Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Book 1 of Edmund Spenser's the Faerie Queene

While nearly all Spenser scholars will point you to the Longman edition for the best edition of the FAERIE QUEENE (even the editors of this edition), what makes this book (and the subsequent edition for each individual book) worth while is that it comes with a Book specific introduction, and is easy to carry around, along with copious notes--not overdone, though, just enough for good understanding of Spenser's complex allegory. But making the FAERIE QUEENE portable and easier to take with you and understand is what makes me recommend this edition. The poem itself is a testament to imaginative poetry, and a must read for serious students of Literature or the Elizabethan era.

This is a review of The Faerie Queene, Penguin Classics edition, edited by Thomas Roche (ISBN 0140422072). The Faerie Queene itself will not be to everyone's taste. It is probably easier than Milton, definitely harder than Malory, and parts of it are very accessible and parts of it are not very accessible at all. However, the language, which most will perceive as the primary barrier to Spenser's work, is not that difficult to get used to. Take Book I, Canto V, stanza 5, for example: At last forth comes that far renowmed Queene, With royall pomp and Princely maiestie; She is ybrought vnto a paled greene, And placed vnder stately canapee, The warlike feates of both those knights to see. On th'other side in all mens open vew Duessa placed is, and on a tree Sans-foy his shield is hangd with bloudy hew: Both those the lawrell girlonds to the victor dew. In line one, "renowmed" just means "renowned," and should be pronounced with three syllables: "re-nowm-ed," not "renowm'd." There is a difference. In line two, the knowledge that Spenser typically uses "i" for "j" and "u" for v" is all readers need to read "majesty" for "maiestie." A passing acquaintance with Chaucer would help with line three, which features the Middle English prefix "y-" on "ybrought." Line four: pronounce "placed" "plas-ed," not "plazd"; and just remember "v" means "u" for "vnder." Line five presents no problems. In line six, some readers might wonder why "the other" is contracted to "th'other." Here, a basic knowledge of English prosody is necessary. If Spenser had said "On the other side in all men's open view," he would have used eleven syllables, when his meter of choice, iambic pentameter, demands ten syllables. So he makes a contraction to stay within those ten syllables. In line eight, Spenser writes "hangd" for the same reason: to stay within the ten syllables of iambic pentameter. If he had said "hanged," the sixteenth-century reader would have counted the syllables thus: "Sans-foy-his-shield-is-hang-ed-with-bloody-hue," which is eleven. Bear in mind that words such as "shield" are one syllable (sheeld), words such as "beauteous" are two syllables (beautyus), and words such as "disobedience" are three syllables (dis-o-bed-yence) for the purposes of scanning verse. So much for Spenser's language. The content of the Faerie Queene might prove the greater barrier to the twenty-first century reader. If you don't like chivalry, knights, damsels in distress, hermits, and magicians, then you probably won't like the FQ. But if you are indeed blessed with a taste for "romance" in the old sense, then you should like Spenser. You might surprise yourself; a friend who doesn't read much old literature, and almost no poetry, read a few stanzas of the Faerie Queene and said she liked it. Granted, I don't know if she would have liked every bit of the entire thing. But in such a long poem, some parts will get boring. I loved Books I and II, didn't enjoy Book II

THE FAERIE QUEENE. By Edmund Spenser. Edited by Thomas P. Roche, Jr with the assistance of C. Patrick O'Donnell, Jr. 1247 pp. Penguin English Poets, 1978 and Reprinted.Although everyone has heard of Edmund Spenser's amazing narrative poem, 'The Faerie Queene,' it's a pity that few seem to read it. To a superficial glance it may appear difficult, although the truth is that it's basically a fascinating story that even an intelligent child can follow with enjoyment and interest. It appears difficult only because of Spenser's deliberately antique English. He needed such an English because he was creating a whole new dimension of enchantment, a magical world, a land of mystery and adventure teeming with ogres and giants and witches, hardy knights both brave and villainous, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, and maidens in distress, wicked enchanters, gods, demons, forests, caves, and castles, amorous encounters, fierce battles, etc., etc.To evoke an atmosphere appropriate to such a magical world, a world seemingly distant in both time and place from ours, Spenser created his own special brand of English. Basically his language is standard Sixteenth Century English, but with antique spellings and a few medievalisms thrown in, along with a number of new words that Spenser coined himself. The opening lines of the poem are typical :"A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plain, / Y cladd in mightie armes and siluer shielde, / Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remain, / The cruell markes of many a bloudy fielde...." (page 41).If, instead of reading with the eye, we read with the ear or aloud, the strange spellings resolve themselves into perfectly familiar words such as clad (clothed), mighty, arms, silver, shield, deep, cruel, marks, bloody, field. And "Y cladd" is just one of those Spenserian medievalisms that simply means "clad" or clothed (i.e., wearing). The only two words in this passage that might cause problems for the beginner are "pricking" and "dints," and it doesn't take much imagination to realize that these must refer, respectively, to 'riding' (i.e., his horse) and 'dents.' But if you can't guess them, an explanation is provided in the useful list of Common Words at the back of the book. Once you've used that 2-page list for a little while, progress through Spenser's text becomes a snap. And learning a few hundred words is a small price to pay for entrance into one of the most luxuriant works ever produced by the Western imagination, and one that once entered you will often want to return to. The Penguin edition, although it contains the complete text of 'The Faerie Queene,' is significantly without an Introduction, presumably because the editors felt that we don't really need one. The book does, however, contain stanza-by-stanza Notes. These have been placed at the end where they can be referred to at need, and where they don't interfere with the flow of the story as we experience it. There have been many editions of

The Faerie Queene is one of the great classics of Renaissance literature, and for very good reasons. Although it is difficult reading (and NO, contrary to another review here, it is NOT in OLD English! Look at the original version of Beowulf and you will see the difference), many of the tensions of the Renaissance, spiritually and philosophically, are masterfully renedered in these brilliant tales. Because its allegory is so rich, this book becomes even more enjoyable to reread, as connections between historical figures and literary history appear repeatedly. (I find something "new" each time I read it, it seems!) It is also a book about the role of the poet in society, and the manner in which Spenser uses allegory illustrates the complex relationship between the poet and his patron. In sum, while, as readers, we are always limited by our modern perspectives, I do think that reading Spenser is perhaps the best way to experience what it must have been like to be a Renaissance reader. Perhaps this is due to the didactic nature of Spenser's epic. In any event, it has forced me to explore more thoroughly the books and concepts to which Spenser refers repeatedly in The Faerie Queene. Furthermore, it has made my study of Shakespeare, Ariosto, Sidney, and other prominent Renaissance writers much more fruitful.But don't buy the trade paperback edition if you are serious about reading Spenser--buy the edition of The Faerie Queene that is edited by A.C. Hamilton. While it is more expensive, it is by far the best text available of Spenser's epic, and contains useful notes and introductions that will guide all students of Spenser to a greater understanding of the greatest epic poem of the Elizabethan Age.

As a freshman student who is enrolled in English Literature, I needed all the help I could get,especially with English that is not modern. The Renaissance Version of the Faerie Queene is quite hard to read, and must be read over and over again before you can comprehend all the underlying themes and symbols. This edition, stated in modern English, makes the work so much more enjoyable and easy to understand. Not much is lost through this translation, and it has helped me greatly----especially for exams!