13-15). In fact, Arthur does not play an overwhelming role in the action of the poem as we have it. As magnificence, ‘which vertue for that (according to Aristotle and the rest) it is the perfection of all the rest [of the virtues] and conteineth in it them all’, Arthur is called into the fiction to help out the individual knights of each book when they fall short of the virtue required of them (he rescues Redcross in I.8 and Guyon in II.8). The heroine of the poem, the Faerie Queene, or Gloriana, is even more removed from previous (or later) literary associations. She is entirely Spenser’s creation and appears in the poem only in one fleeting apparition to Arthur in I.9.13-15. She is glory, the reward of heroic virtue, and hence the proper bride for Arthur, who as magnificence sums up all the virtues. Yet the Faerie Queene is not only glory but also the idealized image of Elizabeth I as the foundation of Spenser’s society. Spenser tells us that in the poem Elizabeth ‘beareth two persons’, her public role as monarch and her private role as virtuous virgin. As monarch she is figured by Gloriana and as virgin she is figured by Bel-phoebe, a militant Diana, an identification derived (Spenser implies) from the fact that Ralegh titles his poem to Elizabeth The Ocean’s Love to Cynthia, another name for Diana or Phoebe. We cannot judge the propriety of Spenser’s compliment to Ralegh since only one book of his poem survives.

Spenser ends the letter with a description of the first three books, the action of each initiated at the court of Gloriana, who commands each knight to take up a task on each day of the twelve-day feast she is holding (true only of Books I, II, V, VI). The description of Book I fits well with the poem (although the reader may want to know the full reference to Ephesians, which is chapter 6, verses 11-17, quoted in note to I.1.2). The letter and the poem are at variance with regard to II. The Palmer and Guyon are already together at the beginning, Gloriana is not mentioned, and the episode of the bloody baby is part of the action of cantos 1 and 2. The description of III is even more curious since it treats Sir Scudamour as if he were the main knight of the book whereas he appears for the first time only in canto 11, a difficulty of which Spenser seems to be aware since he describes as ‘Accidents’ most of the other adventures of the book: the love of Britomart (cantos 1-3), the overthrow of Marinell (canto 4), the misery of Florimell (cantos 7-8), the virtuousness of Belphoebe (cantos 5-6), and the lasciviousness of Hellenore (cantos 9-10). For a discussion of these difficulties see Roche, Kindly Flame, pp. 195-202, 31-50.

The date of the letter – 23 January 1589 – is actually 1590, since England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752 and the dating of the new year began on 25 March, L

NOTES TO COMMENDATORY VERSES

For the seven poems -written in commendation of The Faerie Queene only two authors have been identified. The first two poems, signed W. R., are by Sir Walter Ralegh, the friend who accompanied Spenser to England for the printing of the poem and its presentation at court.’ To the learned Shepeheard’, signed Hobynoll, is by Gabriel Harvey, Spenser’s friend and mentor at Cambridge, explicitly identified as Hobynoll in The Shepheardes Calender (1579). R. S., H. B., W. L., and Ignoto are still unknown.

A VISION

1 Laura: the woman loved by Petrarch, the theme of his poems.

2 Temple: the temple of Vesta at Rome, where the sacred fire of the state
was tended by Vestal Virgins.

ANOTHER OF THE SAME

2 Philumena: Philomel, the nightingale.

6 eine: eyes.

TO THE LEARNED SHEPEHEARD

1 Collyn: Colin Clout, poetic name adopted by Spenser in The Shepheardes Calender, Colin Clouts Come Home Again (1595) and The Faerie Queene VI.10.

7 Rosolinde: Rosalind, the name of Colin’s love.

28 Albion: name for England, from Albion the mythical founder. See II.10.11 and notes, II, 10, headnote.

35 dome: fate.

35 Empyring: ruling absolutely.

FAIRE THAMIS STREAMS

1 Thamis: the river Thames.
Ludds stately towne: London, founded by Lud.

GRAUE MUSES

3 dispenser: pun on the poet’s name.

7 Augustus: Augustus Caesar, patron of Virgil. Historically he did not give the laurel crown to Virgil.

WHEN STOUT ACHILLES …’

Achilles’ reluctance to go to the Trojan war is related by Apollodorus, 3.13.8, and Il. 9.410 ff.

NOTES TO DEDICATORY SONNETS

The dedicatory sonnets were originally ten in number and were addressed to Hatton, Essex, Oxford, Northumberland, Ormond, Howard, Grey, Ralegh, Lady Carew and ‘all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the Court’, in that order. When the first three books of 1590 were being bound, Spenser, for what reasons we do not know, must have realized the political error of omitting William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, from the list of dedicatees. Burleigh was the principal advisor to the Queen and a man of enormous influence. Earlier in his career he had been the principal opponent to the power of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite of the Queen and uncle of Sir Philip Sidney. Spenser is thought to have been in the service of the Earl in the late 1570s after he came down from Cambridge. We know that Spenser’s concern about the omission of Burleigh is more than scholarly supposition because Thomas Nashe in Pierce Pennilesse includes with praise for Spenser’s poem a sonnet about his grievous omission of Burleigh.