser was a so- 
 called Protestant, for, as in our own day, there were all 
 degrees of protestation, from the noisy, wrangling Puri- 
 tan who would sweep away every vestige of the historic 
 Church, to the High Churchman who sympathized with 
 most of the practices of the Church as they existed prior 
 to the Reformation, and who was quietly working to re- 
 establish much of the elaborateness of early usage. Nor 
 is it sufficient to show that Spenser was a Puritan, for 
 here again the latitude of the term allows of misunder- 
 standing. In a sense Bishop Cox was a Puritan, but he 
 did not hesitate to class the more destructive wing of the 
 Puritan party along with the Papists as very Antichrist. 3 
 Where in the Protestant and Puritan movements is 
 Spenser to be placed ? If he lauds both the life and 
 teachings of Grindal, is it not reasonable to suppose that 
 
 1 Cf. Philpot, Examinations and Writings, pp. 389, 418; Jewel, Works, 
 Vol. II, pp. 707, 728, 807 ; Vol. IV, pp. 627, 644, 745; Hooper, Early 
 Writings, p. 447 ; Ridley, Works, p. 53 ; Cranmer, Works, Vol. II, p. 63 : 
 " Of the prosperity and security that the false church hath in worldly 
 pleasures, using the same with all greediness and voluptuousness of 
 carnal lusts, with the wicked devices of tyranny against Christ and his 
 true members, ... it is most plainly written in the second and third 
 chapters of the Book of Wisdom " ; — all in the publications of the 
 Parker Society. 
 
 2 Cf. Zurich Letters, Vol. I, p. 322, and Sandys, Sermons, p. 397 [Parker 
 Society]. 
 
 8 Zurich Letters, Vol. I, p. 309 : " But the strength of the Lord and 
 his strong tower have hitherto defended us ; and the Lord will defend 
 his own even to the end, in spite of the chafing and assaults of those 
 two antichrists." 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 7 
 
 Grindal's attitude fairly represents his own ? Now Grindal 
 was a Puritan in the sense that he advocated devout and 
 humble living, and simplicity and sincerity of worship, — the 
 sense in which the most intelligent and spiritual members 
 of the Established Church were Puritans, — but he had no 
 sympathy with the rancorous and violent spirit of those 
 extremists who sought to overthrow the episcopal system 
 and to rob the service of form and dignity by degrading 
 the ritual, — men who would snatch the very vestments 
 from the backs of the clergy. His temper is well illus- 
 trated in the following excerpt from a letter written to 
 Henry Bullinger in 1573 : 
 
 Our affairs, after the settlement of the controversy respecting 
 ceremonies, were for some time very quiet: when some virulent 
 pamphlets came forth, privately printed, contrary to law, in which 
 almost the whole external polity of our Church was attacked. For 
 they maintain that archbishops and bishops should altogether be 
 reduced to the ranks ; that the ministers of the Church ought to be 
 elected solely by the people ; that they ought all to be placed upon 
 an equality ; . . . (they state) that the Church of England has scarcely 
 the appearance of a Christian Church, — that no set form of prayer 
 ought to be prescribed, but that in the holy assemblies each minister 
 should pray as the Holy Ghost may dictate ; that the infants of popish 
 recusants, as far as the use of baptism is concerned, are unclean (I use 
 their own words). . . . But a royal edict was lately published, in which 
 libels of this sort are forbidden to be circulated for the future ; which 
 circumstance, as I hope, will retard their endeavours. They are young 
 men who disseminate these opinions, and they have their supporters, 
 especially among those who are gaping for ecclesiastical property. 1 
 
 Again, writing to Rudolph Gualter, he thus characterizes 
 the Puritan agitators : 
 
 You candidly and truly confess, Master Gualter, that there are 
 some among those brethren who are a little morose ; and you might 
 
 1 Zurich Letters, Vol. I, p. 292. 
 
8 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 add too, obstreperous, contentious, rending asunder the unity of a 
 well-constituted Church, and everywhere handing up and down among 
 the people a form of divine worship concocted out of their own heads ; 
 that book, in the meantime, composed by godly fathers, and set forth 
 by lawful authority, being altogether despised and trodden under foot. 
 In addition to this, they inveigh in their sermons, which are of too 
 popular a character, against the popish filth and the monstrous habits, 
 which, they exclaim, are the ministers of impiety and eternal damna- 
 tion. Nothing moves them, neither the authority of the state, nor of 
 our Church, nor of her most serene majesty, nor of brotherly warn- 
 ing, nor of pious exhortation. Neither have they any regard to our 
 weaker brethren, who are hitherto smoking like flax, but endeavour 
 dangerously to inflame their minds. . .. We are undeservedly branded 
 with the accusation of not having performed our duty, because we do 
 not defend the cause of those whom we regard as disturbers of peace 
 and religion ; and who by the vehemence of their harangues have so 
 maddened the wretched multitude, and driven some of them to that 
 pitch of frenzy, that they now obstinately refuse to enter our churches, 
 either to baptize their children, or to partake of the Lord's supper, or 
 to hear sermons. They are entirely separated both from us and from 
 those good brethren of ours ; they seek bye paths ; they establish a 
 private religion, and assemble in private houses, and there perform 
 their sacred rites, as the Donatists of old, and the Anabaptists now ; 
 and as also our papists, who run up and down the cities that they 
 may somewhere or other hear mass in private. 1 
 
 Such was the attitude of Archbishop Grindal. In the 
 parlance of to-day, Grindal was not a dissenter, but a Low 
 Churchman, and the presumption is that Spenser, who ex- 
 pressed such warm admiration for him, was of the same 
 school. Moreover, Spenser has, I believe, paraded the 
 vociferousness of the more turbulent Puritans, and given 
 his own rebuke to men who had no regard for things of 
 sacred and historic association, in the Blatant Beast, the 
 
 1 Zurich Letters, Vol. I, p. 237. Cf. also Horn's letter to Bullinger 
 under date of Aug. 8, 1571, ibid. p. 249, and Strype, Life of Grindal, 
 p. 439, et freq. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 9 
 
 personification of scandal or calumny. The conclusion of 
 the career of the Blatant Beast is thus described : 
 
 From thence into the sacred Church he broke, 
 
 And robd the Chancell, and the deskes downe threw, 
 
 And Altars fouled, and blasphemy spoke, 
 
 And th' Images for all their goodly hew, 
 
 Did cast to ground, whilest none was them to rew ; 
 
 So all confounded and disordered there. 1 
 
 Upton 2 construes this passage to mean that the Roman 
 Catholic priests turned the Church to mercenary account 
 and preached scandal from its pulpit ; but clearly the scan- 
 dal is directed against the Church, and the scandal-mongers 
 are those who seek to tear down chancel, desk, and altar. 
 Surely Spenser must have had in mind those obnoxious 
 malcontents who could not rest so long as the Church 
 retained any of its ancient aspect, — the class of men who 
 strove to remove the very fonts and eagles from the sanc- 
 tuary. 3 Through this character Spenser but gives poetical 
 utterance to a feeling that was general among the sup- 
 porters of the Established Church, and that finds frequent 
 and anxious expression in the ecclesiastical correspondence 
 of the time. 4 Certainly there were those among Spenser's 
 contemporaries who identified the Blatant Beast with the 
 Puritans, for Ben Jonson remarked on this very point to 
 William of Hawthornden. 5 
 
 1 Faerie Queene, 6. 12. 25. 2 Spenser's F. Q. Vol. II, p. 656. 
 
 8 Parker, Correspondence, p. 450 [Parker Society]. 
 
 1 Cf. Zurich Letters, Vol. I, pp. 287, 295 ; and the General Index of 
 the publications of the Parker Society. 
 
 6 Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden [Edinburgh, 1711], 
 p. 225 : " Spenser's stanzas pleased him [Jonson] not, nor his matter. 
 The meaning of the allegory of his Fairy Queen he had delivered in 
 writing to Sir Walter Raleigh, which was ' that by the Bleating Beast he 
 understood the Puritans, and by the false Duessa the Queen of Scots.' " 
 
IO THE POLIl iCAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 In the "Cantos of Mutabilitie" l occurs another appar- 
 ent reference to the Puritans : 
 
 And backward yode, as Bargemen wont to fare 
 
 Bending their force contrary to their face ; 
 
 Like that ungracious crew which faines demurest grace. 
 
 There was no other class in English society to whom 
 this could apply. Again, the abstemious and disagreeable 
 Elissa, the elder sister of Medina, 2 is an extreme Puri- 
 tan type. Just as Sir Guyon chose Medina, the golden 
 mean, in preference to the prudish Elissa and the wanton 
 Perissa, so Spenser chose the golden mean between the 
 self-righteous and barren Puritan and the sensuous Roman 
 Catholic. Medina, 
 
 A sober sad and comely courteous Dame ; 
 Who rich arayd, and yet in modest guize, 
 In goodly garments that her well became, 
 Fayre marching forth in honorable wize, 3 
 
 expresses very well the temper of the Low Churchman in 
 the days of Elizabeth. 
 
 Indeed, the preference for the golden mean, thus alle- 
 gorically expressed,, is supremely characteristic of Spenser. 
 It led him, in "Mother Hubberd's Tale," 4 to condemn 
 mumming, masking, dice, cards, and courtezans, and at the 
 same time to commend feats of strength, such as running, 
 hunting, and wrestling, and to picture the courtly gentle- 
 man as recovering the joy of youth with music and "ladies 
 gentle sportes." It gave him sympathies both spiritual and 
 sensuous ; both medieval, and humanistic and Italian ; both 
 
 1 F. Q. 7. 7. 35. 7-9. Cf. Warton's note, Todd, Works of Edmund 
 Spenser, Vol. VII, pp. 229-230. 
 
 2 F. Q. 2. *. 35. » Ibid. a. *. 14. 5-8. * 11. 717-758. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE II 
 
 Catholic and Protestant ; both Hellenic and Hebraic. His 
 philosophy was a felicitous blending of Puritanism and Pla- 
 tonism, which enabled him to maintain a balance between 
 the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit, and 
 between the beautiful and the good. As the most careful 
 student of his philosophy has written : ' 
 
 Spenser's Puritanism saved him from seizing upon those pagan 
 and sensuous elements in classical literature which proved a pitfall to 
 so many of his contemporaries ; it made him blind to the more dan- 
 gerous aspects of Platonism and helped to concentrate his attention 
 on that which is noblest and most characteristic in Plato, — his ethi- 
 cal genius; on the other hand Spenser's Platonism preserved him 
 from the, artistically at any rate, no less dangerous pitfalls of Puri- 
 tanism ; it helped to preserve him from mental narrowness by show- 
 ing him the best possible examples of freedom and flexibility of mind, 
 and taught him what, as a poet, it was most essential he should know, 
 — • that beauty is not only consistent with moral earnestness but may 
 be made to contribute to it in the most powerful way. 1 
 
 I have thus gone into detail in trying to determine 
 Spenser's attitude on ecclesiastical matters because it has 
 an intimate bearing on the interpretation of the allegory 
 of the First Book. 2 
 
 In offering my interpretation I shall not invariably 
 proceed according to the strict sequence of the story, but 
 I shall try to find the interpretation of some of the less 
 difficult phases of the allegory, and proceed from these to 
 the consideration of the more difficult. It will of course 
 be necessary to tell the story somewhat in detail, in order 
 that the discussion may be clear. 
 
 1 Lilian Winstanley, Edmund Spenser : The Fowre Hymnes, p. xi. 
 
 2 For an elaborate discussion of Spenser's theology as essentially 
 Calvinistic, see the article by Lilian Winstanley in Modern Language 
 Quarterly, Vol. Ill, no. 6, p. 103. 
 
12 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 The opening stanzas of Canto I introduce the knight 
 and lady who are the hero and heroine of the book, and 
 their attendant dwarf : 
 
 A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, 
 
 Ycladd in mightie amies and silver shielde, 
 
 Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine, 
 
 The cruell markes of many'a bloody fielde ; 
 
 Yet armes till that time did he never wield. 
 
 His angry steede did chide his foming bitt, 
 
 As much disdayning to the curbe to yield : 
 
 Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt, 
 
 As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt. 
 
 And on his brest a bloodie Crosse he bore, 
 
 The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, 
 
 For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, 
 
 And dead, as living, ever him ador'd: 
 
 Upon his shield the like was also scor'd, 
 
 For soveraine hope which in his helpe he had. 
 
 Right faithfull true he was in deede and word, 
 
 But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad ; 
 
 Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad. 
 
 A lovely Ladie rode him faire beside, 
 Upon a lowly Asse more white then snow, 
 Yet she much whiter ; but the same did hide 
 Under a vele, that wimpled was full low ; 
 And over all a blacke stole she did throw : 
 As one that inly mournd, so was she sad, 
 And heavie sate upon her palfrey slow ; 
 Seemed in heart some hidden care she had, 
 And by her in a line a milke-white lambe she lad. 
 
 So pure andjnnocentj^ as that same lambe, 
 She was in life and every vertuous lore ; 
 And by descent from Royall lynage came 
 Of ancient Kings and Queenes, that had of yore 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 1 3 
 
 Their scepters stretcht from East to Westerne shore, 
 
 And all the world in their subjection held ; 
 
 Till that infernall feend with foule uprore 
 
 Forwasted all their land, and them expeld ; 
 
 Whom to avenge, she had this Knight from far compeld. 
 
 Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag, 
 That lasie seemd, in being ever last, 
 Or wearied with bearing of her bag 
 Of needments at his backe. . . . 
 
 Thus, as they journey, a sudden storm breaks over- 
 head, and they take refuge in a dense wood, whose thick- 
 set trees shut out the light of heaven. Admiring the trees 
 and "joying to heare the birdes sweete harmony," they 
 wander deeper into the forest, until, the storm over and 
 wishing to retrace their steps, they find that they are lost. 
 So many paths confront them that at first they are at a 
 loss which to choose, but finally elect the one that seems 
 most traveled. This brings them to a cave. The knight 
 quickly dismounts, hands his " needlesse spere " to his 
 dwarf, and makes for the entrance. Nor, like the "feare- 
 full Dwarfe," is he deterred by his lady's warning that this 
 den is the abode of "Errour." Entered within the "dark- 
 some hole," lo ! a monster, half serpent and half woman, 
 surrounded by her thousand young, which, taking fright, 
 creep into their dam's mouth. Thereupon ensues a fierce 
 conflict, in which, trusting to his " trenchand blade " and 
 his shield, the knight comes off victor; only, however, 
 after the beast has almost wrested his shield from his 
 hand and the lady has warned him to add faith unto his 
 force. Thence the travelers set out again, and towards 
 evening fall in with one Archimago, an aged man, clad 
 as a monk, whom the knight takes for a palmer. The 
 
14 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 meek behavior of the stranger wins the confidence of the 
 knight, and he accepts the proffered shelter of a hermit- 
 age. His guests retired, the old man seeks -his study and 
 his magic books, and secures the services of an "ydle 
 dream," wherewith the cunning hypocrite tempts the 
 chastity of the virgin knight. But the knight withstands 
 the temptation. Failing in this attempt, Archimago next 
 contrives a show of Una lying in the embrace of a fair 
 young squire. The knight beholds the spectacle, is con- 
 vinced of the impurity of his lady, and with his dwarf 
 flees. Una in turn awakes, finds her knight departed, 
 and sorrowfully sets out in search of him. The knight 
 at length chances to meet a faithless Saracen, Sansfoy, 
 attended by a lady of seeming fairness. The men do 
 battle and Sansfoy is slain. Thereupon the lady, who is 
 in reality the false Duessa, attaches herself to the knight, 
 and by fair words deceives him, pretending that she is 
 faithfulness itself, a maid by name Fidessa. The unsus- 
 pecting knight takes her to be "the fairest wight that 
 lived yet." Thence setting forth, they wander for a time, 
 and at length seek rest beneath shady trees. On breaking 
 a bough, the knight discovers that the trees are two 
 lovers, Fradubio and Frselissa, whom Duessa had thus 
 cruelly imprisoned. Fradubio tells his melancholy story. 
 Once, riding with his lady, he met a false knight with a 
 fair companion. She was of seeming loveliness, though 
 she later proved to be the false Duessa. Dispute arising as 
 to which lady was the fairer, the false knight was over- 
 thrown, and Fradubio thus became the protector of the 
 two. One day he 
 
 cast for to compare 
 Whether in beauties glorie did exceed, 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 15 
 
 and then, fearfull lest she lose, the enchantress Duessa 
 made her rival to appear of " foule ugly forme " and left 
 her to turn to a moldering tree. So Fradubio took 
 Duessa for his dame. But one day he " chaunst to see 
 her in proper hew," a "filthy foule old woman"; and 
 Duessa saw his ill-concealed disgust and likewise trans- 
 formed him into a tree, to stand beside his former love. 
 This evil plight they could never change till bathed in 
 a living well. Such is the somber tale, but the knight is 
 too insensible to detect therein the image of his own con- 
 duct, and, placing Duessa on her steed, proceeds on his 
 way. Such is the story of the first two cantos. 
 * After giving a digest of the entire book to show how 
 all the episodes hinge upon the thought of the defense 
 of the faith, Whitney thus begins the interpretation of 
 the historical or personal allegory, which he believes to 
 be the one "continued allegory": 
 
 Henry VIII. came to the throne of England in 1509. Luther 
 nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle 
 Church on All Saints' eve, 1517. Before the death of his elder 
 brother, Henry VIII. had been educated for the Church. Deeply 
 interested in the Renaissance he was still more interested in the 
 Reformation. In the eleventh year of Henry's reign, in October, 
 1520, Luther published the most important work of the times, "The 
 Babylonian Captivity of the Church of God." To this the royal 
 theologian of England made reply with a book called "Assertio sep- 
 tem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum." Regarding 
 this book a recent Roman Catholic authority has written : "We know 
 of none among the contemporary works which defend the Church 
 more filially and more warmly." For this enthusiastic defense, in the 
 following year, 1521, Pope Leo X. conferred upon Henry the title 
 "Fidei Defensor" and commanded all Christians so to address him. 
 The title has been held by the sovereigns of England to this day. 
 Pope Clement VII. confirmed the title. In 1527, Protestants were still 
 
1 6 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 persecuted in England, but Henry had resolved on the divorce, 
 which led to such important results. In 1531 the king was acknowl- 
 edged supreme head of the Church of England. In 1532 Anne 
 Boleyn was crowned. In 1534 the Act of Supremacy was passed. 
 From that time on, the former defender of the Roman faith became 
 its oppressor and the champion and defender of the Protestant faith. 
 Henceforward, except in the reign of Mary, whenever an English 
 sovereign used the title "Fidei Defensor," the implied adjective was 
 wholly different in significance from the one in the minds of Popes 
 Leo X. and Clement VII. 
 
 Now let us see what use Spenser made of this material. St. George 
 is Fidei Defensor not representing Henry VIII. alone, but rather the 
 sovereigns of England, who bear the title of Defender of the Faith. 
 With the just license of a patriotic poet, Spenser represents Una, or 
 the cause of truth, as the peculiar charge of St. George, or England. 
 At the beginning of the allegory the tempest of the Reformation 
 drives the wandering pair into a labyrinth of Error, and there 
 St. George fights sturdily against the Dragon Error in defense of 
 Truth and Faith. Perhaps never in all Christian history has this 
 error been so common, so excusable. In spite of his theological 
 training, or possibly because of it, to Henry VIII., as to nearly all 
 Englishmen, the true faith seemed at first to be that which every 
 Christian sought in the Church of Rome. Even Luther was a de- 
 voted Papist before he became a devoted Reformer. 
 
 Throughout the first of the allegory Una is veiled to her lover, and 
 we see the significance of that puzzling mystery. The Dragon of the 
 Wood of Error was a veritable dragon, and in attacking it, St. George 
 was the champion of no false faith, but simply struggling with misunder- 
 standing. Una typifies the true Christian Church on earth, long rep- 
 resented by Rome only, from this time forward represented, though 
 still- half concealed under her black stole, by the Protestant Church 
 only. She is that heavenly truth which Luther sought first in Rome, 
 which England at the beginning of the Reformation still seemed to 
 see in Rome, and St. George is her champion. Archimago, symbol of 
 papal influence, by lies and delusions, convinces St. George that his 
 veiled Una is not truth, but foulest falsehood. The meaning is, that 
 before England found its way out of the great tangle of error, it was 
 led to turn from the true faith as St. George abandoned Una. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 1 7 
 
 We next find the King of England defending the false faith, as 
 St. George becomes the defender of Fidessa not knowing that she 
 is the falsely faithless Duessa. But in this very change St. George 
 gives the death blow to Sansfoy, the faithless, and becomes Fidessa's 
 sole defender. In much the same way England sought to defend the 
 island faith from injury by making Henry supreme head of the 
 Church in England, and thus gave a far heavier blow than was 
 intended to the old established papal faith on the island. I think, 
 too, that in the relations of Duessa and the Red Cross Knight there 
 is much more than a shadowy fabric of allusion to Henry VIII. 's favor 
 shown to certain less substantial phases of the Renaissance, which 
 might well be represented by the oriental Duessa, the daughter of the 
 emperor of the West, and the link between Constantinople and Rome. 1 
 
 The Red Cross Knight, according to Spenser's own 
 testimony, is St. George, which is England as a militant 
 spiritual force ; and as the sovereign, the Defender of the 
 Faith, was the concrete embodiment of this force, I agree 
 with Whitney that the Red Cross Knight and Henry VIII 
 are to an extent to be identified. Una, I also take to be 
 truth as ultimately revealed in the doctrines and practices 
 of the liberated and purified national Church. Thus to 
 assist the spirit of truth completely to possess the Church, 
 thus to define and illustrate Christ's ideal for the Church, 
 was the exalted and peculiar office of England among the 
 nations. 
 
 In the main, therefore, I believe that Whitney's inter- 
 pretation is correct ; I shall try to add to it, however, and in 
 some respects to modify it, after discussing the third canto. 
 
 In Canto III, Una, "forsaken, wofull, solitarie," wanders 
 in quest of her knight. One day as she is resting in a 
 grove, a " ramping Lyon . . . hunting full greedy after sal- 
 vage blood," bursts out of the thick wood and makes to 
 
 1 Transactions of the American Philological Association,^ ol. XIX, p. 62. 
 
1 8 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 devour her. But when he draws nigh, his fierceness is 
 suddenly changed to fawning, and when she mounts her 
 "snowy Palfrey" he becomes her attendant. Long they 
 travel thus, until at length she spies a damsel bearing on 
 her shoulders a pot of water. Una accosts her, asking 
 for shelter, but the damsel's only answer is to throw 
 down her pitcher and run away. The travelers, however, 
 follow her and seek admittance to the house in which 
 she has taken refuge. When no response is made, the 
 lion breaks open the door, discovering the damsel and 
 her blind mother crouching in the. corner. In the dark- 
 ness of this room the old woman is wont to say 
 
 Nine hundred Pater Nosters every day 
 And thrise nine hundred Aves, 
 
 and to do penance in ashes and sackcloth. At night Una 
 lies down to rest, the lion at her feet. Suddenly there is 
 knocking at the door, and when the women, fearful of the 
 lion, fail to open it, with curses a man, carrying a heavy 
 load on his back, breaks in the door. The lion straight- 
 way leaps upon him and kills him, rending him in a thou- 
 sand pieces, while "the thirsty land dronke up his life." 
 This man was a stout and sturdy thief, 
 
 Wont to robbe churches of their ornaments, 
 And poore mens boxes of their due reliefe, 
 
 and to bestow his pilfered treasures on the damsel, who 
 was his paramour. With morning, Una and the lion 
 depart, followed afar by the "fearful twayne " who lament 
 and curse her. Thus cursing, they are met by the subtle 
 Archimago, who has deceitfully clad himself in armor 
 like to that of the Red Cross Knight. Learning of Una's 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 19 
 
 whereabouts, he follows and overtakes her, and she is re- 
 joiced to recover her supposed lord. They ride but a little 
 way when they see a stern knight, strongly armed ( and 
 mounted on a fierce steed, pricking toward them. It is 
 Sansloy. Eager to avenge the death of Sansfoy, his brother, 
 he engages Archimago, little used to arms, and quickly un- 
 horses him. But when, "rending up his helmet," he dis- 
 covers the visage of Archimago, he learns too late that he 
 has struck a friend. Thinking that Archimago is dead, 
 he next turns to Una and rudely seizes her. Thereupon 
 the lion leaps upon him, but Sansloy is too much for his 
 assailant, and kills the faithful beast and carries Una away. 
 It is of course the suppression of the monasteries that 
 is described in the first part of this canto. The old hag 
 symbolizes superstition ; her licentious daughter, fearful 
 of the truth, the immorality of the monks ; and the rob- 
 ber, monastic greed and rapine. 1 The lion is identified 
 by most editors, who follow the suggestion of Upton, 2 with 
 Henry VIII. But clearly Henry cannot fill the role both 
 of the Red Cross Knight and of the lion, for the lion 
 assumes the protection of Una when the Red Cross Knight 
 deserts her. Moreover, the lion is killed by his adversary 
 and disappears from the poem, so that if the lion is Henry, 
 the death of the lion at the hands of Sansloy cannot refer 
 to physical death, in which case the allegory must be inter- 
 preted in some such general way as that Henry was over- 
 come by the spirit of lawlessness. But even so, one would 
 expect to have the lion taken captive by his conqueror 
 and made his subject, rather than killed by him. More- 
 over, if Sansloy stands for the spirit of lawlessness, Sansfoy 
 
 1 Cf. Works of Bishop Ridley, p. 402 [Parker Society]. 
 
 2 Spenser's F. Q. Vol. II, p. 363. 
 
THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 [lust stand for the spirit of faithlessness ; but certainly it 
 buld be absurd to interpret the spirit of faithlessness as 
 destroyed in the very early days of the Reformation, even 
 prioV to the destruction of the monasteries. I take it, 
 ratheR that the lion, Sansfoy, and Sansloy all represent 
 actual men, and that the deaths of the lion and of Sansfoy 
 refer to pie actual physical deaths of some protector of the 
 faith and of some one of its enemies. 
 
 The lion I believe to be Thomas Cromwell. In the 
 eyes of the sixteenth-century Churchman, Cromwell fig- 
 ured as a spiritual leader and a martyr. This is the uni- 
 form interpretation given his character by all writers of 
 ^the English Church. Subsequent centuries have, to be 
 sure, discovered the real truth about the man, and we 
 now think of him as the enemy of freedom, a minister self- 
 trained in the school of Machiavelli. 1 But by the Church- 
 men of his own and the succeeding generation he was 
 regarded as the stalwart champion of reform, the enemy 
 of the papacy, the good friend of Cranmer, Ridley, and 
 Latimer, their leader and fellow worker in establishing 
 the Church upon a sound body of doctrine. 
 
 Foxe, who both expressed and molded the sentiment of 
 Elizabethan Churchmen, credits Cromwell with the sup- 
 pression of the abbeys and monasteries in the following 
 language : 
 
 Now somewhat would be said likewise of the noble Acts, the 
 memorable Examples and worthy Vertues, not drowned by ease of 
 Honour in him, but increased rather, and quickned by advancement 
 of Authority and Place, to work more abundantly in the Common- 
 wealth. Among the which his worthy Acts and other manifold 
 
 1 Cf . the interesting study of his character in Van Dyke's Renais- 
 sance Portraits [New York, 1905], p. 138. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 21 
 
 Vertues, in this one chiefly above all other riseth his commendation, 
 for his singular Zeal and laborious Travel bestowed in restoring the 
 true Church of Christ, and subverting the Synagogue of Antichrist, 
 the Abbeys, I mean, and Religious houses of Friers and Monks. For 
 so it pleased Almighty God, by the means of the said Lord Cromwel, 
 to induce the King to suppress first the^Chauntries, then the Friers 
 Houses and small Monasteries, till aVJength all the Abbeys in Eng- 
 land, both great and less, were utterly overthrown and pluckt up by 
 the roots. . . . For my part I never saw yet in this Realm any such 
 Cromwel since Cromwels time, whose heart and courage might not 
 sooner have been subverted with the Mony and Bribes of Abbats, 
 than he to have subverted any Abbey in all England. 1 
 
 Then, after discussing at length the evil of the monas- 
 teries, he concludes : 
 
 All which things well considered, what marvel is it then, if God 
 of his just judgment did set up the foresaid Cromwel to destroy these 
 sinful houses, whom their own corruptions could suffer no longer 
 to stand? 2 
 
 Several explanations suggest themselves for the choice 
 of the lion as the symbol of this grim minister. Reference 
 may be had to the hardy origin of Cromwell as a smith's 
 son ; or the savageness of the beast may be designed to 
 suggest the brutal dispatch with which Cromwell exe- 
 cuted his reform ; or, more likely yet, the lion is chosen 
 because the beast figures both on the arms and on the 
 crest of Cromwell, — a common method of identification 
 in allegory. 3 
 
 By the thirsty land drinking up the blood of Kirkrapine 
 is meant the dissemination of the monastic wealth, which 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments (ed. of 1684), Vol. II, p. 421. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 423. Cf. also Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials (ed. of 1824), 
 Vol. I, pt 1, pp. 534, 561, et al. 
 
 3 Cf. Doyle, Official Baronage of England, Vol. I, p. 690. Observe 
 the similar way in which Surrey identifies himself in one of his poems 
 {Padelford, Early Sixteenth Century Lyrics, p. 57). 
 
22 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 Foxe justifies on the ground that only by this means could 
 possible future restoration of the monasteries be forestalled. 1 
 If the lion is Cromwell, who is Sansloy ? I think we 
 find the answer again in Foxe. After concluding the 
 account of Cromwell's services in destroying the monas- 
 teries, Foxe elaborates upon his subsequent constructive 
 work for the Church, a service allegorically set forth in 
 the lion's attendance upon Una after the extinction of 
 Kirkrapine. Then the account takes up the story of 
 Cromwell's fall, introducing it with the following words : 
 
 While the Lord Cromwel was thus blessedly occupied in profiting 
 the common wealth, and purging the Church of Christ, it hapned to 
 him, as commonly it doth to all good Men, that where any excellency 
 of vertue appeareth, there envie creepeth in, and where true piety 
 seeketh most after Christ, there some persecution followeth withal. 
 
 This, I say, as he was labouring in the Commonwealth and doing 
 good to the poor afflicted saints, helping them out of trouble, the 
 malice of his Enemies so wrought, continually hunting for matter 
 against him, that they never ceased, till in the end they by false 
 trains and crafty surmises brought him out of the Kings Favour. 
 
 The chief and principal Enemy against him was Stephen Gardiner, 
 Bishop of Winchester ; who ever disdaining and envying the State 
 and Felicity of the Lord Cromwel, and now taking his occasion by 
 the Marriage of Lady Anne of Cleve, being a stranger and forein, 
 put in the Kings ears what a perfect thing it were to the quiet of 
 the Realm, and establishment to the Kings succession, to have an 
 English Queen and Prince that were meer English ; so that in con- 
 clusion, the Kings affection, the more it was diminished from the 
 late married Anne of Cleve, the less favour he bare unto Cromwel. 
 Besides this Gardiner, there lacked not other Friends also, and ill 
 willers in the Court about the King, which little made for Cromwel 
 both for his Religion which they maligned, and for other private 
 grudges also incident by the way. 2 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments, Vol. II, p. 423. 
 " Ibid. pp. 43 x -43 2 - 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 23 
 
 Again, in introducing the injunctions against English 
 books, sects, and sacramentaries, Foxe writes : 
 
 As the Lord of his goodness had raised up Thomas Cromwel to 
 be a Friend and Patron to the Gospel, so on the contrary side Satan 
 (which is Adversary and Enemy to all good things) had his Organ also, 
 which was Stephen Gardiner, by all wiles and subtil means to im- 
 peach and put back the same. 1 
 
 In like vein Hall in his " Chronicle " 2 and Strype in 
 his "Ecclesiastical Memorials " 3 attribute the overthrow of 
 Cromwell to the antagonism of Gardiner, and it was clearly 
 the prevailing belief of the sixteenth-century Churchmen 
 that Cromwell and Gardiner were pitted against each other 
 as the leaders respectively of the English Church party and 
 of the Romanists, and that Cromwell's fall was due to his 
 adversaries' cunning. 4 If then the lion symbolizes Crom- 
 well, Sansloy symbolizes Gardiner. "Sansloy" was a very 
 proper name for one who was credited with undermining 
 the principles of true religion with all craft and subtlety, 
 with being the chief instigator of Protestant persecutions, 
 with deceiving the king by threats of foreign enemies and 
 civil tumults, and even with plotting to murder Elizabeth, 
 the heroine of the "Faerie Queene," as a child. 5 
 
 Just as Una fell into the hands of Sansloy when the 
 lion was slain, so, in the defeat of Cromwell, Gardiner 
 gained control of the ecclesiastical policy, laid rude hands 
 upon the Church, and tried to recover it for Romanism. 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments, Vol. II, p. 369. 
 
 2 P. 838. 8 Vol. I, pt. 1, p. 561. 
 
 4 Cf. the play, " The Life and Death of Thomas, Lord Cromwell " 
 (Ancient British Drama, Vol. I, pp. 360-380), first printed in 1602, in 
 which this struggle is presented in dramatic form. In this play the 
 character of Cromwell is extravagantly idealized. 
 
 5 D. N. B. Vol. VII, p. 864 ; Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. Ill, 
 pt. 1, p. 131. 
 
24 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 The Injunctions of 1539, — injunctions against English 
 translations of the Bible, against discussion of the sacra- 
 ments, and in support of holy bread and water and other 
 rites, — the martyrdom of Lambert, and the famous Six 
 Articles were the introductory steps in this activity. Foxe 
 thus prefaces the summary of these '" crafty fetches" of 
 "this wily Winchester" : 
 
 To many which be yet alive, and can testifie these things, it is 
 not unknown, how variable the state of Religion stood in these days ; 
 how hardly and with what difficulty it came forth, what chances and 
 changes it suffered. Even as the King was ruled and gave ear some- 
 time to one, sometime to another, so one while it went forward, at 
 another season as much backward again, and sometime clean altered 
 and changed for a season, according as they could prevail which were 
 about the King. So long as Queen Anne lived, the Gospel had in- 
 different success. 
 
 After that she, by sinister instigation of some about the King, 
 was made away, the course of the Gospel began again to decline, 
 but that the Lord then stirred up the Lord Cromwel, opportunely 
 to help in that behalf. Who, no doubt, did much avail, for the in- 
 crease of Gods true Religion, and much more had brought to per- 
 fection, if the pestilent Adversaries, maligning the prosperous glory 
 of the Gospel, by contrary practising had not craftily undermined 
 him and supplanted his vertuous proceedings. By the means of which 
 Adversaries it came to pass after the taking away of the said Crom- 
 wel, that the state of Religion more and more decayed, during all the 
 residue of the reign of King Henry. 
 
 Among these Adversaries above mentioned, the chief Captain was 
 Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester ; who with his Confederates 
 and Adherents, disdaining at the state of the Lord Cromwel, and at 
 the late marriage of the Lady Anne of Cleve, ... as also grieved 
 partly at the dissolution of the Monasteries, and fearing the growing 
 of the Gospel, sought all occasions how to interrupt these happy be- 
 ginnings, and to train the King to their own purpose. 1 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments, Vol. II, p. 370. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 25 
 
 Sansloy's misdirected attack upon the disguised Archi- 
 mago is in general allusion, I should think, to Gardiner's 
 unwitting assault upon the Roman Catholic Church in up- 
 holding the divorce proceedings of Henry ; as soon as he 
 appreciated that an actual change in religion was coming 
 in the wake of the divorce, he swung around and launched 
 an aggressive counter propaganda of Romanism. 
 
 If Sansloy is Gardiner, who is Sansfoy, the Saracen, 
 attended by Duessa, who, in the story of the second canto, 
 is vanquished and killed by the Red Cross Knight ? The 
 description of the character concludes : 
 
 full large of limbe and every joint 
 He was, and cared not for God or man a point. 1 
 
 And when he rode against the Red Cross Knight, it is 
 
 said that 
 
 He, prickt with pride 
 
 And hope to winne his Ladies heart that day, 
 
 Forth spurred fast. 2 
 
 Sansfoy must be some man high in the Church, of spirit- 
 ual kinship with Gardiner, large of body and proud and 
 disdainful of spirit, ambitious to make the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church his mistress, who was struck down by Henry 
 prior to the ascendancy of Cromwell and Gardiner. Only 
 one character can possibly meet these requirements, — 
 Cardinal Wolsey. 
 
 In the opinion of the Elizabethan Protestants, Gardiner 
 was the successor of Wolsey as the leader of the Roman 
 Catholics. Wolsey had indeed recommended him to the 
 Pope in a well-known letter as " Primary Secretary of the 
 most secret counsels" and as the very "half of himself: 
 
 1 F. Q. 1.2. 12. 2 Ibid. 1. 2. 14. 
 
26 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 than whom none was dearer to him." x Of the cardinal's 
 pride, his greed, his falseness, and his inordinate ambition 
 to secure the papal throne, what contemporary record is 
 silent! 2 Nor could a better pseudonym than "Sansfoy" 
 have been chosen for this worldly cardinal, who expressed 
 as completely as any of the De Medici the pagan spirit of 
 the Renaissance. He was, indeed, England's one perfect 
 exponent of that spirit, and his spiritual deficiency must 
 have been strikingly evident to one who, like Spenser, 
 never allowed his sympathy with classical traditions to 
 threaten his faith. 
 
 As the Red Cross Knight became the associate and 
 defender of the disguised Duessa upon the death of 
 Sansfoy, so, upon the overthrow of Wolsey, Henry in turn 
 began to play a false role in religion, and like Wolsey 
 made the Church the mistress of his own vanity and self- 
 ishness. Hardly had Wolsey drawn his last breath, before 
 the blasphemous vanity of Henry forced from a reluctant 
 clergy the recognition of himself as Supreme Head of the 
 Church, a title that he later forced Parliament itself to 
 concede. In throwing off the papal yoke, Henry acted as 
 the champion of reform, but he failed to take advantage of 
 this initial service, and his influence soon became reaction- 
 ary, so that by his attitude toward ecclesiastical reform he 
 hindered the expression of truth through a purified Church, 
 and by his immoral conduct violated the principles of truth 
 as a rule of private life. 
 
 What is the historical counterpart of the "deceiving 
 image" that resembles Una, but is not she, and that 
 
 1 Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, pt. i, p. 137. 
 
 2 Cf. Hall, Chronicle, pp. 759, 773, 774; Actes and Monuments, 
 Vol. II, pp. 197-209. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 27 
 
 « 
 
 appears to the Red Cross Knight in the embrace of a 
 lusty young squire ? I suggest that this image may stand 
 for Lutheranism, against which, in 1529, the year prior to 
 the death of Wolsey, Henry issued "a proclamation for 
 resisting and withstanding of most damnable heresies, 
 sown within this realm by the disciples of Luther, and 
 other heretics, perverters of Christ's religion"; 1 and that 
 the squire may stand for Germany. Una was veiled, the 
 knight had never beheld her face, and he was therefore 
 easily deceived into mistaking the image for his lady ; so 
 the truth, as embodied in the doctrines of the English 
 Church, was not yet revealed, and Henry could not dis- 
 criminate between the system of Luther and the true 
 faith. The spectacle of Lutheranism disgusted him, and 
 in turning away from it he turned away from the true 
 reform which was to follow, and of which it was only a 
 semblance. This interpretation, making Lutheranism a 
 product of Rome and only an imitation of true religion, 
 is probably in line with Spenser's own attitude towards 
 Lutherans, for the feeling against Lutheranism was very 
 pronounced among the Low Churchmen of Spenser's day ; 
 they were followers of Zwingli, and classed the Lutherans 
 with Papists. Writing to Rudolph Gualter, in 1 576, Bishop 
 Horn declared Lutheranism "a great disturber of Christian- 
 ity," 2 and William Turner, Dean of Wells, classed Luther- 
 ans with wolves, Papists, Sadducees, and Herodians. Arch- 
 bishop Grindal, the mentor of Spenser, in common with 
 all those leaders who had come under the influence of 
 the Swiss schools, was a pronounced antagonist of the 
 
 1 Ci. Actes and Monuments, Vol. II, pp. 236 ff., for the proclamation 
 entire. 
 
 2 Zurich Letters, Vol. I, p. 321. 
 
28,4" THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 Lutherans. In a letter written to Henry Bullinger of 
 Zurich in 1566, after speaking of the entire agreement 
 between the doctrines of the English clergy and the Swiss, 
 as expressed in the Helvetic Confession, he proceeds to 
 defend the wisdom of the Low-Church party in acquiesc- 
 ing in the desires of Elizabeth and Parliament with ref- 
 erence to ecclesiastical garments, and concludes : 
 
 and we do not regret our resolution ; for in the meantime, the Lord 
 giving the increase, our churches are enlarged and established, which 
 under other circumstances would have become a prey to the Ecebo- 
 lians, Lutherans, and semi-papists. 1 
 
 If the, dwarf has any special historical significance, I 
 have failed to discover it. Perhaps some other student 
 may be able to interpret this interesting character. 
 
 Cantos IV and V renew the story of the Red Cross 
 Knight. Led by Duessa, he now visits the house of 
 Pride. There Lucifera, the queen of Pride, is seated 
 upon her throne, surrounded by an obsequious court. 
 The usher, "Vanitie by name," conducts the knight to 
 the lowest stair, where he makes obeisance to the dis- 
 dainful queen, who barely notices him. The company, 
 however, are glad to welcome him, and Duessa moves 
 among them as an old-time favorite. Suddenly the queen 
 rises, and, seating herself in a coach drawn by six beasts 
 on which ride her counselors, the other deadly sins, rides 
 out for a pleasure trip. As the knight is returning from 
 this excursion, he is confronted by Sansjoy ; whereupon 
 they fall to angry words over the shield of Sansfoy, which 
 the dwarf bears upside down in derision. Thereupon a 
 battle is arranged for the next day. That night the fickle 
 
 1 Zurich Letters, Vol. I, p. 169 ; cf. also Vol. I, p. 177 ; Vol. II, pp. 143, 
 241, 245 ; Vol. Ill, p. 682. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 29 
 
 Duessa seeks out the couch of Sansjoy, to wish him well 
 in the conflict of the morrow. 
 
 Morning come, all repair to the lists, eager for the duel. 
 Fortune favors now one, now the other. At length Sans- 
 joy strikes the Red Cross Knight a blow that makes him 
 reel, and Duessa, thinking the end has come, shouts to 
 Sansjoy, " Thine the shield, and I, and all." But the 
 knight, hearing these shameful words, revives, and with 
 exceeding fury raises his sword for a deadly blow ; but 
 unseen powers are against him, for Duessa, unsuspected, 
 throws a magic cloud about the false Sansjoy. All think 
 that he has been borne away to the lower world, and the 
 Red Cross Knight is proclaimed victor. That night 
 Duessa secures the aid of Night, an ancestor of Sansjoy, 
 to bear the wounded man to the realm of Pluto, that ^Es- 
 culapius may heal his wounds. Duessa herself rides in 
 the chariot of Night amid grisly sights. Thence she 
 returns to the palace in search of the knight, only to find 
 him gone. He and his prudent dwarf had fled, warned 
 by a glimpse of the dungeons beneath. 
 
 The description of the household of Pride is the first of 
 those "purple patches" which are to be met with through- 
 out the course of the poem. Thereby is set forth that lust 
 of the flesh, and that lust of the eyes, and that pride of life 
 which gave such a grievous turn to the career of the king. 
 In his surrender to the things that are in the world, Henry 
 violated the sanctity of religion by assuming the headship 
 of the Church, and the sanctity of social morals by letting 
 loose the tempest of his passions. The application of the 
 allegory is to be regarded as general rather than specific. 
 
 But what is to be made of Sansjoy, the sorrowful one, 
 who is so mysteriously snatched away and borne to the 
 
30 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 distant realm of Pluto ? If Sansfoy and Sansloy are actual 
 historical characters, assuredly Sansjoy should be so as 
 well. I have no convincing suggestion to make. May 
 Sansjoy be . Cardinal Pole, who, with falling tears, be- 
 sought Henry not to yield to his sinful lust for Anne 
 Boleyn, — who directed against the king his great tractate 
 "Pro Ecclesiasticae Unitatis Defensione" in support of the 
 papal supremacy, and who was snatched from the wrath 
 of Henry by the summons of Rome ? " Sansjoy" would be 
 a very proper appellation for this austere Papist, who had- 
 beheld his very mother a sacrifice to the wrath of Henry. 
 In Canto VI Una is delivered from Sansloy by a band 
 
 of satyrs, 
 
 A rude, mishapen, monstrous rablement, 
 
 whose appearance the evil knight "durst not byde." Una 
 soon puts away her fears of them when the kind-hearted 
 beings " kisse her feete, and fawne on her with count'- 
 nance fayne," and she walks forth surrounded by a 
 shouting and singing throng who strew the ground with 
 branches and worship her as queen. With them she 
 remains for a season as their teacher. 
 
 At length it fortunes that a warlike knight, Sir Saty- 
 rane, born among the satyrs, as is his custom after labors 
 abroad, returns to visit his native folk. 
 
 He had in armes abroad wonne muchell fame, 
 And fild far landes with glorie of his might ; 
 Plaine, faithfull, true, and enimy of shame, 
 And ever lov'd to fight for Ladies right. 
 
 As a lad he had been trained in courage by a sturdy father : 
 
 For all he taught the tender ymp was but 
 To banish cowardize and bastard feare : 
 His trembling hand he would him force to put 
 Upon the Lyon and the rugged Beare ; 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 31 
 
 And from the she Beares teats her whelps to teare ; 
 
 And eke wyld roring Buls he would him make 
 
 To tame, and ryde their backes, not made to beare ; 
 
 And the Robuckes in flight to overtake, 
 
 That everie beast for feare of him did fly, and quake. 
 
 Grown to young manhood, he had 
 
 Desyrd of forreine foemen to be knowne, 
 
 And far abroad for straunge adventures sought ; 
 
 In which his might was never overthrowne ; 
 
 But through al Faery lond his famous worth was blown. 
 
 This knight submits himself to the tutelage of Una, and 
 then offers to conduct her out of the forest. On the way 
 thence they are met by Archimago, again disguised, who 
 pretends that the Red Cross Knight has been slain by 
 a Saracen, just now hard by. The eager Sir Satyrane 
 hastens to seek the Saracen, while Una slowly follows. 
 The Saracen, really Sansloy, and Sir Satyrane at once 
 engage, and are both bathed in blood when Una arrives. 
 Seeing his erstwhile victim again, the lust of Sansloy 
 revives, but he is intercepted by Sir Satyrane, who forces 
 him once more to the combat. Thereupon Una, afraid 
 lest she again fall into the power of the evil Sansloy, 
 seeks safety in flight. 
 
 ---If the interpretation of the political allegory of the pre- 
 ceding cantos has been in the main correct, and if the 
 allegory follows the sequence of history without prolonged 
 hiatus, Sir Satyrane must represent a man who became the 
 recognized champion of the reform movement at the death 
 of Cromwell. Moreover, to be consistent with the character 
 of Sir Satyrane, he must be a man sprung from the people, 
 — for of course the episode of the satyrs means that the 
 spirit of true religion was fostered and harbored by the com- 
 mon folk when its integrity was threatened in high places, — 
 
32 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 a man plain, honest, and faithful, a man of physical prow- 
 ess, and one who had earned distinction in foreign courts. 
 According to Foxe, the man who assumed the reform 
 leadership on Cromwell's death and upon whom fell at 
 the death of the viceroy the mantle of Gardiner's hate 
 was Cranmer : 
 
 For after the apprehension of the Lord Cromwel, when the 
 Adversaries of the Gospel thought all things sure now on their side, 
 it was so appointed amongst them, that ten or twelve Bishops, and 
 other learned Men, joyned together in Commission, came to the said 
 Archbishop of Canterbury for the establishing of certain Articles oi 
 our Religion, which the Papists then thought to win to their purpose 
 against the said Archbishop. For having now the Lord Cromwel 
 fast and sure, they thought all had been safe, and sure for ever : as 
 indeed to all Mens reasonable consideration, that time appeared so 
 dangerous, that there was no manner of hope that Religion reformed 
 should any one week longer stand, such account was then made oi 
 the Kings untowardness thereunto. Insomuch, that of all those Com- 
 missioners there was not one left to stay on the Archbishops part, 
 but he alone against them all stoodTm the defence of the truth. 1 
 
 Then follows the account of Cranmer's victory in this con- 
 tention, through the king's favor, though "many wagers 
 would have been laid in London, that he should have 
 been laid up with Cromwel at that time in the Tower foi 
 his stiff standing to his tackle." This account is succeeded 
 by the well-known and picturesque story of Cranmer's sum- 
 mons before the council and his dramatic producing of the 
 king's ring. The story, .which is introduced as follows, 
 shows the enmity of Gardiner : 
 
 Notwithstanding, not long after that, certain of the Council, whose 
 names need not to be repeated, by the inticement and provocation ol 
 his ancient enemy the Bishop of Winchester, and other of the same 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments, Vol. Ill, p. 538. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 33 
 
 sect, attempted the King against him, declaring plainly, that the 
 Realm was so infected with Heresies and Hereticks, that it was 
 dangerous for his Highness farther to permit it unreformed, lest 
 peradventure by long suffering, such contention should arise, and 
 ensue in the Realm among his Subjects, that thereby might spring 
 horrible commotions, and uproars, like as in some parts of Germany 
 it did not long ago. The enormity whereof they could not impute to 
 any so much, as to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who by his own 
 Preaching, and his Chaplains, had filled the whole Realm full of 
 divers pernicious Heresies. 
 
 To this episode succeeds the account of the "popish 
 'conspiracy'' in Kent, which was found to be instigated 
 by the letters of Gardiner. 1 
 
 As Foxe makes it so very clear that Cranmer succeeded 
 Cromwell as the leader of the reform party, and that the 
 Bishop of Winchester was the aggressive and malicious 
 leader of the opponents, the presumption strongly favors 
 assigning the character of Sir Satyrane to Cranmer. 
 
 Moreover, it could properly be said of Cranmer, 
 
 He had in armes abroad wonne muchell fame, 
 And fild far landes with glorie of his might, 
 
 for he had been sent abroad in connection with the king's 
 divorce, had boldly declared the English contention to the 
 Pope, had waited in vain for an adversary qualified to dis- 
 pute with him, and had thence alone sought the court of 
 the emperor and won the assent of his council. 
 
 Again, it is interesting to observe that whereas Spenser 
 describes Sir Satyrane as 
 
 Plaine, faithfull, true, and enimy of shame, 
 
 Foxe devotes several pages to showing how fully Cran- 
 mer measured up to all of the desiderata of a bishop, 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments, Vol. Ill, p. 540. 
 
34 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 concluding with the following sentences, which point out 
 the archbishop's faithful devotion to truth : 
 
 Neither shall he deserve the name of a Bishop, if either for dread 
 or meed, affection or favour, he do at any time or in any point swerve 
 from the truth. As in this behalf the worthy constancy of this said 
 Archbishop never, for the most part, shrunk for any manner of storm ; 
 but was so many ways tried, that neither favour of his Prince, nor 
 fear of the indignation of the same, nor any other worldly respect 
 could alienate or change his purpose, grounded upon that infallible 
 Doctrine of the Gospel. 1 
 
 Like Sir Satyrane, Cranmer was much given to physi- 
 cal activities, and the suggestion for the prowess of Sir 
 Satyrane and for adapting the account of Atlanta's train- 
 ing of Rogero to his youthful education 2 may have been 
 prompted by Cranmer's well-known fondness for sports 
 and the careful training in athletics that he received from 
 his father. On the authority of an early manuscript life of 
 Cranmer, Strype writes : 
 
 Though his father were minded to have his son educated in learn- 
 ing, yet he would not he should be ignorant of civil and gentleman- 
 like exercises : insomuch that he used himself to shoot. And many 
 times his father permitted him to hunt and hawk, and to ride rough 
 horses : so that when he was bishop, he feared not to ride the rough- 
 est horses that came into his stables ; which he would do very comely. 
 As otherwise at all times there was not any in his house that would 
 become an horse better. And after his studies, when it was time for 
 recreation, he would both hawk and hunt, the game being prepared 
 for him. And sometimes he would shoot in the long-bow, and many 
 times kill the deer with his cross-bow, though his sight was not per- 
 fect ; for he was poreblind. 3 
 
 The highly colored recital of Sir Satyrane's prowess and 
 exploits is amply justified by the exigencies of the allegory. 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments, Vol. Ill, p. 538. 2 Orlando Furioso, 7. 5. 7. 
 8 Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, Vol. I, p. 2. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 35 
 
 Like the hero of the canto, Cranmer was a man of the 
 people, and they understood him and regarded him with 
 admiration and affection. 1 
 
 But if Cranmer is to be identified with Sir Satyrane, 
 what explanation is to be offered of Sir Satyrane 's illegiti- 
 mate birth ? I confess that I have no explanation to offer, 
 other than to suggest that this conception is purely gratui- 
 tous, and introduced merely because in line with the satyr 
 tradition. 
 
 I do not feel altogether satisfied that I have solved the 
 identity of this odd character, but I present my sugges- 
 tion for what it is worth. If the suggestion be proved 
 incorrect, it may at least prevent some other student 
 from following a wrong trail. 2 
 
 1 Actes and Monuments, Vol. Ill, pp. 534-537 i Arber, An English 
 Garner (ed. 1895), Vol. IV, p. 160. 
 
 2 For a time I thought that this character was meant to portray Hugh 
 Latimer, the most popular preacher of the epoch and the most fearless, 
 a man to whom his contemporaries affectionately alluded as " a doughty 
 old soldier" (cf. Works of Bishop Ridley, p. 146 [Parker Society]). Lat- 
 imer was sprung from the people, he was their idol, and he preferred 
 to live and work among them, more or less remote from the centers. 
 While the account of the youthful training of Sir Satyrane is adapted 
 from the education of Rogero, I had thought that Spenser might have 
 taken his hint from Latimer's account of his own training as contained 
 in one of his sermons : " My father was delighted to teach me to shoot 
 with the bow. He taught me how to draw, how to lay my body to the 
 bow, not to draw with strength of arm as other nations do, but with the 
 strength of the body." As a student at Cambridge Latimer first demon- 
 strated his masculine strength in debate, and from that time until his 
 death, save when forcibly silenced, he was fighting the battles of reform, 
 and in all the notable disputes in which he figured, as the poet truth- 
 fully says, " his might was never overthrowne." 
 
 From 1 531 to 1535 Latimer was rector at West Kineton in Wiltshire, 
 on the border 6i Gloucestershire, and from 1535 to 1539 he was Bishop 
 of Winchester. As a result of these nine years of labor in the West 
 counties, the reform movement there had a very sturdy growth. Lati- 
 mer was often drawn to London, now to defend his doctrines before 
 bishops, now to preach before the king, but he was always impatient to 
 
36 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 Cantos VII-VIII and the opening stanzas of Canto IX 
 narrate the capture of the Red Cross Knight by the giant 
 Orgoglio and the deliverance wrought by Prince Arthur. 
 
 When Duessa returns to the castle of Pride and finds 
 the knight gone, she starts in search of him. Ere long 
 she finds him, weary, seated by a fountain, his armor laid 
 aside. Once more she insinuates herself into his good 
 will, and they surrender themselves to enjoyment of the 
 pleasant shade which shields them against the boiling sun, 
 and of the sweet music of the birds. The fountain bubbles 
 freshly at their feet and the knight, ignorant of its source 
 and effect, drinks of the water. Straightway his strength 
 is gone, for the presiding nymph was one who had, from 
 weariness, deserted the chase of Diana, and against whom 
 the goddess had decreed that her waters should wax dull 
 
 be back among his own people ; once he complains bitterly that he is 
 detained from them at Eastertide. 
 
 Latimer towers above all his contemporaries as the enemy of law- 
 lessness. In season and out of season he was preaching virtue and 
 righteousness in public and private life, reproving the king, the bishops, 
 and the clergy at large for their worldliness, with absolutely no respect 
 for persons. The man who dared to send to the king as a New Year's 
 present a napkin embroidered with the words " ' Fomicatores et adulteros 
 judicabit Dominus," might quite properly be chosen to figure in an alle- 
 gory of the English Reformation as the arch-opponent of lawlessness. 
 Certainly it would have been acceptable to Elizabeth thus to identify 
 the sturdy martyr, who, in his last imprisonment under Mary, prayed 
 without ceasing that " God would preserve the Lady Elizabeth, and make 
 her a comfort to this comfortless realm of England." 
 
 And yet this interpretation interferes with a chronological sequence 
 to the allegory, for it was not after the death of Cromwell, but. before, 
 that Latimer came into prominence as the opponent of lawlessness, and 
 of Gardiner as its exponent. In 1539, the year of Cromwell's death, he 
 resigned his bishopric because of the Six Articles, and was then silenced 
 for several years. 
 
 Moreover, if the statement that Sir Satyrane had won much military 
 fame abroad is to be taken literally, Latimer is excluded, for he was 
 never out of England. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 37 
 
 and slow, and that all who drank thereof should be enfee- 
 bled. Yet, "careless of his health and of his fame," the 
 knight still courts his false lady, 
 
 Pourd out in loosenesse on the grassy grownd. 
 
 Foolish knight ! for straightway with a "dreadfull sownd" 
 a giant, "horrible and hye," bursts upon them. It is Orgo- 
 glio, child of "blustring ^Eolus" and Earth, who brought 
 him forth 
 
 Puft up with emptie wynd, and fild with sinfull cryme. 
 
 "Disarmd, disgrast, and inwardly dismayde," the knight 
 feebly rises to defend himself, but though he succeeds in 
 dodging the blow of the giant's mace, he is stunned by the 
 vibration. Thereupon the giant is about to kill him, when 
 Duessa cries to him to make the knight a bondslave, and 
 to take her for a paramour. The giant willingly agrees, 
 takes Duessa into his arms, and thrusts the knight into a 
 dungeon. 
 
 From that day forth Duessa was his deare, 
 
 And highly honourd in his haughtie eye : 
 
 He gave her gold and purple pall to weare, 
 
 And triple crowne set on her head full hye, 
 
 And her endowd with royall majestye. 
 
 Then, for to make her dreaded more of men, 
 
 And peoples hartes with awfull terror tye, 
 
 A monstrous beast ybredd in filthy fen 
 
 He chose, which he had kept long time in darksom den. 
 
 His tayle was stretched out in wondrous length, 
 That to the hous of hevenly gods it raught : 
 And with extorted powre, and borrow'd strength, 
 The everburning lamps from thence it braught, 
 And prowdly threw to ground, as things of naught; 
 
38 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 And underneath his filthy feet did tread 
 The sacred thinges, and holy heastes foretaught. 
 Upon this dreadfull Beast with sevenfold head 
 He sett the false Duessa, for more aw and dread. 
 
 Seeing his master thus captive, the dwarf picks up his 
 idle armor and departs in great distress. Ere long he 
 meets Una, and imparts the news to her. She is pros- 
 trated with grief, but comfort comes in the person of 
 Prince Arthur, an errant knight with goodly squire, who 
 promises his aid. The resplendent armor of this knight 
 surpasses all else on earth. In the midst of his breast- 
 plate is a precious stone, shaped like a lady's head ; but 
 most dazzling is his marvelous shield : 
 
 His warlike shield all closely cover'd was, 
 
 Ne might of mortall eye be ever seene ; 
 
 Not made of Steele, nor of enduring bras, 
 
 Such earthly mettals soon consumed beene, 
 
 But all of Diamond perfect pure and cleene 
 
 It framed was, one massy entire mould, 
 
 Hewen out of Adamant rocke with engines keene, 
 
 That point of speare it never percen could, 
 
 Ne dint of direfull sword divide the substance would. 
 
 The same to wight he never wont disclose, 
 
 But whenas monsters huge he would dismay, 
 
 Or daunt unequall armies of his foes, 
 
 Or when the flying heavens he would affray ; 
 
 For so exceeding shone his glistring ray, 
 
 That Phoebus golden face it did attaint, 
 
 As when a cloud his beames doth over-lay ; 
 
 And silver Cynthia wexed pale and faynt, 
 
 As when her face is staynd with magicke arts constraint. 
 
 No magicke arts hereof had any might, 
 Nor bloody wordes of bold Enchaunters call ; 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 39 
 
 But all that was not such as seemd in sight 
 Before that shield did fade, and suddeine fall : 
 And when him list the raskall routes appall, 
 Men into stones therewith he could transmew, 
 And stones to dust, and dust to nought at all ; 
 And, when him list the prouder lookes subdew, 
 He would them gazing blind, or turne to other hew. 
 
 Guided by the dwarf, they come to the castle. Beneath 
 its walls the squire blows his "home of bugle small." 
 
 Wyde wonders over all 
 Of that same homes great virtues weren told, 
 Which had approved bene in uses manifold. 
 
 Was never wight that heard that shrilling sownd, 
 
 But trembling feare did feel in every vaine : 
 
 Three miles it might be easy heard arowhd, 
 
 And Ecchoes three aunswer'd it selfe againe : 
 
 No false enchauntment, nor deceiptfull traine, 
 
 Might once abide the terror of that blast, 
 
 But presently was void and wholly vaine : 
 
 No gate so strong, no locke so firme and fast, 
 
 But with that percing noise flew open quite, or brast. 
 
 Forth rushes Orgoglio, followed by Duessa mounted upon 
 her beast, whose mouths are bloody "with late cruell feast," 
 and the battle is on. The giant raises his fearful mace, 
 but the agile knight skillfully avoids the blow, and then 
 when the giant struggles to free his club, deep buried in 
 the ground, smites off his great left arm. 
 
 That when his deare Duessa heard, and saw 
 
 The evil stownd that daungerd her estate, 
 
 Unto his aide she hastily did draw 
 
 Her dreadfull beast : who, swolne with blood of late, 
 
 Came ramping forth with proud presumpteous gate, — 
 
40 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 And threatned all his heades like naming brandes. 
 But him the Squire made quickly to retrate, 
 Encountring fiers with single sword in hand ; 
 And twixt him and his Lord did like a bulwarke stand. 
 
 The proud Duessa, full of wrathfull spight, 
 
 And fiers disdaine to be affronted so, 
 
 Enforst her purple beast with all her might, 
 
 That stop out of the way to overthroe, 
 
 Scorning the let of so unequall foe : 
 
 But nathemore would that corageous swayne 
 
 To her yeeld passage gainst his Lord to goe, 
 
 But with outrageous strokes did him restraine, 
 
 And with his body bard the way atwixt them twaine. 
 
 Then tooke the angrie witch her golden cup, 
 Which still she bore, replete with magick artes ; 
 Death and despeyre did many thereof sup, 
 And secret poyson through their inner partes, 
 Th' eternall bale of heavie wounded harts ; 
 Which, after charmes and some enchauntments said, 
 She lightly sprinkled on his weaker partes : 
 Therewith his sturdie corage soon was quayd, 
 And all his sences were with suddein dread dismayd. 
 
 So downe he fell before the cruell beast, 
 
 Who on his neck his bloody clawes did seize, 
 
 That life nigh crusht out of his panting brest : 
 
 No powre he had to stirre, nor will to rize. 
 
 That when the carefull knight gan well avise, 
 
 He lightly left the foe with whom he fought, 
 
 And to the beast gan turne his enterprise ; 
 
 For wondrous anguish in his hart it wrought, 
 
 To see his loved Squyre into such thraldom brought : 
 
 And, high advauncing his blood-thirstie blade, 
 Stroke one of those deformed heades so sore, 
 That of his puissaunce proud ensample made : 
 His monstrous scalpe downe to his teeth it tore, 
 And that misformed shape misshaped more. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 41 
 
 Enraged at this mishap, Orgoglio strikes Prince Arthur 
 upon the shield and doubles him to the ground. But it is 
 his last assault, for the knight regains his feet, and with his 
 sparkling blade smites off the right leg of his adversary, and 
 
 The knight, then lightly leaping to the pray, 
 With mortall Steele him smot againe so sore, 
 That headlesse his unweldy bodie lay, 
 All wallowd in his owne fowle bloody gore, 
 Which flowed from his wounds in wondrous store. 
 But, soone as breath out of his brest did pas, 
 That huge great body, which the Gyaunt bore, 
 Was vanisht quite ; and of that monstrous mas 
 Was nothing left, but like an emptie blader was. 
 
 Whose grievous fall when false Duessa spyde, 
 
 Her golden cup she cast unto the ground, 
 
 And crowned mitre rudely threw asyde : 
 
 Such percing griefe her stubborne hart did wound, 
 
 That she could not endure that dolefull stound 
 
 But leaving all behind her fled away : 
 
 The light-foot Squyre her quickly turnd around, 
 
 And, by hard meanes enforcing her to stay, 
 
 So brought unto his Lord as his deserved pray. 
 
 Then Prince Arthur enters the castle, which is found to 
 be adorned with gold and costly hangings, though the floors 
 are all vile "with blood of guiltlesse babes and innocents 
 trew." The Red Cross Knight, half starved, is found and 
 freed, and Duessa, stripped of her royal robes and purple pall, 
 is allowed to "goe at will, and wander waves unknowne." 
 
 After rest and refreshment, Prince Arthur tells of his 
 mysterious origin, and of the vision of a lovely maid, whom 
 he has come to " Faery land " to seek. Then there is an 
 exchange of presents : 
 
 Prince Arthur gave a boxe of Diamond sure, 
 Embowd with gold and gorgeous ornament, 
 
42 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 Wherein were closd few drops of liquor pure, 
 
 Of wondrous worth, and vertue excellent, 
 
 That any wownd could heale incontinent. 
 
 Which to requite, the Redcrosse knight him gave 
 
 A booke, wherein his Saveours testament 
 
 Was writt with golden letters rich and brave : 
 
 A worke of wondrous grace, and hable soules to save. 
 
 Thus beene they parted ; Arthur on his way 
 To seeke his love, and th' other for to fight 
 With Unaes foe, that all her realme did pray. 
 
 I have been forced thus to go into detail in the story of 
 these cantos because of the elaborate character of the alle- 
 gory. The opening episode means, I take it, that Henry, 
 weakened by that ungodly pride which led him to arrogate 
 to himself the title of " Supreme Head of the Church," 
 fell an easy victim to the temptations of the flesh. The 
 wood stands, as ever, for the world, the songs of birds for 
 its innocent pleasures, — perhaps the woodland pageants 
 of which Henry was so fond, — and the waters of the 
 fountain, for moral slothfulness and insensibility. The 
 knight's amours with Duessa symbolize Henry's sensual- 
 ity, that dulled and enervated his spiritual perception and 
 unfitted him to see or to defend the truth. "Both carelesse 
 of his health and of his fame " is a true summary of the 
 conduct of his later years. 
 
 In this introductory scene with the knight, Duessa, or 
 Falsehood, is seen in her aspect as false living, — that im- 
 morality that overtakes the man who has separated him- 
 self from spiritual truth. In her connivance with Orgoglio 
 Duessa typifies, on the other hand, false belief, and as false 
 belief she stands of course for the Roman Catholic doctrine 
 and practice. The imagery with which she is depicted is 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 43 
 
 borrowed from the description of the woman of the Apoca- 
 lypse, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. 1 
 In the Revelation the woman is interpreted as "that great 
 city, which reigneth over the Kings of the earth," meaning 
 Rome ; and as the reform writers constantly referred to this 
 woman and invariably identified her with spiritual Rome, 
 Spenser found this feature of his allegory ready to hand. 2 
 Like the harlot of the Apocalypse, 3 Duessa is arrayed in 
 purple and gold, thus symbolizing the gorgeous ecclesias- 
 tical garments and the rich deckings of the Church of 
 Rome, as well as her bloodguiltiness. In his elaborate ex- 
 position of the Apocalypse, 4 Bishop Bale thus vitupera- 
 tively interprets these deckings of " the holy mother, the 
 madam of mischief and proud synagogue of Satan " : 
 
 In token that this hypocritical church standeth in the murder of 
 innocents, this woman is here gorgeously apparelled in purple, as 
 guilty of their deaths which hath been slain, and also in fresh scar- 
 let, as evermore fresh and ready to continue in the same blood- 
 shedding. For if such terrible slaughter were not, the true christian 
 faith should increase, to the great diminishment of her glory. 
 
 She is in like case flourishingly decked with gold, precious stone, 
 and pearls, not only in her manifold kinds of ornaments, as in her 
 copes, corporasses, chasubles, tunicles, stoles, fannoms, and mitres, 
 but also in mystery of counterfeit godliness. Many outward brags 
 maketh this painted church of Christ, of his gospel, and of his apos- 
 tles, signified by the gold, precious stone, and pearls ; which is but a 
 glittering colour : for nothing mindeth she less than to follow them 
 in conversation of living. 5 
 
 1 Rev. xvii. 
 
 2 Cf. Select Works of Bishop Bale, pp. 426, 493, 496-498 ; Works of 
 Bishop Ridley, pp. 53-SS, 415 ; Hooper, Later Writings, p. 554 ; Works 
 of Archbishop Cranmer, Vol. II, p. 63 ; etc., all in the publications of 
 the Parker Society. 3 Rev. xvii, 4. 
 
 * " The Image of Both Churches," Select Works of Bishop Bale, 
 pp. 249-640. 6 P. 497 
 
44 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 The seven-headed beast is adapted from the Apocalyp- 
 tic beast of the sea, 1 with certain characteristics borrowed 
 from the Apocalyptic dragon. 2 For the woman, the beast, 
 and the dragon of St. John, Spenser has substituted the 
 woman, the beast, and Orgoglio. The reason for this is 
 apparent, for, with a good eye to a climax, the poet wished 
 to reserve the dragon for the supreme and concluding 
 struggle of the book. As the whore symbolizes Rome, so 
 the beast is invariably interpreted as Antichrist, the bestial 
 body of Satan. 3 Sometimes the beast is thus identified with 
 the Pope, as the peculiar embodiment of the spirit of Anti- 
 christ, 4 but more often with the whole company of Papists 
 as "one universal Antichrist": 5 
 
 This beast is the great Antichrist that was spoken of afore, or the 
 beastly body of the devil, comprehending in him popes, patriarchs, 
 cardinals, legates, bishops, doctors, abbots, priors, priests, and pardon- 
 ers, monks, canons, friars, nuns, and so forth ; temporal governors 
 also, as emperors, kings, princes, dukes, earls, lords, justices, deputies, 
 judges, lawyers, mayors, bailiffs, constables, and so forth. 6 
 
 The seven heads of the beast are variously inter- 
 preted : sometimes, for example, as Antichrist's presump- 
 tuous doings for the seven ages of the Church ; sometimes 
 as the seven principal geographical divisions of the world ; 
 sometimes as the countries or kingdoms in which Roman 
 Catholicism holds sway. It is in this latter sense that 
 Spenser employs them, I believe ; for the wounding of 
 one of the heads of the beast and its subsequent healing 
 was popularly applied to the emancipation of a country from 
 
 1 Rev. xiii and xvii. 2 Rev. xii. 
 
 3 Cf. Works of Bishop Ridley, pp. 53, 415-418; Select Works of 
 Bishop Bale, p. 424, etc. 
 
 4 Cf. Ridley, p. 263. 6 Bale, p. 426. 6 Ibid. p. 496. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 45 
 
 papal jurisdiction and practices and its subsequent return 
 to them. Bale thus expressed this popular conception : 
 
 Are not now in many parts of Germany, and in England also, the 
 pope's pardons laid aside ; his power put down, his name abolished, 
 his purgatory, pilgrimages, and other peltries utterly exiled ; and so 
 like to be within short space in other regions also? If this be not a 
 deadly wounding of one of the beast's heads, I think there is none. 
 . . . But the healing again of this mortal wound is like to mar all, 
 and make the last error worse than the first. . . . Still remaineth 
 their foul masses, etc. 1 
 
 In describing the beast as bred in filthiness and for jN 
 long time kept in darkness, allusion is of course made to 
 the superstition of the Middle Ages. The description of 
 the tail of the beast — able to reach to the house of the 
 heavenly gods and, with extorted power and borrowed 
 strength, to take the ever-burning lamps and throw them 
 to the ground — is adapted from the description of the 
 Apocalyptic dragon, whose "tail drew the third part of 
 the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." 2 
 St. John therein alludes to Satan's successful tempting of/ 
 certain of the angels, and Spenser probably had in mind 
 those men who should have been illustrious in the Church, 
 but whom Rome robbed of their heritage by her false teach- 
 ings and made children of darkness. Such is the applica- 
 tion given to the passage by Bale 3 and Sandys. 4 
 
 1 Bale, pp. 426-427. 2 Rev. xii, 4. 
 
 8 " And his tail drew towards him the third part of the stars, and in 
 conclusion threw them down to the earth. By worldly promotions, lucre, 
 favour, and other flattering fantasies, hath he tangled many learned men, 
 and plucked them clean from Christ's true church and from the life of 
 the gospel, so provoking them wholly to give themselves to the study 
 of erroneous doctrine and lying prophecies, to seduce the worldly mul- 
 titude, and keep them in perpetual blindness." 
 
 4 Sermons, pp. 361-362 [Parker Society]. 
 
46 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 As Duessa represents the doctrine and worldly practices 
 of Rome, and the beast — the universal Antichrist — the 
 countries and people who were under the domination of 
 Rome, so Orgoglio represents, I take it, the power of 
 Rome that, save for the brief years of Edward's reign, 
 had the upper hand in England from the passage of the 
 Six Articles in 1539 to the Acts of Uniformity and 
 Supremacy under Elizabeth in 1559. Henry had, to be 
 sure, thrown off the yoke of Rome, but during the later 
 years of his life the Church became increasingly Roman 
 Catholic, and the cause of the national Church steadily 
 lost ground. The conflict with Orgoglio is the allegorical 
 story of the struggle against Roman Catholicism during 
 this period. The ancestry of Orgoglio typifies its terres- 
 trial and uninspired origin. True religion is derived from, 
 and vitalized by, the Holy Spirit of God, but Roman 
 Catholicism breathes only "emptie wind," and its parent- 
 age, which puffs it up with "arrogant delight," is pagan, 
 — blustering and boastful emptiness, typified by ^Eolus. 
 Quite consistently, therefore, when Arthur finally slays 
 Orgoglio, only an empty bladder remains. 
 
 In his letter to Raleigh, Spenser identifies the character 
 of Prince Arthur with "Magnificence," or great deeds. I 
 take it that Spenser is here not thinking of any individual. 
 "In its severely political aspect the character stands for the 
 ^national spirit of England, which expresses itself in the great 
 things that it achieves, which, like the hero of this canto, had 
 its origin enveloped in mystery, and which in legend finds 
 its ideal exponent in King Arthur. It was this spirit that 
 demanded the Magna Charta, that wrote "Piers Plowman," 
 that won Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, that inspired the 
 Lollards, that silently revolted at the carnage of Mary, that 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 47 
 
 hailed the accession of Elizabeth with a burst of enthusi- 
 astic joy, and that made the England of Elizabeth fore- 
 most among the nations. With something of flattery, but 
 with commendable pride and patriotism as well, Spenser 
 represents this spirit as seeking in England for the coun- 
 terpart of its vision of a maid of transcendent charm ; for 
 Elizabeth's reign actually represented the ideal for which 
 the England of "great deeds" had been striving. 
 
 In its spiritual aspect, the character symbolizes heavenly 
 grace, for the opening stanza of Canto VIII introduces 
 the narrative of the liberation of the Red Cross Knight 
 by Prince Arthur and Una as follows : 
 
 Ay me ! how many perils doe enfold 
 The righteous man, to make him daily fall, 
 Were not that heavenly grace doth him uphold, 
 And stedfast truth acquite him out of all. 
 
 Here Prince Arthur is identified with heavenly grace, as 
 Una with truth. Heavenly grace and the national spirit 
 are thus, as it were, fused together, for Spenser believed 
 that God was thus using England to reveal the character 
 of true religion ; and when Prince Arthur does battle with 
 Orgoglio, Christ and Antichrist, as it were, strive for the 
 possession of England. The., shield of Arthur, that out- 
 shines the beauty of the sun, that brings all things hid- 
 den to the light, — what else can it be than superlative 
 Christian faith ? 
 
 The diamond box, inclosing the drops of pure liquors, 
 able to heal any wound, which Prince Arthur gives to St. 
 George in parting, I take to be the wine of the Com- 
 munion service, which, through heavenly grace, was given 
 to the English Church ; and the book which the Red 
 Cross Knight gives in return, the Book of Common 
 
48 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 Prayer, the gift of the English Church, in which the tes- 
 tament of Christ, the holy sacrament, is "writ with golden 
 ^letters rich and brave," — " a worke of wondrous grace, and 
 hable soules to save." In this exchange is literal reference, 
 I think, to the permanent establishment of Communion in 
 two kinds and the final adoption of the Book of Common 
 Prayer in 1559. 
 
 The squire, "the admirer of his [Arthur's] might," I take 
 to be, as generally agreed, the body of reform clergy, and 
 the horn to be the Bible, against which the false teach- 
 ings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church cannot 
 stand. 
 
 In the struggle between Prince Arthur and Orgoglio, 
 the first telling blow is when the knight cuts off the left 
 arm of the giant. Now it is the left arm which bears the 
 shield, and the shield always typifies faith ; and as the 
 Mass was that which upheld the Roman Catholic faith, the 
 cutting off of the arm would seem to typify the suppression 
 of the Mass under Edward and the substitution of the Com- 
 munion service. This would identify the episode with the 
 early reign of Edward. As the dallying of the Red Cross 
 Knight with Duessa rather clearly records the attitude of 
 Henry's later years, this interpretation would be chrono- 
 logically consistent. 
 
 Passing over the second episode for the moment, in the 
 third episode Duessa sprinkles the liquor from her magic 
 cup upon the squire and thus robs him of his strength. 
 This cup is suggested by the "cup full of abominations" * 
 which the harlot of the Apocalypse holds in her hand. 
 The writers of the English Church were a unit in their 
 interpretation of the meaning of this cup of abominations. 
 1 Rev. xvii, 4. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 49 
 
 In his "A Piteous Lamentation of the Miserable Estate 
 of the Churche of Christ in Englande, in the Time of 
 Queene May," Ridley thus explains it : 
 
 By the abominations thereof, I understand all the whole trade of 
 the Romish religion, under the name and title of Christ, which is 
 contrary to the only rule of all true religion, that is, God's word. . . . 
 But you would know, which be those merchandise, which I said this 
 whore setteth forth to sell. . . . Surely, surely, they be not only all 
 these abominations which are come into the church of England 
 already (whereof I have spoken somewhat before) but also an in- 
 numerable rabblement of abominations and wicked abuses, which 
 now must needs follow: as Popish pardons, pilgrimages, Romish 
 purgatory, Romish masses, placebo et dirige, with trentals, and scala 
 coeli, dispensations and immunities from all godly discipline, laws, 
 and good order, pluralities, unions tot quots, with a thousand more. 1 
 
 As the reform writers especially applied this cup of abom- 
 inations to Mary's restoration of the Mass and the whole 
 Roman Catholic regime, there can be small question that 
 the magic cup of Duessa, potent for death and despair, 
 antithetical to the diamond box of life-giving liquor, stands 
 for the Mass and its deadening influence when forced by 
 Mary upon the Church. The beast crushing the life out 
 of the squire would then mean Mary's effort to wipe out 
 Protestantism. 
 
 The second episode is the charge of the beast goaded 
 on by Duessa, and its summary retreat before the sword 
 of the stalwart squire. The political analogue must be the 
 vigorous and effective opposition which the reform party 
 offered the Roman Catholics in the days of Edward, as 
 illustrated by the suppression of the insurrection in the 
 West in 1549, and the radical teaching of such men as 
 Ridley and Latimer. The blood dripping from the mouths 
 1 Works, pp. 53—55 ; cf. also p. 415, and Bale, p. 497. 
 
SO THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 of the beast refers to the Protestant martyrdoms, and in 
 the beast threatening "all his heads" is reference to the 
 general opposition of Roman Catholics throughout Europe. 
 
 In the fourth episode Prince Arthur runs to the rescue 
 of the squire and cleaves one of the heads of the beast to 
 the teeth. 1 This I interpret as the divine intervention 
 whereby Mary died and the Catholic Church lost Eng- 
 land. When the Protestant movement seemed almost ex- 
 tinguished, heavenly grace intervened through the death 
 of Mary. Elizabeth sitting under an oak in Hatfield Park, 
 on hearing the news of Mary's death, exclaimed, "This is 
 the Lord's doing ; and it is marvelous in our eyes." Such 
 was the voice of England. 
 
 The renewed effort of Orgoglio represents, I take it, 
 the vigorous opposition to change which the Roman Cath- 
 olics made at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. This 
 chapter of history is too familiar to need elaboration. So 
 intense was the opposition that the convocation refused to 
 hear of any change in the service ; but Elizabeth, through 
 Parliament, quickly retaliated, and first by the Act of Uni- 
 formity and then by the Act of Supremacy overpowered the 
 Catholic spirit. The first of these acts may figure in the alle- 
 gory as the cutting off of the right leg of the giant, the 
 second as his decapitation. By this last act Elizabeth was 
 acknowledged to be the supreme governor of the realm "as 
 well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things as temporal." 
 Thereby the Pope was eliminated from the English Church. 
 
 The abrupt vanishing of the giant's body after the head 
 was cut off signifies, I should think, the abrupt end of 
 
 1 Observe that when one of the heads of the beast in Revelation 
 (xiii, 3) is wounded, the deadly wound is healed ; Spenser does not 
 employ this detail, because inept. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 5 1 
 
 Catholic prestige in England. By Duessa's casting her 
 golden cup upon the ground and throwing her miter aside 
 must be meant the refusal of Mary's bishops to accept the 
 new order, which dissension followed close upon the Acts 
 of Uniformity and Supremacy ; and by the stripping Duessa 
 of her gaudy clothes, the simplification of ecclesiastical robes.] 
 The rich interior of Orgoglio's castle refers to the rich fui^ 
 nishings and relics of the churches, and the blood upon the 
 floors to the blood of martyrs, or of babes who had been 
 sacrificed to the lust of monastic fathers and mothers. 1 
 Canto IX concludes with the adventure of St. George in 
 the cave of Despair. I can see no political significance in 
 this episode, and incline to regard it as one of the ''purple 
 patches." I believe that it simply illustrates the reaction- 
 ary discouragement which followed upon the overthrow of 
 Roman Catholicism. 
 
 In Canto X the Red Cross Knight is conducted by 
 Una to the house of Holiness. The knight is welcomed 
 by Caelia, and instructed in Christian duty by her daugh- 
 ters, Fidelia, Speranza, and Charissa. Patience then dis- 
 ciplines the knight, and Mercy conducts him through the 
 hospital of Good Works. He is then prepared to climb 
 with Una the hill of Contemplation and obtain a view of 
 the city of Heaven. 
 
 This I take to be an allegorical picture of the growth of 
 the English Church, or St. George, in the knowledge and 
 discipline of Christianity. It refers to the spiritual train- 
 ing which the national Church enjoyed after the chains 
 of Roman Catholicism were broken. It is general, rather 
 than particular, in reference. 
 
 1 On children's skulls found in monasteries, see Pilkington, Works, 
 p. 687 [Parker Society]. 
 
52 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 In Canto XI Una conducts the Red Cross Knight to 
 the brazen tower in which her parents are imprisoned. 
 As the rescuers approach, they hear a hideous sound and 
 behold the dragon stretched "upon the sunny side of a 
 great hill." The knight bids Una retire, and prepares for 
 the conflict. 
 
 At this point Spenser interrupts the narrative to appeal 
 again to the Muse. The appeal is significant, as showing 
 that the present episode is not military in reference, and 
 that it is reserved for a future book to treat of the strug- 
 gle with Spain. I make note of this because of the common 
 assumption that in some vague way Book I has to do with 
 England's foreign wars. In Book I Spenser strictly con- 
 fines himself to the ecclesiastical struggle and is at pains 
 to tell us so. The appeal is as follows : 
 
 Now, O thou sacred Muse ! most learned Dame, 
 
 Fayre ympe of Phoebus and his aged bryde, 
 
 The Nourse of time and everlasting fame, 
 
 That warlike handes ennoblest with immortall name ; 
 
 O ! gently come into my feeble brest ; 
 Come gently, but not with that mightie rage, 
 Wherewith the martiall troupes thou doest infest, 
 And hartes of great Heroes doest enrage, 
 That nought their kindled corage may aswage : 
 Soone as they dreadfull trompe begins to sownd, 
 The God of warre with his fiers equipage 
 Thou doest awake, sleepe never he so sownd ; 
 And scared nations doest with horror sterne astownd. 
 
 Fayre Goddesse, lay that furious fitt asyde, 
 Till I of warres and bloody Mars doe sing, 
 And Bryton fieldes with Sarazin blood bedyde, 
 Twixt that great faery Queene and Paynim king, 
 That with their horror heven and earth did ring ; 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 53 
 
 A worke of labour long, and endlesse prayse : 
 But now a while lett downe that haughtie string, 
 And to my tunes thy second tenor rayse, 
 That I this man of God his godly armes may blaze. 
 
 The dragon is very large and terrible, and disports him- 
 self with joy at the sight of a new victim. In the first day's 
 battle the knight is early snatched up by the dragon and 
 carried a long way through the air. But when the dragon 
 at length sets him down from weariness, with his good 
 spear the knight wounds his adversary under the left wing. 
 Thereafter the knight has the best of it until the dragon, 
 enraged that he cannot fly, breathes forth fire and then 
 strikes the knight to the ground with his tail. The dragon 
 leaves the knight for dead, but, as good fortune will have 
 it, the knight falls backward into a well "full of great ver- 
 tues." Before the dragon came to pollute it, this was known 
 as "the well of life," and even now it has some virtue. 
 
 For unto life the dead it could restore, 
 
 And guilt of sinfull crimes cleane wash away ; 
 
 Those that with sicknesse were infected sore 
 
 It could recure ; and aged long decay 
 
 Renew, as one were borne that very day. 
 
 Both Silo this, and Jordan, did excell, 
 
 And th' English Bath, and eke the German Spau ; 
 
 Ne can Cephise, nor Hebrus, match this well. 
 
 On the second day the knight first wounds the dragon, 
 and then the monster, enraged, stings him with his tail, 
 so that the sting goes through his shield and into his 
 shoulder. The knight writhes with pain, yet, mindful of 
 his honor, cuts off a portion of the tail. Thereupon the 
 dragon leaps upon his shield. Unable to wrench it away, 
 the knight resorts to his sword and severs a paw, which is 
 
54 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 left hanging upon the shield. Then the maddened dragon 
 ends the day's conflict by again breathing forth fire and 
 smoke. 1 This time the knight falls beneath " the tree of 
 life," whose flowing balm heals his wounds. 
 
 On the third day the dragon rushes at the knight with 
 intent to swallow him, but the knight runs his sword into 
 the monster's vitals and kills him. 
 
 In this canto is depicted, I believe, the last great chap- 
 ter in the conflict with Roman Catholicism, — a chapter 
 that centers about the dramatic figure of Mary Queen of 
 Scots. With its conclusion an inseparable barrier was 
 erected between England and Rome, and England's 
 ecclesiastical policy was unalterably defined. 
 
 Hardly had the Act of Supremacy been passed, before 
 the clouds began to gather to the North, and for eleven 
 years Elizabeth was harassed by the ambitious intrigues 
 of Mary, who coveted the throne for herself and the 
 Church for Rome. 
 
 It is needless to review at any length the details of this 
 royal game of chess, which was begun with the landing 
 of the French force at Leith and concluded only with the 
 removal of Mary. After more or less intermittent trouble 
 from 1 559 to 1568, in which period England had once 
 been drawn into actual military conflict, Mary suddenly 
 assumed a more aggressive attitude and formed a co- 
 alition with certain powerful English families, looking 
 toward cooperation with Spain in the unseating of Eliza- 
 beth. Aroused by her danger, Elizabeth quickly aban- 
 doned her policy of delay, and struck hard : Norfolk, as 
 
 1 For a discussion of the allegorical meaning of " the well of life " 
 and of " the tree of life " as Baptism and the Lord's Supper, cf. R. E. 
 Neil Dodge, " The Well of Life and the Tree of Life," Modem Philology, 
 Vol. VI, pp. 191-196. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 55 
 
 leader, was sent to the Tower, and Mary was turned over 
 to Lord Huntingdon, virtually a prisoner. These develop- 
 ments in England were watched by Rome with acute inter- 
 est, and at the critical moment the Pope lent his powerful 
 influence to the Roman Catholic cause by announcing that 
 the Bull of Deposition was ready. Encouraged by this news, 
 the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569 
 led the northern provinces in rebellion against Elizabeth. 
 For a short time the rebellion promised to be successful, but 
 the energy of Sussex was able to quell it. The next move 
 of the Pope was to issue in the following year the Bull of 
 Excommunication and Deposition, which a second time 
 gave heart to the Roman Catholic sympathizers. In 1571 
 Norfolk, who had been released, again entered into an 
 intrigue with Mary, supported by many lords of "the old 
 .blood," to secure the assistance of Spain in furthering a 
 marriage of himself and Mary, and a subsequent assump- 
 tion of the throne. The rumor of this project aroused 
 Parliament to pass a series of extreme measures : the 
 introduction of papal bulls into the country was declared 
 high treason ; an act of attainder was issued against the 
 Northern earls ; by the obligation of subscribing to the 
 Articles of Faith, Roman Catholics were virtually de- 
 barred from all public office ; and any person laying claim 
 to the crown during the queen's lifetime was declared 
 incapable of succeeding to it. The final scene was forth- 
 with enacted, when the complete discovery of Norfolk's 
 treason brought him and Northumberland to the scaffold 
 and placed Mary in close confinement. Thus ended the 
 last great conflict with Roman Catholicism. 
 
 To the advocates of the national Church these were 
 years of gravest anxiety, for they recognized the tremendous 
 
$6 THE POLITICAL ALLEGORY OF 
 
 significance of the outcome. The letters of the English 
 reformers to their friends in Switzerland give the best 
 evidence of the feelings of these contemporary Church- 
 men. Under date of August 7, 1570, Jewel writes to 
 Bullinger : 
 
 Antichrist seems now to have ventured his last cast, and to have 
 thrown the world into confusion by seditions, tumults, wars, fury, 
 fire, and flame. He perceives that it is now all over with him, and 
 that destruction and death are impending over him and his party ; so 
 that his wretched object now is, not to perish ignobly or obscurely. 
 Let the remembrance of them perish then with a noise. 1 
 
 He then proceeds to write of the Proclamations of Nor- 
 thumberland and Westmoreland, of Bibles committed to the 
 flames and masses performed, and proposes to send a copy 
 of the bull, that Bullinger may see how "the beast is now 
 raging." On August 8, 1571, Horn writes to Bullinger: 
 
 Our government has been for almost the last three years in a dan- 
 gerous and dreadful state of agitation ; being not only shaken abroad 
 by the perfidious attacks of our enemies, but troubled and disturbed 
 at home by internal commotions. Both these kinds of pestilence, as 
 is always the case, are the brood and offspring of popery, that perni- 
 cious and accursed fury of the whole world. But our noble and ex- 
 cellent virgin (queen), reposing in security at home, has broken both 
 their forces at the same time, and destroyed the one without difficulty, 
 and the other without bloodshed. Everything turned out so unex- 
 pectedly as it were from above, that it seemed as though the Lord of 
 hosts and of might had undertaken from his heaven the cause of his 
 gospel, and had fought, as it were, with his own hands. 2 
 
 As a young and fervent Churchman, Spenser must 
 have felt keenly the anxieties of these crucial days, and 
 must have shared in the popular feeling at the end of the 
 
 1 Zurich Letters, Vol. I, p. 227. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 246-247. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 57 
 
 struggle, that the final overthrow of Antichrist in England 
 was divinely achieved. Certainly it is highly improbable 
 that he would have left this important contemporary his- 
 tory out of his allegory of the English Church. 
 
 It is a question to what extent the details of the strug- 
 gle between the knight and the dragon are to be applied 
 to specific historical occurrences. The journey through the 
 air may refer to the Northern rebellion ; the sting which 
 the dragon inflicts, to the papal bull ; the cutting off of 
 the tail, to the queen's retaliatory proclamation ; the ruth- 
 less paw laid upon the shield, to Norfolk's intrigue to 
 become king ; and the cutting off of the paw, to the exe- 
 cution of Norfolk ; but it is probably wiser not to attempt 
 to follow the analogy too closely. 
 
 In the final canto the parents of Una, attended by a 
 great throng, come forth rejoicing at their deliverance 
 from the dragon. The knight and Una are conducted to 
 the palace, and Una is promised to the knight. Just as 
 the marriage ceremony is to be performed, a messenger 
 rushes in and presents a letter from Fidessa, claiming 
 that the knight is already plighted to her. The Red 
 Cross Knight and Una in turn expose the falsehood of 
 Duessa, and identify the crafty messenger as Archimago. 
 The unfortunate man is bound and laid full low in a dun- 
 geon, and a guard placed over him, lest by his subtlety he 
 should escape. The marriage is then consummated amid 
 great rejoicing. 
 
 Here is poetically expressed the union of England and 
 true religion. The truth once veiled is now fully revealed. 
 England has achieved her divine mission of discovering 
 the truth and is henceforth to be its defender. The letter 
 of Duessa is of twofold meaning, — the Roman Catholic 
 
58 THE FAERIE QUEENE 
 
 claim to England, and Mary Stuart's claim to the throne. 
 Thjs__ identification of Mary with Duessa is substantiated 
 by Book V, Canto ix, where Duessa is tried before Mer- 
 cilla. There^Spenser has condensed into a few stanzas 
 the whole case for and against the unfortunate queen. 
 'Wisdom, Kingdomes Care, Authority, Law of Nations, 
 Religion, and Justice all inform against her, while Pittie, 
 Regard of Womanhead, Daunger, Nobilitie of Birth, and 
 Griefe plead for her. Zele showsthat Duessa is in league 
 with Ate, and produces Murder^ "Sedition, Incontinence, 
 Adulterie, and lewd Impietie to acknowledge her as ac- 
 complice. 1 The ruthless handling of Archimago repre- 
 sents the extreme measures which were taken to suppress 
 the Roman Catholics. 
 
 Such, in fine, I conceive to be the political and ecclesi- 
 astical allegory of this interesting book. I have of neces- 
 sity worked in the realm of conjecture : if my conclusions 
 meet with the favor of scholars, the task will have seemed 
 doubly worth while ; if my conclusions are refuted, I shall 
 yet comfort myself with the joy of the effort and with the 
 consciousness of the many new lines of interest that the 
 task has opened to me. 
 
 1 The reader should compare this passage with the charges preferred 
 against Mary by Parliament in May, 1862 : " The Bardon Papers," Cam- 
 den Third Series, Vol. XVII, pp. 113 ff. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Act of Supremacy, symbolically 
 represented, 50. 
 
 Act of Uniformity, symbolically 
 represented, 50. 
 
 Antichrist, identical with the Apoc- 
 alyptic beast, 44 ; identical with 
 the whole body of Papists, 44 ; 
 symbolized by Orgoglio, 47. 
 
 Apocalypse, imagery of Duessa 
 borrowed from harlot of, 42-43 ; 
 citation from Bale's exposi- 
 tion of, 43 ; seven-headed beast 
 adapted from beast of, 44 ; cited, 
 
 43. 44. 45. 48- 
 
 Arber, Edward, '" An English Gar- 
 ner" cited, 35. 
 
 Archimago, symbol of Roman 
 Catholic Church, 25, 58. 
 
 Ariosto, " Orlando Furioso " cited, 
 
 34- 
 Arthur, Prince, identified with 
 " Magnificence," 46 ; symbolizes 
 politically the national spirit of 
 England, 46 ; symbolizes spirit- 
 ually heavenly grace, 47. 
 
 Bale, Bishop, harlot of Apocalypse 
 interpreted by, 43 ; writings of, 
 cited, 44, 49. 
 
 * Bardon Papers, The," cited, 58. 
 
 Beast, seven-headed, adapted from 
 beast of Apocalypse, 44-45 ; 
 heads variously interpreted, 44. 
 
 Beast of Apocalypse, variously in- 
 terpreted, 44. 
 
 Bible, symbolized by the horn of 
 Arthur's squire, 48. 
 
 Blatant Beast, allegorical interpre- 
 tation of, 8-9. 
 
 Book of Common Prayer, symbol- 
 ized by book given to Arthur by 
 the knight, 47-48. 
 
 Box, diamond, wine of Commun- 
 ion service represented by, 47. 
 
 Bull of Deposition, allegorically 
 represented, 55—57. 
 
 Bullinger, Henry, letters to, 27- 
 28, 56. 
 
 Canto I, outline of, 12-15; aue " 
 gory of, discussed, 15-17, 25-28. 
 
 Canto II, outline of, 12-15; a " e " 
 gory of, discussed, 15, 25-28. 
 
 Canto III, outline of, 17-19; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 19-25. 
 
 Canto IV, outline of, 28-29 ; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 29-30. 
 
 Canto V, outline of, 28-29; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 29-30. 
 
 Canto VI, outline of, 30-31 ; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 31-36. 
 
 Canto VII, outline of, 36-39 ; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 42-51. 
 
 Canto VIII, outline of, 39-41 ; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 42-51. 
 
 Canto IX, outline of, 41-42 ; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 47-48. 
 
 Canto X, outline of, 51 ; allegory 
 of, discussed, 51. 
 
 Canto XI, outline of, 52-54 ; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 54—57. 
 
 Canto XII, outline of, 57 ; alle- 
 gory of, discussed, 57—58. 
 
 " Cantos of Mutability " cited,, in... 
 
 Cave of Despair, a " purple patch," 
 
 5'- 
 
 Church, English, growth of, alle- 
 gorically represented, 51. 
 
 Church, Low, favored by Grindal, 
 7-8 ; favored by Spenser, 7-9 ; 
 policy of, 28. 
 
 Clergy, reform, symbolized by 
 Prince Arthur's squire, 48. 
 
 Clio, why addressed by poet, 3. 
 
 59 
 
Cox, Bishop, in what sense a Puri- 
 tan, 6. 
 
 Cranmer, Archbishop, writings of, 
 cited, 6; allegorically repre- 
 sented by Sir Satyrane (?), 32- 
 35; successor to Cromwell, 32- 
 33 ; relation to Gardiner, 32-33 ; 
 Foxe's estimate of, 33-34 ; youth- 
 ful training of, 34. 
 
 Cromwell, Thomas, represented 
 by the lion, 20-21 ; how re- 
 garded by contemporary Church- 
 men, 20-21. 
 
 Cup, Duessa's magic, identical with 
 " cup full of abominations," 48. 
 
 Cup of abominations, how inter- 
 preted, 49. 
 
 Deposition, see Bull of Deposition. 
 
 Despair, see Cave of Despair. 
 
 Doyle, " Official Baronage of Eng- 
 land" cited, 21. 
 
 Duessa, identified, as spirit of 
 falsehood, with Roman Catholic 
 Church, 25, 26, 29-30, 42, 46; 
 as false living, 42 ; imagery of, 
 borrowed from harlot of Apoc- 
 alypse, 42-43 ; identified with 
 Mary Queen of Scots, 54-58; 
 letter of, explained, 57-58. 
 
 Dwarf, significance of, undeter- 
 mined, 28. 
 
 Elissa, symbol of Puritanism, 10. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, identical with 
 
 Faerie Queene, 3 ; identical with 
 
 Belphoebe, 3 ; Bible kissed by, 
 
 4 ; remark of, on death of Mary 
 
 Stuart, 50. 
 England, symbolized by St. George, 
 
 17; distinctive office of, 17; 
 
 union of, with true religion, 
 
 symbolized, 57. 
 
 " Faerie Queene," composition of, 
 when begun, 4. 
 
 Foxe, John, vogue of his " Actes 
 and Monuments," 4 ; estimate of 
 Cromwell by, 20-21 ; estimate 
 of Gardiner by, 22-23, 24 ; esti- 
 mate of Cranmer by, 32-34; 
 
 " Actes and Monuments " cited, 
 20, 22, 24, 26, 27, 32, 33, 34, 35. 
 
 Gardiner, Stephen, represented by 
 Sansloy, 22-23 ! Foxe's estimate 
 of, 22-23, 24; Hall's estimate of, 
 23 ; Strype's estimate of, 23 ; re- 
 lation of, to Cromwell, 22, 24; 
 relation of, to Wolsey, 25 ; re- 
 lation of, to Cranmer, 32-34. 
 
 Germany, symbolized by young 
 squire (?), 26-27. 
 
 Grindal, Archbishop, identical with 
 Algrind, 5 ; in what sense a. 
 Puritan, 7^8 ; letters of, to Henry 
 Bullinger, 7, 28; letter of, to 
 Rudolph Gtialter, 7 ; Lutherans, 
 how regarded by, 28. 
 
 Grosart, "Works of Spenser" 
 cited, 4, 5. 
 
 Gualter, Rudolph, letter from 
 Grindal to, 7 ; letter from Horn 
 to, 27. 
 
 Hall, Edward, " Chronicle " cited, 
 
 23- 
 
 Harvey, Gabriel, letter to, 4 ; iden- 
 tical with Hobbinol, 5. 
 
 Henry VIII, identified with Red 
 Cross Knight, 15-17, 26, 29, 42 ; 
 not identical with the lion, 19. 
 
 Hoffmann, Max, dissertation of, 
 cited, 2. 
 
 Holiness, house of, allegorically 
 interpreted, 51. 
 
 Hooper, Bishop, writings of, cited, 
 
 6. 43- 
 
 Horn, Bishop, writings of, cited, 6, 
 8 ; Lutherans, how regarded by, 
 27 ; letter to Bullinger from, 56. 
 
 Horn, squire's, symbol of Bible, 48. 
 
 Insurrection in the West, symboli- 
 cally represented, 49. 
 
 Jewel, Bishop, writings of, cited, 
 6 ; letter to Bullinger from, 56. 
 
 Jonson, Ben, interpretation of 
 Blatant Beast by, 9. 
 
 Kirkrapine, significance of , 21-22. 
 
THE FAERIE QUEENE 
 
 6l 
 
 Latimer, Hugh, discussion of, as 
 Sir Satyrane, 35-36 (note 2). 
 
 " Life and Death of Thomas, Lord 
 Cromwell," cited, 23. 
 
 Lion, the, wrongly identified with 
 _. Henry VIII, 19 ; identified with ( 
 Cromwell, 20-21. 
 
 Lutheranism, counterpart of " de- 
 ceiving image " (?), 26-27 ; how 
 regarded by English Church- 
 men, 27-28. 
 
 Martyrdoms, allegorically repre- 
 sented, 49-50. 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots, identified 
 with Duessa, 54-58 ; Elizabeth's 
 ' struggle with, allegorically rep- 
 K resented, 54-58. 
 
 Mary Stuart, death of, allegorically 
 represented, 50. 
 
 Mass, suppression of, allegorically 
 represented, 48. 
 
 Medina, symbol of Low Church- 
 manship, 10. 
 
 Monasteries, suppression of, alle- 
 gorically represented, 19-22. 
 
 "Mother Hubberd's Tale," cited, 
 10. 
 
 Norfolk, intrigue of, allegorically 
 represented, 55. 
 
 Northumberland, see Proclama- 
 tions of Northumberland and 
 Westmoreland. 
 
 Orgoglio, symbol of power of 
 Rome, 46; ancestry of, inter- 
 preted, 46. 
 
 Padelford, F. M.," Early Sixteenth 
 
 Century Lyrics" cited, 21. 
 Parker, Archbishop, writings of, 
 
 cited, 9. 
 Perissa, symbol of Roman Catholic 
 
 Church, 10. 
 Pilkington, Bishop, writings of, 
 
 cited, 51. 
 Platonism, Spenser's sympathy 
 
 with, 11. 
 Pole, Cardinal, represented by 
 
 Sansjoy (?), 30. 
 
 Pope, the, identical with Apoca- 
 lyptic beast, 44. 
 Pride, household of, a " purple 
 __ patch," 29. 
 
 /Proclamations of Northumberland 
 and Westmoreland, symbolically 
 represented, 56-57. 
 Puritanism, extremes of, discussed, 
 6-1 1 ; Blatant Beast symbol of, 
 . 9 ; caricatured in " Cantos of 
 Mutabilitie," 10 ; Elissa, symbol 
 of, 10. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, Spenser's 
 letter to, cited, 2, 46. 
 
 Rebellion in the North, symboli- 
 cally represented, 55—57. 
 
 Red Cross Knight, symbol of St. 
 ^ George, or England, 15-17; 
 identified with Henry VIII, 15- 
 17, 26, 29. 
 
 Revelation, see Apocalypse. 
 
 Ridley, Bishop, writings of, cited, 
 6> !9> 35, 43, 44 5 cup of abom- 
 inations interpreted by, 49. 
 
 Roman Catholic Church, clergy of, 
 contrasted with Protestant, 5-6 ; 
 allegorically represented by 
 _Perissa, 10 ; allegorically repre- 
 sented by Duessa, 25, 26, 29-30, 
 42, 43 ; deckings of, condemned 
 by Bale, 43 ; struggle against, 
 symbolized by conflict with Or- 
 goglio, 46, 51 ; deckings of, alle- 
 gorically represented, 51 ; final 
 struggle against, symbolized by 
 conflict with dragon, 54. 
 
 Rome, symbolized by harlot of 
 Apocalypse, 44 ; doctrines of, 
 symbolized by Duessa, 46; do- 
 minion of, symbolized by beast, 
 46 ; power of, symbolized by 
 Orgoglio, 46. 
 
 St. George, symbol of England, 17. 
 Sandys, Archbishop, writings of, 
 cited, 45. 
 fSansfoy, identified with Cardinal 
 ""- Wolsey, 25-26. 
 
 rSansjoy, identified with Cardinal 
 Pole (?), 30. 
 
62 
 
 THE FAERIE QUEENE 
 
 . Sansloy, identified with Bishop . 
 Gardiner, 22-23. 
 
 Satyrane, Sir, identified with Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer (?), 32-35; pos- 
 sible identification with Latimer 
 discussed, 35-36. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, editors of Spen- 
 ser criticized by, i. 
 
 Shepheardes Calender, ecclesias- 
 tical significance of, 5. 
 
 Shield of Prince Arthur, symbol 
 of reform clergy, 48. 
 
 Spenser, Edmund, ecclesiastical 
 sympathies of, 4-1 1 ; in what 
 sense a Puritan, 6-1 1 ; early im- 
 pressions of, 4 ; lover of the 
 golden mean, 10-n ; Platonism 
 of, -11. 
 
 Squire (of Canto II), may symbol- 
 ize Germany, 26-27. 
 
 Strype, " Life of Grindal " cited, 
 8 ; " Ecclesiastical Memorials " 
 cited, 21, 23, 26; "Memorials of 
 Archbishop Cranmer" cited, 34. 
 
 Tree of life, meaning of, 54 (note). 
 Turner, Dean, Lutherans how re- 
 garded by, 27-28. 
 
 Una.tjrpe oftruth and true Church, 
 ^-16, 47. " 
 Upton, John, on allegory of Red 
 
 Cross Knight, 2 ; on allegory of 
 
 the lion, 19. 
 
 Van Dyke, Paul, " Renaissance 
 
 Portraits" cited, 20. 
 Vander Noodt, Johan, identical 
 
 with Diggon Davie, 5. 
 
 Well of life, meaning of, 54 (note). 
 
 Westmoreland, see Proclamations 
 of Northumberland and West- 
 moreland. 
 
 Whitney, J. Ernest, on political 
 allegory of " Faerie Queene," 
 1 ; quoted, 15-17. 
 
 Winstanley, Lilian, definition of 
 Spenser's Puritanism and Pla- 
 tonism, 1 1 ; " Edmund Spenser : 
 The Fowre Hymnes," cited, 11. 
 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, symbolized by 
 Sansfoy, 25-26; relation to Gar- 
 diner, 25-26. 
 
 Zurich Letters, cited, 6, 7, 8, 9, 27. 
 
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