SOURCE: Bednarz, James P. “Ralegh in Spenser's Historical Allegory.” In Spenser Studies: A Renaissance Poetry Annual, Vol. 4, edited by Patrick Cullen and Thomas P. Roche, Jr., pp. 49-70. New York: AMS Press, 1984.

In the following essay, Bednarz discusses the historical context of The Faerie Queene and focuses on representations of the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh in the poem.

The allegory of Timias and Belphoebe in The Faerie Queene documents two distinct periods in the ongoing relationship between Sir Walter Ralegh and Queen Elizabeth. The first describes an early era of mixed fortune in which Ralegh's preeminence was being undermined by the earl of Essex, and the second alludes to a later time of disgrace, occasioned by his clandestine marriage to Elizabeth Throckmorton in 1592. The 1590 and 1596 installments of The Faerie Queene, considered together, trace a historical pattern that moves from Ralegh's participation in the...