Answer: The Faerie Queene is an allegorical romance that was designed in 12 books each portraying one of the twelve virtues. But only six were completed, dealing with Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Fidelity, Justice and Courtesy. As each virtue is represented by a knight, it has been called by some, an epic of chivalry. It is written in a new 9 lined stanza invented by Spenser and named after him as Spenserian stanza. It consists of ten syllabled iambic lines rhyming ab, ab, bc, bc, c, the last line being an Alexandrine (twelve syllabled line).
The intention of the poet, as he declares in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, is to present through a historical poem the example of a perfect gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline. He speaks of twelve virtues of the private gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline. He speaks of twelve virtues of the private gentleman, according to Aristotle, (as distinguished from the virtues of a noble ruler, the public virtues). Each of the twelve books as per his original design, has a different hero distinguished for one of the private virtues. With such a plan, there is a danger of the break of unity. However, the hero of heroes, who possesses all of these virtues, is Arthur. As Prince Arthur (that is Arthur before he became a king) he is to play a role in each of the twelve major adventures. Consequently, though each adventure has its individual hero, the recurring appearances of Arthur serve as a unifying factor for the poem as a whole. Another character who contributes to the unity of the work is Gloriana, the Fairy Queen. It is from her court and at her bidding that each of the heroes sets out on his particular adventure. Prince Arthur’s great mission is his search for the Fairy Queen whom he has fallen in love through a lovely vision.
However, the grandiose plan of The Faerie Queene was never completed. The first three books were published in 1590 and in 1596, a second edition appeared with a total of six books. In a posthumous edition, an additional fragment of a seventh book was included. Even in its unfinished state, it is one of the longest poems ever published. Each of the books contains an average of 6,000 lines.
Spenser says quite explicitly that his poem is not to be read merely as a narrative of wonderful chivalric adventures but that it is also a continued allegory, or dark conceit. He does not, however, give the reader detailed clues as to the interpretation of the allegory
beyond a statement that the Fairy Queen represents glory but also “the most excellent and glorious person of our sovereign the queen” and that at certain points in the story another character may also represent the queen; for example, Una who represents truth and innocence in Book I. But the detailed interpretation of the allegory has been left to the readers.
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