Spenserian allegory and Elizabethan biblical exegesis: A context for The Faerie Queene (The Manchester Spenser MUP)

Edmund Spenser and the first readers of __The Faerie Queene__ routinely heard their national concerns—epidemics, political plotting, recent Tudor history—discussed in biblical terms. This book samples contemporary sermons, homilies, and liturgies to demonstrate that religious rhetoric, with its routine use of biblical types (for Elizabeth, the Spanish threat, and Mary Stuart, among many others) trained Spenser’s original readers to understand __The Faerie Queene’s__ allegorical method. Accordingly, the first three chapters orient the reader to allegorical and typological reading in biblical commentary, occasional liturgies, and sermons. This pulpit literature illuminates many episodes and characters within the poem, and subsequent chapters discuss some of these. For instance, the genealogies Guyon and Arthur discover in Book Two parallel sermon lists of Elizabeth’s kingly forebears as well as biblical commentary on the genealogies provided for Jesus in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Florimell’s adventures in Books Three and Four, like contemporary marriage sermons, develop an allegory of the superiority of marriage over the single state. Likewise, the preachers’ treatment of the Northern Rebellion and the threat posed by Mary Stuart show biblical typology in the service of nationalism, much as the allegory of Book Six finds a way to celebrate Elizabeth’s execution of her cousin. In these cases, as in the Souldan episode, Book Six’s analysis of courtesy, and the Mutability Cantos, Elizabethan religious rhetoric lends support to traditional readings of the poem, indicating that Spenser’s original readers probably found __The Faerie Queene__ less conflicted and subversive than many do today. Typological Reading, A Strategy For Biblical Exegesis Developed In Ancient Times And Practiced Through The Medieval Period, Was Alive And Well - Indeed, Inescapable - In Elizabethan Sermons And Liturgies. Spenserian Allegory And Elizabethan Biblical Exegesis Is The First Book To Show The Relevance Of This Cultural Habit To The Faerie Queene. A Wealth Of Quotations From Contemporary Sources Transports Readers Into The Mindset Of Elizabethans To Allow An Encounter With The Faerie Queene In A Fresh And Genuine Way. Preachers And Liturgists Mined The Bible For Parallels Of Elizabeth Tudor And Other Figures From Current Events. This Study Juxtaposes These Biblical Types With Characters From Spenser's Epic, Offering Fresh Interpretations Of The 'chronicle History' Cantos, Florimell's Adventures, The Souldan Episode, Mercilla's Judgment On Duessa, And Even The Two Stanzas That Close The Mutabilitie Fragment--back Cover. Machine Generated Contents Note: Pt. I Backgrounds: Allegorical Reading In Spenser's England -- 1. Traditional Scriptural Interpretation And Sixteenth-century Allegoresis: Old And New -- 2. Allegorical Reading In Occasional Elizabethan Liturgies -- 3. Allegorical Reading In Sermon References To History And Current Events -- Pt. Ii The Preachers' Bible And Spenser's Faerie Queene: Alternate Allegories -- 4. The Ground Of Storie: Genealogy In Biblical Exegesis And The Legend Of Temperance -- 5. Waues Of Weary Wretchednesse: Florimell And The Sea -- 6. Saracens, Assyrians, And Spaniards: Allegories Of The Armada -- 7. A Goodly Amiable Name For Mildness: Mercilla And Other Elizabethan Types -- 8. Court And Courtesy: Sermon Contexts For Spenser's Book Vi -- 9. Now Lettest Thou Thy Servant Depart: Scriptural Tradition And The Close Of The Faerie Queene. Margaret Christian. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 226-246) And Index. 'Typological reading, a strategy for biblical exegesis developed in ancient times and practiced through the medieval period, was alive and well - indeed, inescapable - in Elizabethan sermons and liturgies. Spenserian allegory and Elizabethan biblical exegesis is the first book to show the relevance of this cultural habit to The Faerie Queene. A wealth of quotations from contemporary sources transports readers into the mindset of Elizabethans to allow an encounter with The Faerie Queene in a fresh and genuine way. Preachers and liturgists mined the Bible for types of Elizabethan Tudor and other figures from current events. This study juxtaposes these biblical types with characters from Spenser's epic, offering fresh interpretations of the 'chronicle history' cantos, Florimell's adventures, the Souldan episode, Mercilla's judgment on Duessa, even the two stanzas that close the Mutabilitie fragment. Spenserian allegory and Elizabethan biblical exegesis will be of interest to postgraduate students and scholars of Spenser's poetry and those interested in the expanding field of sermon studies' --Back cover Edmund Spenser famously conceded to his friend Walter Raleigh that his method in The Faerie Queene 'will seeme displeasaunt' to those who would 'rather have good discipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large'. Spenser's allegory and Elizabethan biblical exegesis is the first book-length study to clarify Spenser's comparison by introducing readers to the biblical typologies of contemporary sermons and liturgies. The result demonstrates that 'precepts ... sermoned at large' from lecterns and pulpits were themselves often 'clowdily enwrapped in allegoricall devises'. In effect, routine churchgoing prepared Spenser's first readers to enjoy and interpret The Faerie Queene. A wealth of relevant quotations invites readers to adopt an Elizabethan mindset and encounter the poem afresh. The 'chronicle history' cantos, Florimell's adventures, the Souldan episode, Mercilla's judgment on Duessa and even the two stanzas that close the Mutabilitie fragment, all come into sharper focus when juxtaposed with contemporary religious rhetoric. This is a critical analysis of the importance and influence of Elizabethan biblical typology on Spenser and the composition of The Faerie Queene