THE NARRATIVE UNITY OF BOOK V OF THE FAERIE QUEENE: ‘THAT PART OF JUSTICE WHICH IS EQUITY’

Abstract

C R IT IC I SM has not dealt kindly with Book V of The Faerie Queene, and the work's allegorical, structural, and narrative unities have been frequently faulted.I This is to be regretted since the book's consistent concern with law, order, and the administration of justice is a present-day one. While pursuing their respective purposes, portions of some previous works have noted in passing the presence of mitigating and moderating attributes of justice in Spenser's study of the virtue.2 What has remained to be demonstrated is the immediate single historic, moral, allegorical, and narrative connection between Artegall, Radigund, Britomart, Isis, Mercilla, and Duessa. The purpose of this article is to establish, through close reading, Book V's narrative unity based upon 'That part of Justice which is Equity'3-a unity which is supported by structural connections, thematic recurrences, and allegorical consistency. A familiar narrative device of Spenser's is to foreshadow in the last canto of a book the thematic or narrative concern of the next book. The