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A Defense of Prince Arthur’s Position as Magnificence in

Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

A Thesis Presented by

Jennifer Mary Myatt

to

The Graduate School

in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements

For the Degree of

Master of Arts

In

English

Stony Brook University

December 2007
 Stony Brook University

The Graduate School

Jennifer Myatt

We, the thesis committee for the above candidate for the

Master of Arts degree, hereby recommend

acceptance of this thesis.

Clifford Huffman – Thesis Advisor

Professor of English

Bente Videbaek – Thesis Reader

Professor of English

This thesis is accepted by the Graduate School.

Lawrence Martin
Dean of the Graduate School

ii
 Abstract of the Thesis

A Defense of Prince Arthur’s Position as Magnificence in

Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

By

Jennifer Mary Myatt

Master of Arts

in

English

Stony Brook University

2007

In his letter to Sir Walter Raleigh about The Faerie

Queene, Edmund Spenser claims that his character of Prince

Arthur embodies magnificence, the perfection of all

virtues. Several twentieth century critics take issue with

this claim, noting that the character of Arthur seems

unfinished and inconsistent throughout the text. However,

a close reading of the poem reveals that the actions of

Prince Arthur are structured throughout the six books to

reveal different aspects of magnificence and to allow the

character of Arthur to be appealing both as a character and

as an allegory for magnificence.

iii
 Table of Contents

I. The Importance of Prince Arthur. . . . . . . . .1

II. Spenser’s Letter to Raleigh. . . . . . . . . . .3

III. The Faerie Queene Books I and II. . . . . . . .12

IV. The Faerie Queene Books III and IV. . . . . . .20

V. The Faerie Queene Books V and IV. . . . . . . .31

VI. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

iv
 The Importance of Prince Arthur

Edmund Spenser constructed his epic allegory The

Faerie Queene with specific goals in mind. He clearly

expresses, in his letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, that he

wishes for the poem to glorify England and its Protestant

values. To represent magnificence, or the perfection of

all virtues, Spenser chooses the character of Prince

Arthur. Many critics believe that Spenser fails his

construction of Arthur as the allegory for magnificence;

the character seems to be incomplete, lacking both cohesion

and a regular place in the plot. However, this critique

can be refuted through the careful reading of Arthur’s

position in each of the six books of The Faerie Queene.

Spenser succeeds in portraying Prince Arthur as

magnificence when one considers the character’s actions

throughout the entirety of the poem and takes notice of the

patterns apparent in Arthur’s behavior.

Spenser chose Prince Arthur as the perfection of

virtue in part due to the importance of the historical

Arthur in Elizabethan England. For the sixteenth century

Protestant throne, King Arthur was not only a ruler to be

1
modeled; he was also claimed as an ancestor of Queen

Elizabeth. Part of the justification for her rules lies in

her alleged relation to King Arthur.

Charles Bowie Millican explains the historical

necessity of Spenser’s choice to use Arthur in Spenser and

the Table Round:

By the time of Spenser, therefore, the Arthurian

right of Tudor sovereigns had been made a firm
historical tradition, a tradition sanctioned by
Elizabeth herself; and we should well expect that
Spenser’s idea for the inclusion of Arthurian
story in The Faerie Queene became as much a part
of him during his formative period as his notions
of classical mythology of Platonic love. (52)

Because King Arthur was such an important figure for

Elizabethan England, Spenser’s choice to utilize Arthur as

the embodiment of magnificence implies the virtue inherent

in Britain’s historical figures. For the Protestant

throne, Arthur represented the ideal monarch. As such,

Spenser’s audience would easily understand Prince Arthur as

a character who shows an ideal that the reader should

emulate.

2
 Spenser’s Letter to Raleigh

Spenser is quite clear about his intent concerning

Prince Arthur, a sentiment that he expressed in his letter

to to Sir Walter Raleigh about The Faerie Queene. Spenser

wishes to write a poem to glorify England and to teach

virtue to its readers. He claims that “the generall end

therefore of all the bookes is to fashion a gentleman or

noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline” (15). In

simpler terms, Spenser intends for the text to give its

reader an understanding of virtue as well as to influence

the reader to act virtuously. Spenser could find no better

figure to embody the epitome of these virtues than the

historical Arthur, and so he allegorizes Prince Arthur as

magnificence, or the perfection of every virtue. The

character of Prince Arthur teaches the reader to act

virtuously through his example, as explained by William

Nelson:

By Spenser’s own account, then, the intention of

The Faerie Queene is ‘to fashion a gentleman or
noble person’ . . .It may be taken to mean that
Spenser proposed to show how experience and
training make a truly virtuous man out of one who
is only potentially virtuous. But in the present
case, Spenser’s use of ‘fashion’ echoes a long-
established tradition which shows that he must

3
 intend by it not ‘educate’ or ‘train’ but
‘represent, ‘delineate’. . . he is saying that he
has portrayed the virtue itself, not the growth
of that virtue in its champion. (121-22)

For Spenser, Arthur is the epitome of the virtue toward

which all citizens of England should strive. While the

other knights in the poem are shown as they develop virtue,

Arthur is already an example of perfect magnificence that

is meant to teach through behavior and example.

The choice of Arthur as perfected virtue is a

purposeful one, as he is perhaps the closest figure to an

epic hero of Britain. Spenser is careful to avoid a claim

of writing a history of Prince Arthur, as he makes the

point that he is a Poet, not an Historian:

For an historiographer discourseth of affayres

orderly as they were donne, accounting as well
the times as the actions, but a Poet thrusteth
into the middest, even whereit most concerneth
him, and there recoursing to the thinges
forepaste, and divining of thinges to come,
maketh a pleasing Analysis of all. (Spenser 16-
17)

As a poet, Spenser must analyze and judge history rather

than record it. The Faerie Queene not a historical text,

but rather an allegory that not only explains but also

justifies the virtues important to Spenser and to British

nobility.

4
 Because Spenser never wrote the additional books of

The Faerie Queene, we only have books representing three

private virtues - holiness, temperance, and chastity - and

three public, or political virtues - friendship, justice,

and courtesy. From the letter, it seems that Spenser

intended to write the private virtues first, an intent that

obviously wasn’t fulfilled.

I labour to pourtraict in Arthure, before he was

king, the image of a brave knight, perfected in
the twelve private morall vertues. . . which is
the purpose of the first twelve books: which if
I finde to be well accepted, I may be perhaps
encoraged, to frame the other parte of polliticke
vertues in his person, after that hee came to be
king. (Spenser 15-16)

In this statement, Spenser claims that if he decides to

write twelve books for each of the public virtues, then he

will use Arthur as king rather than prince to accomplish

this. For whatever reason, Spenser never enacted this

plan. In all six books, containing both private and public

virtue, Arthur appears as Prince, not King. While small

plot discrepancies occur between the letter and the books

of The Faerie Queene, the fact that Prince Arthur never

matured into King Arthur for the political virtues is a

discrepancy in his character.

While Prince Arthur can demonstrate his devotion to

holiness, chastity, and temperance, would he as effectively

5
convey magnificence in the political virtues? I argue that

he effectively demonstrates justice, courtesy, and

friendship, although I cannot predict his effectiveness

with the other nine. Perhaps Spenser planned for Arthur to

become king during the political books, but this is pure

speculation. Regardless, we do not have access to what

Spenser might have written, and so it is unfair to assume

whether or not a prince could adequately represent the

political virtues.

This point, however, is not the main reason that

critics have denounced Prince Arthur. One of the most

common critiques of the character is the relationship

between the Arthur described in the Letter to Raleigh and

the Arthur who appears throughout The Faerie Queene.

Millican describes Spenser’s use of Arthur as follows:

“Spenser attempts to combined the single epic action of a

single epic hero by interweaving Prince Arthur’s search for

Gloriana into the many actions of the many other knights

and ladies” (116). The key word in this quote is

“attempts”; while Millican seems to approve of Prince

Arthur’s portrayal of magnificence, this view is hardly

universal.

6
 For a dissenting and less positive opinion on the

character of Prince Arthur, we can turn to Graham Hough’s A

Preface to The Faerie Queene. He suggests that the

discrepancies appearing throughout the letter imply that

the letter is not entirely important to interpreting the

text. Hough sees the text itself as a vision, with the

letter as an attempt to impose a specific order and meaning

on The Faerie Queene. “Above all, the letter was a second

thought, not the shaping spirit that gave rise to the poem

in the first place” (91). For this reason, Hough claims

that Arthur’s importance in the poem is conflated by

Spenser in the letter since, for Hough, Arthur has very

little effect on the poem. He says:

Prince Arthur is clearly an attempt to impose

unity of hero on the multiple scheme. Spenser
makes much of him in the letter and he does
appear at critical points (Canto viii in each
case) of every book except III. But he never
occupies a commanding position. The student,
concerned to interpret the allegory and find the
rationale of Spenser’s plan, may contrive to make
something of Arthur, but I think it is safe to
say that the ordinary reader hardly notices his
alleged central importance. . . As a unifying
factor he is of no effect whatever on the poem as
we have it. (Hough 89)

For Hough, the letter and the poem are worlds apart. The

text is Spenser’s vision, while his letter to Raleigh only

appeases those who want a unified theme throughout The

7
Faerie Queene. The letter, therefore, says very little

about the text as Spenser had written it. While there are

discrepancies between the letter and the text, Hough

exaggerates the gap he perceives between the letter and the

poem.

Other critics go beyond Hough’s assertion and claim

that the portrayal of Arthur throughout the poem intends to

unite each knight’s story, but that this attempt at unity

fails. Josephine Waters Bennett makes such a claim, and

Ronald Arthur Horton summarizes this theory:

The introduction of Arthur as a symbol of divine

benevolence, kingliness in the highest degree,
belongs to a stage in the development of the poem
where the Faery Queen has become Gloriana. It is
this exalted conception which the poet had in
mind when he wrote the letter to Raleigh, in
which he represents Arthur as the hero-in-chief
of the whole poem. Yet the management of
Arthur’s part in the poem indicates clearly that
he was a late addiction to the plot, ‘a mere
afterthought.’ (Bennett 60)

Neoclassical critics debated whether the Arthur

story is prominent enough to impart the required
unity of action, and the consensus up to the
present has been that Arthur’s quest is neither
sufficient dominant nor sufficiently well
integrated with the other adventures to provide
effective unity. (Horton 3)

For these critics, Arthur is not only lacking cohesion, as

Hough claims, but the character is “merely an afterthought”

who was added to the plot at the last minute in order to

8
impart some kind of unity to the text as a whole. While a

cursory glance at Prince Arthur’s actions throughout the

poem could give one this impression, it becomes clear upon

closer examination that Arthur is a principal aspect of the

poem and not merely Spenser’s failed attempt at unity.

It is worthy to note that while there are knights for

each virtue, Arthur is the only knight who begins his

journey as magnificence. To take Book I as an example, one

may question why we need two knights to embody holiness,

but Arthur and Redcross are both very necessary. The

Redcross knight is an individual on a path to holiness,

while Prince Arthur has achieved his virtue. While Arthur

can always improve, the Redcross knight has barely attained

any holiness or virtue. In the letter, Spenser describes

him as “that clownish person” and notes his inexperience in

knightly pursuits. The Redcross knight portrays for the

reader the path to holiness, a path that requires one to

persevere through many difficulties and hardships. Arthur,

on the other hand, is the end result of such perseverance:

he is magnificence, what Spenser’s readers must strive to

become.

The most common objection to Arthur’s embodiment of

magnificence lies in his actions during Book III. Unlike

9
the other five books, in which Arthur performs a

magnificent deed in one of the later cantos, Arthur

disappears after the sixth canto of Book III. I believe

that this placement of Arthur was due to a very specific

intention of Spenser’s and not the result of an oversight

about the character of Arthur. In order to understand

Arthur in Book III, it is helpful to consider Alastair

Fowler’s Spenser and the Numbers of Time. Fowler asserts

the importance of the order of the books and cantos in The

Faerie Queene, as he believes that the order of the books

is dictated by a detailed system involving numerology. For

the issue of Arthur, his comments about canto placement are

especially pertinent. Fowler explains that Spenser needed

to closely connect Books III and IV due to the form he

utilized to arrange the books in his epic:

For the division of twelve books into four groups

of three, there was again a famous precedent.
St. Augustine included such an arrangement of
books in his Civitas Dei. . . In applying such a
scheme to a poetical work, Spenser ran the risk
that his epic would fall apart into separate
three-book poems. But he has avoided this danger
by making an unusually close narrative suture in
the case of Books III and IV. (Fowler 52)

Six years passed between the publication of the first three

books and the last three, increasing the risk that the six

books would be seen as only two sets of three and not as a

10
united work. As such, Arthur’s perceived inaction in Book

III is actually a literary strategy to ensure that

Spenser’s text was read as a whole, a strategy that will be

explored further in the section about Books III and IV.

Not only do these middle books seem to work as a pair,

but so do the first and last books of The Faerie Queene.

The similarity between Arthur’s encounters in Books I and

II contrasts immensely to his actions in the third and

fourth books, just as the final two books have mirroring

patterns that do not follow any of the previous books.

Concerning the actions of Arthur, the books do appear to

fall into pairs. A close reading of Arthur’s actions in

the three pairs of books reveals a pattern involving the

importance of Arthur’s magnificence and three different

ways that magnanimous virtue can be enacted in the world.

Additionally, reading the books in this way conveys

Arthur’s importance to the poem and defends his character

against critiques of his uselessness and ineffectiveness.

In order to fully justify Arthur’s effectiveness as a

character, it is necessary to closely examine his actions

throughout The Faerie Queene, beginning with Books I and

II.

11
 Books I and II

The first book of Spenser’s epic poem is that of the

Redcross Knight of Holiness. Prince Arthur first appears

in the seventh canto. The maiden Una, distraught from the

trouble facing Redcross, meets a knight, revealed as Prince

Arthur, who has glittering armor and an adamantine shield

(Spenser 126; [Link].29-33). The poem suggests that Una is

fortunate to encounter Arthur; she has lost one virtuous

knight and meets another through “good hap” (Spenser 126;

[Link].29. Not only is Arthur’s virtue suggested by the

reference to Una encountering him as good fortune, but the

attire of Arthur also suggests holiness. He has a sword

“whose hilts were burnisht gold” and a “haughtie helmet,

horrid all with gold” that bears a fierce dragon (Spenser

[Link].30-31). Carol V. Kaske explains the importance of

Arthur’s helmet, of which an entire stanza of the poem is

devoted:

Taken out of context, this helmet could be that

of a villain; but it bears favorable political
connotations because it hints at Arthur’s lineage
and destiny. . . It is morally exemplary by being
at once strange and appropriate, thus
manifesting, like the rest of Arthur’s
elaborately described costume, the ability to
spend money well, a part, according to its strict

12
 Aristotelian sense, of Arthur’s virtue of
magnificence. (38)

Arthur’s historical significance as the legendary King of

Britain complements his position as virtue in the poem. As

Britain’s greatest king, Arthur must also be the

penultimate virtue: magnificence. For Arthur to represent

anything but magnificence would discredit the poem’s claim

of Britain as the greatest and most virtuous kingdom.

While the history of Arthur suggested in Book I

supports his position as magnificence, it is hardly the

only suggestion toward the Prince’s virtue. The rescue of

Redcross likewise suggests the magnificence contained in

the character of Arthur. At the beginning of the eighth

canto, Arthur and his squire approach the castle of the

Giant and Duessa, which is strongly guarded against

intruders. However, Arthur has a horn of “great vertues”

that enables him to shake the walls and gates of the

castle:

No false enchauntment, nor deceiptfull traine

Might once abide the terror of that blast,
But presently was voide and wholly vaine:
No gate so strong, no locke so firme and fast,
But with that percing noise flew open quite, or
brast. (Spenser [Link].4)

13
The castle, like the giant inhabiting it, cannot withstand

the power of virtue, whether it is in the form of the horn

or Arthur, as the battle with the giant will show.

Arthur battles with the Giant as Duessa watches, and

at one point manages to cut off the Giant’s arm (Spenser

[Link].10). However, Duessa’s vice manages to overcome

Arthur in the form of a “secret poison” that

She lightly sprinkled on his weaker parts;

Therewith his strudie courage soone was quayd,
And all his senses were with suddeine dread
dismayd.
So downe he fell before the cruell beast.
(Spenser [Link].14-15)

Unfortunately, in this fight, magnificence is not enough to

overcome evil; virtue sometimes requires divine aid. This

intercession by God occurs through Arthur’s shield, the

piece of Arthur’s equipment that represents the divine

grace given through faith that accompanies true virtue.

Pienaar explains this aspect of the prince’s shield:

Arthur’s shield, in fact, is like St. George’s, a

shield of faith. . . Faith, therefore, is always
a defense but it is our final salvation and means
of victory when we battle against unequal odds.
(65-66)

With the help of God’s grace in the form of the shield,

Arthur can defeat the Giant. The grace of God blinds vice

and the Giant can fight no more, for he “has read his end

In that bright shield” (Spenser [Link].21). Take note that

14
the grace of God does not defeat the Giant; God only

assists Arthur, who must use his own virtue to administer

the final blow to the Giant. At this point, Arthur can

strip Duessa of her duplicitous identity and rescue

Redcross. Before they part, Arthur and Redcross exchange

gifts, which serves to connect the two and relate their

virtues. As magnificence, Arthur can rescue other knights

when their own virtue fails them.

This remains the case concerning Arthur’s interaction

with Guyon in Book II of The Faerie Queene. As in the

first book, Arthur appears just past the middle of the

text, coming upon Guyon in need of assistance in the eighth

canto. Guyon has fallen unconscious and is under the care

of his Palmer, who has heard the voice of God tell him that

he must protect Guyon. Unfortunately for the pair, two

Paynim knights come across the scene and decide to steal

Guyon’s armor. However, God sends help in the form of

Prince Arthur, a knight not unheard of by the Palmer:

For yonder comes the prowest knight alive,

Prince Arthur, flowre of grace and nobilesse,
That hath to Paynim knights wrought great
distresse,
And thousand Sar’zins foully donne to dye.
(Spenser [Link].18)

While any character could state that Arthur is “the prowest

knight alive,” the phrase has special significance coming

15
from the Palmer (Spenser [Link].18). The Palmer guides

Guyon and acts as his conscience when the knight struggles

with his path to temperance. It is not in the nature of

the Palmer’s character for him to lie or exaggerate, and so

his utterances can be understood as truth. According to

the Palmer’s words, Arthur is magnificence; he is “the

prowest knight alive, flowre of grace and nobilesse” to

whom other knights look for inspiration and example.

As such, Arthur is the only one who can come to

Guyon’s rescue. The Palmer, as an allegorical part of

Guyon, can only embody virtue to the extent that Guyon can

achieve it. In this case, Guyon needs extra help from

magnificence, although this help does not come freely.

When Arthur battles the Giant in Book I, he falls and God’s

grace saves him. However, God’s grace only intervenes when

absolutely necessary. In this battle with the pagan

knights, Arthur also falls, but it is not God’s grace that

intervenes. Rather, the Palmer helps Arthur:

Whom when the Palmer saw in such distresse

Sir Guyons sword he lightly to him raught,
And said; faire Son, great God thy right hand
blesse,
To use that sword so wisely as it ought.
(Spenser [Link].40)

Magnificence, with the help of temperance, manages to

overcome the Paynims in a version of the cliché “God helps

16
those who help themselves.” While Guyon as a character may

be unconscious, the virtue of temperance is embodied in the

Palmer, who helps Arthur defeat evil and defend virtue.

Arthur now joins Guyon in his journey, where the next

stop is the House of Temperance. In the first book, Arthur

parts from Redcross before he enters the House of Holiness,

but Arthur must accompany Guyon at this point so that the

text can further relate Prince Arthur to the legendary king

and therefore to the kingdom of Britain. The tenth canto

is summarized as such:

A chronicle of Briton kings,

from Brute to Uthers rayne.
And rolles of Elfin Emperours,
till time of Gloriane. (Spenser II.x)

Arthur reads the history of Britain’s kings up to the time

of Uther Pendragon, unaware that he reads his own lineage:

The land, which warlike Britons now possesse,

And therein have their mightie empire raysd,
In antique times was salvage wildernesse,
Unpeopled, unmaurd, unprov’d, unpraysd.
(Spenser II.x.5)

Note that the great kings of Britain did not start out on

the land; rather, they conquered a land that was

undeveloped and occupied by:

[H]ideous Giants, and halfe beastly men,

That never tasted grace, nor goodnesse felt,
But like wild beasts lurking. . .
All naked without shame. (Spenser II.x.7)

17
 While the ancestors of Arthur may not have begun as

the inhabitants of the land, they are responsible for its

greatness and for modeling it into the grand British

kingdom. This history justifies British colonialism and

ties it to morality and prosperity; before Arthur’s

ancestors civilized Britain, the land was full of wasted

potential and lacked the blessing of God.

Guyon reads a similar, albeit shorter, chronicle about

the history of the faerie people. For Spenser, Faerieland

and Prince Arthur’s Britain are different aspects of the

same Britain. When Prince Arthur finally finds his elusive

Gloriana, the historical Britain will be united with the

ethereal and divine Britain represented by Gloriana and

Faerieland. Arthur, of course, symbolizes historical

Britain and reminds the reader that magnificence is

embodied not only by his character, but also by the

historical Arthur’s descendent, Queen Elizabeth.

At this point in the book, the paths of Arthur and

Guyon separate. Guyon leaves Alma’s castle to defeat

Acrasia and destroy the Bowre of Bliss, while Arthur stays

behind to defend Alma:

Till that the prince seeing her wofull plight,

Gan her recomfort from so sad affright,
Offring his service, and his dearest life
For her defence. . .

18
 Eftsoones himselfe in glitterand armes he dight.
(Spenser [Link].16-17)

His reaction to Alma mirrors his reaction to Una’s need for

help; a truly magnificent knight would help defend virtue

against any threat, whether it is a threat to a knight of

holiness or to a castle of temperance.

At this point, the second book breaks from the pattern

of the first. In Book I, Arthur rescues Redcross, but then

leaves as Redcross continues his adventures and final

battle. In this case, Arthur remains a part of the story

even as Guyon continues his task elsewhere. Arthur’s

defense of Alma’s castle compares to the defeat of Acrasia

by Guyon, and so Arthur has moved into the position of

mirroring Guyon. This method of connecting magnificence to

the other virtues appears first in this book and continues

to occur throughout the poem. However, Books I and II

still seem closely related since the rescue of each knight

by Arthur is such a significant and unique part of the two

books. This mirroring in the final two cantos adds an

extra dimension to Arthur’s actions that hints to the

mirroring that will occur between battles involving Arthur

and the battles of the knights in Books V and VI.

19
 Books III and IV

The mirroring introduced in the second book provides a

way to read Arthur’s curious actions in Book III, actions

that seems far more understandable if Arthur is read

alongside Britomart. In the last lines of the proem to

Book III, Spenser writes,

But either Gloriana let her chuse,

Or in Belphoebe fashioned to bee:
In th’ one her rule, in th’ other her rare
chastitee. (Spenser [Link].5)

Because The Faerie Queene is written in the form of an

allegory, two distinct and different characters can

represent a single idea or concept. In this case, the text

presents both Gloriana and Belphoebe as chaste muses.

Pursuing either character would suggest that one seeks

chastity rather than an actual woman. Fortunately for

Prince Arthur’s reputation, these last lines shed light on

his pursuit of Florimell and seeming distraction from

Gloriana.

Prince Arthur and Guyon first glimpse Florimell as she

flees from peril:

A goodly Ladie did foreby them rush,

Who face did seeme as cleare as Christall stone.
(Spenser III.i.15)

20
The text reserves the term “goodly” only for those

characters who show true virtue; the word often describes

Arthur and other knights. Arthur pursues Florimell, a

chase that continues in Canto IV. The description of the

canto reads: “Faire Florimell of Arthur is long followed,

but not fond” (Spenser [Link]). A similar mention of the

pursuit appears in the description of Canto V: “Prince

Arthur heares of Florimell” (Spenser III.v). If it

warrants mention in the descriptions of these two cantos,

then surely Arthur chasing Florimell carries some

significance. On the surface, Prince Arthur’s behavior

seems shallow and unheroic, but revealing the allegorical

meaning of his behavior conveys quite a different

interpretation.

From her presentation in Canto I, the reader can

assume that Florimell’s representation is a virtuous one.

She is not only “goodly,” but her beauty radiates, and the

text never presents true beauty as immoral or lacking in

virtue. At one point, Prince Arthur’s squire, Timias,

approaches Florimell himself in order to assuage her fear

at being pursued; he wishes to offer her assistance from

Arthur and Guyon. However, she swiftly runs from him for

reasons explained in the text:

21
 But nothing might relent her hastie flight;
So deepe the deadly feare of that foule swaine
Was earst impressed in her gentle spirit. . .
With no less haste, and eke with no lesse dreed,
that fearefull Ladie fled from him, that ment
To her no evill thought, nor evill deed;
Yet former feare of being fowly shent,
Carried her forward with her first intent.
(Spenser [Link].49-50)

Florimell no longer follows reason in her flight, as she

runs due to the memory of being pursued. Even though

Arthur and Guyon mean to her “no evil thought, nor evil

deed,” she escapes from them out of fear. Florimell

allegorically represents virtue and what is good; the text

consistently uses phrases such as “gentle spirit” to imply

such virtue in her.

However, Florimell’s virtue is more helpless and

submissive than the strong chastity portrayed by Britomart.

Graham Hough claims her as an antithesis of Britomart,

noting that Florimell “is beauty and desirability alone.

She has no other qualities, besides purity and constancy.

She is timorous and passive, her only activity is flight”

(171). Until her eventual unification with Marinell,

Florimell (and Marinell, for that matter) seem incomplete.

Florimell’s timidity not only allows her to act as a foil

for Britomart, but it also facilitates the telling of the

story and furthers its allegorical significance. Florimell

22
must run from Prince Arthur because he cannot yet obtain

what she symbolizes; he must wait till his eventual

unification with the Faerie Queen to achieve such glory.

As the text at the beginning of the canto implies,

many characters in The Faerie Queene are allegorically

significant in similar ways, and Florimell is no exception

to this rule. She represents the chastity, beauty, and

virtue that Gloriana also possesses. As Arthur rests from

the chase, his thoughts imply the congruence of the two

ladies:

Oft did he wish, that Lady faire mote bee

His Faery Queene, for whom he did complaine:
Or that his Faery Queene were such, as shee.
(Spenser [Link].54)

In the text, Florimell and Gloriana are essentially the

same person. Florimell does not distract Arthur; following

her is a continuation of his path to honoring Gloriana.

Paul J. Alpers explains: “Thus, for Arthur the quest for

the beloved object and the pursuit of any desirable object

are identical” (395). When Arthur pursues Florimell, he

simultaneously chases after the Faerie Queen and her

elusive glory.

The description of Florimell given in the next canto

confirms this allegorical meaning:

That Lady is (quoth he) where so she bee,

23
 The bountiest virgin, and most debonaire,
That ever living eye I weene did see;
Lives none this day, that may with her compare
In stedfast chastitie and vertue rare.
(Spenser III.V.8)

Significantly, her association with chastity relates

Arthur’s quest to that of Britomart, as they are both

knights seeking chastity, albeit in different forms.

Unlike in the previous two books, Arthur does not rescue

the titular knight, but his pursuit of chastity instead

reflects the similar activities of Britomart.

In addition to this, both Arthur and Britomart seek

lovers that they have only seen in visions. Britomart sees

Artegall in a vision and realizes that she must seek him;

her quest for him symbolizes her devotion to chastity.

Arthur similarly seeks Gloriana, who he has seen only in a

vision. Their respective visions of their lovers reflect

the similarities of their quests. Britomart quests:

[T]o seek her louer (loue farre sought alas,)

Whose image she had seene in Venus looking glas.
(Spenser III.i.8)

When Britomart encounters this mirror, she sees:

[A] comely knight, all arm’d in complet wize,

Through whose bright ventayle lifted up on hye
His manly face, that did his foes aggrize,
And friends to termes of gentle truce entize. . .
Achilles armes, which Arthegall did win.
(Spenser [Link].24-25)

24
Arthur does not see his lover in a mirror, but rather in a

dream. He dreams that:

[B]y my side a royall Mayd

Her daintie limbes full softly down did lay:
So fair a creature yet saw neuer sunny day. . .
And at her parting said,
She Queen of Faeries hight. (Spenser [Link].13-14)

Arthur sees a beautiful woman, while Britomart sees a

handsome man. Once again, the physical appearances of

characters reflect their inner morality. This aspect of

Spenser’s allegory appears in both Arthur’s and Britomart’s

visions of their respective loves, but even with this

congruence, the reader is still left with the problem of

Arthur’s inaction. He disappears midway through the third

canto without having accomplished magnificent feats such as

those in the first two books. Thomas P. Roche offers one

explanation for Arthur’s disappearance, stating that

Spenser must utilize the relationship of Artegall and

Britomart to symbolize Arthur’s union with Gloriana because

the latter would lead to a premature ending of the story:

Literally, the marriage of Arthur and Gloriana

would have been the union of a prince with his
loved one after a number of marvelous adventures.
Allegorically. . . the marriage becomes the
fulfillment of the old order of British kings in
the new Tudor monarchy. Tropologically, or
morally, it means the union of virtue with glory,
or for Spenser’s purpose, the completion of the
perfect gentleman. . . In this sense Arthur’s
marriage with Gloriana is the unification of

25
 England and Faeryland, of Elizabeth and Gloriana.
(Roche 50)

It is also the end of the poem, with quite a few virtues

left to cover. Florimell flees from Arthur as his union

with Gloriana is indefinitely delayed, but the text needs a

hint of the union that will eventually occur. The

parallelism between Arthur and Britomart, as well as

Arthur’s relationship to Artegall (they are blood

relatives) allows the text to suggest the eventual

culmination of a marriage between Arthur and Gloriana

through the unifications of Artegall and Britomart as well

as Marinell and Florimell.

Arthur’s disappearance in the third book can also be

explained through the close relationship between Books III

and IV. In Spenser and the Numbers of Time, Fowler

proposes that Books III and IV connect closely in order to

unite all of the books as a whole. Because three years

passed in between the publications of Books I-III and IV-

VI, it is tempting to view the books as two sets. However,

Spenser is quite clear in the Letter to Raleigh that he

desires The Faerie Queene to be experienced as one work.

For this reason, Fowler asserts, Spenser continues the

story of Book III into Book IV to prevent readers from

seeing the two publications as separate works (Fowler 52).

26
The fact that the first three books deal with private

virtues and the latter three deal with public virtues

increases the need for unity among all six books. The flow

from Book III to IV provides this connection and,

additionally, helps to explain the place of Arthur in Book

III.

Arthur disappears after Canto Six in Book III; this is

the only book in which Arthur does not appear in the later

cantos to aid the hero or heroes. While Arthur’s finding

of Gloriana is deliberately delayed throughout the poem,

Britomart is the first knight to have her goal delayed with

Arthur’s. Unlike Redcross and Guyon, Britomart’s virtue

will not culminate in her book; rather, like Arthur, she

must wait to unite with her love. The actions of the

knights in Book IV similarly provide a thread that ties

Books III and IV together.

Book IV begins with Britomart protecting the chastity

and honor of Amoret and then Florimell, quests outside of

her central journey to find and marry Artegall. Like

Arthur, Britomart completes other honorable deeds on her

journey. Arthur rescues Redcross and Guyon because his

place as magnificence allows him to be superior in all

virtues. Similarly, Britomart as chastity ensures that

27
this virtue is preserved in Florimell by dueling and

overcoming the knights competing for the maiden’s honor:

So did the warlike Britomart restore

The prize, to knights of Maydenhead that day,
Which else was like to have bene lost, and bore
The prayse of prowesse from them all away.
(Spenser [Link].48)

Fortunately for Britomart, meeting the love from her vision

will not be delayed for twelve books; she encounters

Artegall in Canto VI of the book. Not only is Britomart

amazed and bewildered by the unexpected meeting with her

knight, but Artegall is also stunned by Britomart, who

appears like a “heavenly goddess” (Spenser [Link].22).

However, Britomart, as chastity, must save the virtue of

Amoret before she can stay with Artegall, a delay once

again echoing Arthur’s seemingly endless side quests to

ensure the virtue of others through his place as

magnificence. Britomart states,

I vow, you dead or living not to leave,

Till her I find, and wreake on him that her did
reave. (Spenser [Link].38)

As Britomart postpones her union with Artegall in

order to ensure chastity in others, Arthur appears in the

book, “seeking adventures” (Spenser [Link].42). As one

would expect of magnificence, he helps others throughout

the text to achieve virtue, specifically the title knights

28
of the book. In the ninth canto, Arthur helps to

facilitate friendship, one of the public virtues, among

several knights and other characters. The descriptive

lines state “Prince Arthur stints their strife,” thereby

facilitating friendship (Spenser [Link]). Arthur, in fact,

settles battles between two groups, a pair of lovers and a

number of knights. Before Arthur encounters the knights,

he first helps establish peace among the lovers:

Thus when the Prince had perfectly compylde

These paires of friends in peace and settled
rest,
Him self, whose minde did travel as with chylde,
Of his old love, conceav’d in secret brest,
Resolved to pursue his former quest.
(Spenser [Link].17)

At this point, Prince Arthur intends to once again pursue

Gloriana, but he must first ensure the safety of Amoret,

who does not fear Arthur:

[W]ho goodly learned had of yore

The course of loose affection to forstall,
And lawlesse lust to rule with reason lore.
(Spenser [Link].18)

While Arthur has just facilitated the friendship focused on

by Book IV, he also upholds the chastity of Book III. This

further establishes the connection between the two books,

as Arthur is practicing these two virtues specifically.

In the second encounter in the canto, Arthur helps a

group of knights to understand one another and cooperate.

29
As magnificence, Arthur must help facilitate friendship in

other knights because even though they may themselves be

virtuous (as in the case of Britomart), they do not

encompass the perfection every virtue as Arthur does. To

convey his magnificence in relation to friendship, the text

describes carefully Arthur’s speech. He uses “gentle

words” and “speeches mild” in order to “perswade to

friendly peace” and “disswade from such foule outrage”

(Spenser [Link].32-34). He accomplishes this by encouraging

the knights to empathize with one another and to discuss

their grievances: “He ment to make them know their follies

prise” (Spenser [Link].35). In facilitating friendship

through understanding, Arthur instills empathy in the

knights that will allow them to practice the virtue of

friendship even after Arthur departs.

30
 Books V and VI

Book V focuses on the virtue of justice as embodied by

Artegall and his iron man, Talus. While Book V resembles

Books I and II in that Arthur assists the title knight in

the eighth canto, Arthur’s interaction with Artegall

differs greatly from his experiences with Redcross and

Guyon. Arthur does not rescue Artegall from peril; in

fact, Britomart has the task of rescuing Artegall in this

book, further drawing a parallel between her and Arthur

that helps to explain his actions as mirroring Britomart in

Books III and IV.

Arthur, however, does assist Artegall in his fight for

justice, although he does it without rescuing the knight

from peril. Instead, Arthur fights alongside Artegall. The

short descriptions of cantos VIII and IX clearly exemplify

that the two fight as equals:

Prince Arthure and Sir Artegall,

Free Samient from fear:
They slay the Soudan, drive his wife,
Adicia to despaire. (Spenser [Link])

Arthur and Artegall catch Guyle

whom Talus doth dismay,
They to Mercillaes pallace come,
and see her rich array. (Spenser [Link])

31
Arthur never has to come to the aid of a fallen and

defeated Artegall; instead, the two mirror one another,

although this mirroring differs from the parallels between

Arthur and Britomart. While their adventures stretch

across two books to set up the parallel, Arthur and

Artegall mirror one another more directly. They fight

together, as equals, in cantos eight and nine, and then the

knights fight similar but separate battles in the latter

cantos.

In cantos ten and eleven, Arthur defeats the Tyrant

who has unjustly taken power from Belge. He fights

honorably, and the poem predictably describes the ways that

Arthur outwardly conveys his magnificence: “his armor

bright,” “th’ Adamantine shield, which he did beare,” and

“with shield so blazing bright” (Spenser [Link].5,10,26).

After he defeats his foe, Arthur leaves, and the next canto

immediately turns to Artegall, relating the adventures of

the two closely in the reader’s mind:

And to his former journey him addrest,

On which long way he rode, ne ever day did rest.

But turne we now to noble Artegall;

Who having left Mercilla, streight way went
On his first quest, the which him forth did call.
(Spenser [Link].35-36)

32
By the final canto, Artegall slays his own monster in the

name of justice. Both knights defeat a significant foe in

a way that increases justice in the world. In this way,

the text sets Arthur next to Artegall as an equal purveyor

of justice. Both knights succeed in establishing justice

in the world, Artegall because he is the embodiment of

justice and Arthur because he is magnificence, which

encompasses all virtue, including justice.

The relationship in Book VI between Calidore and

Arthur resembles the events in Book V with a key

difference: Arthur and Calidore do not fight together as

Arthur and Artegall fought in cantos eight and nine.

However, the poem sets up the two knights as equals in a

way that elicits a comparison to the relationship between

Arthur and Artegall, although the interaction between

Arthur and Calidore is far more limited.

The description of Canto VIII reads as follows:

Prince Arthure overcomes Disdaine,

Quites Mirabell from dreed:
Serena found of Salvages,
By Calepine is freed. (Spenser [Link])

Two lines are devoted to each knight to explain what he

does, and the actions parallel one another. Both Arthur

and Calepine overcome a foe in order to free a lady in

33
distress. Nohrnberg describes this characteristic as a

supreme form of chivalry, or courtesy:

But beyond [the] requirements of the chivalric

conception, there is the spirit of chivalry
itself, and Calidore possessed this in a
preeminent degree. There is a kind of overlap
here, since both Calidore and the traditional
Arthur are notable for their generous spirit.
(667-8)

Both Arthur and Calepine perform their acts in order to

defend those who are helpless and to further the presence

of courtesy and chivalry in society. Not only do they

perform the virtue, but, within the allegory, they are

courtesy.

In Arthur’s case, he acts with courtesy when he

observes the plight of Mirabell and her squire:

Abusde, against all reason and all law,

Without regard of pitty or of awe.
(Spenser [Link].6)

Calepine also comes across a scene that defies the

conventions of courtesy; in his case, he sees Serena as a

captive of Savages:

At first they spoile her of her jewels dear,

And afterwards of all her rich array. . .
Now being naked, to their sordid eyes
The goodly threasures of nature appeare:
Which as they view with lustfull fantasyes,
Each wisheth to him self, and to the rest enuyes.
(Spenser [Link].41)

34
After rescuing Mirabell, Arthur disappears from the poem

with these lines:

But Arthure with the rest, went onward still

On his first quest, in which did him betide
A great adventure, which did him from them divide

But first it falleth me by course to tell

Of Faire Serena. . . (Spenser [Link].30-31)

The reader already knows that Calepine will rescue Serena,

and so the end of Arthur’s tale meets the beginning of

Calepine’s adventure in which the knight will similarly

rescue a woman from a perilous situation. The change in

subjects closely resembles the way that the story changed

from Arthur to Artegall in Book V. Even the syntax is

similar: “But turne we now” and “But first it falleth me

by course to tell” each let the reader know that there will

be a turn in the story. Narratively, Arthur’s adventures

occur directly before those of Calepine and Artegall,

providing a clue as to what the knights will now

accomplish. As individuals representing one of the many

virtues encompassed in magnificence, Artegall and Calepine

will have adventures that relate to Arthur’s.

35
 Conclusion

Upon careful reading of The Faerie Queene, Arthur’s

position in the story is not as contentious as many critics

claim. Spenser’s letter to Raleigh asserts the importance

of Prince Arthur as magnificence, and the poem expresses

his character as all-encompassing virtue throughout. He

clearly portrays each of the six virtues contained in the

title knights and reflects the virtue each individual

portrays.

However, the problem in reading Arthur lies in the

tendency to want Arthur to parallel each knight in the same

way. After reading Books I and II, in which Arthur rescues

the title knight and surpasses the virtue of both Redcross

and Guyon, it can be difficult to clearly identify Arthur’s

purpose in Book III. He does, after all, disappear after

the middle of the book and seemingly without accomplishing

his typical magnificent deed. Nowhere in the letter to

Raleigh does Spenser imply that Arthur will have the same

place in each book, and it would be a less interesting poem

if he did. In reading Books III and IV as a continuous

story, the quests of both Arthur and Britomart resemble one

36
another clearly and assert the importance of chastity and

friendship. Books V and VI break from this pattern,

portraying Artegall and Calepine as more direct parallels

to Arthur. Unlike Britomart, whose story and its relation

to Arthur stretch across two books, Artegall and Calepine

are portrayed as similar knights to Arthur in a very

succinct way.

Spenser does not explain his reason for portraying

Arthur’s virtue in so many different ways. Allegorically,

his use of Arthur to define magnificence would have been as

clear, if not more so, if Prince Arthur had rescued each

knight as he rescued Redcross and Guyon. Would this have

been effective for Spenser’s purpose in writing The Faerie

Queene? As a strictly didactic allegory, the answer could

be yes. However, the poem itself would be significantly

less interesting. Spenser claims that “the generall end

therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or

noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline” (15). It

seems unlikely that a dull and predictable poem would

inspire anyone to read it, let alone to enact the virtues

portrayed within it. In creating Prince Arthur as both an

allegory for magnificence and as a character who behaves in

interesting ways, Spenser increases the chance that a

37
reader may be inspired to act virtuously through admiration

of the character of Prince Arthur.

38
 Works Cited

Alpers, Paul J. The Poetry of The Faerie Queene.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.

Bennett, Josephine Waters. The Evolution of The Faerie

Queene. New York: Burt Franklin, 1942.

Fowler, Alastair. Spenser and the Numbers of Time. New

York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1964.

Horton, Ronald Arthur. The Unity of The Faerie Queene.

Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978.

Hough, Graham. A Preface to The Faerie Queene.” New York:

W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1963

Kaske, Carol V. Spenser and Biblical Poetics. Ithaca:

Cornell University Press, 1999.

Millican, Charles Bowie. Spenser and the Table Round: A

Study in the Contemporaneous Background for Spenser’s
Use of the Arthurian Legend. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1932.

Nohrenberg, James. The Analogy of The Faerie Queene.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.

Rovang, Paul R. Refashioning “Knights and Ladies Gentle

Deeds;” The Intertextuality of Spenser’s Faerie
Queene and Malory’s Morte Darthur. Cranbury:
Associated University Presses, Inc., 1996.

Spens, Janet. Spenser’s Faerie Queene: An Interpretation.

New York: Russell & Russell, 1934.

Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. New York: Penguin

Books, 1987.

39