Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene - Book 3

[@philipjin4902]

Love the colours on the bookshelf!!!!

[@LaraKhurana]

Thank you for this session !

[@Fontdalprofundo]

When I first read parts of The Faerie Queene (in the first edition of Edmund Spenser's Poetry, also from Norton), I agreed with you that Spenser did not handle his medley of interwoven stories in Book III as well as he had handled the more unified Book I -- even though I was already disposed to like that kind of plotting, as you must have already come to appreciate it in Ariosto. But over the years Book III has become my favorite. I think it was Roger Sale who said that Cantos 11-12 (or maybe 10-12?) of Book III constitute "the longest unbroken stretch of great writing in this or perhaps in any poem." For what it's worth, I for my part pronounce Scudamour (which presumably means Shield of Love) so that the first syllable rhymes with blue. (There was an actual Scudamore family in England in Spenser's time, and still is today, who may pronounce it differently.)

[@shelfstarters9799]

Very belated reply, but thank you for your comment! Although this took us so much time to get through, Spenser has definitely become a new favourite, and I wouldn't be surprised if I give TFQ a re-read in the future. I'd be interested to see if my opinions on Book 3 change the second time around!

[@ZanarkandIsntReal]

In Canto 2 Brittomarte looking into the mirror and only seeing herself at first but then eventually seeing her true love is a representation of Introspection. This true love of hers takes a masculine form and this is her major conflict: a sort of cognitive dissonance between her true self and her external self. This conflict is brought on from being born a female but raised to be a warring knight. When speaking with her maid about it it is explicitly stated that her true love is Immaterial and impossible to acquire but still all her bones ache and her blood boils from this yearning, her entire being is screaming out for this desire, this call to adventure, this authentic self expression. There is then much talk of how this Love is Death and I take that to mean that her former self must die in order for her to achieve this goal. And the Canto ends with her "death" as she begins her journey to knighthood. Spencer cleverly matches the introspective content of the story to the form in which it's told by framing the narrative in Brittomarte telling RedCross of her past. Meaning we are reading a story within a story just as she is taking a journey through the world as she journeys within herself.

[@ZanarkandIsntReal]

Also The Garden of Adonis scene is an exact description of Platonic Forms. He's laying out the distinction between True Eternal Universal Love vs false temporal love. Which makes sense because the whole book is about Chastity which to Spencer means pursuing one's True Love without yielding to distractions.