Information to Users
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INFORMATION TO USERS While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this manuscript, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. For example: • Manuscript pages may have indistinct print. In such cases, the best available copy has been filmed. • Manuscripts may not always be complete. In such cases, a note will indicate that it is not possible to obtain missing pages. • Copyrighted material may have been removed from the manuscript. In such cases, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, and charts) are photographed by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is also filmed as one exposure and is available, for an additional charge, as a standard 35mm slide or as a 17”x 23” black and white photographic print. Most photographs reproduce acceptably on positive microfilm or microfiche but lack the clarity on xerographic copies made from the microfilm. For an additional charge, 35mm slides of 6”x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations that cannot be reproduced satisfactorily by xerography. 8703540 Fadley, Ann M iller "IN LOUES AND GENTLE IOLLITIES", A STUDY OF EXEMPLAR-LOVERS AND HEROISM IN "THE FAERIE QUEENE" The Ohio Stale University Ph.D. 1986 University Microfilms International300 N. Zeeb R o a d , Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1986 by Fadley, Ann Miller All Rights Reserved PLEASE NOTE: In all c a s e s this material h a s been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problem s encountered with this document have been identified here with a check markV . 1. Glossy photographs or p ages______ 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print________ 3. Photographs with dark background______ 4. Illustrations are poor co_______ p y 5. Pages with black marks, not original copy_______ 6. Print shows through as there is text on both sides of page________ 7. Indistinct, broken or small print on several pages________ 8. Print exceeds margin requirements_______ 9. Tightly bound co p y with print lost in sp________ in e 10. Computer printout p ages with indistinct print________ 11. Page(s)_____________lacking when material received, and not available from school or author. 12. Page(s)_____________seem to be missing in numbering only as text follows. 13. Two pages numbered . Text follows. 14. Curling and wrinkled pages_______ 15. Dissertation contains pages with print at a slant, filmed as receivedi / 16. Other_______________________________________________________________________________ University Microfilms International "IN LOUES AND GENTLE IOLLITIES"i A STUDY OF EXEMPLAR-LOVERS AND HEROISM IN THE FAERIE QUEENE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Ann Miller Fadley, B.A., M.A. * # # # » The Ohio State University 1986 Dissertation Committeei Approved by David 0. Frantz 'i Rolf Soellner Phoebe Spinrad Advisej Department or"Ehgiishjr'Engl is Copyright by Ann Miller Fadley 1986 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Dr. David 0. Frantz for his continuing guidance and patience throughout the extensive researching and writing of this study. Thanks go also to the other members of my advisory committee* to Dr. Phoebe Spinrad for her helpful editorial suggestions and to Dr. Rolf-Soellner for his support. I express sincere appreciation to Dr. Robert Jones for his encouragement in the first several chapters. VITA November 22, 1933 .............. Born - Seattle, Washington 1951-1953 ...................... Attended Denison University, Granville, Ohio 1 9 7*)........................... B.A., cum laude. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1 9 7 5 - 1 9 7 7................... Graduate Administrative Associate, Creative Writing Department, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1 9 7 6 ........................... M.A., Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1978-1981 ........ .............. Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of English, The Ohio State University 1981-1984...................... Lecturer, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1984-Present ................... Instructor, Department of English, Ohio Dominican College, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field1 English Studies in English Renaissance, Dr, David 0. Frantz Restoration and Eighteenth-century, Dr. Wallace Maurer Drama, Dr. Robert Jones Creative Writing, Dr. Robert Canzoneri iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................... ii VITA ............................................... iii INTRODUCTION .............. 1 Notes ................................... • 10 CHAPTER I. "Fierce warres and faithfull loues"; A STUDY OF LOVE IN THE EPIC ................ 11 Notes .................................... 37 II. Una and "her owne deare loued knight"» HUMAN LOVE IN THE NARRATIVE OF BOOK I OF THE FAERIE QUEENE ............................... M Notes .................................... 79 III. "Dye rather, dy, then euer loue disloyally"i TIMIAS AND BELPHOEBE........................ 83 Notes .................................... 122 IV. "Whose euer be the shield, faire Amoret be his"i AMORET AND SCUDAMOUR ...... 126 Notes .................................... 176 V. "Where he her spous'd and made his ioyous bride"; FLORIMEX'L AND MARI NELL .............. 179 Notes .................................... 232 VI. "Well worthy stock, from which the branches sprong"; THE MAJOR EXEMPLAR-LOVERS, BRITOMART AND ARTEGALL .................. 2 3 6 Notes .................................... 309 CONCLUSION ......................................... 314 WORKS.......... CITED ............................... 3I8 iv INTRODUCTION One of the most important themes throughout Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. published in 1590 and 1596, is the primacy of love as a universal force for good. Through his investigation of love between exemplar-couples, Spenser asserts that concord and love should be man's ultimate goal. Of utmost importance, the exemplar-lovers' attempts to achieve virtuous union lead to a marked reinterpretation of epic heroism. The epic hero has always been understood to be a man of preeminent courage, battle prowess, strength, and/or cunning. Perhaps descended from a god, the hero remains mortal. Great ly human, he is larger than life in his abilities and flaws. The Homeric hero most values personal glory. His primary aim is to win honor through great achievements and be remembered for them after death. The Virgilian heroic ideal changes to a desire for his society's glory. Aeneas, for example, sym bolizes the Roman virtues, and he willingly sacrifices him self for Rome's future greatness. Spenser's heroes and her oines are also preeminent, but they represent particular areas of evolving virtues. Like previous classical heroes, 1 his remain immersed in the active life. They make choices and are responsible for their actions. Yet, for Spenser, the redeeming capability of human sexual love and marriage creates a new epic hero and heroine and a new heroic ideal. Man's heroic nature is best shown through inner virtue and his performance of duty on a more homely level. Spenser's heroes and heroines seek a moral order and find cases of isolated human goodness that can rally to oppose evil and, at least temporarily, conquer evil. Spenser redefines the epic hero or heroine as a virtuous lover who is willing to live within the here and now. His or her primary aim is to win personal honor through virtuous love and fertile mar riage. Marriage thereby stands as a metaphor for the best way to bring justice and peace to the world and as a sug gestion for the most practical way to live on this earth. The life of the lover, like the life of the just man, in sists we reach for holiness and, with forethought, incor porate it within love and justice to bring peace. Thus, Spenser redefines epic heroism as an active quest for concord and love that can bring justice and peace to both present and future societies. The virtuous lovers' search for union is a heroic test ing of life itself and how best it can be lived. Within that testing ground, the terms of love and friendship in Books III and IV proffer a fitting respect for self that entails human ism's respect for all mankind. The greatest good to be found 3 is not Homer's heroic assertion of self, nor is it Virgil's proposal that man lose himself or give himself over to the future of his society. Spenser's hero will not deny his Di do, for Spenser's heroine will not threaten to keep her hero from his duty. The heroic ideal is not to seek an afterlife of the soul and earthly fame or to seek diffusion from self to society. The heroic ideal is to seek proper integration of self with world, in an active encounter with it. For Spenser, the heroic ideal contains a satisfaction that there can be the attainment of love here and now. The reality might not come about, but the hope is kept. Love can lead the way. In Ariosto's Italian romance-epic, Orlando Furioso. the men and women who quest for love and honor “are individuals in a slaughterhouse about to be abandoned, half the time mad with jealousy or love." * Orlando rages mad ly, finding no safety within love and no safe way out. Like Ariosto's, Tasso's heroes in Gerusalemme Liberata fail be cause, despite their strength