“The Sacred Pledge of Peace and Clemencie”: Elizabethan Mercy in The Faerie Queene

Abstract

Mercy and its close kin, pity, make numerous appearances in The Faerie Queene: many a fallen knight or distressed lady pleads for mercy in the course of the story; virtuous characters frequently feel compassion for others, and the narrator sometimes describes his own intense feelings of pity as he observes the plight of victimized women. The virtue of mercy is personified in two allegorical figures: Mercy in Book I’s House of Holiness and Mercilla in Book V. Like most qualities explored in The Faerie Queene, mercy and pity are complex and nuanced, making Spenser’s treatment of them at times seem contradictory: he shows both the efficacy and the danger of human acts of mercy; he characterizes pity as both a sign of nobility and a fatal weakness. As always in The Faerie Queene, context is important. Mercy means one thing in the context of holiness and something different in the context of justice. But throughout The Faerie Queene, Spenser’s exploration of earthly mercy reflects many of the issues discussed in Chapter One: the concern that mercy renders the giver vulnerable, and the anxiety that a queen’s mercy, though the hallmark of a Christian monarch, might be an expression of effeminate weakness; the Protestant demand for more rigor, especially in matters of religion; the desire to praise mercy as a Christian virtue and avoid offending a queen who cherishes her reputation for clemency; and finally, the tension over whether a corporate masculine entity or the person of the female sovereign should be empowered to pardon or to punish.KeywordsEmotional DisplayVirtuous CharacterBook VersusTrue NobilityGreat CompassionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.