Question: Write a note on Spenser’s Puritanic spirit.

Or, What moral seriousness do you notice in Spenser’s epic The Faerie Queene Book I?

Answer: Spenser’s poetry is not merely an instrument of delight and sensuous pleasure, but also a medium for moral elevation. It is not only to amuse but also to teach the doctrine of noble behavior and righteous action. The Faerie Queen stands out as a monument of moral principles emphasizing all the cardinal virtues of human life. The general purpose of The Faerie Queene is “to fashion a gentleman or noble person in the virtuous and gentle discipline.”

Spenser’s conception of poetry is derived from Aristotle and Plato, who regard poets as moral teachers. Equally influenced by Homer, Spenser believes that Homer opened the way for moral edification. Allegorically, Homer has represented in Agamemnon as a good governor and in Ulysses, as a virtuous man. Thus following the examples of classical poets, Spenser introduces high seriousness, morality, and didacticism.

Spenser borrows the delicate and refined forms of Platonic philosophy to express his moral idealism. He loves all that is noble and pure. He seems to have been fired with a passionate sense of moral beauty. The outer beauty is to him but the expression of the inner beauty of the soul. He thinks after Plato that the reality of heavenly beauty is known in and by the soul only whereas earthly beauty is recognized by the senses. The beauty of the soul is identical to truth or wisdom which alone is the highest form of beauty. This wisdom or spiritual beauty inflames a man’s heart when it is seen by him. Una (or Elizabeth) in the first book of The Faerie Queene represents not only the Protestant Church but also this truth. Duessa (or Mary, the Queen of Scots) stands for the Catholic Church and its forces. The manhood or Holiness is represented by the Red Cross knight, and Archimago, the hypocrisy of intriguing and tricky Catholics. Giant Orgoglio (Satan) represents the common vulgar pride in the power of the world. Thus the first book of The Faerie Queene gives, in an allegorical form the history, of the English Reformation.

Those who read Spenser’s The Faerie Queene at once recognize in him a devout and ardent Puritan and protestant defending the English Reformation against the supremacy of Rome and Papal authority. He certainly moralizes his song successfully and proves the truth of what he says at an earlier stage –

“Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song”.

While we go through The Faerie Queene, we have the impression that Spenser is a Puritan. He gives a conflict between the spirit of the Renaissance and that of the Reformation. He works to bring about their reconciliation. Renaissance gave sanction for the enjoyment of the good things of life on earth, but the Reformation put a ban on the sensuous life of enjoyment. To the supporter of the Reformation, the good things of the earth are but a temptation. Spenser finds out between these two things that correspondence which is necessary for their reconciliation. He makes an allegorical approach and points out that the things on the earth are but reflections of things in heaven. Earthly love and earthly beauty are the reflections of heavenly love and heavenly beauty. Thus he shows that the church cannot cut the secular almost clean away. The church in the Middle Ages had also made full allowance for the innate love of gaiety, revelry, and festive pageants which the masses would not miss for long. Religion and love of amusement are thus accepted by him to be the strongest passions of the human heart.

Spenser certainly loves beauty, but he is not merely confined to earthly beauty. He thinks of heavenly beauty and heavenly love. In the ‘Hymne to Beauty’, he emphasizes the idea that earthly love and beauty are the reflections of heavenly love and beauty. This interpretation of beauty and love is in keeping with the teaching of the Bible. For Spenser beauty is nothing but virtue rendered visible. In fact, Spenser has failed to maintain for long the Puritan fervor of the Shepheardes Calender in the first book of The Faerie Queene because he has in him the grains of the Renaissance with its emphasis on the cultivation of joy, gaiety, beauty, and sensuous aspect of life. Spenser harmonized the world of the Renaissance with that of the Reformation. Behind the pictures that he paints like a great sensuous artist, there is the heart of the devout Christian that never allows sensuous pleasures to override the considerations of a noble and virtuous life.