Comic Spenser: Faith, folly, and ‘The Faerie Queene’

Victoria Coldham-Fussell

doi:10.7765/9781526131126

Once a byword for Protestant sobriety and moral idealism, Spenser is now better known for his irony and elusiveness. Yet his sense of humour is still underestimated and misunderstood. Challenging the bias behind this neglect, this study shows that humour, far from being peripheral or superficial, goes to the heart of Spenser’s moral and doctrinal preoccupations. It explores rifts between The Faerie Queene’s ambitious and idealising postures and its Protestant vision of corruptible human nature. Figures to be comically ‘undone’ include the hero, the chivalric lover, the virgin, and the ideal monarch – as well as Spenser’s own epic-poet persona. Yet bathos has a positive significance in Christian theology, and Spenserian humour proves to be an expression of tolerance and faith as well as an instrument of satire. On this basis, Comic Spenser contends that the alliance of humour and allegory in The Faerie Queene affirms the value of the creative and ‘errant’ imagination.

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Comic Spenser

Faith, folly, and ‘The Faerie Queene’

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Contents

Front matter
pp i-vi

Dedication
pp vii-viii

Contents
pp ix-ix

Acknowledgements
pp x-xi

Abbreviations
pp xii-xvi

Introduction
pp 1-30

1 - Spenser and the comic Renaissance
pp 31-79

2 - Humour and heroism
pp 80-111

3 - Spenser’s bawdy; or, Red Crosse’s problem with desire
pp 112-136

4 - Laughing at love: <italic>The Faerie Queene</italic> III–IV
pp 137-167

5 - Parody and panegyric
pp 168-192

Epilogue
pp 193-205

Bibliography
pp 206-226

Index
pp 227-236

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Comic Spenser

Faith, folly, and ‘The Faerie Queene’

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