Reading Spenser
From UCSB English Department Knowledge Base
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English 101
Fall 2002
Jeen Yu
Spenser's language may seem difficult at first because of his deliberately archaic style and the unusual/inconsistent spelling of words. Practice reading closely and disentangle sentences that are hard to follow (i.e., find verb and subject and rearrange words to aid comprehension). After careful study, you will find the language vividly descriptive and rich in meaning and, in time, you will gain much pleasure from your reading.
Quick tips for close reading:
- Read a passage in its entirety. Then go line by line, examining each word (meanings and ambiguities) and taking note of any literary devices and rhetorical patterns (or tensions) you see.
- How do the details in the passage relate to the themes, images, and action of the rest of the poem/narrative?
Long after lay he musing at her mood,
Much grieved to thinke that gentle Dame so light,
For whose defence he was to shed his blood.
At last dull wearinesse of former fight
Having yrockt a sleepe his irksome spright,
That troublous dreame gan freshly tosse his braine,
With bowres and beds, and Ladies deare delight:
But when he saw his labour all was vaine,
With that misformed spright he backe returnd againe.
Her seeming dead he found with feigned feare,
As all unweeting of that well she knew,
And paynd himselfe with busie care to reare
Her out of carelesse swowne. Her eyelids blew
And dimmed sight with pale and deadly hew
At last she up gan lift: with trembling cheare
Her up he tooke, too simple and too trew,
And oft her kist. At length all passed feare,
He set her on her steede, and forward forth did beare.
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Canto I:
Of LOVES and LADIES, KNIGHTS and ARMS, I sing,
Of COURTESIES, and many a DARING FEAT;
And from those ancient days my story bring,
When Moors from Afric passed in hostile fleet,
And ravaged France, with Agramant their king,
Flushed with his youthful rage and furious heat,
Who on king Charles', the Roman emperor's head
Had vowed due vengeance for Troyano dead.
Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book I, proem:
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose praises having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithfull loves shall moralize my song.
