Edmund Spenser vs Virgil and Ariosto
Some scholars believe Spenser did not have sufficient education to compose a work with as much complexity as The Faerie Queene, while others are still “extolling him as one of the most learned men of his time”. Scholar Douglas Bush agrees, “scholars now speak less certainly that they once did of his familiarity with ancient literature”. In contrast, Meritt Hughes “finds no evidence that Spenser derived any element of his poetry from any Greek Romance”. Several questions still remain unanswered: Was Edmund Spenser as “divinely inspired” to write The Faerie Queene as Virgil and Ariosto were in their works? Or did Spenser simply lack creativity, causing him to steal his storylines from theirs?
“The range and depth of Spenser’s reading have not been precisely discovered: and in the absence of definitive information, one should guard against the two extremes of exaggerating or underestimating the poet’s education”. Although born to parents of modest income, Edmund Spenser, probably born in 1552, was still able to receive an impressive education at the Merchant Taylors’ School, and Pembroke College at Cambridge. He learned enough Latin to read and understand poets such as Ariosto and Virgil, both of whom his works are frequently compared to.
Born in 70 BC, Publius Virgilius Maro ranks among the greatest Roman poets who ever lived. With only a few Latin poets attempting to write an epic before him (Naevius and Ennius), Latin literature reached its peak wit the publication of the Aeneid shortly after Virgil’s death. His epic heavily influenced succeeding poets throughout Western literature. Ever since people have compared The Shepheardes Calender, one of Spenser’...
... middle of paper ...
...onto, 1992.
Kennedy, William J. “Virgil.” The Spenser Encyclopedia. Ed. A.C. Hamilton. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1992.
Fowler, Alastair. “Edmund Spenser.” British Writers. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979.
“Home-Making in Ireland: Virgil’s Eclogue 1 and Book VI of The Faerie Queene.” Julia Lupton. http://www.english.cam.uk/spenser/volviii/lupton.htm. (25 November 2000).
Lerner, Laurence. “Marriage.” The Spenser Encyclopedia. Ed. A.C. Hamilton. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1992.
Watkins, John. The Specter of Dido: Spenser and Virgilian Epic. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995.
Logan, George M., and Stephen Greenbalt, ed. “Edmund Spenser.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1962. 614-616.
Braund, Susanna Morton. “Virgil and the Cosmos: Religious and Philosophical Ideas.” The Cambridge Companion to Virgil. Charles Martindale, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 204-221.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Horsfall, Nicholas, ed. A Companion to the Study of Virgil. Leiden, New York, and Köln: E. J. Brill, 1995.
Homer’s The Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid are both considered some of the most influential literature of ancient times. Written more than six hundred years a part it is a wonder how they have so many striking similarities. However, a look into why they were written can offer interesting insight into the history of their eras. While Homer’s The Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid share many commonalities including plot and characters, they each hold respective differences. In addition to each author having a different writing style, The Aeneid is used as a form of propaganda while The Odyssey is a record of Greek myths and values.
Because epic poetry was so integral to the Roman society, Augustus saw this medium as a great opportunity to further strengthen public relations. Virgil’s decision to write an epic is one that almost anyone in his situation might make. Not only does he have a great opportunity to create a poem that will earn him fame for years to come, he also had continuous funding from the Roman Empire to accomplish it. After this great commission from the first emperor of Rome, Virgil dedicated the rest of life to writing The Aeneid. The piece had to serve multiple purposes: it not only had to commend Augustus for his great works; the poem had to emulate the greatness of the ones produced by the Greeks. The Odyssey, by Homer, is considered by many literary scholars to be the greatest of all Greek epics. In analyzing the epics literary qualities, it is easy to see why Virgil might take aspects of the story and use them for his new master
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Virgil. “The Aeneid, Book IV”. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 974-95. Print.
Silvestris, Bernardus. Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil's Aeneid. Translated by Schreiber and Maresca. University of Nebraska Press. London, 1979.
Spiller, Elizabeth A. “Poetic Parthenogenesis and Spenser’s Idea of Creation in The Faerie Queene.” Studies in English Literature 40:1 (2000): 63-90.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Abrams, M. H., et al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1986.
C. In The Shepheardes Calender Spenser used a deliberately archaic language, partly in homage to Chaucer, whose work he praised as a “well of English undefiled,” and partly to achieve a rustic effect, in keeping with the feigned simplicity of pastoral poetry’s shepherd singers.
In 1552 Edmund Spenser was born in to a middle class family in East Smithfield, London. It is thought that he might be the son of John Spenser, a free journeyman cloth maker in East Smithfield, London but it cannot be confirmed. Whoever his parents were it is likely that his origins were in Lancashire where he would have had connections with prominent local families, such as the Norwells and the Towneleys. Spenser had one sister named Sarah, and numerous brothers. As a child, Spenser attended Merchant Taylors' school starting in 1561. His teacher was a celebrated humanist and pedagogical writer named Richard Mulcaster. Spenser's place at the school may have been secured by a relative called Nicholas Spenser, who was the warden of the school at the time. While Spenser was a student at the school, a man by the name of Robert Nowell is said to have supported Spenser. Spenser was taught about the works of Cato, Caesar, Horace, Lucan, and Homer while attending Merchant Taylors School. He also studied the rhetorical models of Cicero, Vives, and Erasmus; additionally he was educated extensively in Latin while at the school. Many of the students also studied Greek and Hebrew for ...
Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. Gerald F. Else. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1967. Dorsch, T. R., trans. and ed. Aristotle Horace Longinus: Classical Literary Criticism. New York: Penguin, 1965. Ley, Graham. The Ancient Greek Theater. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991. Reinhold, Meyer. Classical Drama, Greek and Roman. New York: Barrons, 1959.