Characters Moral Religious and Personal and
Spirtual_ Political_
Redcross Knight Holiness
Reformed England St George
Una Truth
True Religion
Prince Arthur Magnificence, or Protestantism, or Lord Leicester
Private Virtue the Church Militant
Gloriana Glory
Spirtual Beauty Queen Elizabeth
Archimago Hypocrisy
The Jesuits Phillip II of Spain
Duessa Falsehood
False Religion Mary Queen of Scots,
Church
of Rome
Orgoglio Carnal Pride
Antichrist Pope Sixtus V
The Lion Reason, Reformation by Force Henry VIII,
Natural Honor Civil Government
The Dragon Sin
The Devil, Satan Rome and Spain
Sir Satyrane Natural Courage
Law and Order Sir John Perrott
in Ireland
The Monster Avarice
Greed of Romanism Romish Priesthood
Corceca Blind Devotion,
Catholic Penance Irish Nuns
Superstition
Abessa Flagrant Sin
Immorality Irish Nuns
Kirkrapine Church Robbery Religious State Irish Clergy
of Ireland and Laity
Sansfoy Infidelity
Sansjoy Joylessness
Pagan Religion The Sultan and
the
Saracens
Sansloy Lawlessness
The Dwarf Prudence,
Common Sense
Sir Trevisan Fear
The Squire Purity
The Anglican Clergy
The Horn Truth
The English Bible
Lucifera Pride, Vanity
Woman of Babylon Church of Rome
4. THE SPENSERIAN STANZA.—The Faerie
Queene is written in the Spenserian Stanza, a
form which the poet himself invented as a suitable
vehicle for a long narrative poem. Suggestions
for its construction were taken from three Italian
metres—the Ottava Rima, the Terza Rima,
the Sonnet—and the Ballade stanza.
There are eight lines in the iambic pentameter measure
(five accents); e.g.—
v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/-
a gen | tle knight | was prick | ing on | the plaine
followed by one iambic hexameter, or Alexandrine (six
accents); e.g.—
v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v
-/- | v -/- as one | for knight | ly giusts | and
fierce | encount | ers fitt The rhymes are arranged
in the following order: ab ab bc bcc.
It will be observed that the two quatrains are bound
together by the first two b rhymes, and the Alexandrine,
which rhymes with the eighth line, draws out the harmony
with a peculiar lingering effect. In scanning
