E-text prepared by Charles Franks, Keith Edkins,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Velut inter ignes luna minores
INTRODUCTION:
I. The Age which produced the Faerie Queene
II. The Author of the Faerie Queene
III. Study of the Faerie Queene:
2. Influence of the New Learning
THE FAERIE QUEENE. BOOK I:
The study of the Faerie Queene should be preceded by a review of the great age in which it was written. An intimate relation exists between the history of the English nation and the works of English authors. This close connection between purely external events and literary masterpieces is especially marked in a study of the Elizabethan Age. To understand the marvelous outburst of song, the incomparable drama, and the stately prose of this period, one must enter deeply into the political, social, and religious life of the times.
The Faerie Queene was the product of certain definite conditions which existed in England toward the close of the sixteenth century. The first of these national conditions was the movement known as the revival of chivalry; the second was the spirit of nationality fostered by the English Reformati