FAERIE QUEENE

By
Edmund Spenser

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 About The Author
Edmund Spenser was born around 1553 in London

He was classically educated at the merchant Taylor

school
He attended college at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge

University
He got his bachelor of Arts in 1573 and his Masters

of Arts in 1576

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 About The Author
Spenser first wrote for the bishop of Rochester, then

served under the earl of Leicester

In 1580, he became secretary to the Earl of Leicester

In 1580, he became secretary to the lord Deputy of

Ireland
In 1581, he made Ireland his home, eventually

acquiring Kilcolman, an estate with a castle of Cork

and Limerick
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 About The Author
Spenser married twice

He married machabyas Chylde in 1579, she died in

1594, he then married Elizabeth Boyle

He published his first personal work, The Shephardes

Calendar, a pastoral poem, in 1579

He was actually a well known poet before he wrote the

Faerie Queene, but that work has over shadowed all his
others
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 About The Author

He published his first personal work, The Shephardes

Calendar, a pastoral poem, in 1579

He was actually a well known poet before he wrote the

Faerie Queene, but that work has over shadowed all his

others

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 The Faerie Queene

He began the epic poem in 1580 and spent 10 years

writing the first three books. It was published in 1591

He planned to write 12 books, but he only managed 6

before his death

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 Epic

Definition of Epic
 The word epic is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective

, “epikos”, which means a poetic story

 In literature, an epic is a long  narrative poem, which is
usually related to heroic deeds of a person of an unusual
courage and unparalleled bravery
 In order to depict this bravery and courage, the epic uses

grandiose style

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 Epic

 The hero is usually the representative of the values of a

certain culture, race, nation or a religious group on whose

victor or failure the destiny of the whole nation or group

depends

 Therefore, certain supernatural forces, deus ex machina,

help the hero, who comes out victor at the end

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 Faerie Queene As An Epic Romance
Spenser considered “heroic” or epic poetry to be the

highest form of poetry

As a humanist, he also revered the classics and often

imitated classical forms like pastoral and epic poetry

The poem, written in a deliberately archaic style, draws

on history and myth, particularly the legends of Arthur

It follows the adventures of a number of medieval

knights

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 Faerie Queene As An Epic Romance
 Each book follows the adventures of a knight who

represents a particular virtue (holiness, temperance,

chastity, friendship, justice and courtesy) and who has
that quality in him or herself tested by the plot

It is, however, pertinent to mention here that it is not a

canonized epic like Milton’s “Paradise lost “ or Homer’s

“Iliad” and “Odyssey” but has certain epic elements in it

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 Epic Elements In Faerie Queene
  The Faerie Queene, begins in medias res (Lat. “into the

middle of things”) since the of Book I, Canto I starts with “A

Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine..” which is middle of
the story
 A second epic convention in terms of the textual aspect is the

invocation of the Muse at the beginning of an epic poem.

 In The Faerie Queene, Spenser remains true to this tradition

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 Epic Elements In Faerie Queene

  Epic similes, also called Homeric simile, are a third textual

epic convention.
 There are many examples of this convention in The Faerie

Queene. For example, comparing Error's defiling 'quality' to

the flooding of the Nile and the mudd it leaves

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 Epic Elements In Faerie Queene

 “As when old father Nilus gins to swell/With timely pride

above the Aegyptian vale,/His fattie waves do fertile slime

outwell, /And overflow each plaine and lowly dale:/But when
his later spring gins to avale, / Huge heapes of mudd he
leaves,” 
 The fourth epic convention with regards to the textual aspect,

is the use of frequent, long speeches in elevated tone : for

example, “Una's” speech in stanzas 51 and 52 of Book - I

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 Epic Elements In Faerie Queene

 Another epic convention in terms of text is the frequency of

epithets, re-namings of, mainly, characters by stock phrases.

 For example: “The Knight of the Redcrosse” is among others

named “the Champion (stout)”, “the valiant Elf”, “the Elfin

knight”etc...

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