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The House of Pride is a notable setting in Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596). The actions of cantos IV and V in Book I take place there, and readers have associated the structure with several allegories pertinent to the poem.
The House of Pride arrives in the text due to the Redcrosse Knight's struggles with materiality and his code of chivalry. [1]
The House is an emblem of sin and worldliness. The ruler of the palace is Lucifera, who is accompanied by her six counselors. Together they represent the seven deadly sins. When the Redcrosse Knight encounters the palace, he is met with Lucifera and her parade. Each counselor, a sin, and the falsehood of the structure itself representing a flawed nature, altogether embody the House of Pride.
The encounter, meant to expose the Redcrosse Knight to the faults of pride, more or less fails. He comes face-to-face with the short-lived pleasure of pridefulness, especially in meeting Lucifera, who is, allegorically, the antithesis to the good-natured Faerie Queene (Queen Elizabeth). Despite experiencing the fabrication of both place and person, Redcrosse continues to indulge in pride. In Canto V, he battles Sansjoy in an effort to reclaim the shield of Sansfoy. This "vanity-driven fight" shows that he continues to value prize over modesty, despite his encounter with the House of Pride. [2]
In the House of Pride, the Redcrosse Knight sees Lucifera on a chariot being pulled by six counselors riding animals. With Lucifera symbolizing the sin of pride, the remaining six sins are represented by her counselors. Each counselor slightly resembles the animal he is riding.
Upon the reader's first introduction to the House of Pride, Spenser describes:
The House works twofold: on one hand, it represents humanity's attempt at recreating the divine in its own image, which further alludes to the Biblical tale this passage mirrors, the Tower of Babel. [9] In this story, found in Genesis, the people of Babel say, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves." (Genesis 11:14) Seen in this light, both structures come to represent the inherent vanity that lies within the human artifice, which futilely attempts to imitate, if not surpass, the one true Christian God.[ citation needed ]
Simultaneously, the House of Pride works as a symbol for the current state of Redcrosse's mental disposition, as well as the status of his soul. [10] Indeed, Redcrosse's departure from God has been witnessed through his multiple failed encounters with deceit prior to this canto, and his inability to distinguish between truth and deceit ultimately lead him to the doors of his own reflection: the House of Pride.[ citation needed ]
Thusly we come to see this passage take on a much more impactful meaning: "But full of great pittie, that so faire a mould / Did on so weake a foundation ever sit..." [11] As aptly stated by Blythe, "[A]t this point, Redcross too is only a 'fair mould' on 'weak foundations' who is externally fair to the eye of the world, but inwardly he is becoming increasingly foul..." [12] Overall, the audience comes to see Redcrosse and his embrace of Pride as a welcoming to un-Christian values, which subsequently cause him to stray from the righteous path, and ultimately result in his estrangement from God.[ citation needed ]
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.
Pope Adrian V, born Ottobuono de' Fieschi, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 July 1276 to his death on 18 August 1276. He was an envoy of Pope Clement IV sent to England in May 1265 who successfully completed his task of resolving disputes between King Henry III of England and his barons. Adrian V was elected pope following the death of Innocent V, but died of natural illness before being ordained to the priesthood.
The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings. Although they are not directly mentioned in the Bible, there are parallels with the seven things God is said to hate in the Book of Proverbs. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth, which are contrary to the seven capital virtues.
The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books I–III were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IV–VI. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 stanzas, it is one of the longest poems in the English language; it is also 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 that the aim of publishing The Faerie Queene was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".
In Greek mythology, the river Phlegethon or Pyriphlegethon was one of the five rivers in the infernal regions of the underworld, along with the rivers Styx, Lethe, Cocytus, and Acheron. Plato describes it as "a stream of fire, which coils round the earth and flows into the depths of Tartarus". It was parallel to the river Styx. It is said that the goddess Styx was in love with Phlegethon, but she was consumed by his flames and sent to Hades. Eventually, when Hades allowed her river to flow through, they reunited.
The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590–96). Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'alexandrine' line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is ABABBCBCC.
A wight is a mythical sentient being, often undead.
Caelia is a Fairy Queen in Richard Johnson's romance Tom a Lincoln. Caelia is the ruler of an island called "Fairy Land," populated by women who have slain their warmongering men. She begs Tom and his companions to stay on the island so that it might be re-peopled. She eventually bears Tom's son, the Faerie Knight, but later commits suicide by drowning herself when she thinks that Tom has abandoned her.
Purgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil—except for the last four cantos, at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante's guide. Allegorically, Purgatorio represents the penitent Christian life. In describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in the Church. The poem posits the theory that all sins arise from love – either perverted love directed towards others' harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.
Fairyland in English and Scottish folklore is the fabulous land or abode of fairies or fays. Old French faierie referred to an illusion or enchantment, the land of the faes. Modern English fairy transferred the name of the realm of the fays to its inhabitants, e.g. the expression fairie knight in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene refers to a "supernatural knight" or a "knight of Faerie" but was later re-interpreted as referring to a knight who is "a fairy".
"Roses Are Red" is the name of a love poem and children's rhyme with Roud Folk Song Index number 19798. It has become a cliché for Valentine's Day, and has spawned multiple humorous and parodic variants.
Jerusalem Delivered, also known as The Liberation of Jerusalem, is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem. Tasso began work on the poem in the mid-1560s. Originally, it bore the title Il Goffredo. It was completed in April, 1575 and that summer the poet read his work to Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and Lucrezia, Duchess of Urbino. A pirate edition of 14 cantos from the poem appeared in Venice in 1580. The first complete editions of Gerusalemme liberata were published in Parma and Ferrara in 1581.
Magnanimity is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes. Its antithesis is pusillanimity. Although the word magnanimity has a traditional connection to Aristotelian philosophy, it also has its own tradition in English which now causes some confusion.
David Lee Miller is a scholar of English Renaissance Literature. He is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. His works include The Poem's Two Bodies: The Poetics of the 1590 Faerie Queen, ; Dreams of the Burning Child: Sacrificial Sons and the Father's Witness ; three edited books; and about two dozen refereed articles that have appeared in scholarly journals such as Modern Language Quarterly, English Literary History, and Publications of the Modern Language Association. He is one of four general editors of The Collected Works of Edmund Spenser, a new scholarly edition under contract to Oxford University Press.
John Upton was an English clergyman, academic and critic. An important early editor of Edmund Spenser, he is best known for the notes in his 1758 edition of Spenser's great romance epic The Faerie Queene, which was first published in 1590 and 1596.
Orgoglio is a literary character in Edmund Spenser's famous epic The Faerie Queene. He appears in the seventh canto of Book One as a beast and attacks the main character, Redcrosse, who symbolizes the ultimate Christian knight, during a moment of weakness. "Orgoglio" means "pride" in Italian. In chapter IX of Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott, the manor of Bradwardyne is compared to the castle of Orgoglio.
The Palace of Pleasure is a poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt published in his 1801 collection Juvenilia. Written before he was even sixteen, the work was part of a long tradition of poets imitating Spenser. The Palace of Pleasure is an allegory based on Book II of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and describes the adventure of Sir Guyon as he is taken by airy sylphs to the palace of the "Fairy Pleasure". According to Hunt the poem "endeavours to correct the vices of the age, by showing the frightful landscape that terminates the alluring path of sinful Pleasure".
"The Mathematics of Magic" is a fantasy novella by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, the second story in their Harold Shea series. It was first published in the August 1940 issue of the fantasy pulp magazine Unknown. It first appeared in book form, together with the preceding novella, "The Roaring Trumpet", in the collection The Incomplete Enchanter, issued in hardcover by Henry Holt and Company in 1941, and in paperback by Pyramid Books in 1960. It has since been reprinted in various collections by numerous other publishers, including The Compleat Enchanter (1975), The Incompleat Enchanter (1979), The Complete Compleat Enchanter (1989), and The Mathematics of Magic: The Enchanter Stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt (2007). It has been translated into Dutch and Italian. In 2016, the story was shortlisted for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novella.
Fidelia and Speranza is a 1776 painting by Benjamin West. It is a neoclassical depiction of a scene from the poem The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.
The Quest is a ballet score by William Walton, written for a ballet of the same title, now lost, choreographed by Frederick Ashton in 1943. Two versions of the score exist: one for the small orchestra for which Walton wrote, and a posthumously constructed version rescored for an orchestra of the larger size usually favoured by the composer. The ballet, with a scenario by Doris Langley Moore, was based on The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. It was first given by the Sadler's Wells Ballet company.