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The Fairy Queen by Edmund Spenser Edmund Spencer was born in 1552 to a poor family. He went to Cambridge and received his Masters Degree in 1576. By 1578, he was serving as secretary to Bishop John Young in Kent. The landscape there is frequently mentioned in The Shepherdess Calendar.
The Shepherdess Calendar served as propaganda for the Leicester position on the Queens proposed marriage with Duc d Alencon. Spencer and his friends, Philip Sidney, Edward Dyer, and Full Grenville formed a literary group called the Areopagus. Spenser loaded his poems with a plethora of religious and political issues (Spenser, 1592). His works brought to life the simple lives that people led at that time. Most people during this time were not kings and queens but instead were hard working and led normal lives. He is famous for his complex and deep moral vision.
He died in 1599 in Westminster and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The Fairy Queen written by Spenser is considered a masterpiece of contemporary literature. In his great book, the author revealed the inner life of marvelous Queen Elizabeth. Spenser's masterly done technique of reflecting a personality through the definite traits of people became really famous. Many people think that they have some special qualities that are similar to others, for example, sisters that are normally supposed to have similarities. However, Edmund Spenser changed that and made the three sisters all be different.
Edmund Spenser did great in writing this epic poem because he used a lot of imagination to create his own little world with people, especially women that are completely different from one to another. He also did a great job with the allegories mixing traits of those women in one woman Elizabeth. Use of allegories is great and can have many different meanings behind them. For example, some people would think this is just a fairy tale, but other people could see it has a fairy tale with a meaning behind it that is mostly religious and biblical. Many people were skeptical if Elizabeth I could overcome the problems that were inherent in becoming the new queen of England.
However, no matter how undetectable the problems were, she was able to overcome them and establish a stable and secure government and was capable of achieving financial stability throughout the country. Queen Elizabeth was an extremely private person, keeping her own counsel and sharing secrets with no one- not even her closest, most trusted advisors. This paper will discuss the representations of Queen Elizabeth in Edmund Spenser's Fairy Queen, through the female characters. It will analyze the female characters, and show their significance in this epic poem.
The first person the reader meets is Caelia. Caelia is the mother of the three other women that live in the castle. Caelia opinion represents purity because her name means heavenly and that is probably why she is the Lady of castle. One of the daughters of Caelia is Fidelia and she represents faith. The second daughter of Caelia is Speranza representing Hope. The last of the daughters is Charissa representing charity.
All three of these women have very important significance because if you want to be pure you need faith, hope, and charity. Thus, these features are gathered in Elizabeth. An important example of reflecting Fidelia in Queens character is a gold cup with a serpent designed on it (Spenser, 1587). This was filled with water and wine, which symbolizes communion and the serpent being a symbolization of the crucified Christ. This object shows that The Fairy Queen Elizabeth definitely is the representation of faith. Another important example that depicts the symbolization of the women is a silver anchor around Speranzas arm.
Queen Elizabeth wore the same thing on her arm that is an iconographic symbol of hope. This is another example of what reflection these women have in one personality. (Barbar, Kiefer, The Polemics and Poems, pp 56 - 71, 1996) Finally, the symbol that proves Charissa's symbolization is not an object like the one women had, but her pregnancy. Her pregnancy is a symbol of charity because in a way you give charity when you take care of someone other than yourself. The same kind of charity by Queen Elizabeth back then was often depicted pictorially as a mother with many children.
Caelia has even more significance than her daughters do because she has the Sacred Book (Bible) written with the blood of Christ. She is the only one that can read this book and if anyone wanted to hear what was written in the book they would have to ask Caelia to read it to them. That skill of being the only able of reading the book was nothing compared to her other skill. Her other skill she could only use when she would obtains her full spiritual power. Whenever she would attain her full spiritual power she could amazing things that no one else could do. She can make the sun stand still, make the sun roll backwards, make a large group of armed men leave, stop floods and even move mountains.
These miracles took place in the Bible and are miracles of faith. It is necessary to talk about places and some more people. The first place that needs to be discussed is the dinning room. The dinning room is the happiest place in the castle because there everybody gathers and share good times and all the people have a different story to share with others. In the dinning is were we meet a doctor named Patience and performs rare medicine.
With his medicine and his magical language, he cures people from many of his minor sins, but cannot cure major sins because theyre too infected. Now to get rid of his major sins a person has to go down to the dungeon and work them off with hard painful work. In the castle, the dungeon is located at the very bottom of the place. The Dungeon is a room where they torture people and is very dark. Those characteristics of the dungeon allegorical y signifies hell and evilness. It signifies hell because in the dungeon you get tortured and it also means evilness because its dark.
In the Dungeon there are three guys named Penance, Remorse, and Repentance. To get rid of the sins you first need to go with Penance who makes you work hard and. When you are done with Penance, you need to go to Remorse who makes you bleed. Then you finally go to the last guy Repentance who heals you and cleans your wounds. All three of those guys in the dungeon are all allegories for things you have to go through in the Christian religion to be purified and be free from sins. First in the Christian religion, you have to go through penance, which is where you tell all your sins to the Priest.
Then to show remorse for what you did the Priest tell you to go say a certain prayer for a number of times. Then when you are done saying the prayer you go put Holy Water on your forehead as repentance. Charissa finally gave birth to her kids. Now Charissa is sitting watching her kids and wearing a yellow robe, which symbolizes marriage. At the same time, Fairy Queen is watching for her own children that comprise the whole nation in her crowned dress, which means that she is the queen. In addition, what has changed with Charissa is that she is now covered in jewels probably because her newly wed husband and family gave them to her.
Elizabeth herself understands how tide the ties of being the mother of the whole nation are. Another important object that Charissa has next to her is a turtledove. A turtledove is an emblem of true love and faithful marriage. This object also makes you see that Charissa is still a great representation for charity and did nothing wrong to affect it as she presents this gift to the Queen. (Anna Evans, View on Edmund Spenser's Poems, pp 17 - 19, 2002). Definitely, in Edmund Spenser's Fairy Queen Elizabeth is represented as hope, charity, and faith. The reign of Queen Elizabeth is considered one of the greatest periods in English history.
During her reign of forty years, she supported and attended many theatrical productions by famous authors such as Edmund Spencer, Christopher Marlow and William Shakespeare. Their works portrayed the way in which people lived during the Renaissance. As we know from this epic poem, Queen Elizabeth I reined form 1558 until her death in 1603. In those forty years she became a powerful image of female authority.
Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII had been of royal Plantagenet stock, and had some Welsh blood from his father Henry VII. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been an English commoner whose ancestors had been Norfolk farmers and merchants. Her parents rose to prominence because of wealth and through a series of advantageous marriages with daughters of the nobility. After being married for seventeen years, the Spanish Princess, Katherine of Argon, had only given birth to a daughter, Mary, but had failed to provide Henry with the male heir he so desperately needed. Henry, upset with Katherine, began to feel a passion for Anne Boleyn, but she had made it clear that she would not be his mistress.
Henry had become involved in a serious controversy with the church over his divorcing Katherine, and eventually declared himself head of the Church of England. After having his marriage declared void he was able to marry Anne. He did this as soon as she became pregnant in 1533. Henry and Anne had anticipated that their child would be a son and were disappointed when it turned out to be a girl. She was named after her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard. Elizabeth was a healthy baby and her parents were hopeful of providing her with a brother.
After many unsuccessful pregnancies and one stillborn son Henry fell out of love with Anne and started having affairs. Anne was later charged with plotting to murder the king and with twenty-two counts of adultery. After being found guilty and having her marriage annulled and her daughter declared a bastard, she was beheaded on May 19, 1536. In 1537, Henrys third wife gave birth to a son named Edward. Elizabeth faded more into the background, but was not neglected. Elizabeth was present at state ceremonies and was regarded as third in line to the throne. (Jane Bandeau, Prominent Women (Queen Elizabeth), 1996) Elizabeth's last stepmother was Katherine Parr.
She was the sixth queen of Henry VIII. She had expected to marry Thomas Seymour (brother to the late Queen Jane), but she caught Henrys eye. She brought both Elizabeth and her sister Mary to court. When Henry died, she became the Queen and took her household from court.
Because of the young age of Edward VI, Edward Seymour (who was another brother of Janes and therefore the young Kings uncle) became Lord Protector of England. Elizabeth went to live with Queen Dowager Katherine, but left her house after an episode with the Lord Admiral, Thomas Seymour, who was now Katherine's husband. Just what occurred between these two will never be known for sure, but rumors at the time suggested that Katherine had caught them kissing. Katherine was pregnant at the time of the episode. She later gave birth to a daughter. Katherine died not too long after.
This left Thomas Seymour as an entitled bachelor once again. He was under arrest for an attempted kidnapping of King Edward and for plotting to marry himself to Elizabeth, who was an heir to the throne. Young Edward had never been a physically powerful child and eventfully contracted what was then called consumption. It is most likely that he had tuberculosis.
When it looked predictable the teenager would die without a successor of his own body, the fight for the tiara began. Elizabeth tutors claimed that she had intelligence, an acute mind and a remarkably good memory. She was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. She studied theology and became a strong Protestant. (Fonte, Moderata, The Worth of Women, 1997). Her father died in 1547 when she was fourteen. Her brother, Edward, advanced to the throne and became King at the tender age of ten.
As we already know when Catherine died in 1549, Seymour was accused of wishing to marry Elizabeth in order to rule England. Seymour was beheaded for treason. Edward, a Protestant, died in 1553 and was replaced by his older half-sister, Mary. Mary was a Catholic and was determined to restore Catholicism to England even if it took violence.
Elizabeth and Marys relationship had not been easy and soon deteriorated when Mary began to suspect Elizabeth of being a secret Protestant. (Ballard, George, Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, pp 29 - 34) After her sister Mary died, Elizabeth took the throne at the age of twenty-five on November 17, 1558. Her character was something of a mystery to most people. She had learned early on to keep her own counsel, control her emotions, and behave discreetly, thus giving the lie to any rumors about her. She could also be vain, willful, dictatorial, temperamental and imperious. Her sense of humor sometimes had a malicious edge to it, but not cruel. The need to economize had made her so careful with money she appeared to be parsimonious, not cautious.
Elizabeth had appointed William Cecil, a friend she had known since her early teens, to be her chief advisor. He served Elizabeth for forty years. Elizabeth never married and it was said she refrained from marriage to gratify her lusts with numerous lovers. Opposite to Charissa, Elizabeth is at the same time similar to her in appreciating her people and her marriage with crown. For much or her reign Elizabeth's subjects prospered economically.
It was faith that helped the Queen in all her dealings. Landowners, who already had some wealth, prospered to the greatest extent. Even the lower classes benefited. However, this wealth would not last to the end of her reign. There was much hostility between the Spanish and English.
The Spanish particularly resented the English interference with their slave trade. By the mid 1580 s, it became apparent that a war between England and Spain was inevitable. It was widely anticipated that the Spanish fleet, the Armada, would sail to the Netherlands pick up the large Spanish army fighting there and transport the army to England. The Queens ships defeated the Armada. (Political Writings (Worlds Classics), Oxford Univ. ) Elizabeth's reign also saw a flowering of the arts that would be impossible for almost any other period of English history to match. It was an era of expansion, not just politically but with the literary arts. Edmund Spencer, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are great names not only in English literature, but also in world literature.
It was truly an era of expansionism in every possible way. Timeless Universal questions were asked and are still being answered. The era flourished with literature and theatre that we still value today. Overly, Spenser described this period as changing, one that left lasting impacts.
However, he also showed what are never changing- faith, hope and charity. The reign of Queen Elizabeth I is one of the most celebrated monarchs of not only English history but world history as well. Bibliography: Spenser, Edmund, Fairy Queen, (English version) London press, 1999 edition. Fonte, Moderata, Virginia Cox, 1997, The Worth of Women (An article on Edmund Spenser's Fairy Queen, University of Chicago Press; Barbar, Kiefer, 1996, The Polemics and Poems (pp 56 - 71), Oxford University Press as part of the series Women Writers in English 1350 - 1850, Oxford. Ballard, George, Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain (An article on Queen Elizabeth, pp 29 - 34), Wayne State University Press, Detroit; Political Writings (Worlds Classics), Oxford Univ.
Pr (Trade); Anne Cruz, Cross-Cultural Encounters (an article about Great Britain in times of the Queen Elizabeth, pp 78 - 85), New-York Double Day, 1998; Tomas Wayne, Critics on Epic Poems (Edmund Spencers fairy Queen), New-York Double Day, 2001; Anna Evans, View on Edmund Spenser's Poems, pp 17 - 19, Columbia Un. Press, 2002 Jane Bandeau, Prominent Women (Queen Elizabeth), University of Chicago Press, 1996
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Research essay sample on The Fairy Queen By Edmund Spenser
