for safekeeping but steals it himself later. Malbecco
continues his search for Hellenore. When he fi nds her,
she has taken up residence with the satyrs, and he
watches her wantonness with them with seething envy.
When night falls, he entreats her to return with him,
and she refuses. Malbecco runs wildly into the night,
so consumed by his passion that his body wastes away;
he is reduced to the incorporeal spirit of jealousy.
As Canto 11 opens, Britomart and Satyrane leave
Malbecco’s castle together. They encounter Ollyphant,
the incestuous brother of the giantess Argante, chasing
a youth. The two knights give chase and are separated
in the woods. Britomart encounters a moaning knight,
Sir Scudamour (love’s shield), who is distraught
because he cannot rescue his beloved Amoretta from
the wizard Busirane. Britomart vows to aid him, and
they approach the castle together. Britomart charges
through the fl aming porch and, evidently because of
her pure intent, comes through unscathed, but Scu-
damour is repulsed. Inside the stronghold, Britomart
perceives the tapestries and statuary all depicting
Cupid’s conquests.
In Canto 12, Britomart waits in a chamber, and
Cupid’s mask passes before her. He is accompanied by
his servants—Fancy, Desire, Hope, Doubt, and oth-
ers—and followed by Amoretta, who paces behind,
carrying her beating heart on a silver salver. Britomart
watches in anguish and waits until the next nightfall,
then follows the procession into the chamber where
Busirane sits, mumbling spells and writing charms
with Amoretta’s blood. Britomart fl ies at him, felling
him with one blow and raising her arm to strike again,
when Amoretta entreats her to wait until he reverses
his spells. Britomart and Amoretta return to fi nd Scu-
damour, and the lovers embrace so completely that
they seem to merge into a single body. Britomart looks
on, reminded of her own love and wishing for a similar
meeting with Artegall.
The Faerie Queene consists of a series of books
devoted to defi ning courtly virtues. Readers encounter
various knights who embody a single virtue and who
can be read allegorically as working out the problems
and rewards of their virtue. This book explores the
ways humans love. Britomart is a female hero, so
Spenser has been both praised and castigated for inti-
mating that chastity is the highest or essential feminine
virtue. The book contains many examples of good and
bad love—so many in fact, that Britomart is absent
from over half of the narrative, and her lover, Artegall,
never appears at all. What populates the book in addi-
tion to Britomart is a fairly exhaustive list of male and
female lovers and archetypes. Britomart, Florimell, and
Amoretta are chaste; Malecasta is not. Arthur is tempted
by Florimell but ultimately is faithful to his beloved.
Timias is chaste and self-sacrifi cing; the Squire of
Dames and Paridell are rakish and promiscuous.
Argante and Ollyphant are monstrous and deviant,
Merlin is foolish in love, and Busirane and Malbecco
are selfi sh and controlling.
Spenser also explores the continuum of female chas-
tity, as discussed by a number of feminist critics. He
ultimately upholds chaste monogamy and productive,
conjugal love as positive, without leaving room for
female desire outside these avenues.
See also ALLEGORY; CHIVALRY; FAERIE QUEENE, THE
(OVERVIEW).
FURTHER READING
Cavanagh, Sheila. Wanton Eyes and Chaste Desires: Female
Sexuality in The Faerie Queene. Bloomington: Indiana Uni-
versity Press, 1994.
Gregerson, Linda. “Protestant Erotics: Idolatry and Interpre-
tation in Spenser’s Faerie Queene. ELH 58 (1991): 1–34.
Morgan, Gerald. “The Meaning of Spenser’s Chastity as the
Fairest of Virtues.” In Noble and Joyous Histories: English
Romances, 1375–1650, edited by Eilén Ní Cuilleanáin and
J. D. Pheifer, 245–263. Dublin: Irish Academic Press,
1993.
Alison BakerFALL OF PRINCES, THE JOHN LYDGATE (ca.
1430) At over 36,000 lines long, The Fall of Princes is
JOHN LYDGATE’s longest work. Lydgate was commis-
sioned to translate this text in the early 1430s by Hum-
phrey, duke of Gloucester. Completed by 1438 or 1439,
Lydgate’s English text is an adaptation of the French Des
Cas des nobles hommes et femmes (About the falls of great
men and women, 1409) by Laurent de Premierfait,
which was in turn a translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s
Latin text, De casibus virorum illustrium (Concerning the
fall of famous men, 1355–60). Lydgate’s The Fall of186 FALL OF PRINCES, THE