IV. Conclusion: The Christian Heroism of Books V and VI
In Books V and VI Spenser uses his own
brand of Protestantism to generate religious invocations in an unlikely pair of
Christian heroes: the stern
disciplinary and Knight of Justice, Arthegall, and the gentle Knight of
Courtesy, Calidore. Although at one point in his quest Calidore forsakes the
hard heroic life for the ease and tranquility of the pastoral one, but comes
back around, though it takes the shepherd, Colin Clout, to bring him back. In
Arthegal, we find someone who is burdened with a heavy task of upholding a form
of justice that can only be carried out through an equitable assessment of each
situation itself. Interestingly, Arthegal is often seen in the light of a
figure of justice from the book of Revelations, not least because Book V
contains most of the remaining 18 of 60 citations of Revelations (after Book
I’s 42) in The Faerie Queene. [1]
Arthegal himself, then, the knight educated by Astrae, can be seen as the
personification of God’s justice on earth, a heroic Christian Everyman.
Word Count: 3523
Appendix: References and Further Reading
In Books V and VI Spenser uses his own
brand of Protestantism to generate religious invocations in an unlikely pair of
Christian heroes: the stern
disciplinary and Knight of Justice, Arthegall, and the gentle Knight of
Courtesy, Calidore. Although at one point in his quest Calidore forsakes the
hard heroic life for the ease and tranquility of the pastoral one, but comes
back around, though it takes the shepherd, Colin Clout, to bring him back. In
Arthegal, we find someone who is burdened with a heavy task of upholding a form
of justice that can only be carried out through an equitable assessment of each
situation itself. Interestingly, Arthegal is often seen in the light of a
figure of justice from the book of Revelations, not least because Book V
contains most of the remaining 18 of 60 citations of Revelations (after Book
I’s 42) in The Faerie Queene. [1]
Arthegal himself, then, the knight educated by Astrae, can be seen as the
personification of God’s justice on earth, a heroic Christian Everyman.
Calidore, coming after Arthegal and
carrying his torch, is a heroic too, in the unique Spenserian protestant sense,
for tempers Arthegal’s death sentences by mercy and forgiveness. That is not to
say that he allows evildoers to walk all over him, since he only issues
forgiveness after he has conveyed the lesson: be courteous to those in others
living within your society.
It is clear that Calidore’s
teachings of courtesy and forgiveness are not for everyone, especially
catholic. Spenser, resoundingly anti-Catholic,
makes this known in particular in his attitude towards images and iconoclasm.
Though there are vestiges of “traditional religion”, such as forms of worship
used in England for centuries, from festivals at feast days to parish
sponsorships of altars, Spenser’s religious affiliation are tied closest to a
form a radical Protestantism most often associated with Puritanism. That is not
to say that Spenser only wants to tell the what to think, in terms of black and
white, only to provide a gloss on Elizabethan religions, and how two very
different knights, Arthegal and Calidor, are still ultimately Christian heroes in their pursuit of
Justice and Courtesy, respectively.
In Books V and VI Spenser’s religious
affiliation is pervasive in almost every action that Arthegal and Calidore
take. But the last two Books (and the Mutability
Cantos) of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene
ultimately stimulate the reader’s imagination with the fantastical tales of
two Christian heroes and justice and
forgiveness. They perform their tasks and duties with excessive perseverance,
excessive fervor, and an excessive desire to achieve a code of heroic conduct
that would last forever, whether or not they succeed. Almost two hundred years
after Spenser’s death, William Blake, a great admirer of Spenser who even wrote
a 54 line poem in six Spenserian stanzas called An Imitation of Spenser once said “the road of excess leads to the
palace of wisdom.” And that goes for The
Faerie Queene too.
Word Count: 3523
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