Flesh, Spirit, and the Glorified Body: Spenser’s Anthropomorphic Houses of Pride, Holiness, and Temperance

Abstract

Whereas Spenser’s most extensive allegorical representation of the body, Alma’s Castle, has been recently said to portray “the natural body” in contrast to “the mystical body” associated with Caelia’s House of Holiness, Books I and II are profoundly interanimated. They share much the same conceptions of the body, soul, and human prospects, so that their heroes’ exploits are fully complementary and the development of The Faerie Queene is cumulative. Anatomical, medical, and theological discourses and concerns are synthesized in both Books I and II, so that Spenser’s representation of Lucifera’s and Caelia’s houses deals in part with the natural body, and his portrayal of Alma’s domain depends on sanctification and related Pauline doctrines of the flesh, spirit, and glorified body. Although prior Spenser criticism affords little comment on the relevance of Elizabethan beliefs in bodily glorification, that is the ultimate physical ideal for humankind in The Faerie Queene. Alma’s dominion not only constitutes a model for Temperance as it is to be pursued in life, but also Spenser’s most full and detailed prefiguration of the finally transfigured somatic state, when the body would supposedly become spiritualized to the maximum extent possible, while yet remaining physical. Likewise, we should avoid imputing to The Faerie Queene sharp oppositions between nature, physicality, and the body on the one hand, and grace, spirit, and soul on the other; or between Books I and II, or Holiness and Temperance.