(c) _Personal and Political Allegory._--Here we find a concrete presentation of many of Spenser's chief contemporaries. One of Spenser's prime objects in composing his epic was to please certain powerful persons at court, and above all to win praise and patronage from the vain and flattery loving queen, whom he celebrates as Gloriana. Prince Arthur is a character that similarly pays homage to Lord Leicester. In the Redcross Knight he compliments, no doubt, some gentleman like Sir Philip Sidney or Sir Walter Raleigh, as if he were a second St. George, the patron saint of England, while in Una we may see idealized some fair lady of the court. In Archimago he satirizes the odious King Philip II of Spain, and in false Duessa the fascinating intriguer, Mary Queen of Scots, who was undeserving so hard a blow.
_Characters_ _Moral_ _Religious and _Personal and Spirtual_ Political_
Redcross Knight Holiness Reformed England St George
Prince Arthur Magnificence, or Protestantism, or Lord Leicester Private Virtue the Church Militant
Gloriana Glory Spirtual Beauty Queen Elizabeth
Archimago Hypocrisy The Jesuits Phillip II of Spain
Duessa Falsehood False Religion Mary Queen of Scots, Church of Rome
Orgoglio Carnal Pride Antichrist Pope Sixtus V
The Lion Reason, Reformation by Force Henry VIII, Natural Honor Civil Government
The Dragon Sin The Devil, Satan Rome and Spain
Sir Satyrane Natural Courage Law and Order Sir John Perrott in Ireland
The Monster Avarice Greed of Romanism Romish Priesthood
Corceca Blind Devotion, Catholic Penance Irish Nuns Superstition
Abessa Flagrant Sin Immorality Irish Nuns
Kirkrapine Church Robbery Religious State Irish Clergy of Ireland and Laity
Sansjoy Joylessness Pagan Religion The Sultan and the Saracens
Lucifera Pride, Vanity Woman of Babylon Church of Rome
4. THE SPENSERIAN STANZA.--The _Faerie Queene_ is written in the Spenserian Stanza, a form which the poet himself invented as a suitable vehicle for a long narrative poem. Suggestions for its construction were taken from three Italian metres--the Ottava Rima, the Terza Rima, the Sonnet--and the Ballade stanza. There are eight lines in the iambic pentameter measure (five accents); e.g.--
v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- a gen | tle knight | was prick | ing on | the plaine followed by one iambic hexameter, or Alexandrine (six accents); e.g.--