The hero of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is Prince Arthur, who typifies Magnificence. Arthur himself tells that as an infant he was put under the tutelage of an elderly Knight Timon. His education was directed by Merlin, the magician, who would only tell him that his father was a king and that his full identity would be revealed in time. He also relates that he has fallen in love with Gloriana, the Fairy Queen, who appeared to him in a dream. He set out on his journey to her Court in Fairy-land and has searched for her for nine months, but in vain. And he is still pursuing his quest.
Above the twelve separate heroes of the projected twelve Books of the poem, Spenser placed Arthur as the single all-embracing hero designed to pull the whole poem into epic unity in terms of the underlying moral allegory.
Spenser’s choice of Arthur as hero was almost inevitable. Not only was Arthur the British hero par excellence of popular lore, but he was also, in terms of Tudor myth, a descendant of the line going back through Aeneas to ancient Troy. And, in the other direction, Arthur was an ancestor of the Tudor line which culminated in Gloriana. The choice of Arthur as the central figure inevitably dictated the use of the romance form for the poem. The world of the Romance is a world of noble Knights, wicked magicians and horrible monsters, and these, in their turn, offered the poet familiar symbols for his moral allegory.
Arthur comes in the story in Book I only once, and that when Una appeals to him for help in rescuing her protector, the Red Cross Knight, who is being held a prisoner by the giant Orgoglio. In this context, Arthur is the symbol of Christ offering Redemption to those who believe in him and rescuing them from the prison of sin. It is the Knight’s renewed faith that qualifies him for divine grace.
But since sinlessness is not possible for man and woman after the Fall of Adam, even Arthur is not perfect, though he plays the role of a Redeemer towards the Knight. For, in his fight with Orgoglio, Arthur too falls before the giant, and is only saved by the blow of the giant’s club, which in striking removes the veil from his magic shield whose dazzling brilliance could overthrow monsters and turn men into stones.
Arthur’s role, then, has a manifold significance. As the lover of the Fairy Queen he is Magnificence, the supreme virtue which, according to Aristotle, includes all others. He is also the symbol of the divine grace. And he also suggests the Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth.
Tags: Arthur, Magnificence, Significance., Spenser
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