SIir knowing how doubtfully all Allegories may be construed, and this
booke of mine, which I
hauehave
entituled the Faery Queene, being a continued
Allegory, or darke conceit, I
hauehave thought good aswell for
auoydingavoyding of gealous opinions and
miscõstructions,misconstructions, as also for your better
light
in reading therof, (being so
by
you
cõmandedcommanded,) to
discouerdiscover
vntounto you
the general intention
&and
meaning, which in the whole
course thereof
I
hauehave fashioned,
without expressing of any particular purposes or
by accidents
therein occasioned. The generall end therefore of all
the
booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous
and
gentle discipline: Which for that I
conceiuedconceived shoulde
be most plausible
and pleasing, being coloured with
an historicall fiction, the which
the most part of men delight to read,
rather for variety of matter,
1590.back.Letter.13. then: thanthenthan for profite of the ensample:
I
chose the historye of king Arthure,
as most fitte for the
excellency
of his person, being made famous by
many mens
former workes, and
also furthest from the daunger of
enuyenvy,
and suspition of present time. In which I
hauehave followed all
the antique
Poets historicall, first Homere,
who in the Persons of Agamemnon and
VlyssesUlysses hath ensampled a good
gouernourgovernour and a vertuous man, the one
in his Ilias, the other
in his
Odysseis: then Virgil, whose like intention
was to doe
in the person
of Aeneas: after him Ariosto comprised them
both in his Orlando: and
lately Tasso
disseuereddissevered them againe, and formed
both parts in two persons, namely that
part
which they in Philosophy
call Ethice, or vertues of a
priuateprivate man, coloured in his Rinaldo:
The other named
Politice in
his Godfredo. By ensample of which excellente
Poets, I labour to
pourtraict in Arthure, before he was king
, the image
of a
brauebrave knight, perfected in the
tweluetwelve
priuate private morall vertues,
as Aristotle hath
deuiseddevised, the which is the
purpose of these first
tweluetwelve bookes: which if I finde to be well
accepted, I may be
perhaps
encoraged, to frame the other part
of polliticke vertues in
his person,
after that hee came to be
king. To some I know this
Methode will seeme
displeasaunt, which had rather
hauehave good discipline
deliuereddelivered
plainly
in way of precepts, or sermoned at large, as they
vseuse,
1590.back.Letter.32. then: thanthenthan
thus clowdily
enwrapped in Allegoricall
deuisesdevises. But such,
me seeme, should be satisfide
with the
vseuse of these dayes, seeing
all things accounted by their showes,
and nothing esteemed
of, that is not delightfull and pleasing to
commune
sence.
For this cause is Xenophon preferred before Plato, for
that
the one in the exquisite depth of his
iudgementjudgement, formed a
Commune welth
such as it should be, but the other
in the
person of Cyrus and the
Persians fashioned a
gouernement governement such as might best be: So much more
profitable and gratious is doctrine by ensample
, 1590.back.Letter.40. then: thanthenthan by rule. So
hauehave I laboured
to doe in the person of Arthure: whome I
conceiueconceive after
his
long education by Timon, to whom he was by Merlin
deliuereddelivered
to
be brought
vpup, so soone as he was borne of the Lady
Igrayne, to
hauehave seene in a dream or vision the Faery Queen,
with whose excellent
beauty
rauishedravished, he awaking
resoluedresolved to
seeke her out, and so being
by Merlin armed, and by
Timon
throughly instructed, he went to seeke
her forth in Faerye
land. In that Faery Queene I meane glory in my
generall
intention, but in my particular I
conceiueconceive the most excellent
and glorious person of our
souerainesoveraine the Queene, and her
kingdome in
Faery land. And yet in some
places els, I doe
otherwise shadow her.
For
considering she beareth two persons, the one of a most royall Queene
or Empresse, the other
of a
most vertuous and beautifull Lady
, this
latter part in
some places I
doe
expressezpresse
in Belphœbe, fashioning her
name
according to your owne
excellent conceipt of Cynthia
, (Phæbe
and
Cynthia being both names of
Diana).Diana.) So in the
person of Prince Arthure
I sette forth magnificence in particular, which vertue for that (according
to Aristotle and the
rest)
it is the perfection of all the rest, and
conteineth in it
them all,
therefore in the whole course I mention
the deedes
of Arthure
applyableapp’yable
to that vertue, which I write of in
that
booke. But of the
xii. other vertues, I make xii. other
knight
the patrones, for the
more variety of the history: Of
which these three
bookes contayn
three. The first of the knight
of the
Redcrosse, in
whome I expresse Holynes: The seconde
of Sir Guyon, in whome I sette
forth Temperaunce: The
third of Britomartis a Lady knight, in whome
I picture Chastity. But because the beginning of the whole worke seemeth
abrupte and as depending
vponupon other antecedents, it
needs that ye know
the occasion of
these three knights
seuerall severall
aduenturesadventures. For the Methode
of a Poet historical is not
such, as of an
Historiographer. For an
Historiographer discourseth of affayres orderly as they were donne,
accounting as
well
the times as the actions, but a Poet thrusteth into
the
middest
, eueneven where it most concerneth him, and there recoursing
to the thinges forepaste, and
diuiningdivining of thinges
to come, maketh a
pleasing Analysis of all. The
beginning
therefore of my history, if
it were to be told by an Historiogra
pher
should be the twelfth
booke which is the last
, where I
deuisedevise that the Faery Queene kept
her Annuall feaste xii.
dayes,
vpponuppon which xii.
seuerallseverall dayes, the
occasions of the
xii.
seuerallseverall
aduenturesadventures hapned, which being
vndertaken undertaken by xii.
seuerallseverall knights, are in these xii books
seuerallyseverally
handled
and discoursed. The first was this. In the
beginning
of the feast
, there presented him selfe a tall clownishe
younge
man, who falling
before the Queen of Faries desired a
boone
(as the manner then was)
which during that feast she might
not refuse: which was that hee might
hauehave the atchieuement
of any
aduentureadventure, which during that feaste should
happen,
that being graunted
, he rested him on the floore,
vnfitte unfitte through his rusticity for a better place. Soone after
entred
a faire
Ladye in mourning weedes, riding on a white Asse,
with a dwarfe behind
her leading a warlike steed, that bore
the Armes of a knight, and his
speare in the dwarfes hand.
Shee falling before the Queene of Faeries,
complayned that
her father and mother an ancient King and Queene, had
bene by an huge dragon many years shut
vpup in a brasen Castle, who thence
suffred them not to yssew: and therefore besought the Faery Queene
to assygne her some one of her
knights to
take on him that exployt.
Presently that clownish
person
vpstartingupstarting, desired that
aduentureadventure:
whereat the
Queene much wondering, and the Lady much
gainesaying,
yet
he earnestly importuned his desire. In the end the
Lady
told him that
vnlesseunlesse that armour which she brought, would
serueserve
him (that is the
armour of a Christian man specified
by Saint Paul v. Ephes.) that he
could not succeed in that
enterprise, which being forthwith put
vponupon him with dewe
furnitures thereunto
, he seemed the goodliest
man in
al that
company, and was well liked of the Lady. And
eftesoones
taking
on him knighthood, and mounting on that
straunge
Courser
, he went forth
with her on that
aduentureadventure: where
beginneth the first booke, vz.