tives of heroism, chivalry, comedy, history, and allegory into his epic. For example, The Faerie Queene’s action is divided into cantos and stanzas rather than in blank verse. This represents the survival of popular Italian Renaissance poetry to the storytelling tradition that became popular during the Middle Ages (Marinelli 56). A minstrel recited tales to the townspeople in a public place so that citizens other than those who could afford books were able to hear and pass on the popular tales of the time. Another clear imitation is Spenser’s conglomeration of several different epic and romance forms in The Faerie Queene. The mixture of scramble, bravery and surprise “is probably his principal Italian ingredient” (Fowler 132). One may attribute this to the idea that each Renaissance epicist aimed higher and further at including more illusion and complexity than the work before his.Edmund Spenser did write his own epic. However, to credit him as a great author is a clear slap-in-the-face to the poets from which he stole their ideas—specifically Virgil and Ariosto. He wrote the epic in hopes that Queen Elizabeth would be impressed by his work and bring him back to England from Ireland, reversing his exile. From what is known today, he has been known to despise the natives who live there. The Irish were highly discriminated against since they were considered the scum of England by a very large part of the population. The Faerie Queene has moral value, conveys important meanings, and pleasures the reader. However, his storylines, characters, and ideas severely lack both creativity and originality. He found inspiration to write and modeled The Shepheardes Calender on Virgil’s Eclogues, and even followed Virgil’s steps of writing before attempting to write his epic. His narrative consisted of twelve books, just as Ariosto’s did, and also had his characters strive for the same thing,...
