The Queen of the fairies

the Queen of the fairies ( The Faerie Queene in English) is a Poème epic writes by the Poète English Edmund Spenser and published for the first time in 1590. A supplemented version was then published in 1596. Work, in a general way, milked with the promotion of the Vertu.

A celebration of the virtues

It was with the departure envisaged twelve books, instead of the six finally written. That holds so that Edmund Spenser found death before finishing its work. Each book had vocation to deal with specific virtue, incarnated by a knight whose this virtue constituted the principal search. The titles of the books, so are standardized according to the diagram “the book number of the Queen of the Fairies, containing the Legend of Sir name of the knight, or the virtue”

According to the author himself in a letter of the January 23rd 1589 addressed to Sir Walter Raleigh, the twelve virtues were to be those identified by Aristote, but they actually point out more the twelve virtues of Thomas d' Aquin, such as this last deduced them from its study of the Éthique in Nicomaque . Arthur represents the virtue of the “magnificence”, which constituted according to Spenser the synthesis of all the other virtues. That explains why this character appears throughout the work, like symbolizing its search aiming at the perfection in all things. Because of died of the author, many questions remain outstanding, and the hypothetical end of the poem is left with the imagination of the reader.

The poem and the policy

The poem accepted a favorable reception of Elisabeth Ière of England, and was consequently a great success near the readers, at the point to make shade with the other poems of the author. Spenser, in reward of its work, accepted a life pension of 50 books per annum.

The poem speaks in praise of the dynasty of Tudors, to which Elisabeth belongbelonged, by binding this family to the tradition arthurienne. The text is in addition deeply allegorical and abounds in keys of reading: it is possible to identify many personalities of the era élisabethaine among the characters of the account.

The adventures implying of the combat of knight S against Giant S or wizard resemble the epic Poésie of Arioste, Torquato Tasso and their successors.

Allegorical characters

Among the principal allegorical characters , one counts Una, which symbolizes the true one and authenticates Protestant religion. Machiavelic Duessa represents as for it the Roman Catholicism. Britomart and Belphoebe, warlike young people, incarnate the English virtue. The Queen of the Gloriana fairies, finally, is strongly suspected of hiding Elisabeth I {{Re}} of England.

Range of work

Nowadays, many are the anglophone readers who find this poem (just like the remainder of the work of Spenser) difficult to read and even more difficult to include/understand. Its sources are rich and complex, and its language is antiquated and tortuous. Moreover, the structure of the account does not adopt a traditional narrative diagram but is made fluid and unforeseeable transitions in the adventures, at the same time towards the past or the future. Work does not remain about it less a epopee remarkably built, knowing to reward those having patience to follow it until the end.

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