composition: "it is pastoral by association, chivalrous by temper, ethical
by tendency, and allegorical by treatment" (Renton). Its subject was taken
from the old cycle of Arthurian legends, which were brightened with the
terrorless magic of Ariosto and Tasso. The scene of the adventures is laid
in the enchanted forests and castles of the far away and unreal fairyland
of mediæval chivalry, and the incidents themselves are either highly
improbable or frankly impossible. The language is frequently archaic and
designedly unfamiliar. Much of the machinery and properties used in
carrying on the story, such as speaking myrtles, magic mirrors, swords,
rings, impenetrable armor, and healing fountains, is supernatural. All the
characters--the knights, ladies, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, nymphs,
satyrs, and giants--are the conventional figures of pastoral romance.

The framework of the plot of the _Faerie Queene_ is vast and loosely put
together. There are six main stories, or legends, and each contains several
digressions and involved episodes. The plan of the entire work, which the
author only half completed, is outlined in his letter to Sir Walter
Raleigh. This letter serves as an admirable introduction to the poem, and
should be read attentively by the student. Gloriana, the Queen of
Fairyland, holds at her court a solemn feudal festival, lasting twelve
days, during which she sends forth twelve of her greatest knights on as
many separate adventures. The knights are commissioned to champion the
cause of persons in distress and redress their wrongs. The ideal knight,
Prince Arthur, is the central male figure of the poem. He is enamoured of
Gloriana, having seen her in a wondrous vision, and is represented as
journeying in quest of her. He appears in all of the legends at opportune
moments to succor the knights when they are hard beset or in the power of
their enemies. The six extant books contain respectively the legends of (I)
the Knight of the Redcrosse, or Holiness, (II) Sir Guyon, the Knight of
Temperance, (III) Britomart, the female Knight of Chastity, (IV) Sir