The Faerie Queene: Despaire and House of Holiness Episodes English 514 Dr. Fike

Mini-lecture: Background on Redcrosse's previous adventures.

Small group work on your question. Ten minutes. Then we will reconvene and proceed as follows:

Group One: What theory of demon affliction emerges from the passages you studied for today?

Mini-lecture: What is despair?

Group Two: What is your summary of Redcrosse's exchange with Despaire, especially stanzas 38-47? What are the key points? Take us through stanza by stanza.

Mini-lecture: The House of Holiness vs. the House of Pride.  The two houses in general (chart).  More on psychomachia.  More specific point: the five deathbed temptations.  What is the relationship between these temptations and the personifications that Redcrosse encounters at the House of Holiness?  Cf. chapter one in Fike's Spenser's Underworld in the 1590 "Faerie Queene" (on reserve).

Group Three: What stages does Redcrosse go through at the House of Holiness? What is the result?

Group Three: Can you identify Catholic and Protestant elements in Canto 10? What is up with that?

Final point: Redcrosse's vision and the ars moriendi tradition.

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Read all of Doctor Faustus for our next class. I will provide a brief overview of the ars moriendi tradition. Then we will discuss the visual art on the handout and apply what we have learned about deathbed temptations to Faustus. Do not worry about preparing answers to specific questions for next time; put your emphasis on finishing the play with as high a degree of understanding as possible. Our next class is designed to build on a basic reading of the text.