Quotes from work
The Faerie Queene

Edmund Spenser

The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books I–III were first published in 1590, and then republished in 1596 together with books IV–VI. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it is one of the longest poems in the English language as well as the work in which Spenser invented the verse form known as the Spenserian stanza. On a literal level, the poem follows several knights as a means to examine different virtues, and though the text is primarily an allegorical work, it can be read on several levels of allegory, including as praise of Queen Elizabeth I. In Spenser's "Letter of the Authors", he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in Allegorical devices", and the aim of publishing The Faerie Queene was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".Spenser presented the first three books of The Faerie Queene to Elizabeth I in 1589, probably sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. The poem was a clear effort to gain court favour, and as a reward Elizabeth granted Spenser a pension for life amounting to £50 a year, though there is no further evidence that Elizabeth I ever read any of the poem. This royal patronage elevated the poem to a level of success that made it Spenser's defining work.

“Into the woods thenceforth in hast she went,
To seeke for hearbes, that mote him remedy;
For she of hearbes had great intendiment,
Taught of the Nymphe, which from her infancy
Her nourced had in trew Nobility:
There, whether it divine Tobacco were,
Or Panachaea, or Polygony,
She found, and brought it to her patient deare
Who al this while lay bleeding out his hart-bloud neare.”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 5, stanza 32
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book III

“Is not short paine well borne, that brings long ease,
And layes the soul to sleepe in quiet grave?
Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please.”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 9, stanza 40
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book I

“A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine.”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 1, stanza 1
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book I

“But Justice, though her dome [doom] she doe prolong,
Yet at the last she will her owne cause right.”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 11, stanza 1
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book V

“Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,
On Fames eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 2, stanza 32
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book IV

“A monster, which the Blatant beast men call,
A dreadfull feend of gods and men ydrad.”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 12, stanza 37
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book V

“Who will not mercie unto others show,
How can he mercy ever hope to have?”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 2, stanza 42
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book V

“The gentle minde by gentle deeds is knowne.
For a man by nothing is so well bewrayd,
As by his manners.”

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene

Canto 3, stanza 1; Spenser here is referencing and paraphrasing a statement from the "Wife of Bath's Tale" of Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer: "he is gentil that doth gentil dedis."
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book VI