Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Jeffrey P. Fruen

Critical Essay by Jeffrey P. Fruen

SOURCE: Fruen, Jeffrey P. “The Faery Queen Unveiled? Five Glimpses of Gloriana.” In Spenser Studies: A Renaissance Poetry Annual, Vol. 11; edited by Patrick Cullen and Thomas P. Roche, Jr., pp. 53-88. New York: AMS Press, 1994.

In the following essay, Fruen discusses the place and significance of Queen Elizabeth I in the allgorical scheme of The Faerie Queene.

In a previous essay I argued that Gloriana, despite appearances to the contrary, is indeed to be regarded as the unifying “argument” (I.Pr.4) of Spenser's narrative, her pivotal importance being obscured only by the “couert vele” (II.Pr.5) of an autonomous but quasi-biblical typology.¹ The question of her allegorical significance I left at that time for later consideration, and a comprehensive treatment I must still postpone, but the preliminary observations that follow point clearly, I think, to a decisive answer. For in what little Spenser does tell us about his elusive heroine...
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