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Stories from the Faerie Queene

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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #15 on: November 11, 2009, 01:09:52 pm »

And yet it is incontrovertible that this poem is very little known as a whole to most people. Everybody is familiar with the story of Una and the Lion, and with two or three stanzas of singular beauty in other parts of "The Faerie Queen," because these occur in most or all books of selections: in every anthology occur those fairest flowers. But the world at large is content to know no more. The size of the poem appals it. "A big book is a big evil," it thinks, and it shudders at the idea of perusing the six twelve-cantoed books in which Spenser's genius expressed itself--expressed itself only in an incomplete and fragmentary fashion, for many more books formed part of his enormous design. "Of the persons who read the first canto," says Macaulay in a famous Essay, "not one in ten reaches the end of the First Book, and not one in a hundred perseveres to the end of the poem. Very few and very weary are those who

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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #16 on: November 11, 2009, 01:10:07 pm »

p. xi

are in at the death of the Blatant Beast. If the last six books, which are said [without any authority] to have been destroyed in Ireland, had been preserved, we doubt whether any heart less stout than that of a commentator would have held out to the end." And Macaulay speaks truly as well as wittily. He is as accurate as Poins when Prince Hal asks him what he would think if the Prince wept because the King his father was sick. "I would think thee a most princely hypocrite," replies Poins. "It would be every man's thought," says the Prince: "and thou art a blessed fellow to think as every man thinks. Never a man's thought in the world keeps the roadway better than thine." Even so is Macaulay "a blessed fellow to think as every man thinks," and no doubt his blessedness in this respect is one of the characteristics--by no means the only one--that account for his widespread popularity. He not only states that people do not read "The Faerie Queen," but he shows that he himself, voracious reader--helluo librorum--as he was, had not done so, or had done so very carelessly; for, alas! the Blatant Beast, as at all events every student of the present volume will know, does not die; Sir Calidore only suppresses him for a time; he but temporarily ties and binds him in an iron chain, "and makes
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #17 on: November 11, 2009, 01:10:21 pm »

him follow him like a fearful dog;" and one day long afterwards the beast got loose again--

"Ne ever could by any, more be brought
  Into like bands, ne maystred any more,
  Albe that, long time after Calidore,
  The good Sir Pelleas him tooke in hand, p. xii
  And after him Sir Lamoracke of yore,
  And all his brethren borne in Britaine land
Yet none of them could ever bring him into band.

So now he raungeth through the world againe,
  And rageth sore in each degree and state
  Ne any is that may him now restraine,
  He growen is so great and strong of late,
  Barking and biting all that him doe bate,
  Albe they worthy blame, or clear of crime
  Ne spareth he most learned wits to rate,
  Ne spareth he the gentle Poets rime;
But rends without regard of person or of time."

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« Reply #18 on: November 11, 2009, 01:10:33 pm »

 And Spenser goes on to declare that even his "homely verse of many meanest" cannot hope to escape "his venemous despite;" for, in his own day, as often since, Spenser by no means found favour with everybody. Clearly even Macaulay's memory of the close of "The Faerie Queene" was sufficiently hazy. But even Milton, to whom Spenser was so congenial a spirit, and whom he acknowledged as his "poetical father," on one occasion at least forgets the details of the Spenserian story. When insisting in the Areopagitica that true virtue is not "a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary," but a virtue that has been tried and tested, he remarks that this " was the reason why our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas, describing true temperance under the person of Guion, brings him in with his Palmer through the cave of Mammon and the bower of
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« Reply #19 on: November 11, 2009, 01:10:46 pm »

p. xiii

earthly bliss, that he may see, and know, and yet abstain." But the Palmer was not with Sir Guyon in the Cave of Mammon, Phædria having declined to ferry him over to her floating island. See "The Faerie Queene," ii. 6, 19:--

             "Himselfe [Sir Guyon] she tooke aboord,
  But the Black Palmer suffred still to stond,
  Ne would for price or prayers once affoord
To ferry that old man over the perlous foord.

"Guyon was loath to leave his guide behind,
  Yet being entred might not back retyre;
  For the flitt barke, obeying to her mind,
  Forth launched quickly as she did desire,
  Ne gave him leave to bid that aged sire
Adieu."

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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #20 on: November 11, 2009, 01:10:55 pm »

So Macaulay's lapse must not be regarded too severely, though, as may be seen, much more prominence is given by Spenser to the fact that the Blatant Beast was not killed, than to the absence of the Palmer from Guyon's side in Mammon's House. It seems probable, indeed, that Macaulay mixed up the fate of the Dragon in the eleventh canto of the First Book with that of the Blatant Beast in the twelfth of the Sixth. But we mention these things only to prevent any surprise at the general ignorance of Spenser, when such a confirmed book-lover as Macaulay, and such a devoted Spenserian as Milton, are found tripping in their allusions to his greatest work.

Now this ignorance, however explicable, is, we think, to be regretted. A poet of such splendid attributes,

p. xiv

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« Reply #21 on: November 11, 2009, 01:11:06 pm »

and with such a choice company of followers, surely deserves to be better known than he is by "the general reader"; and we trust that this volume may be of service in making the stories of "The Faerie Queene " more familiar, and so in tempting the general reader to turn to Spenser's own version of them, and to appreciate his amazing affluence of language, of melody, and of fancy.

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« Reply #22 on: November 11, 2009, 01:11:15 pm »

Clearly, Spenser does not appeal to everybody at first; we mean that to enjoy him fully needs some little effort to begin with--some distinct effort to put ourselves in communication with him, so to speak; for he is far away from us in many respects. His costume and his accent are very different from ours. He does not seem to be of us or of our world. "His soul" is "like a star": it dwells "apart." We have, it would appear at first sight, nothing in common with him: he moves all alone in a separate sphere--he is not of our flesh and blood. What strikes us at first sight is a certain artificiality and elaborateness, as we think. We cannot put ourselves on confidential terms with him; he is too stately and point devise. His art rather asserts than conceals itself to persons who merely glance at him. But these impressions will be largely or altogether removed, if the reader will really read "The Faerie Queene." He will no longer think of its author as a mere phrase-monger, or only a dainty melodist, or the master of a superfine style. He will find himself in communion with a man of high intellect, of a noble nature--of great attraction, not only for his humanism, but for his humanity. To

p. xv

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« Reply #23 on: November 11, 2009, 01:11:28 pm »

Spenser, Wordsworth's lines in "A Poet's Epitaph" may be applied with particular and profound truth

"He is retired as noontide dew,
Or fountain in a noonday grove;
And you must love him ere to you
He will seem worthy of your love."

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« Reply #24 on: November 11, 2009, 01:11:37 pm »

The very opulence of Spenser's genius stands in the way of his due appraisement. There can scarcely be a doubt that if he could have restrained the redundant stream of his poetry, he might have been more worthily recognised. Had he written less, he would have been praised more; as it is, with many readers, mole ruit sua: they are overpowered and bewildered by the immense flood. The waters of Helicon seem a torrent deluge. We say his popularity would have been greater, if he could have restrained and controlled this amazing outflow; but, after all, we must take our great poets as we find them. In this very abundance, as in other ways, Spenser was a child of his age, and we must accept him with all his faults as well as with all his excellences. Both faults and excellences are closely inter-connected. Il a les défauts de ses qualités.

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« Reply #25 on: November 11, 2009, 01:11:48 pm »

He said that Chaucer was his poetical master, and more than once he mentions Chaucer with the most generous admiration:--

"Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,
On Fames eternal beadroll worthy to be fyled."

"That old Dan Geffrey, in whose gentle spright
The pure well head of Poesie did dwell."

p. xvi

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« Reply #26 on: November 11, 2009, 01:11:58 pm »

And Chaucer too may be said to suffer from a very plethora of wealth. Chaucer is apt to be superabundant; but yet he was a model of self-restraint as compared with Spenser. One cannot say in this case, "Like master, like man," or, "Like father, like son." Their geniuses are entirely different--a fact which makes Spenser's devotion to Chaucer all the more noticeable and interesting; and the art of the one is in sharp contrast with the art of the other. Chaucer is a masterly tale-teller: no one in all English poetry equals him in this faculty; he is as supreme in it as Shakespeare in the department of the drama. In his tales Chaucer is, "without o'erflowing, full." The conditions under which they were told beneficially bounded and limited them. Each is multum in parvo. They are very wonders of compression, and yet produce no sense of confinement or excision. Spenser could not possibly have set before himself a better exemplar; but yet he so set him in vain. The contrast between the two poets, considered merely as narrators or story-tellers, is vividly exhibited in the third canto of the Fourth Book of "The Faerie Queene," where, after a reverent obeisance to his great predecessor, he attempts to tell the other half of the half-told story.
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« Reply #27 on: November 11, 2009, 01:12:07 pm »

   "Of Cambuscan bold,
Of Camball and of Algarsife,
And who had Canace to wife,
That owned the virtuous ring and glass,
And of the wondrous horse of brass,
On which the Tartar king did ride."

p. xvii

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« Reply #28 on: November 11, 2009, 01:12:17 pm »

It is not without some misgiving that he adventures on such a daring task:--

"Then pardon, O most sacred happie Spirit
  That I thy labours lost 1 may thus revive,
  And steale from thee the meede of thy due merit,
  That none durst ever whilest thou wast alive,
  And being dead in vain yet many strive.
  Ne dare I like; but through infusion swete
  Of thine own Spirit which doth in me survive,
  I follow here the footing of thy feete,
But with thy meaning so I may the rather meete."

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« Reply #29 on: November 11, 2009, 01:12:27 pm »

But it can scarcely be allowed either that he follows the footing of his master's feet, or that he caught the breath of his master's spirit. There are "diversities of operations"; and Spenser's method and manner were not those of Chaucer, however sincere the allegiance he professed, and however sincere his intentions to tread in his footsteps and march along the same road. He wanted some gifts and some habits that are necessary for the perfect story-teller--gifts and habits which Chaucer, by nature or by discipline, possessed in a high degree, such as humour, concentration, realism. The very structure of "The Faerie Queene" is defective. It begins in the middle--at its opening it takes us in medias res, seemingly in accordance with


p. xviii

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