‘RELIGIOUS REUERENCE DOTH BURIALL TEENE’. CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN IN THE FAERIE QUEENE, II. i–ii

Abstract

THE purpose of this article is to point out two new sources or targets of allusion, a Christian and a classical, in the episode of the Nymph's Well, Faerie Queene, II. i-ii, and a large structural parallelism extending through it but starting some three cantos before. If my Christian source and its resulting parallelism are accepted, they will prove that there is a large structural and thematic carry-over from Book I to Book II, and from Red Cross to Guyon. The first book of The Faerie Queene has as its turning point Red Cross's reformation in the House of Holiness and his vision on the Mount of Contemplation (i. x). En route between these two places, he sojourns with his guide Mercy at the 'hospitall' of her seven deputiescontrasting with the Seven Deadly Sins in the House of Pride-who perform what amount to the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy, namely, in Spenser's version, (i) lodging wayfarers, (2) giving food and drink to those who need them, (3) clothing the naked, (4) relieving and releasing prisoners, (5) attending the sick and preparing them spiritually for death, (6) burying the dead, and (7) caring for the widows and orphans of the dead (I. x. 36-45). Then follows Red Cross's victory over the Dragon and his betrothal to Una, whose parents his victory has liberated. As Book II opens, its titular knight Guyon is deceived by a false account of a damsel in distress into attacking his predecessor Red Cross (11. i. 3-30), but at the last minute is reconciled with him and identifies himself with the latter's Christian motivations (i. 3I-4). Continuing their journey, Guyon and the Palmer come on Amavia just as she stabs herself over the body of her recently dead husband; with her is their infant son (i. 34-40). Amavia expresses doubt concerning the justice of the heavens and bids her child live to testify that his mother died 'pure ... of blemish criminall' (i. 36-7). Guyon pities her, revives her, gives her some unspecified counsel, pledges his services, and persuades her to tell her story (i. 42-8). In brief, she relates that her once-good husband Mordant was seduced away from her by Acrasia; when Amavia found him, won him back, and reformed him, Acrasia in revenge gave him a stirrup-cup containing a delayed-action poison which has only now taken effect (i. 49-55). It was in despair over this that Amavia stabbed herself; and now, having told her story, she expires (56). The canto ends with the grief and moral reflections of