This book reveals the queen behind Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Placing Spenser's epic poem in the context of the tumultuous sixteenth century, Donald Stump offers a groundbreaking reading of the poem as an allegory of Elizabeth I's life. By narrating the loves and wars of an Arthurian realm that mirrors Elizabethan England, Spenser explores the crises that shaped Elizabeth's reign: her break with the pope to create a reformed English Church, her standoff with Mary, Queen of Scots, offensives against Irish rebels and Spanish troops, confrontations with assassins and foreign invaders, and the apocalyptic expectations of the English people in a time of national transformation. Brilliantly reconciling moral and historicist readings, this volume offers a major new interpretation of The Faerie Queene.

Autorentext
Donald Stump is Professor of English at Saint Louis University, USA. His publications include Elizabeth I and Her Age and Elizabeth I and the 'Sovereign Arts,' along with numerous articles on Renaissance literature and the Spenser and Sidney World Bibliographies. With Carole Levin, he founded the Queen Elizabeth I Society.

Klappentext
This book reveals the queen behind Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Placing Spenser's epic poem in the context of the tumultuous sixteenth century, Donald Stump offers a groundbreaking reading of the poem as an allegory of Elizabeth I's life. By narrating the loves and wars of an Arthurian realm that mirrors Elizabethan England, Spenser explores the crises that shaped Elizabeth's reign: her break with the pope to create a reformed English Church, her standoff with Mary, Queen of Scots, offensives against Irish rebels and Spanish troops, confrontations with assassins and foreign invaders, and the apocalyptic expectations of the English people in a time of national transformation. Brilliantly reconciling moral and historicist readings, this volume offers a major new interpretation of The Faerie Queene.

Zusammenfassung
This book reveals the queen behind Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Placing Spenser's epic poem in the context of the tumultuous sixteenth century, Donald Stump offers a groundbreaking reading of the poem as an allegory of Elizabeth I's life. By narrating the loves and wars of an Arthurian realm that mirrors Elizabethan England, Spenser explores the crises that shaped Elizabeth's reign: her break with the pope to create a reformed English Church, her standoff with Mary, Queen of Scots, offensives against Irish rebels and Spanish troops, confrontations with assassins and foreign invaders, and the apocalyptic expectations of the English people in a time of national transformation. Brilliantly reconciling moral and historicist readings, this volume offers a major new interpretation of The Faerie Queene.

Inhalt
I. Spenser's Method and Artistry

1. Introduction to Spenser's Art of Royal Encomium
   2. Spenser, Elizabeth, and the Problem of Flattery
   3. Gloriana, Biblical Typology, and Moral Transfiguration
   II. Spenser's Elizabeth
   4. Una and the English Reformation
   5. The Maturation of the Queen
   6. The Queen in Her Glory
   III. *The Faerie Queene *in Context
   7. Una, Mercilla, and the Elizabethan Apocalypse
   8. Sidney, Spenser, and the Queen