The Mutabilitie Cantos

The Mutabilitie Cantos
Author: Edmund Spenser
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 1968
Genre: Poetry
ISBN:

These cantos, published posthumously, are general agreed to contain some of the finest poetry in "The Faerie Queene", and are of central importance in the study of philosophic and religious beliefs in the late sixteenth century.

The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene
Author: Edmund Spenser
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Total Pages: 1253
Release: 2022-12-22T07:23:36Z
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

The Faerie Queene is Edmund Spenser’s magnum opus, composed for Queen Elizabeth I. The epic poem is incomplete, as only six of the intended twelve books were published before his death. Despite that, it stands as one of the longest poems in the English language. During its composition, Spenser invented a new type of verse form: the Spenserian stanza. The form consists of eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a line in iambic hexameter, with the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc. He purposely included archaic language and spelling to make the work feel comparable to the Arthurian myths written during the Middle Ages. Spenser used Aristotle’s list of virtues as the foundation for his work. Each of the six books follows a different knight who symbolize a unique virtue: the Knight of the Redcross for Holiness, Guyon for Temperance, Britomartis for Chastity, Cambell and Telamond for Friendship, Artegall for Justice, and Calidore for Courtesy. Fragments of an unfinished seventh book—the “Cantos of Mutability”—would have centered on the virtue of Constancy. In a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Spenser reveals that King Arthur represents the virtue of Magnificence, “the perfection of all the rest.” The first book opens with the Redcross Knight on a quest ordered by Queen Gloriana to defeat a horrible dragon. Traveling with him is Lady Una and her dwarf servant, who are leading the knight to the land where the dragon dwells. A terrible storm forces the travelers to shelter in the nearest cave—and a monster’s den. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene
Author: Edmund Spenser
Publisher: CUP Archive
Total Pages: 390
Release: 1920
Genre:
ISBN:

The Faerie Queene, Book Six and the Mutabilitie Cantos

The Faerie Queene, Book Six and the Mutabilitie Cantos
Author: Edmund Spenser
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2007-09-15
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1603840265

Book Six and the incomplete Book Seven of The Faerie Queene are the last sections of the unfinished poem to have been published. They show Spenser inflecting his narrative with an ever more personal note, and becoming an ever more desperate and anxious author, worried that things were falling apart as Queen Elizabeth failed in health and the Irish crisis became ever more terrifying. The moral confusion and uncertainty that Calidore, the Knight of Courtesy, has to confront are symptomatic of the lack of control that Spenser saw everywhere around him. Yet, within such a troubling and disturbing work there are moments of great beauty and harmony, such as the famous dance of the Graces that Colin Clout, the rustic alter ego of the poet himself, conjures up with his pipe. Book Seven, the Two Cantos of Mutabilitie, is among the finest of Spenser's poetic works, in which he explains the mythical origins of his world, as the gods debate on the hill opposite his Irish house. Whether order or chaos triumphs in the end has been the subject of most subsequent critical debate.

Spenser: The Faerie Queene

Spenser: The Faerie Queene
Author: A. C. Hamilton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 810
Release: 2014-06-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317865642

The Faerie Queene is a scholarly masterpiece that has influenced, inspired, and challenged generations of writers, readers and scholars since its completion in 1596. Hamilton's edition is itself, a masterpiece of scholarship and close reading. It is now the standard edition for all readers of Spenser. The entire work is revised, and the text of The Faerie Queene itself has been freshly edited, the first such edition since the 1930s. This volume also contains additional original material, including a letter to Raleigh, commendatory verses and dedicatory sonnets, chronology of Spenser's life and works and provides a compilation of list of characters and their appearances in The Faerie Queene.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Author: Laura L. Howes
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-11
Genre: Arthurian romances
ISBN: 9780393532463

"This Norton Critical Edition of the anonymously written fourteenth-century Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is derived from a verse translation by Marie Borroff, first translated in 1967. The poem follows Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's court, as his honor is tested by the Green Knight. After succeeding in beheading the Green Knight, who survives the ordeal, Gawain must uphold his end of the bargain and, after a year's time, meet with the Green Knight again so that the knight may return the grim favor and behead Gawain. The "Contexts" in this Critical Edition provide readers with selections of the poem in its original Middle English, as well as other Arthurian stories that may have influenced the anonymous Gawain-poet. "Criticism" includes a selection of essays on themes ranging from the poem's descriptive techniques, to its use of time and gender. A chronology and selected bibliography are also included"--

Illustrations and Ornamentation from The Faerie Queene

Illustrations and Ornamentation from The Faerie Queene
Author: Walter Crane
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 143
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Design
ISBN: 0486402746

Magnificent collection of medieval illustrations and decorations created by famed Victorian-era artist to illustrate a sumptuous limited edition of The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser's 16th-century allegorical epic poem. Over 300 superb images — including full-page plates, headpieces, borders, vignettes, and decorative initials — depict knights, maidens, dragons, unicorns, angels, and a host of decorative elements.