On the Poetry of Spenser and the Form of Romances

Originally published in 1956, this scholarly study of Spenser’s poetry shows how the conceptions of his earlier work in complaints, visions and pastorals were of continuing importance to the development of The Faerie Queene. Following on from Bishop Hurd’s Letters on Chivalry and Romance, John Arthos discusses the congeniality of romance and allegory. The form and substance of Spenser’s lyrical and meditative poetry were combined with his interest in romances to govern the progress of the great work, and in the Mutabilitie Cantos they assert a dominant emphasis. In continuing many of the features characteristic of medieval romances, in taking up the innovations of Boiardo and Ariosto, and in giving expression to a view of life and especially of love that had not been made before in romantic literature, Spenser set himself a framework of so many and such complex interests that he failed to construct in The Faerie Queene the unity one might expect after reading the letter to Raleigh. The author believes that Tasso’s theories provide the terms that explain how Spenser meant to effect the unity of his poem, and that they also explain why the Mutabilitie Cantos belong to a radically different conception. Acknowledging that the allegories in Spenser’s work are obscure or unevenly developed John Arthos’ book maintains the idea that romance and allegory were integrally conceived in the Poem.

John Arthos was a Russel Lecturer and the Hereward T. Price Distinguished University Professor of English at the University of Michigan. In adopting his retirement memoir in 1979, the Regents noted that Arthos’ ’many books and articles range over several periods of English, American and continental literature. His major interest, however, was in the Renaissance, and then in the major figures of the Renaissance... Using his wide range of knowledge of languages and literature, he has made enduring contributions to our knowledge and understanding of what was a European, not just an English movement. No scholar has better understood, more clearly interpreted, or more deeply applied in his own thinking and teaching, the humanistic spirit which informed this important period in the history of literature.