Abstract
This chapter examines Middle English romance as a native tradition. It also discusses the history of the readership of native romance and its importance for judging Spenser's strategy in incorporating tradition in The Faerie Queene. The continued reading of Middle English romance in medieval manuscripts is significant in relation to Spenser since this allows for the possibility that he encountered the romances in this form. Romances in print are deprived from their manuscript ‘home’ — the context of other romances, historical works, saints' lives, and other kinds of writing — which can adjust a reader's perception of a work's generic and thematic value. Just as The Shepheardes Calender presents the sense of being an earlier, ‘edited’ text, so too The Faerie Queene might be likened to a manuscript-anthology, particularly in terms of its structure.
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