In Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, there is a distinct throwback to texts written in the Middle Ages and epics written even before that during the reign of Ancient Greece. What brings these texts back to mind in Spenser’s text is language, form, and of course, a heavy chivalric theme, yet Spenser’s work is quite contemporary overall. Much like in Sir Gawain, Britain is heavily intertwined with the movement and actions of The Faerie Queene.
Analysis
Immediately, Spenser makes sure that his text embodies an archaic mold, placing British culture in the company of long-established archaic cultures, and thus, acquiring a literary authority in its presentation of British Identity. Like in Beowulf and then Sir Gawain, Spenser makes sure that his heroes answer and fight for a greater authority than themselves: “But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore, / The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, / For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore / And dead as living ever him adored” (Spenser 1.1.2. 1-4). In this passage, the narrator refers to the Redcrosse Knight, his initiating hero, who forever keeps the glory of his Lord in mind, much like Beowulf and Gawain did when fighting their battles.
In The Faerie Queene, however, Spenser goes further with his established hierarchy, and adds the Faerie Queene as another authority figure that Redcrosse must bring glory to: “Upon a great adventure he was bond, / That greatest Gloriana to him gave, / That greatest Glorious Queene of Faerie Lond” (1.1.3.1-3). Like in Beowulf and Sir Gawain, Redcrosse’s authority figures aren’t actually involved in his quests, but are the reasons for his actions. In the Faerie Queene, Spenser presents his ultimate figure as a symbol for Queen Elizabeth, but also for Britain itself. In Stephen Greenblatt’s introduction to the Faerie Queene in the Norton Anthology, he writes that:
the disjointed adventures of these solitary warriors constitute in Spenser’s fervent vision the glory of Britain, the collective memory of its heroic past, and the promise of a still more glorious future. And if the Faerie Queen herself is consigned to the margins of the poem that bears her name, she nonetheless is the symbolic embodiment of a shared national destiny”
(The Norton Anthology 248)
In his annexed letter to the Faerie Queene, Spenser confirms the connection between Queen Elizabeth and the Faerie Queene, and additionally states that the Queen “beareth two persons, the one the most royall Queene or Empresse, the other of a most vertuous and beautiful Lady” (Norton 250). In the Faerie Queene, we see many of these traits attributed to Queen Elizabeth throughout, with complete virtuosity being the supreme goal for all of Spenser’s heroes. The social hierarchy remains in tact with a ruler above the honorable knight, but morality takes precedence in Spenser’s epic, and this morality is strongly tied to his idea of Britain.
Chivalry and the hierarchy that the theme comes with is a burgeoning trope throughout Beowulf, but the morality of it is overwhelmed by the attainment of glory, not to mention the epic poem lacks a unified national identity which is certainly not yet a British one. In Sir Gawain and many texts of its time, chivalry evolves to be a means to increase one’s honor and the glory of one’s sovereign. With Sir Gawain and the origin tales of King Arthur, a British identity has already been planted in a fuax literary history, but what Sir Gawain and its predecessor The History of Kings lack is a historical literary certification as explained by Greenblatt in his introduction to the text: “In drawing on the British legends of Saint George and King Arthur, weaving together classical and medieval sources… Spenser was providing his country with the epic it had lacked” (248). What Spenser seeks in the 16th century is to further establish a foundation narrative for the formation and sedimentation of a British Identity by continuing to insert his nation into the molds of past literary successes.
Concluding Thoughts
Looking forward, chivalry in British literature continues to seep into many of the prominent texts of that nation. In the 17th century, Aphra Behn would pioneer the proto-novel with Oroonoko, a valiant though tragic hero, and only a few years before, Paradise Lost would very similarly return to an archaic mold with an emphasis on morality. Today, one of Britain’s most popular works is J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings saga, and much of the author’s inspiration came from Arthurian and Anglo-Saxon stories.
The overall purpose of this project has been to explore the impact and evolution of the chivalric theme in British literature and highlight its role in the formulation of a unified British identity. More generally, the goal of this project is to emphasize the role of literature itself in society, particularly those in which literature has been preserved and allowed to evolve at the same rate as the society in which it has influence and has been influenced by. Through this exploration of Chivalry, I hope to explain how Britain’s long literary history has allowed for literature to interact with the formation of a nation and thus reinforce the value of literature as a powerful expression of identity, both individually and socially.
Works Cited
Spenser, Edmund. “The Faerie Queene.” The Sixteenth Century and the Early Seventeenth Century, by Stephen Greenblatt, Norton, 2018, pp. 247–486.
“The Faerie Queene.” The Sixteenth Century and the Early Seventeenth Century, by Stephen Greenblatt, Norton, 2018, pp. 247–249.