Spencer and his " Faery Queene"

The letter wasn’t really easy to read. But after our last session, I was able to get an overall idea of its meaning. Edmund Spenser decided to write about King Arthur since he felt he was a virtuous man, who represented the twelve virtues. “The Faery Queene” is an allegory since it denotes a hidden message which also tries to pass on a moral. Although I didn’t read the entire poem, I’m aware that allegories always try to teach us something and I’m sure Spencer wanted that when he referred about the virtues. We always have to read between the lines, what did he want us to interpret? Perhaps he just desired to influence society on a better way or path to BE a human being. In his letter, he mentions Temperance, which controls our own behavior, holiness, being pure and spiritual and last but not least, chastity. Why were these so important for him? I’m not so sure, however, I feel all of them take us to MODERATION.
Furthermore, It would be simple to say that he only underlined the virtues and qualities he felt were most important for people to practice. However, we need to think that there is always something else hidden in a writer’s purposes. That’s why I would like to insist the letter is made with second intentions. Maybe, to have the queen’s protection and King Arthur’s as well.
If it was that so, he was quite smart… to show his support to them, and his denial (to Protestantism and catholicism) when referring to the virtue of evil, represented by Duessa.



Sources:

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/fqueen/summary.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene