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ATTITUDES TOWARD LOVE IN SPENSER with particular reference to books three and four of The Faerie '~ueene a the sis submitted in partial fulfilment of the reouirements for the deŒree of ïiiaster of Arts at 1,IeGill Unfversi ty by Tilya Gallay Helfield (Mrs. Erie Helfield) April, 1955 TABLE OF CO.[\; TENTS Chapter 1. Introduction. 1 Chapter II. Natural Love. 10 Chapter III. Lustful Love. 22 Chapter IV. Lustful Love (continued) • 33 Chapter V. Courtly Love. 44 Chapter VI. lÜ sma ted Love. 62 Chapter VII. Chaste Love. 74 Chapter VIII. Chaste Love (continued). 88 Chapter IX. Platonic Love. 101 Chapter X. Friendshi:9. 109 1 CHAPTER l INTRODUCTION It is the purposeof this thesis to examine Edmund Spenser's attitudes toward the concept of 'love' and to observe this concept especially as it appears in the third and fourth books of ~ Faerie Qpeene. Before turning to these two books, however, it is important to survey the entire poem in the light of this concept and to recognize that Spenser's Faerie Queene is a romantic epic, whose sustaining theme is the search of a noble and virtuous knight for the love of a beautiful laqy, the search of Prince Arthur for the Gloriana of his dream-vision. In the letter of exposition that Spenser wrote to Sir Walter Raleigh explaining the circumstances of the poem, he says that he conceives Arthur "to haue seene in a dream or vision the Faery Queen, with whose excellent beauty rauished, he awakening • • • went to seeke her forth in Faerye land".l The poem, then, the major expression of Spenser's thoughts and conceptions, is a romantic quest, lEdmund Spenser, "A Letter of the Authors • ••", The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, ed. J .C. Smith and E. de SélinëëUrt (Oxford, 1942), pp. 407-408. 2 a search for the lovely lady of the hero's dreams. It matters not that in the person of Arthur, Spenser envisioned Leicester in the historical ailegory, Hagnificence in the ethical allegory, and the human soul in the spiritual ailegory. Nor does it matter that in the person of the Faery Queen, Spenser depicted Queen Elizabeth, Glory, and Heavenly Good or Beauty in these respective allegories. The se factors are aIl weIl defined in the poem. They cannot escape observation. But the one prevailing theme, the one constant undercurrent in the entire poem, is Prince Arthur's quest of his lady love. This great epic poem, which incorporates so much in the way of ethical, moral, religious and political thought, is primarily ~ unconditionaily ! magnificent poem of love, and Prince Arthur, first and foremost, is the tender lover searching for bis elusive mistress. He is the embodiment of the romantic lover, and his entire guest is ~ exposition of the romantic love theme. In tbis thesis, particular emphasis will be placed on the third and fourth books, which, it may be argued, are the most important and pivotaI books in the entire poem. The third and fourth books of The Faerie -Queene are the focal point, the place where ail the main events converge. l cannot agree with those critics who maintain that, as the poem progressed, Spenser lost sight of his original plan as outlined in his letter to Raleigh. The action of books three and four of necessity takes on a different character fram that of the first two, and if the action 3 does become freer and less intensively co-ordinated than that in the latter, then this change can be ascribed only to Spenser's great genius in refusing to allow a format of a poem to dominate or curtail his volatile imaginative powers. As Padelford states so conclusively: "Spenser is always the master of his material. The(third)book is compact, harmonious, and holds closely to the central theme •••• Spenser is always the artist.,,2 AlI the main threads of action are caught up and woven into the material of the third and fourth books. Characters who were introduced in the first and second books reappear in them. The action in these is not completed therein, but goes on throughout book five. Britomart appears beyond the confines of her own representative book, as do the Red-Crosse Knight, Archimago and Satyrane. But no matter how diverse the action seems to be, all the various strands of epiàodes either emanate from, or converge on, the stor,y of the third and fourth books. Thus the importance of these books lies not only in their central positions as the third and fourth of seven, but in their position as the focal point of many of the adventures throughout the entire poem. 2Padelford, The Variorum Edition of Spenser, III, 328. 4 Books three and four deal exclusively with the emotion of love, and the romantic action of the entire poem is crystallized and magnified in these volumes. Were Spenser's English Poet extant, it is very probable that the opinions expressed there would have coincided with those of Sir Philip Sidney in An Apolcgie for Poetrie. The only knowledge WB have of Spenser' S "lOrk is E.K.' s reference to it in the October Eclogue.3 It is certain that Spenser had read the Apologie. The wording of E.K.'s gloss on the subject of divine inspiration in poetry is almost identical to that of Sidney. E.K. says that poetry is rather no arte, but a diuine gift and heauenly instinct not to bee gotten by laboure and learning, but adorned with both: and poured into the witte by a certaine h6ov6(46)1)'s and celestial inspiration, as the Author hereof els where at large discourseth, in his booke called the English Poet.4 On the sarne subject, Sidney, in his Apologie would rather giue right honour to the heauenly Maker of that maker, who, hauing made man to his owne likeness, set him beyond and ouer all the workes of that second nature, which in nothing hee sheweth so much as in Poetrie, when with the force of a diuine breath he bringeth things forth5. nA Poet no industrie can make, if his owne Genius bee not carried vnto it; and therefore is it an old Prouerbe, Orator fit, Poeta nascitur.,,6 3Spenser, "The Shepheardes Calender", pp. 456-458. 4 Spenser, p. 456. 5 Philip Sidney, !Q Apologie for Poetrie, ed. J. Churton Collins (Oxford, 1950), p. 9. 6 Sidney, p. 50. 5 It ls certaln that Spenser believed, as dld ~idney, that IIthe endlnl:: end of aIl earthly learnlng ••• ls vertu­ OUS actlonll7 and that poetry was wrltten IIto lead and draw vs to as hlgh a perfectlon as our àegenerate soules, made worse by theyr clayey lodgin;;ss, can be capable of".S The best me- thod by which poetry can exclte men to virtue was, accordlng to Sidney, a "repre sentlng, counterfettlng, or figurlng foorth: to speake metaphorlcally, a speaklng picture: wlth thls end, to teach and dell>l:ht" 9 ~ . Thls poetry conslders only the ldeal, IIthe dlulne ll lO conslderation of what may be, or should be • Poetry, to Sld- ney, "is that faynlng notable images of vertues, vices, or what els, with that dellghtful teaching, whlch must be the rlght àescrlblng note to know a Poet by".ll It ls certaln that Spenser agreed, for he seems to adhere to all Sldney 1 s ·.i cl ea \ S ' of wha t a poet ought to be. The entire Faerle Queene is a collection of 'speakln€ plctures' portraylng both evil and virtue, showin.S thlne: s not only as they are, but as they ought to be. Spenser personlfles the concept of ~rror in the person of a fouI and loathly monster who ls flnally overcome by the Red-Crosse Knisht. The horrlfylng plcture whlch he palnts of this epitome of evll is quite sufflcient to move any man ta a hatred of vlce and to an avoldance of lt in his awn behavlour, but 7 ;:ldney , D. 13. SSldney, p. 13. f8;dney, p. 10. wldney, -9. Il. 1131dney, ~. 12. 6 Spenser can speak just as strongly and with as much moving force in his 'speaking pictures' of virtue. Spenser's picture of Charissa in the House of Holiness is one of a truely noble and virtuous woman. She is happily married to "a louely fere" and has a multitude of beautiful children. She was a woman in her freshest age, Of wondrous beauty, and of bountie rare, vlith goodly grace and comely personage, That was on earth not easie to compare. (1. x. 30). She is full of love but despised lustful passion. Arrayed in her yellow robes, her breasts bared to her nursing babies, she is a picture of healthy and fruitful goodness. In our examination of the attitudes toward love exhibited in the poem, we will discover that each of these attitudes and their different and various aspects are shown by means of 'speaking pictures' and that each of theepisodes is geared to arouse either admiration or disgust in the reader, so that he will seek to imitate or shun the actions in real life that are portrayed in the poem. Spenser includes in The Faerie Çueene every imaginable attitude toward love. He studies the effect that love has on the various people involved in the relationship and determines how differently love is manifested in different persons. He states this intention very clearly in the poem: vIonder it is to see, in diuerse minds, How diuersly loue doth his pageants play, 7 And shewes his powre in variable kinds: The baser rit, whose idle thought6alway Are wont to cleaue unto the lowly clay, It stirreth vp to sensuall desire, And in lewd slouth to wast his carelesse day: But in braue sprite it kindles good~ fire, That to all high desert and honour doth aspire.

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