“The Faerie Queene” As A Moral and Spiritual Allegory

13 Pages·2017·0.6 MB·English

In ternational Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848
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“The Faerie Queene” As A Moral and Spiritual Allegory
Dr. Savita
Assistant Prof. in English
C.R.A. College, Sonipat.

Abstract metaphor, so an allegory is a kind of
An allegory is a fable or story
continued simile or an assemblage of
in which under imaginary persons or
things is shadowed some real action
similitudes drawn out at full length.
or instructive moral or it may be
defined as a narrative in prose or
Thus when it is said that ‘Death is the
verse in which the characters,
events and settings represent
offspring of Sin’, this is a metaphor to
abstract qualities; or, as I think it is
somewhere very shortly defined by
signify that the former is produced by
Plutarch, it is that ‘in which one
thing is related and another thing is
the latter as a child is brought into the
understood’. The writer intends a
second meaning to be read beneath
world by its parent. Again, to compare
the surface story. The underlying
meaning may be moral, religious,
death to a meagre and ghastly
political, social or satiric. The
characters are often personifications
apparition starting out of the ground,
of such abstractions as greed envy,
hope, charity or fortitude. “The
moving towards the spectator with a
Faerie Queene” is a historical,
political and moral and spiritual
menacing air and shaking in his hand a
allegory. The moral and spiritual
allegory underlying the first book of
bloody dart is a representation of the
“The Faerie Queene”.
terrors which attend that great enemy to
Keywords Allegorical, infidelity,
hieroglyphic, peculiar, legendary
human nature. But let the reader
adventures, supernatural forces.
Introduction observe in Milton’s Paradise Lost with
what exquisite fancy and skill this
This will be more clearly
common metaphor and simile, and the
apprehended by considering that as a
moral contained in them, are extended
simile is but a more extended
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and wrought up into one of the most government of France, on Louis the
beautiful allegories in our language. Thirteenth’s arriving at age, by a galley.
The king stands at the helm; Mary of
The resemblance which has
Medicis, the queen mother and regent,
been so often observed in general
puts the rudder in his hand; Justice,
between poetry and painting is yet
Fortitude, Religion and Public Faith are
more particular in allegory, which, as I
seated at the oars: and other Virtues
said before, is a kind of picture in
have their proper employments in
poetry. Horace has in one of his odes
managing the sails and tackle.
pathetically described the ruinous
condition of his country after the civil By this general description of
war and the hazard of its being involved allegory it may easily be conceived that
in new dissensions, by the emblem of in works of this kind there is a large
the ship shattered with storms and field open to invention, which among
driven into port with broken masts, torn the ancients was universally looked
sails and disabled rigging and in danger upon to be the principal part of poetry.
of being forced by new storms out to The power of raising images or
sea again. There is nothing said in the resemblances of things, giving them life
whole ode but what is literally and action and presenting them as it
applicable as to a ship, but it is were before the eyes was thought to
generally agreed that the thing signified have something in it like creation. And
is the Roman State. Thus Rubens, who it was probably for this fabling part that
had a good allegorical genius in the first authors of such works were
painting, has in his famous work of the called ‘poets’, or ‘makers’ as the word
Luxembourg Gallery figured the signifies and as it is literally translated
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In ternational Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848
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and used by Spenser… However, by (1818) did not intend readers to ignore
this art of fiction or allegory more than the allegory when he advised them that,
by the structure of their numbers, or if they didn’t meddle with it, it wouldn’t
what we now call ‘versification’, the meddle with them. He meant that it
poets were distinguished from was not usually obtrusive, or recondite,
historians and philosopher, though the and that they should not be frightened
latter sometimes invaded the province of it: ‘It might as well be pretended that
of the poet and delivered their doctrines we cannot see Poussin’s pictures for
likewise in allegories or parables. And the allegory, as that the allegory
this, when they did not purposely make prevents us understanding Spenser’.
them obscure in order to conceal them James Russell Lowell (1875) found
from the common people, was a plain fault with the historical allegory and the
indication that they thought there was method whereby ‘all his characters
an advantage in such methods of double their parts, and appear in his
conveying instruction to the mind and allegory as the impersonations of
that they served for the more effectual abstract moral qualities’ (not that this is
engaging the attention of the hearers strictly true) and decided: ‘We may
and for leaving deeper impressions on fairly leave the allegory on one side, for
their memories. perhaps, after all, he adopted it only for
the reason that it was in fashion, and
The critics of the nineteenth
put it on as he did his ruff, not because
century did not worry much about unity
it was becoming, but because it was the
and design, nor about the other
only wear’. He failed to see that what
preoccupation of earlier or later critics,
he admired to Homer is largely true of
the allegory and the meaning. Hazlitt
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Spenser: “The true type of the of Spenser’s ‘endless grace and
allegory is the Odyssey, which we dreaming pleasure’ which has
read without suspicion as pure prescribed until today.
poem, and then find a new pleasure
“The Faerie Queene” is a
in divining its double meaning.’ Yet
historical, political and moral and
one sees that he means, and he frankly
spiritual allegory. Underlying the fairy
admits to being bored by the allegory,
tale of the first book, there is a deep
which ‘is too often forced upon us
underlying moral and spiritual allegory.
against our will.’ No one would deny
For example, the Red Cross Knight
that there are flat and dull patches of
stands for Holiness or piety or true
elementary personification and allegory
religion. Una stands for Truth. The
in The Faerie Queene but Lowell went
Dragon stands for atheism and heresy.
further, and found himself disliking the
True religion and truth always remain
moral purpose: ‘whenever… you come
united. But Holiness cannot remain
suddenly o the moral, it gives you a
pure. The Red Cross Knight has to
shock of unpleasant surprise, a kind of
encounter and overpower the serpent
girt, as when one’s teeth close on a bit
monster of Error in its den. Truth and
of graved in a dish of strawberries and
Holiness will always overpower Error.
cream’. What he wanted was
This is the first truth of moral and
escapism, and it was Lowell more than
spiritual life.
anyone else, more even than Leigh
In speaking of the structure of
Hunt (1844) – ‘Spenser’s great
The Faerie Queene we have compared
characteristic is poetic luxury’ – who
its organization to that of a dream; we
was responsible for a sickly-sweet view
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must now continue this argument into theme to image, but because the
the allegory. It we believe that dreams image-sequence has so much vitality
have meaning at all (as by now we and coherence of its own.) This is not
surely must), there is an obvious the relation in dreams. One of the
paralled between dream and allegory. principal dream-mechanisms recorded
The dream-content, as Freud calls it by Freud is condensation: one single
(the manifest content0, is used to element in the dream-content
represent in a disguised form the corresponds to more than one in the
dream-thoughts (latent content). Thus dream-thoughts. To transfer this to our
the dream-content corresponds to what terms for allegory one element in the
in allegory we have called image, the image refers to more than one element
dream-thoughts to what we have called in the theme. Even from the limited
theme. In much allegory, however, the observations we have made already it
relation between the two elements is will be apparent that Spenser often
quite unlike that found in dreams. In proceeds in this way. I will now try to
native allegory, and even in developed illustrate this in more details.
religious allegory like Everyman or The
The most obvious illustration is
Pilgrim’s Progress, the image is a
that in so many places there is a double
simple translation of the theme, by a
reference – to the moral and psychic
series of one-to-one correspondences:
life in general, and to particular
one element in the theme corresponds
historical events. The attempt to read
to one in the image. (The Pilgrim’s
Book as a transcript of Tudor history is
Progress escapes from naïve allegory
strained and uncertain; but clearly a
not because of any complex relation of
strong strain of allusion to the English
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reformation runs through it. The Red We have already spoken of the
Cross Knight is Holiness, fighting ambiguity of Britomart in another
against the temptations and errors that context – of her way of stepping beyond
must universally beset such a virtue. her allegorical role. But what is her
But he is also, more intermittently and allegorical role? She represents
imprecisely, English religion (why else Chastity, in Spenser’s special sense of
should he bear St. George’s cross?) the word, but not exclusively that. She
struggling against the conspiracies and represents also a quite complex
misdirections of the time, as Spenser Renaissance ideal of female virtu (virtu
saw them. But he is not always meaning strength and energy, not
Holiness as an achieved state: he is virtue) which Spenser was familiar with
often the universal miles Christianus, through the virago heroines of the
the militant Christian who must struggle Italian epic, and which has nothing to
and learn and seek to perfect himself in do with chastity at all.
his journey through the world.
We are of course meant to
Similarly, three themes (not unrelated
admire both equally; but there are times
but certainly distinct) stand behind the
when this kind of dual or multiple
figure of Arthur – Magnificence, the
significance can introduce a moral
historic might and glory of Britain, and
ambiguity as well. Duessa in Book is
the Earl of Leicester. Artegall’s
the embodiment of falsehood,
adventures are sometimes those of an
outwardly fair but in reality hideous and
abstract and generally justice,
deformed. When she reappears in
sometimes those of Lord Grey in
Book v a whole cluster of notions
Ireland.
connected with Mary Queen of Scots
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has become attached to her. She is this is one of the features of The Faerie
still falsehood, and still to be rejected, Queene that assimilates it most closely
but she is also misguided beauty, and a to the dream. “The construction of
decided element of sympathy for the collective and composite personages is
unhappy queen as a woman has crept one of the principal methods of dream-
into the signification. I do not wish to condensation, as Freud puts it. I do not
enter into the vexed question of the believe that we should avert our eyes
Bower of Bliss at this point, except to from this, or try to explain away any
remark that it cannot represent a simple ambiguities to which it may given rise.
concept. The idea sometimes put Spenser’s moral attitude as a man may
forward that Spenser was secretly on have been unambiguous though, but an
Acrasia’s side is obviously wrong; but it element of ambiguity is an essential
could hardly have arisen if the allegory part of his imaginative procedure. This
of the bower were a totally meant in fact that there is a far greater
unambiguous affair. There is an quantity of psychic material behind
element of indulged and happy Spenser’s romance-figures than a
voluptuousness in the description of simple translation of them into the
Acrasia’s abode, that takes as back to obvious moral terms would suggest.
Tasso’s Armida, Spenser’s principal
It is worth nothing that Spenser’s
sources. And Armida at the end of the
multiple significance is quite unlike the
Gerusalemme Liberata is not rejected
medieval four levels of meaning as
but forgiven.
applied to the interpretation of
Frequently, then, more than one Scripture, and Spenser shows no sign
theme lies behind the same image, and of being aware of this tradition.
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Littera gesta docet, anagogia, quo tender, man’s last end,
Quid credas allegories,
only appears directly in the vision of the
Moralis quid agas,
heavenly city in 1, 10, and in the two
Quo tendas anagogia.
lovely closing stanzas at the end of the
The literal sense, that is, is concerned Mutability cantos. The grades of
with historical facts, the allegorical with reference for Spenser’s allegory are not
belief, the moral with right action, and the medieval ones, they are the
the anagogical with man’s last end. romantic, the historical, and moral and
Now Spenser’s literal sense is not the psychological. And in the simpler
historical; his historical allusions are and less developed parts, that is in the
always concealed. He is concerned minor characters who are mere
with quid credas only in Book 1; and narrative or thematic conveniences –
even there it is have we should believe, Sansfoy, Sansjoy and Sansloy, Furor
and how act on our belief, rather than Occasio, etc. – the underlying sense is
what we should believe, and how act on always the moral one.
our belief, rather than what we should
A second feature of the dream-
believe that is his main subject. The
process mentioned by Freud is the
whole book is based on the necessity of
converse of condensation – it is that an
cleaving to truth, and what happens
individual dream – thought may be
when we depart from kit; but truth is
represented by several different
never given any doctrinal content. The
elements in the dream-content. Or
moral sense, quid agas, is of course
again to translate this into terms of
omnipresent; the right conduct of life in
allegory, a single theme can issue in
this world is Spenser’s real field. But
several images. Freud is not
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particularly clear about this in The Often in the dream a single
Interpretation of Dreams; but he character is split up into its several
illustrate an aspect of it more fully in the components, who are exhibited in the
easy ‘Character Types in Analytic Work dream-content as separate figures.
in Vol. iv of the Collected Papers: and There are places where Spenser
any student of recorded dreams will be seems to be working on the same lines.
familiar with the way that a single idea It is often remarked that it is not easy to
appears in the dream under various give any simple allegorical
guises. This happens in Spenser too, interpretation of the principal woman-
and it has sometimes disquieted his figures in Books III and IV. This is
commentators. Legouis remarks that probably because they are dissociated
Red Cross, who is Holiness, goes to parts of the total image of woman. The
the House of Holiness; that Guiyon who most obvious dissociated character of
is ‘Temperance goes to the Castle of this kind is Amoret-Belphoebe. Twin
Temperance. Pride appears twice over sisters given totally opposite
in Book 1, as Lucifera and Orgoglio. educations, one brought up by Venus,
True we can explain this if we will; Red the other by Diana, they stand for two
Cross and Guyon, besides standing for opposed aspects of womanhood-
their respective virtues, are also their woman as the over-flowing fountain of
yet imperfect human embodiments; love, and woman as the virgin, the
Lucifera and Orgoglio are two different solitary, the untouchable. Their sisterly
kinds of pride. But the resemblance to relationship makes this particularly
the dream-mechanism can hardly be clear; but I should be inclined to go
missed. farther and include Florimell in this
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group-figure – Florimell who stands for heroines, or not mainly for that reason,
woman as the object of desire, and who but because each is a glimpse and only
herself splits into two; the true Florimell, a glimpse of the total image of
the right object of love; and the false womanhood that dominated Spenser’s
Florimell, its factitious and deceiving imagination.
semblance. We could include Britomart
Lastly (for I wish to make these
too – the active virtue of womanhood;
dream-analogies suggestive rather than
and perhaps we should; all that forbids
exhaustive) Freud Inquires how logical
it is that she is a so much more
relations can be represented in dreams.
developed figure in her own right.
‘What representation’, he asks, ‘do “if”,
Amoret, Belphoebe and Florimell “because”, “as though”, “although”,
are all aspects of the idea of woman. “either-or” and all the other conjunctions
They do not represent virtues; they without which we cannot construct
cannot be translated into clear-cut either a phrase or a sentence, receive
moral qualities at all. They are both in our dreams?” And he finds that the
more and less than that; more because dream has no direct means of
they represent the unconscious, exhibiting these. Causal relations are
unformulated psychic background, out expressed in dreams by mere
of which morals and virtue are yet to be succession: alternatives by taking both
developed; less because they are members of the alternative into the
severally incomplete. They are a same context. In fact the ample array
composite portrait of the anima, and of logical relations is reduced to a
they have their curious, unseizable simple parataxis; apparently discrete
charm not because they are romance- events simply occur one after another.
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