SPENSER, EDMUND. - English poet, b. in London in 1552, d. there on 16 January 1599, after having spent a great part of his life in Ireland as a colonizer and diplomat.
In him the movements of the Renaissance and of the Protestant Reformation come together, in a vast poetic output that represents the pastoral (The Shepheardes Calendar, 1579), the lyric of a Petrarchan character (the sonnets entitled Amoretti [1595], and numerous love lyrics, among them a Prothalamion and an Epithalamion), the philosophical-religious lyric (Hymnes in honour of Love and Beauty, 1596) and epic poetry. In this last field his poem (The Faerie Queene, 1590-96), which stands beside those of Ariosto and Tasso, has an allegorical-pedagogical character, the poet intending to represent the virtues of Aristotle's magnanimous man, with the aim of « forming a gentleman, that is to say a person noble in virtuous discipline and gentle ». He does so by narrating the deeds of Arthur and of the knights of the court of Gloriana (Queen Elizabeth). Of the 24 books planned (each of 12 cantos) only 6 were completed, dedicated to the legends of holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice and courtesy. Against the traditional point of view, it has recently been maintained that Spenser's deviations from orthodox Anglicanism have a rather Catholic than Calvinist origin.
Bibliography3 worksed.: Works, edited by E. Grenlaw, C. G. Osgood and F. M. Padelford, 8 vols., Baltimore 1932 ff. Studies: W. R. Renwick, E. S.: an essay on R
BIBL.: ed.: Works, edited by E. Grenlaw, C. G. Osgood and F. M. Padelford, 8 vols., Baltimore 1932 ff. Studies: W. R. Renwick, E. S.: an essay on Renaissance poetry, London 1925; A. C. Judson, The life of E. S., Baltimore 1945; V. K. Whitaker, The religious basis of S.'s thought, Oxford 1950.
Castelli, Alberto. “Spenser, edmund.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, col. 1109. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/spenser-edmund.
MLA
Castelli, Alberto. “Spenser, edmund.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, col. 1109. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/spenser-edmund.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec11_spenser_edmund,
author = {Castelli, Alberto},
title = {Spenser, edmund},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XI},
pages = {1109},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1953},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/spenser-edmund}
}
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