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The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Epic poem that was published between 1590 and 1609 by Edmund Spenser. It is the central poem of the Elizabethan period and is one of the great long poems in the English language. A celebration of Protestant nationalism, it represents infidels and papists as villains, King Arthur as the hero, and married chastity as its central value. The form of The Faerie Queene fuses the medieval allegory with the Italian romantic epic. The plan was for 12 books (of which six were completed), focusing on 12 virtues exemplified in the quests of 12 knights from the court of Gloriana, the Faerie Queene, a symbol for Elizabeth I herself. Arthur, in quest of Gloriana's love, would appear in each book and come to exemplify Magnificence, the complete man. Spenser took the decorative chivalry of the Elizabethan court festivals and reworked it through a constantly shifting veil of allegory, so that the knight's adventures and loves build into a complex, multileveled portrayal of the moral life. The verse, a spacious and slow-moving nine-lined stanza (see SPENSERIAN STANZA), and Spenser's archaic language frequently rise to an unrivaled sensuousness. The first installment of the poem (Books I-III) was published in 1590; the second, which contained Books I-III and Books IV-VI, in 1596. The first folio edition, with Books I-VI and the MUTABILITIE CANTOS fragment, appeared in 1609. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
heauy plight, neuer wight, knight aliue, wyld man, liuing wight, first aduenture, lining wight, more increast, straunger knight, vncouth sight, vtmost date, saluage man, euerlasting fame, euill plight, straunge aduentures, haue rent, deare besought, nigh approcht, euery ioynt, yron man, braue knights, faire damzell, forrest wyde, euery vaine, heauens hight Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir Guyon, Sir Calidore, Prince Arthur, Sir Satyrane, Briton Prince, Faerie Queene, Sir Calepine, Squire of Dames, Sir Paridell, Saint George, Sir Triamond, Which Cambell, Whom Calidore New!