Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

Andrew King (University College Cork)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1589 - 1596

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Allegory
Poetry (any)

Resources

The Faerie Queene was published in two instalments during Spenser’s lifetime: Books I to III in 1590 and Books IV to VI (with a slightly revised version of I-III) in 1596. In a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh printed with the first edition of 1590, Spenser indicates his intention to write at least twelve Books overall, possibly extending to twenty-four. The Faerie Queene, already a massive poem, could have been four times longer. Evidence that Spenser was still working on the poem after 1596 is provided in a fragment, dubbed The Mutabilitie Cantos, published in 1609, ten years after Spenser’s death. For all of their narrative and thematic completeness, along with the sense of summary that they provide for …

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1978 words

Citation: King, Andrew. "The Faerie Queene". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 April 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=921, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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