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Spenser and the Revelation of St. John

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

John E. Hankins
John E. Hankins*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Extract

It has long been recognized that Spenser made numerous borrowings from the Revelation of St. John in Book i of the Faerie Queene. The Variorum edition conveniently lists those observed by Upton and other commentators. In a recent study, Mrs. Josephine Waters Bennett has suggested that the Revelation not only furnished Spenser with particular passages but largely determined the structure of Book I. Her important contribution is not the discovery of new borrowings, though she observes several, but her exposition of the Revelation from the Protestant point of view. From several English commentaries and from glosses in the Geneva Bible, she shows that the latter half of the Revelation was interpreted in the sixteenth century as an allegory of the Protestant conflict with the Roman church, and concludes that this fact has an important bearing on Book I, which is now generally believed to involve a similar allegory.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , June 1945 , pp. 364 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1945

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References

Note 1 in page 364 The Evolution of “The Faerie Queene” (Chicago, 1942), ch. ix.

Note 2 in page 364 For the readers' convenience, I quote textual and numerical references from the Authorised Version (1611), after making sure that the significant phrases were available in earlier versions.

Note 3 in page 364 These are conveniently listed sub “Apocalypse” in the indexes to J. P. Migne's Patrologia Latina (hereafter referred to as PL), ccxviii, 667.

Note 4 in page 365 Op. cit., p. 116.

Note 5 in page 366 “Spenser's Lucifera and Philotime,” MLN, lix (1944), 413–415.

Note 6 in page 366 Gregory, Moralium, xxiii, vi; Haymo, PL, cxvi, 791–792; Primasius, PL, lxviii, 898D.

Note 7 in page 366 Vide infra, above note 28.

8 PL , cxvii, 1142 C.

9 PL, xxxv, 2449.

10 PL, cxcvi, 799 D.

Note 11 in page 368 PL, clxv, 668 A.

Note 12 in page 368 Variorum, i, 217–223, 404–416.

Note 13 in page 368 I state these suggestions tentatively, since scholars are not agreed as to Spenser's knowledge of Dante's work.

Note 14 in page 368 Cf. Bennett, op. cit., pp. 109, 114.

Note 15 in page 368 PL, xxxv, 2442.

Note 16 in page 368 PL, cxcvi, 818 C.

Note 17 in page 369 See Jan Van Der Noot, The Theatre for Voluptuous Worldlings (1569), fol. 24; also Bennett, op. cit., pp. 110–112.

Note 18 in page 369 PL, ccix, 398–399.

Note 19 in page 369 PL, cxcvi, 853 A.

Note 20 in page 369 Op. cit., fols. 33–34.

Note 21 in page 369 See Mat. 24: 11, 24, ii Pet. 2: 1, i John 4:1.

Note 22 in page 370 The False Prophet will presumably reappear in the reign of Antichrist before the second resurrection. Most commentators agree that Antichrist will reappear, though the Revelation mentions only the return of Satan at that time. Cf. Haymo, PL, cxvii, 1187 C.

Note 23 in page 370 Op. cit., p. 109.

Note 24 in page 370 Most commentators assume that here Michael allegorically represents Christ.

Note 25 in page 370 See Haymo, PL, cxvii, 1081–83; Augustine, PL, xxxv, 2441.

Note 26 in page 370 Ibid. See also Primasius, PL, lxviii, 872–874; Martin, PL, ccix, 365; Bruno, PL, clxv, 667–670; Anselm, PL, clxii, 1543–45.

Note 27 in page 370 Through her identity with the Virgin. See Rupert, PL, clxviii, 889; Alanus De Insulis, PL, ccx. 95 B; Paschasius, PL, cxx, 106 D; Bernard, PL, clxxxiii, 1009 D; Bruno, PL, clxv, 717 B.

Note 28 in page 370 PL, cxcvi, 887 B.

Note 29 in page 372 Variarum, i, 259.

Note 30 in page 372 Gerusalemme Liberata, vii, 82.

Note 31 in page 372 De Civilate Dei, xx, vi–vii. The Catholic Encyclopedia, sub “Millennium,” gives this view as the present opinion of the church.

Note 32 in page 373 Variorum, i, 377.

Note 33 in page 373 Upton notes Job 41:15, “His scales are his pride,” as a parallel but fails to observe the other resemblances. For these, read vv. 14–29.

Note 34 in page 373 Gregory, Moralium, xxxiii, ix; Herveus, PL, clxxxis, 165–166.

Note 35 in page 373 De Principiis, i,v, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, 1886), iv, 259.

Note 36 in page 374 Ante-Nicene Fathers, viii, 435–458.

Note 37 in page 375 Haymo, PL, cxvii, 1085–86; Primasius, PL, lxviii, 874 D.

Note 38 in page 375 Alarms De Insulis, PL, ccx, 812–813; Rabanus Maurus, PL, cxii, 1022 A.

Note 39 in page 375 The 1943 MLA program lists an article on the subject by Mrs. Bennett.

Note 40 in page 375 Variorum, i, 472.

Note 41 in page 375 Inferno, iv; Summa Theologica, Pt. iii (Supplement), Q. 69, A.5.

Note 42 in page 375 Psalms 107: 16, 18. See also Origen's Commentary on Matthew, xii, xiii, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, ix, 457.

Note 43 in page 375 See any concordance which gives readings from both the Authorised and the Revised Versions.

Note 44 in page 376 “Biblical Echoes in the Final Scene of Dr. Faustus,” Studies in English (University of Kansas Press, 1940), p. 7.

Note 45 in page 376 Several of these pictures are reproduced in Grillot de Givry's Witchcraft, Magic, and Alchemy (London, 1931).

Note 46 in page 376 Job 41: 4 in the Vulgate, corresponding to 41: 13 in the Authorised Version, which gives a different reading.

Note 47 in page 377 PL, xxxv, 2451.

Note 48 in page 377 Op. cit., fols. 92–93.

Note 49 in page 377 PL, cxvii, 1139 D.

Note 50 in page 378 Rom. 16: 16, i Cor. 16: 20, ii Cor. 13:12, i Thess. 5:26, i Pet. 5:14.

Note 51 in page 379 PL, clxv, 720–721.

Note 52 in page 379 “Mist” in the Authorised Version, “fons” in the Vulgate.

Note 53 in page 379 Anselm, PL, clxii, 1583 C; Martin, PL, ccix, 413 B.

Note 54 in page 379 PL, xxxv, 2459.

Note 55 in page 380 PL, cxvi, 539 C.

Note 56 in page 380 Variorum, i, 303.

Note 57 in page 380 PL, cxvi, 915 A.

Note 58 in page 380 Augustine, PL, xxxv, 2459–60; Martin, PL, ccix, 413 C; Haymo, PL, cxvii, 1211 D.

Note 59 in page 380 Anseim, PL, clxii, 1583 D; Richard of St. Victor, PL, cxcvi, 876 A.

Note 60 in page 380 Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, v, lxviii, 11.

Note 61 in page 381 Ante-Nicene Fathers, viii, 436, 449.