But Talus, hearing her so lewdly raile,

And speake so ill of him that well deserved,
Would her have chastiz'd with his yron flaile,

If her Sir Artegall had not preserved,

And him forbidden, who his heast observed.

This means, I take it, that mere detraction does not properly come within the scope of the law. The public servant, or that justice which he embodies, must expect to be misunderstood, and defamation is not to be remedied by a harsh resort to law, however strong the inclination to attempt it.

Such, in brief, is the interesting part that Talus plays in this legend of justice. There can be little doubt, I think, that Spenser intends the character to stand for the law.

University of Washington.

SPENSER'S FAIRY MYTHOLOGY

BY EDWIN GREENLAW

Spenser's use of fairy mythology, and the fairy mythology that he invented, have alike been neglected, though these matters have an important bearing upon the structure and meaning of the Faerie Queene. What makes this neglect the more surprising is that the poem, on the surface at least, belongs to the category of Arthurian romance. Yet since none of the great knights of the Round Table figures in it, and none of the great stories is to be found, as they are found, for example, in Tennyson's Idylls, scholars apparently content themselves with recognizing that Spenser imitates the spirit rather than the letter of Arthurian romance, and with identification of scattered incidents or episodes. A German thesis on Spenser's debt to Malory leaves one with the impression that this debt is like the famous snakes of Ireland, and it has even been maintained that for certain elements that are the basis of the structure Spenser was chiefly indebted to Chaucer's Thopas, itself a burlesque romance that Spenser, lacking humor, took as seriously as his critics. Not very much progress has been made in this field of Spenser criticism since the days of Warton. Even Miss Winstanley's excellent editions of Books I and II, in which are summaries of the debt to the medieval romances, show few additions in spite of the widespread interest, in recent years, in everything relating to Arthurian romance. The contrast with what has been learned about Spenser's debt to Plato and Aristotle, and to the romantic epics of Ariosto and Tasso, is very striking. Moral allegory, Platonism, and Ariosto, increased in recent years by a clearer perception of Spenser's political allegory, seem to cover most of the investigation of Spenser's sources.

I. The Realm and its Sovereign

Robert Laneham's Letter, describing the elaborate entertainment that Leicester prepared in honor of the Queen's visit to Kenilworth in 1575, is filled with such materials as Spenser afterwards combined into his poem. The "Princely Pleasures included chivalry, folklore, classical myth, use of symbol and allegory,

glorification of the sovereign, bits from Malory, music and art, the masque, all in just such profusion as we find them in the Faerie Queene. In it the library of the worthy Captain Cox takes on a sort of fantastic life and goes through its paces like Sir Andrew at Toby's bidding. It isn't art, and it isn't life, but the Elizabethans liked this sort of thing, as many illustrations might be cited to prove. Perhaps Spenser was present; he certainly knew /about the pageant, and it might well have suggested some projects to him.

As for example: the outstanding theme in Leicester's pageant is the glorification of Elizabeth. She isn't called a fairy queen, but the suggestion is trembling beneath the surface of all that goes on. The chief figure, among the multitudinous mummers, is the Lady of the Lake. When the Queen and her party approached Kenilworth, which was "situate upon a Rock" surrounded by a "faire Poole, conteyning 111 acres," they were met by the Lady of the Lake. This personage was on a 66 movable island" which floated to the land. On reaching harbor, the Lady informed Her Majesty that she had kept the lake since King Arthur's time, but that she now yielded it to the Queen, "with promise of repayre unto the Court."2 Near the end of the festivities, Triton, on a "swimming Mermayd," begged a boon of the Queen, to the effect that she should release from enchantment the Lady of the Lake, who had been persecuted by an uncourteous knight. The boon was granted, the Lady freed, and in recompense Arion appeared upon a Dolphin's back and the music that followed so delighted Laneham that he despaired of expressing his pleasure, though French was called to the aid of his English in the attempt.3 Now both these scenes are suggested by "King Arthur's Book," to which there are other references, and they remind us, as the entire pageant reminds us, of the Faerie Queene. It is of course only a coincidence, but Laneham describes the adventures of twelve days; we are reminded, if we surrender ourselves to the spirit of fancy that permeates the story, of Spenser's "Faery Queen [who] kept her

1

Report of Henry VIII's surveyors, cited by Furnivall in his edition of the Letter, p. 63.

2 Robert Laneham's Letter, ed. Furnivall, pp. 6-7.

Annuall feaste xii severall dayes." "54 But there is more than fancy here. Leicester's entertainment was presided over by the Queen, and these days were filled with "adventures," like that other annual feast "uppon which severall dayes, the occasion of the xii several adventures hapned." Moreover, the unity of the entertainment, if it may be said to have any unity, is found in this idea of a sovereign who takes over a realm that is in truth " fulfild of fairye.' Even in Leicester's twelve days' pageant, crude as it is, there is more than a suggestion of the Celtic Otherworld, with its Lady of the Lake, a true fée, its magic and enchantment, its fusing of ancient and medieval, its sovereign lady Queen.

With this central theme ready to hand, let us inquire a bit further into Spenser's faerie.

The realm of Gloriana is two-fold: England, in the historical allegory; the Celtic Otherworld in the fairy aspect. In the proem to Book II, both senses are found in clear connection. Spenser asks where is "that happy land of Faery," only to remind the reader that every day great regions are being discovered that always have existed though men were unaware. "Certein signes " will reveal this land to the one who seeks; by which he means, of course, such signs as are familiar in Celtic folklore. But he goes on at once to say that Elizabeth may find her own realm to be this "lond of Faery." This double sense is kept throughout the poem, with a variety of effects. Arthur has had a vision of the Fairy Queen, but has sought vainly for her realm. Yet with Guyon he is in Fairy Land all the time. Guyon visits the Celtic Otherworld three times: it is on Phaedria's island; in the Under world of Mammon; and in Acrasia's Bower of Bliss. On the other hand, Britomart says that she has come from her native soil, "the greater Britaine," to "Faery lond" because she has heard of famous knights and ladies that inhabit that realm. It would be easy to multiply illustrations of this double geography; the one point that I wish to make, as a basis for what is to follow, is that Spenser fuses the well known romance and folklore conception of a land of enchantment, difficult of access, with a quite arbitrary and literal conception of England as the scene in which the action of his poem takes place.

'Letter to Raleigh. The Queen was at Kenilworth 19 days, but only 12 are accounted for by Laneham.

II. Celtic Faerie in Spenser

Celtic originals and analogues of certain parts of the Faerie Queene are more frequent than has been supposed. The subject is too broad for complete study here; it merits a thorough investigation by a specialist in Celtic who also knows Spenser's work well enough to be aware of certain peculiarities in his method. My purpose is merely to indicate several characteristics of Spenser's use of this fairy magic, which differs from his employment of ordinary romance conventions, in order to make clear a special definition of the fairy dramatis personae in his poem.

Sometimes a similarity between one of Spenser's stories and one by Ariosto or Tasso conceals the ultimate sources. Britomart is like Bradamante in many respects; her name and some details Spenser takes from the pseudo-Vergilian Ciris; yet the most important fact about her is something quite distinct from either the Italian or the Latin source. It is as though one should identify the story of the Lady of the Lake, cited above, with some classical source because Triton and Arion figure in it. Spenser's method

is composite; a brief incident, even a stanza, may reflect many elements. For this reason, the study of his sources is fraught with peculiar perils. Thus, Artegal's captivity by Radigund is thoroughly rationalized, yet it is unquestionably related to the large number of legends in which a mortal is captured by a fée who offers him her love, with imprisonment as a penalty for refusal. Of clearer significance is the episode in which Calidore comes upon Colin piping while the three Graces, with Rosalind in addition, are dancing (VI. x). This scene is filled, after Spenser's 、wont, with reminiscences of the classics; there is also the pastoral setting of the shepherd piping to his lass; there is the compliment contained in her inclusion among the Graces, and the reminiscence, comparatively late in the life of the poet, of the Rosalind of his youth. But underneath is a thread of pure Celtic folklore, as the following analysis of the incident will show:

Calidore, separated from Pastorella for a time, wanders into a place that is "far from all people's troad." The scene passes all others on earth in beauty, a hill in the midst of a plain bordered about with woods of matchless height, so that the trees seem to disdain the earth. At the foot of the hill a gentle stream flows; to its pure waters no beast or clown