Milton Revises "The Faerie Queene"

Abstract

NE of the most famous tributes by one great poet to another is the passage in the Areopagitica in which Milton, after defining the nature of virtue as involving a knowledge of evil, declares that this the reason why our sage and serious Poet Spencer, whom I dare be known to think a teacher then Scotus or Aquinas, describing true temperance under the person of Guion, brings him in with his palmer through the cave of Mammon, and the bowr of earthly blisse that he might see and know, and yet abstain.' The importance of the passage as furnishing the clue to one of the major sources of Milton's literary inspiration has long been recognized, and many studies of one or both poets have taken it as their point of departure. It has not, however, been noticed that, as statement, the passage is in part erroneous. Guyon, the hero of Book II of The faerie queene, is accompanied by the Palmer in the Bower of Bliss, but not in the Cave of Mammon; they were separated by Phaedria (canto vi, stanzas 19-20) before Guyon's encounter with Mammon, and reunited only after the end of that episode (viii, 3-4). The error is an extraordinarily interesting one. It demonstrates that Milton was so familiar with The faerie queene that he thought he had no need to refresh his memory of the poem before discussing it in print; but this will surprise no one. The chief interest lies elsewhere. The error is not really so superficial as it at first appears; when its implications are recognized, it will be seen to illuminate-the more revealingly because unconsciouslya significant divergence in Milton's ethical thought from that of his better teacher. The heart of the matter lies in Spenser's reason for separating Guyon from the Palmer for the Mammon episode. The structural resemblance of the second book