Patrick Stuart's Blog, page 62
November 4, 2017
the raskall many - Faerie Queene Book 1 Canto 12
A short, somewhat boring Canto, in which everything turns out alright for our heros.
It's livened up somewhat by the crowd scene and by that genre classic, the last-minute villain interruption.
And Phoebus is back! Verse 2;
"Scarsely had Phoebus in the glooming EastYet harnessed his firie-footed teeme,Ne reard above the earth his flaming creast,When the last deadly smoke aloft did steeme,That sign of last outbreathed life did seeme,"
Most of this Canto is standard legendary stuff, this sequence with the crowd is a bit different, is a nice counterpoint to the hoary king in sonorous line, and isn't shown in any illustrations I can find so I give it to you in full;
"And after, all the raskall many ran,
Heaped together in rude rablement,
To see the face of that victorious man:
Whom all admired, as from heaven sent,
And gazed upon with gaping wonderment.
But when they came, where that dead Dragon lay,
Strecht on the ground in monstrous large extent,
The sight with idle feare did them dismay,
Ne durst approach him nigh, to touch, or once assay.
Some feard, and fled; some feard and well it faynd;
One that would wiser seeme, then all the rest,
Warnd him not touch, for yet perhaps remayned
Some lingring life within his hollow brest,
Or in his wombe might lurke some hidden nest
Of many Dragonets, his fruitfull seed;
Another said, that in his eyes did rest
Yet sparckling fire, and bad thereof take heed;
Another said, he saw him move his eyes indeed.
One mother, when as her foolhardie chyld
Did come too neare, and with his talants play,
Halfe dead through feare, her litle babe revyld,
And to her gossips gan in counsell say;
How can I tell, but that his talents may
Yet scratch my sonne, or rend his tender hand?
So diversely themselves in vain they fray;
Whiles some more bold, to measure him nigh stand,
To prove how many acres he did spread of land."
This is kind of a Seven Samurai bit. From the point of view of the crowd, or the common people, the Hero is just someone who turns up occasionally, plays an important role, gets looked at so people can tell the story, then goes back in their box.
I think this is also the first time the common people, or 'raskall many' have shown up in this story. They tend not to play much of a part in chivalry literature.
(The Raskall Many Ran would be a good name for a pirate ship.)
Then, in the midst of describing the feast and celebrations, thankfully, Spenser tells us he doesn't have time for bullshit;
"What needs me tell their feast and goodly guize,
In which was nothing riotous nor vaine?
What needs of dainty dishes to devise,
Of comley services, or courtly train?
My narrow leave cannot in them containe
The large discourse of royall Princes state."
Well, good.
Then the King congratulates Redcrosse and praises him for his long journey and the many terible things that have happened to him.
Forgetting that his own daughter made twice as long a journey and that almost every bad thing that happened to Redcrosse was him was a result of him being a fucking idiot.
Then... LAST MINUTE TWIST!
"With flying speede, and seeming great pretence,
Came running in, much like a man dismaid,
A Messanger with letters, which his message said."
Whats the message? Bluntly, ya bois been fucking another girl, as described in a gloriously deceptive and magnificently acidic letter from 'Fidessa'.
To which Redcrossse replies with the vaguest shoe-shuffling verse;
"It was in my mishaps, as hiterward
I lately travelled, that unawares I strayed
Out of my way, through perils strange and hard;
That day should fail me, ere I had them all declared."
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Una breaks in to say that this is some enchantress bullshit and, furthermore, this messanger.... is ARCHIMAGO!
Wizard thrown in prison, but if you are missing your favourite bad guy, don't worry, something tells me he'll be back in classic comic-book style;
"But him they layd full low in dungeon deepe,
And bound him hand and foote with yron chains.
And with continuall watch did warely keepe;
Who then would think, that by his subtile trains,
He could escape fowle death or deadly paines?"
Aand the rest is marriage, brief moment of happieness but Redcrosse has to go back to the Faerie Queene to fulfill his oath of fighting for her but says he will come back eventually.
And we're out. That was Book One.
Book One Canto Twelve
As a Podcast
"Right well I wote most mighty Soveraine,
That all this famous antique history,
Of some th'aboundance of an idle braine
Will judged be, and painted forgery,
Rather than matter of just memory,
Sith none, that breatheth living air, does know,
Where is that happy land of Faery,
Which I so much do vaunt, yet no where show,
But vouch antiquities, which nobody can know.
But let that man with better sense advise,
That of the world least part to us is read:
And daily how through hardy enterprise,
Many great Regions are discovered,
Which to late age were never mentioned.
Who ever heard of th'Indian Peru?
Or who in venturous vessell measured
The Amazons huge river now found trew?
Or fruitfullest Virginia who did ever view?
Yet all these were, when no man did them know;
Yet have from wisest ages hidden been:
And later times things more unknown shall show.
Why then should witless man so much misween
That nothing is, but that which he hath seen?
What if within the Moones fair shining sphere?
What if in every other star unseen
Of other worlds he happily should hear?
He wonder would much more: yet so to some appear."
Book Two - Opening
It's livened up somewhat by the crowd scene and by that genre classic, the last-minute villain interruption.
And Phoebus is back! Verse 2;
"Scarsely had Phoebus in the glooming EastYet harnessed his firie-footed teeme,Ne reard above the earth his flaming creast,When the last deadly smoke aloft did steeme,That sign of last outbreathed life did seeme,"Most of this Canto is standard legendary stuff, this sequence with the crowd is a bit different, is a nice counterpoint to the hoary king in sonorous line, and isn't shown in any illustrations I can find so I give it to you in full;
"And after, all the raskall many ran,
Heaped together in rude rablement,
To see the face of that victorious man:
Whom all admired, as from heaven sent,
And gazed upon with gaping wonderment.
But when they came, where that dead Dragon lay,
Strecht on the ground in monstrous large extent,
The sight with idle feare did them dismay,
Ne durst approach him nigh, to touch, or once assay.
Some feard, and fled; some feard and well it faynd;
One that would wiser seeme, then all the rest,
Warnd him not touch, for yet perhaps remayned
Some lingring life within his hollow brest,
Or in his wombe might lurke some hidden nest
Of many Dragonets, his fruitfull seed;
Another said, that in his eyes did rest
Yet sparckling fire, and bad thereof take heed;
Another said, he saw him move his eyes indeed.
One mother, when as her foolhardie chyld
Did come too neare, and with his talants play,
Halfe dead through feare, her litle babe revyld,
And to her gossips gan in counsell say;
How can I tell, but that his talents may
Yet scratch my sonne, or rend his tender hand?
So diversely themselves in vain they fray;
Whiles some more bold, to measure him nigh stand,
To prove how many acres he did spread of land."
This is kind of a Seven Samurai bit. From the point of view of the crowd, or the common people, the Hero is just someone who turns up occasionally, plays an important role, gets looked at so people can tell the story, then goes back in their box.
I think this is also the first time the common people, or 'raskall many' have shown up in this story. They tend not to play much of a part in chivalry literature.
(The Raskall Many Ran would be a good name for a pirate ship.)
Then, in the midst of describing the feast and celebrations, thankfully, Spenser tells us he doesn't have time for bullshit;
"What needs me tell their feast and goodly guize,
In which was nothing riotous nor vaine?
What needs of dainty dishes to devise,
Of comley services, or courtly train?
My narrow leave cannot in them containe
The large discourse of royall Princes state."
Well, good.
Then the King congratulates Redcrosse and praises him for his long journey and the many terible things that have happened to him.
Forgetting that his own daughter made twice as long a journey and that almost every bad thing that happened to Redcrosse was him was a result of him being a fucking idiot.
Then... LAST MINUTE TWIST!
"With flying speede, and seeming great pretence,
Came running in, much like a man dismaid,
A Messanger with letters, which his message said."
Whats the message? Bluntly, ya bois been fucking another girl, as described in a gloriously deceptive and magnificently acidic letter from 'Fidessa'.
To which Redcrossse replies with the vaguest shoe-shuffling verse;
"It was in my mishaps, as hiterward
I lately travelled, that unawares I strayed
Out of my way, through perils strange and hard;
That day should fail me, ere I had them all declared."
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Una breaks in to say that this is some enchantress bullshit and, furthermore, this messanger.... is ARCHIMAGO!
Wizard thrown in prison, but if you are missing your favourite bad guy, don't worry, something tells me he'll be back in classic comic-book style;
"But him they layd full low in dungeon deepe,
And bound him hand and foote with yron chains.
And with continuall watch did warely keepe;
Who then would think, that by his subtile trains,
He could escape fowle death or deadly paines?"
Aand the rest is marriage, brief moment of happieness but Redcrosse has to go back to the Faerie Queene to fulfill his oath of fighting for her but says he will come back eventually.
And we're out. That was Book One.
Book One Canto Twelve
As a Podcast
"Right well I wote most mighty Soveraine,
That all this famous antique history,
Of some th'aboundance of an idle braine
Will judged be, and painted forgery,
Rather than matter of just memory,
Sith none, that breatheth living air, does know,
Where is that happy land of Faery,
Which I so much do vaunt, yet no where show,
But vouch antiquities, which nobody can know.
But let that man with better sense advise,
That of the world least part to us is read:
And daily how through hardy enterprise,
Many great Regions are discovered,
Which to late age were never mentioned.
Who ever heard of th'Indian Peru?
Or who in venturous vessell measured
The Amazons huge river now found trew?
Or fruitfullest Virginia who did ever view?
Yet all these were, when no man did them know;
Yet have from wisest ages hidden been:
And later times things more unknown shall show.
Why then should witless man so much misween
That nothing is, but that which he hath seen?
What if within the Moones fair shining sphere?
What if in every other star unseen
Of other worlds he happily should hear?
He wonder would much more: yet so to some appear."
Book Two - Opening
November 3, 2017
Dragon Fight! - The Faerie Queene, Book Canto 11
A Canto so RAW that the poet has to ask Calliope (in the poem itself) first, to attend directly to its creation and secondly not to get too crazy because she can drive nations mad. Also they need to save that stuff for the mega-battle at the end of the whole poem.
(This battle never arrives as Spenser never gets to his planned 12 or 24 books of poetry. So the reference to it here is all you get.)
This is a magnificent piece of Barnamesque metatextual scene-setting, very like a childrens entertainer who tells the crowd "Now were going to need a very special friend for this part!". The scene is so badass you need the direct presence of Callipoe to write it but Calliope is so dangerous you have to be extra careful when she is around.
This does not happen in the Faerie Queen.
It is not even described as happening.
The Dragon never grabs Unas Parents.
Then comes the Dragon description;
"By this the dreadfull Beast drew nigh to hand,
Halfe flying and halfe footing in his hast,"
A dragon so amazing that his scales, his wings, his tail, his sting, his jaws and his eyes all get a verse each to describe, a dragon in text as well as in flight.
Then the fight, a fight so amazing it lasts three days and has THREE different solar metaphors, Phoebeus, Titan and Aurora, which has TWO tragic ohmygodhe'sdead falls, and two unlikely saves by literalised religious or biblical metaphors.
This bit by Walter Crane also doesn't happen in the Faerie Queene.
Or at least, it doesn't happen like this.
Redcrosse loses while mounted, he wins on his feet.
(Every time I see Phoebeus in this poem I want to high-five him like a well-loved returning guest star. LIke Edward Herriman in the opening credits to Gilmore GIrls. I also just realised that 'guest star' is literally what he is.)
In previous Cantos we learnt Una was from the middle east and here we learn that this seems to be taking place in the garden of eden. How long did it take them to get there? Where is everything? What's the time scale? Who knows.
This does happen, but there are more people around.I don't want to ruin it for you, its well worth reading on your own, and not just listening to from my poor and hesitant narration.
Book One Canto Eleven
The Podcast Link
(This battle never arrives as Spenser never gets to his planned 12 or 24 books of poetry. So the reference to it here is all you get.)
This is a magnificent piece of Barnamesque metatextual scene-setting, very like a childrens entertainer who tells the crowd "Now were going to need a very special friend for this part!". The scene is so badass you need the direct presence of Callipoe to write it but Calliope is so dangerous you have to be extra careful when she is around.
This does not happen in the Faerie Queen.It is not even described as happening.
The Dragon never grabs Unas Parents.
Then comes the Dragon description;
"By this the dreadfull Beast drew nigh to hand,
Halfe flying and halfe footing in his hast,"
A dragon so amazing that his scales, his wings, his tail, his sting, his jaws and his eyes all get a verse each to describe, a dragon in text as well as in flight.
Then the fight, a fight so amazing it lasts three days and has THREE different solar metaphors, Phoebeus, Titan and Aurora, which has TWO tragic ohmygodhe'sdead falls, and two unlikely saves by literalised religious or biblical metaphors.
This bit by Walter Crane also doesn't happen in the Faerie Queene.Or at least, it doesn't happen like this.
Redcrosse loses while mounted, he wins on his feet.
(Every time I see Phoebeus in this poem I want to high-five him like a well-loved returning guest star. LIke Edward Herriman in the opening credits to Gilmore GIrls. I also just realised that 'guest star' is literally what he is.)
In previous Cantos we learnt Una was from the middle east and here we learn that this seems to be taking place in the garden of eden. How long did it take them to get there? Where is everything? What's the time scale? Who knows.
This does happen, but there are more people around.I don't want to ruin it for you, its well worth reading on your own, and not just listening to from my poor and hesitant narration.Book One Canto Eleven
The Podcast Link
November 2, 2017
Trash Canto - The Faerie Queene Book 1 Canto 10
This Canto is so dull, so long, so joyless, tiresome, overwritten, undramatic and turgidly allegorical that I cannot recommend you listen to it.
Briefly; Redcrosse goes the the magic house of Coelia (Heaven) and meet her three magic daughters, Fidelia, Speranza and Charissa, who introduce him, in turn, to an endless, ENDLESS (ITS 68 VERSES, a third as long again as most other Cantos) list of Spenserian mono-quality allegorical figures who often have their own lists of peoples and qualities to introduce him to.
Sometimes its like reading an excel sheet as a fucking poem.
Anyway, Redcrosse goes through whats essentially a very long Rocky Montage for the soul so he can be good after being a tool for the last 9 Cantos.
This is a lot less interesting than it sounds, its essentially a rather tiresome protestant sermon (more than the rest of the poem).
A few elements worth mentioning;
Fidelia is surprisingly goth for s Spenserian heroine, or at least, an interesting mix of standard brightness-metaphors and weird shit;
"...
Of which the eldest, that Fidelia hight;
Like sunny beames threw from her Christall face,
That could have dazed the rash beholders sight,
And round about her head did shine like heavens light.
She was arayyed all in lilly white,
And in her right hand bore a cup of gold,
With wine and water filled up to the hight,
In which a Serpent did himself enfold,
That horror made to all, that did behold;
But she no whit did change her constant mood:
And in her other hand she fast did hold
A book, that was both signed and sealed with blood,
Wherein darke things were writ, hard to be understood.
........
And when she list pour out her larger spright,
She would command the hasty sun to stay,
Or backward turn his course from heavans hight;
Sometimes great hosts of men she could dismay,
And eke huge mountains from thier native seat
She would command, themselves to bear away,
And throw in raging sea with roaring threat.
Almighty God her gave such power, and pussiance great."
Why is Charissa (Charity) not in this image?
Because according to the poem she goes around with her boobs out.
(To suckle her endless young.)
The second interesting thing is that to purge his guilt (he probably boned Duessa between lines in a previous Canto) Redcrosse has to submit to essentially being tortured in a mirror of all the stuff he has gone through in previous Cantos with the imprisonment and encounter with Despair, but now presumably its ok because its for a holy purpose.
Anyway, at the end a magic man takes him up a mountain, shows him the kingdom of heaven and tells him he was born and Englishman and is going to be Saint George, now go and fight that Dragon.
Dragon Fight next Canto I promise.
Book One Canto Ten
The Faerie Drive
I'm not doing the podcast thing any more because I'm almost completely certain it isn't working. But if it is working for someone and you want me to keep doing let me know in the comments, which I have turned back on.
Briefly; Redcrosse goes the the magic house of Coelia (Heaven) and meet her three magic daughters, Fidelia, Speranza and Charissa, who introduce him, in turn, to an endless, ENDLESS (ITS 68 VERSES, a third as long again as most other Cantos) list of Spenserian mono-quality allegorical figures who often have their own lists of peoples and qualities to introduce him to.
Sometimes its like reading an excel sheet as a fucking poem.
Anyway, Redcrosse goes through whats essentially a very long Rocky Montage for the soul so he can be good after being a tool for the last 9 Cantos.
This is a lot less interesting than it sounds, its essentially a rather tiresome protestant sermon (more than the rest of the poem).
A few elements worth mentioning;
Fidelia is surprisingly goth for s Spenserian heroine, or at least, an interesting mix of standard brightness-metaphors and weird shit;
"...
Of which the eldest, that Fidelia hight;
Like sunny beames threw from her Christall face,
That could have dazed the rash beholders sight,
And round about her head did shine like heavens light.
She was arayyed all in lilly white,
And in her right hand bore a cup of gold,
With wine and water filled up to the hight,
In which a Serpent did himself enfold,
That horror made to all, that did behold;
But she no whit did change her constant mood:
And in her other hand she fast did hold
A book, that was both signed and sealed with blood,
Wherein darke things were writ, hard to be understood.
........
And when she list pour out her larger spright,
She would command the hasty sun to stay,
Or backward turn his course from heavans hight;
Sometimes great hosts of men she could dismay,
And eke huge mountains from thier native seat
She would command, themselves to bear away,
And throw in raging sea with roaring threat.
Almighty God her gave such power, and pussiance great."
Why is Charissa (Charity) not in this image? Because according to the poem she goes around with her boobs out.
(To suckle her endless young.)
The second interesting thing is that to purge his guilt (he probably boned Duessa between lines in a previous Canto) Redcrosse has to submit to essentially being tortured in a mirror of all the stuff he has gone through in previous Cantos with the imprisonment and encounter with Despair, but now presumably its ok because its for a holy purpose.
Anyway, at the end a magic man takes him up a mountain, shows him the kingdom of heaven and tells him he was born and Englishman and is going to be Saint George, now go and fight that Dragon.
Dragon Fight next Canto I promise.
Book One Canto Ten
The Faerie Drive
I'm not doing the podcast thing any more because I'm almost completely certain it isn't working. But if it is working for someone and you want me to keep doing let me know in the comments, which I have turned back on.
November 1, 2017
Despair! _ The Faerie Queene Book 1 Canto 9
Arthur tells his story.He is of unknown noble birth, raised by an Elvish man in Wales.The poem says he is raised in a valley of the Rauron, where the Dee springs from the ground. The Dee is the river passing down the south side of Wirral, the same one Gawain crossed to get here at the beginning of his poem.Arthur dedicated himself to not falling in love, then has a magical night with a Faerie Lady, and falls in love.He's still looking for her.Arthur and Redcrosse exchange gifts and part.Redcrosse and Una meet a terrified knight with a noose around his neck.This Knight Treusian, tells of travelling with his friend Terwin, they meet a man.This man talks Terwin to death, that is, persuades him to kill himself.Redcrosse decides to encounter this man.They meet, and Despair pretty much talks Redcrosse into killing himself.Una knocks the knife out of his hand.They depart.
Una finally does something! I think this is the first notable physical action she takes in the book.
So, a few thoughts
- Phoebeus gets this canto off. Only one solar metaphor today, and that but a single line.
- There is a renewed interest/obsession with the difficulty of speaking, that is, of speaking your heart or your pain. Arthur is in mad love with a Faerie lady but warns her about his emotion and the danger of disclosing it;
"Dear Dame (quoth he) you sleeping sparkes awake,
Which troubled once, into huge flames will grow,
Ne ever will their fervent fury slake,
Till living moisture into smoke do flow,
And wasted life do lie in ashes low."
Which is an interesting comparison with the conversation last canto about disclosing things.
- It's all about love; Arthur falls in love with a Lady and that's why he's doing everything, Terwin, the knight we never meet, was also in love with a Lady who was a dick to him;
"For she was proud, and of too high intent,
And joyed to see her lover languish and lament."
And Una loves Redcrosse, (though we hear rather more of that than about Redcrosse loving Una).
Arthur literally shagged Gloriana, who is Elizabeth, so he is (metaphorically) her lover, meaning Elizabeth hearts Britain. People, this is how you end up with a £50 a year pension from the Queen. Also this is the second sexy magic lady who just appears next to a knight for sex and we are only on Book One.
Then we get the encounter with Despair, something which, I think, makes this the best part of the Faerie Queene so far. The opening is magnificent, with the terrified knight with a noose around his neck, to afraid to even stop or speak and takes a whole stanza to calm down;
"He answered nought at all, but adding new
Feare to his first amazement, staring wide
With stony eyes, and heartless hollow hew,
Astonisht stood, as one that had aspied
Infernall furies, with thier chains untide.
Him yet again, and yet again bespake
The gentle knight; who nought to him replide,
But trembling every joynt did inly quake,
And foltring tongue at last thee words seemed forth to shake.
Gor Gods deare love, Sir knight, do me not stay;
For loe he comes, he comes fast after mee."
That is one hell of an intro, one better than any monster or villain has got so far.
Benjamin West - The Cave of Despair.Its a fun painting, click for bigger version.Despairs argument I will not go over again, but Spenser has him down, and he still has the same voice now as he did then. Its worth a read or listen.
From a boring genre perspective this character is a lot like still-existing 'ultimate bad guy' characters like Hannibal Lecter or the Joker, someone who's mind or nature is brilliant or exceptional and otherworldly and who's point of view so utterly inverse to life that they can, simply by talking, persuade others to kill themselves.
And, as usual with Spenser, we get a character who is simultaneously a highly abstracted archetype, but whos description and 'acting' is filled with vigour and human immediacy so that they seem to spring to life from the page.
Book One Canto Nine
As a Podcast
Literally no-one is actually reading this but I do not care.
October 31, 2017
Ultimate Catfish - The Faerie Queene Book 1 Canto 8
An Action Canto!
Spensers verse form really comes alive when applied to action scenes, usually I take a break every 10 verses or so but in this case I read through the entirety of the fight with the Giant and Hydra in almost one go.
Briefly;
Arthur fights the giant, cuts off his arm.The Hydra gets involved.The Squire holds off the Hydra.Arthur is driven to the ground and the Squire poisoned by Duessa. It looks like the good guys are about to lose.The Giants blow tears away the veil before Arthurs magic shield.This is so bright it blinds and terrifies both Orgoglio and the Hydra.Arthur murders everyone and the Squire grabs Duessa.They investigate the Giants castle, meet his foster-father Ignario, who knows nothing.The castle is very sweet but unfortunately covered with the blood of innocent Christians and also has a death alter where the souls of Martyrs wail continually.Arthur finds Redcrosse and tears off the door to his iron prison with pure manliness.Recrosse is in a very bad state.Una advises them not to kill Duessa but to strip her of her royal robe, this done she is revealed as the ultimate Catfish and flees.Our heroes decide to stay in Orgoglios castle, despite it being carpeted in innocent blood and having a death altar in it.
Popular verse elements - more brightness metaphors, this time Arthurs shield directly saving the day. If we get a Canto without a brightness metaphor I will eat my eye.
Also more 'subtil engines' this time undermining castles as part of another metaphor. Spenser must have seen some kind of 'subtil engine' at some point, as well as gunpowder, technology made a big impression on him I think,
Trying to make Catholicism look awful but accidentally making it look amazing.
Not certain of the Artist yet.
So there are a few polarities that keep coming up;
One is Spensers dual skill/presentation. One one hand he is a classical telenovella/action movie director, the motherfucker can hit story beats, move people around, manage scenes, a lot of classic but often unregarded talents.
He's also doing all this while absolutely everything in the story is a highly elaborate and specific analogy for various kinds of spiritual and religious whatever.
For the modern reader this presents a kind of split perspective, in which we are simultaneously reading a thrilling genre story while also going to the back to decode his references and work out his religious and political commentary.
But his telenovella aspect is so.. not cheesy, but so common as my mum would put it. Its a crowdpleaser, its Spielbergian, Dickensian. So my cultural programming keeps telling me to look for the trick or the irony, that Spenser isn't really doing both those things at once, that one is actually a kind of cheat so he can do the other one.
But no, I think he is actually doing both for real.
By Walter Crane I thinkThe second one is the loops of his metaphor and references. Our boy loves him some Greek references, and also talking about the weather and weather effects, all very standard poet stuff. But we see, especially in this Canto, the way he speaks keeps looping back into near-common speech and common references, the high tone modulates into the low, then back again, the complex into the simple and direct.
(There's another with alliteration. Spenser is doing that a lot, I feel like he is alliterating for play, allowing the rhyme and metre to take the heavy load as the 'solid' sound structure and 'painting' with alliteration, but I suppose I will have more time to think of that as we go on.)
Book One Canto Eight
As a Podcast
Searching for this; http://pca.st/c44P should find it on most podcasting apps.
Spensers verse form really comes alive when applied to action scenes, usually I take a break every 10 verses or so but in this case I read through the entirety of the fight with the Giant and Hydra in almost one go.
Briefly;
Arthur fights the giant, cuts off his arm.The Hydra gets involved.The Squire holds off the Hydra.Arthur is driven to the ground and the Squire poisoned by Duessa. It looks like the good guys are about to lose.The Giants blow tears away the veil before Arthurs magic shield.This is so bright it blinds and terrifies both Orgoglio and the Hydra.Arthur murders everyone and the Squire grabs Duessa.They investigate the Giants castle, meet his foster-father Ignario, who knows nothing.The castle is very sweet but unfortunately covered with the blood of innocent Christians and also has a death alter where the souls of Martyrs wail continually.Arthur finds Redcrosse and tears off the door to his iron prison with pure manliness.Recrosse is in a very bad state.Una advises them not to kill Duessa but to strip her of her royal robe, this done she is revealed as the ultimate Catfish and flees.Our heroes decide to stay in Orgoglios castle, despite it being carpeted in innocent blood and having a death altar in it.
Popular verse elements - more brightness metaphors, this time Arthurs shield directly saving the day. If we get a Canto without a brightness metaphor I will eat my eye.
Also more 'subtil engines' this time undermining castles as part of another metaphor. Spenser must have seen some kind of 'subtil engine' at some point, as well as gunpowder, technology made a big impression on him I think,
Trying to make Catholicism look awful but accidentally making it look amazing.Not certain of the Artist yet.
So there are a few polarities that keep coming up;
One is Spensers dual skill/presentation. One one hand he is a classical telenovella/action movie director, the motherfucker can hit story beats, move people around, manage scenes, a lot of classic but often unregarded talents.
He's also doing all this while absolutely everything in the story is a highly elaborate and specific analogy for various kinds of spiritual and religious whatever.
For the modern reader this presents a kind of split perspective, in which we are simultaneously reading a thrilling genre story while also going to the back to decode his references and work out his religious and political commentary.
But his telenovella aspect is so.. not cheesy, but so common as my mum would put it. Its a crowdpleaser, its Spielbergian, Dickensian. So my cultural programming keeps telling me to look for the trick or the irony, that Spenser isn't really doing both those things at once, that one is actually a kind of cheat so he can do the other one.
But no, I think he is actually doing both for real.
By Walter Crane I thinkThe second one is the loops of his metaphor and references. Our boy loves him some Greek references, and also talking about the weather and weather effects, all very standard poet stuff. But we see, especially in this Canto, the way he speaks keeps looping back into near-common speech and common references, the high tone modulates into the low, then back again, the complex into the simple and direct.(There's another with alliteration. Spenser is doing that a lot, I feel like he is alliterating for play, allowing the rhyme and metre to take the heavy load as the 'solid' sound structure and 'painting' with alliteration, but I suppose I will have more time to think of that as we go on.)
Book One Canto Eight
As a Podcast
Searching for this; http://pca.st/c44P should find it on most podcasting apps.
October 30, 2017
Tender Parts - The Faerie Queene Book 1 Canto 7
I forget how many time Una faints in this Canto but its a lot.
So, Duessa returns from hanging out with deep mythical archetypes and finds Redcrosse gone. She tracks him down to a stream and;
".. with reproach of carelessness unkind
Ubraid, for leaving her in place unmeet,
With foul words tempting fair, sour gall with honey sweet."
Which is a conversation I think a lot of us can remember having.
Redcrosse drinks from the stream, which it turns out is a sedative roofie stream as the Nymph from which it flows is a lazy good-for-nothing.
Redcrosse is now drugged when the giant Orgoglio turns up. Orgoglio swings at him in a really good stanza with gunpowder metaphors and is about to crush him to powder when Duessa intervenes and trades herself for his safety.
This is interesting as Duessa does actually save Redcrosse's life.
Orgoglio throws Redcrosse in a dungeon and like Duessa as his new girlfriend so much that he gets her a seven-headed hydra to ride about, purely to make her look more awesome and terrifying. I feel like this is a pretty positive relationship for both Orgoglio and Duessa.
The nameless Dwarfe grabs Redcrosse's armour and gear and runs for it, running straight into Una, who them proceeds to wail and faint multiple times in the rest of the stanza. I mean most of the stanza is her fainting and wailing. The Dwarfe wakes her up by;
"To rub her temples, and to chaufe her chin,
And every tender part to tosse and turne:"
And I have no idea if the slightly sleazy double-meaning is intended there but looking at the rest of Spensers writing; maybe.
Una meets the most amazingly-attired Knight, truly a high-level adventurer. He gets multiple stanzas just on his glorious clothes and his diamond shield has multiple magical properties.
Amazingly, from the point of view of the mediocrely materialist 21st century reader, she does not instantly assume him to be either a rapist or a wizard in disguise, or both, despite the fact that 50% of the men she meets are one of the two.
ITS PRINCE ARTHUR EVERYONE - SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE!
Arthur has an un-named Squire who presumably hangs out with the Dwarfe while Una and Arthur are speaking highly complex conversational stanzas at each other.
The main spiritual or moral problem of the Canto seems to be Una essentially having a meltdown and falling into despair because her Knight is gone, and the long conversation with Arthur is, in 21st Century terms, largely about him getting her to talk about it.
The answer, as it usually is in TFQ, is faith, and also reason.
"But woeful Lady le me to entreat,
For to unfold the anguish of your heart:
Mishaps are mastered by advice discreed,
And council mitigates the greatest smart;
Found never help, who never would his hurts impart."
So, under, or along with the (to us, today) complex and archaic spiritual allegory and glorious chivalric claptrap is something we can understand and perhaps sympathise with.
Despite this the 'quoth he/quoth she' argument is bordering on farcical.
We also get Una's backstory, its a standard parents-menaced-by-dragon story. She's from
"the territories,
Which Phison and Euphrates floweth by,
And Gehons golden waves do wash continually."
Which I think means she's from the middle east?
The Dragon is also from Tartary, so Richard should be happy. But that's probably an allegory for something.
Arthur and Una (and the Squire, and the Dwarfe) join up and go to rescue that fucking idiot Redcrosse, so hopefully lookout for a Giant-fight in Canto 8.
Book One Canto Seven
As a Podcast
So, Duessa returns from hanging out with deep mythical archetypes and finds Redcrosse gone. She tracks him down to a stream and;
".. with reproach of carelessness unkind
Ubraid, for leaving her in place unmeet,
With foul words tempting fair, sour gall with honey sweet."
Which is a conversation I think a lot of us can remember having.
Redcrosse drinks from the stream, which it turns out is a sedative roofie stream as the Nymph from which it flows is a lazy good-for-nothing.
Redcrosse is now drugged when the giant Orgoglio turns up. Orgoglio swings at him in a really good stanza with gunpowder metaphors and is about to crush him to powder when Duessa intervenes and trades herself for his safety.
This is interesting as Duessa does actually save Redcrosse's life.
Orgoglio throws Redcrosse in a dungeon and like Duessa as his new girlfriend so much that he gets her a seven-headed hydra to ride about, purely to make her look more awesome and terrifying. I feel like this is a pretty positive relationship for both Orgoglio and Duessa.
The nameless Dwarfe grabs Redcrosse's armour and gear and runs for it, running straight into Una, who them proceeds to wail and faint multiple times in the rest of the stanza. I mean most of the stanza is her fainting and wailing. The Dwarfe wakes her up by;
"To rub her temples, and to chaufe her chin,
And every tender part to tosse and turne:"
And I have no idea if the slightly sleazy double-meaning is intended there but looking at the rest of Spensers writing; maybe.
Una meets the most amazingly-attired Knight, truly a high-level adventurer. He gets multiple stanzas just on his glorious clothes and his diamond shield has multiple magical properties.
Amazingly, from the point of view of the mediocrely materialist 21st century reader, she does not instantly assume him to be either a rapist or a wizard in disguise, or both, despite the fact that 50% of the men she meets are one of the two.
ITS PRINCE ARTHUR EVERYONE - SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE!
Arthur has an un-named Squire who presumably hangs out with the Dwarfe while Una and Arthur are speaking highly complex conversational stanzas at each other.
The main spiritual or moral problem of the Canto seems to be Una essentially having a meltdown and falling into despair because her Knight is gone, and the long conversation with Arthur is, in 21st Century terms, largely about him getting her to talk about it.
The answer, as it usually is in TFQ, is faith, and also reason.
"But woeful Lady le me to entreat,
For to unfold the anguish of your heart:
Mishaps are mastered by advice discreed,
And council mitigates the greatest smart;
Found never help, who never would his hurts impart."
So, under, or along with the (to us, today) complex and archaic spiritual allegory and glorious chivalric claptrap is something we can understand and perhaps sympathise with.
Despite this the 'quoth he/quoth she' argument is bordering on farcical.
We also get Una's backstory, its a standard parents-menaced-by-dragon story. She's from
"the territories,
Which Phison and Euphrates floweth by,
And Gehons golden waves do wash continually."
Which I think means she's from the middle east?
The Dragon is also from Tartary, so Richard should be happy. But that's probably an allegory for something.
Arthur and Una (and the Squire, and the Dwarfe) join up and go to rescue that fucking idiot Redcrosse, so hopefully lookout for a Giant-fight in Canto 8.
Book One Canto Seven
As a Podcast
October 29, 2017
Extremely Non-Consensual; The Faerie Queene Book One Canto Six
This is a super-rapey episode.
We loop back to the end of Canto 3 where Sansloy, after having accidentally jousted Archimago (in disguise as Redcrosse) drags Una off.
Sansloy first tries some seduction stuff, when this fails he goes full non-con.
Spencer spends quite a bit of time how thrilling Unas screams for help are. Luckily, as happens almost never, an ancient Wood-God, Silvanius, and his crew of Satyrs, are hanging nearby and hearing this noise, come to investigate. When Sansloy sees these freaky creatures turn up he runs for it.
This being possibly the first time in myth that someone has been saved from rape by Satyrs.
Una being min-maxed for beauty and purity, Sylvanus, the Satyrs and various other spirits instantly fall in love with her. There is a very strange and somewhat haunting verse where Sylvanus, trying to recall which Goddess this might be, remembers the story of Cypariesse, a 'lovely boy' who killed a hind with a dart and found it so beautiful that he wasted away from sorrow at the deed. The notes tell me that in myth Cypariesse was a boy Sylvanus fell in love with and who he transformed into the Cypress tree. In the poem, Sylvanus is so old he walks with a Cypress stave, which presumably any educated reader of the period would recognise as Cypariesse.
This whole Canto is wierd.
So Una hangs out with the Satyrs who want to worship her as a goddess, when she denies this they try to worship her Ass, these guys being essentially the savages from colonial fiction.
She is safe, but can't leave (because as a min-maxed character she can't ever do anything).
Time gets really weird here. It seems like maybe she spends a long time in the forest but this might be a Faerie timewarp as we will see later on.
Una needs another rescue so we get the rawest intro to possibly the coolest Knight yet. Batman to Redcrosse's Superman figure; Satyrane.
A sweet lady is betrothed to a hunting-obsessed Knight. He's never home and she misses him so she goes out into the forest to be with him. She is promptly captured and raped by a Satyr who holds her captive till she gives birth to a half-satyr son, then lets her go with the son as a hostage.
The Satyr raises the boy to be utterly and insanely fearless and, essentially, to purposely dick around the most dangerous animals he can find purely in order to teach him to be a badass. He does this so well that the boy terrifies even him and the kid becomes tyrant of the forest, capturing and 'taming' Lions and Boars etc for fun until everything is afraid of him.
One day the boys sweet mother is in the forest looking for him, when she does she is so afraid of him she nearly runs for it but convinces him to be slightly less insanely savage and to act like a Knight, which he does.
So this guy finds Una and schemes to rescue her, which he does.
On leaving the forest, they both come upon 'A silly man, in simple weeds forwarne' who tells them he saw Redcrosse die.
Una freaks out and they go to find the Panym that did the deed, directed by the silly man.
Its Sansloy, who we remember from Canto 3 where he smashed Archimago disguised as Redcrosse, an event which seems recent to him? So only a day has passed out here, whereas in the Forest it seemed like ages had passed?
Sansloy says he didn't kill Redcrosse but will absolutely fight Satyrane. Satyrane speaks this odd but interesting verse;
"O foolish faeries sonne, what fury mad
Hath thee incensed, to haste thy doleful fate?
Were it not better, I that lady had,
Than that thou hadst repented it too late?
Most senseless man he, that himself doth hate,
To love another. Lo then for thine aid
Here take thy lovers token on thy pate."
Those two have an awesome, extended, supermurder throwdown which is still going on as the Canto ends.
Una is so shocked by all of this that she runs off to look for Redcrosse.
Then in the last part the 'silly man' is revealed TO BE ARCHIMAGO
AGAIN
IT WAS ANOTHER WIZARD TRICK
This guy is just fucking crazy with the multiple identities. Also he seems to have just got his revenge for Sansloy jousting him off his horse, something that was entirely his own fault.
........................
So we have the fair lady threatened with rape, rescued from rape by the rapyest possible mythological creatures, then rescued again by a savage badass who is himself a product of rape, then he is tricked into a brutal fight with the original attempted rapist and the lady gets away.
I'm sure it means something but I'm not sure what.
Book One Canto Six
As a Podcast
We loop back to the end of Canto 3 where Sansloy, after having accidentally jousted Archimago (in disguise as Redcrosse) drags Una off.
Sansloy first tries some seduction stuff, when this fails he goes full non-con.
Spencer spends quite a bit of time how thrilling Unas screams for help are. Luckily, as happens almost never, an ancient Wood-God, Silvanius, and his crew of Satyrs, are hanging nearby and hearing this noise, come to investigate. When Sansloy sees these freaky creatures turn up he runs for it.
This being possibly the first time in myth that someone has been saved from rape by Satyrs.
Una being min-maxed for beauty and purity, Sylvanus, the Satyrs and various other spirits instantly fall in love with her. There is a very strange and somewhat haunting verse where Sylvanus, trying to recall which Goddess this might be, remembers the story of Cypariesse, a 'lovely boy' who killed a hind with a dart and found it so beautiful that he wasted away from sorrow at the deed. The notes tell me that in myth Cypariesse was a boy Sylvanus fell in love with and who he transformed into the Cypress tree. In the poem, Sylvanus is so old he walks with a Cypress stave, which presumably any educated reader of the period would recognise as Cypariesse.
This whole Canto is wierd.
So Una hangs out with the Satyrs who want to worship her as a goddess, when she denies this they try to worship her Ass, these guys being essentially the savages from colonial fiction.
She is safe, but can't leave (because as a min-maxed character she can't ever do anything).
Time gets really weird here. It seems like maybe she spends a long time in the forest but this might be a Faerie timewarp as we will see later on.
Una needs another rescue so we get the rawest intro to possibly the coolest Knight yet. Batman to Redcrosse's Superman figure; Satyrane.
A sweet lady is betrothed to a hunting-obsessed Knight. He's never home and she misses him so she goes out into the forest to be with him. She is promptly captured and raped by a Satyr who holds her captive till she gives birth to a half-satyr son, then lets her go with the son as a hostage.
The Satyr raises the boy to be utterly and insanely fearless and, essentially, to purposely dick around the most dangerous animals he can find purely in order to teach him to be a badass. He does this so well that the boy terrifies even him and the kid becomes tyrant of the forest, capturing and 'taming' Lions and Boars etc for fun until everything is afraid of him.
One day the boys sweet mother is in the forest looking for him, when she does she is so afraid of him she nearly runs for it but convinces him to be slightly less insanely savage and to act like a Knight, which he does.
So this guy finds Una and schemes to rescue her, which he does.
On leaving the forest, they both come upon 'A silly man, in simple weeds forwarne' who tells them he saw Redcrosse die.
Una freaks out and they go to find the Panym that did the deed, directed by the silly man.
Its Sansloy, who we remember from Canto 3 where he smashed Archimago disguised as Redcrosse, an event which seems recent to him? So only a day has passed out here, whereas in the Forest it seemed like ages had passed?
Sansloy says he didn't kill Redcrosse but will absolutely fight Satyrane. Satyrane speaks this odd but interesting verse;
"O foolish faeries sonne, what fury mad
Hath thee incensed, to haste thy doleful fate?
Were it not better, I that lady had,
Than that thou hadst repented it too late?
Most senseless man he, that himself doth hate,
To love another. Lo then for thine aid
Here take thy lovers token on thy pate."
Those two have an awesome, extended, supermurder throwdown which is still going on as the Canto ends.
Una is so shocked by all of this that she runs off to look for Redcrosse.
Then in the last part the 'silly man' is revealed TO BE ARCHIMAGO
AGAIN
IT WAS ANOTHER WIZARD TRICK
This guy is just fucking crazy with the multiple identities. Also he seems to have just got his revenge for Sansloy jousting him off his horse, something that was entirely his own fault.
........................
So we have the fair lady threatened with rape, rescued from rape by the rapyest possible mythological creatures, then rescued again by a savage badass who is himself a product of rape, then he is tricked into a brutal fight with the original attempted rapist and the lady gets away.
I'm sure it means something but I'm not sure what.
Book One Canto Six
As a Podcast
October 28, 2017
The Faerie Queene Book One Canto Five
Redcrosse and Sansfoy fight. If I'm interpreting this right, Redcrosse is about to lose when Duessa calls out in encouragement to Sansfoy, but Redcrosse thinks her words are meant for him, rallies and wins, driving Sansfoy to his knees.
Then WIZARD TRICKS happen. Duessa hides the body of Sansfoy with a magic cloud, she goes to comfort Redcrosse and take him to be healed.
But its a Tim Burton episode this Canto, because as soon as Redcrosse is out Duessa, like a "cruell craftie crocodille" sneaks away to the body of Sansfoy, then moves at increadible speed to " the eastern coast of Heavan' where she meets Dame Night.
Actual Night, literalised, with her 'Yron Chariot' and black steeds champing at rusty bits. The majority of the Canto is Duessa persuading Night to try to save Sansfoy. Then a marvellous description of Hades (with lots of mispronunciation by me).
Night takes Sansfoy to AEsculapius, a Greek frankenstein guy about whom I knew nothing till I read this. Unlike our Frankenstein, he never even wanted to challenge divine power, he was just a Doctor so amazing that when a hero is falsely accused and torn to buts due to standard Olympian fuckery, and the despairing father appeals for aid, AEsculapius is capable of actually stitching the guy back together and making him live again.
Jove is so irritated/freaked out by this that he sends the Doctor directly to Hades with a thunderbolt where he currently lives chained in a cave, trying to heal the ever-burning fire of his thunderbolt wound.
Night asks him to heal Sansfoy, the Doctor doesn't want to piss off Jove again but as Night points out, he is already as dammed as dammed can get, so he goes ahead.
Then we come back to the world and find Redcrosse has left the house of Pride. His un-named Dwarf has noticed the giant dungeon full of doomed (but great) men from history (there are damned proud historical women as well, but two of the three named are damned for having the temerity to commit suicide, so make what you will of that) and the giant piles of dead people. Thusly confirming that Knights can never notice anything and have to be informed of deception by their followers.
This all happens 'off-screen', we finish on Redcrosse leaving the "dreadful spectacle of that sad house of Pride."
Now no doubt all of this has complex renaissance allegorical religious meanings but I can only talk about it on a storytelling level, and again, it reminds me a lot of Genre writing/ Spenser really likes taking us on these supernatural journeys and tends to fall in love with his proto-gothic bad-guy characters. Like the loving description of Archimago making a pervy sex-golem of mist and literally summoning dreams from Morpheus, here we find out, in detail, how Night herself can cause a man to be healed from death.
The 'dark' characters have their own world and relationships, and when they are 'on screen' they get as much attention and depth as the main characters.
And the moral complexity of getting a 'proud Panyim' healed by a dammed super-Doctor who's only sin was that he was _too good_ at healing people, well that's very interesting. Again we get, at every step, these alter-stories and mirrors to Chivalry and the Chivalric ethos.
Both Neil Gaiaman and Mary Shelly need to call thier lawyers because clearly Spenser has been ripping them both off.
Sorry for the poor reading today, think I made more mistakes than usual.
Book One Canto Five
As a Podcast
Then WIZARD TRICKS happen. Duessa hides the body of Sansfoy with a magic cloud, she goes to comfort Redcrosse and take him to be healed.
But its a Tim Burton episode this Canto, because as soon as Redcrosse is out Duessa, like a "cruell craftie crocodille" sneaks away to the body of Sansfoy, then moves at increadible speed to " the eastern coast of Heavan' where she meets Dame Night.
Actual Night, literalised, with her 'Yron Chariot' and black steeds champing at rusty bits. The majority of the Canto is Duessa persuading Night to try to save Sansfoy. Then a marvellous description of Hades (with lots of mispronunciation by me).
Night takes Sansfoy to AEsculapius, a Greek frankenstein guy about whom I knew nothing till I read this. Unlike our Frankenstein, he never even wanted to challenge divine power, he was just a Doctor so amazing that when a hero is falsely accused and torn to buts due to standard Olympian fuckery, and the despairing father appeals for aid, AEsculapius is capable of actually stitching the guy back together and making him live again.
Jove is so irritated/freaked out by this that he sends the Doctor directly to Hades with a thunderbolt where he currently lives chained in a cave, trying to heal the ever-burning fire of his thunderbolt wound.
Night asks him to heal Sansfoy, the Doctor doesn't want to piss off Jove again but as Night points out, he is already as dammed as dammed can get, so he goes ahead.
Then we come back to the world and find Redcrosse has left the house of Pride. His un-named Dwarf has noticed the giant dungeon full of doomed (but great) men from history (there are damned proud historical women as well, but two of the three named are damned for having the temerity to commit suicide, so make what you will of that) and the giant piles of dead people. Thusly confirming that Knights can never notice anything and have to be informed of deception by their followers.
This all happens 'off-screen', we finish on Redcrosse leaving the "dreadful spectacle of that sad house of Pride."
Now no doubt all of this has complex renaissance allegorical religious meanings but I can only talk about it on a storytelling level, and again, it reminds me a lot of Genre writing/ Spenser really likes taking us on these supernatural journeys and tends to fall in love with his proto-gothic bad-guy characters. Like the loving description of Archimago making a pervy sex-golem of mist and literally summoning dreams from Morpheus, here we find out, in detail, how Night herself can cause a man to be healed from death.
The 'dark' characters have their own world and relationships, and when they are 'on screen' they get as much attention and depth as the main characters.
And the moral complexity of getting a 'proud Panyim' healed by a dammed super-Doctor who's only sin was that he was _too good_ at healing people, well that's very interesting. Again we get, at every step, these alter-stories and mirrors to Chivalry and the Chivalric ethos.
Both Neil Gaiaman and Mary Shelly need to call thier lawyers because clearly Spenser has been ripping them both off.
Sorry for the poor reading today, think I made more mistakes than usual.
Book One Canto Five
As a Podcast
October 27, 2017
The Faerie Queen Book One Canto Four
Redcrosse and Duessa (in disguise as Fidessa) arrive at the House of Fame, encounter Lucefera and her six evil Wizards, then meet Sans Joy, the brother to the Sarizen Sans Foy, who challenges Redcrosse to a joust. Duessa meets Sans Joy and promises him secret aid.
As usual, Spenser loves his extended solar metaphors, day never just dawns, instead it gets a whole stanza, as does night, when people fall asleep the metaphor is Morpheus literally beaning them with a lead mace. Queen Lucifera gets a lot of light and brightness metaphors and Duessa uses day/night metaphors to persuade Sans Joy.
Idleness; a Monk on an ass. Gluttony; fat, naked except for leaves, riding a pig, holding a "bouzing can" and vomiting everywhere. Lechery; filthy, black, riding a goat and carrying a burning heart. Avarice; joyless, clad in rags but riding a camel strapped with cash and literally counting money as he goes. Envy; riding a ravenous wolf, chewing a poisonous toad and spitting poison as he goes. Then Wrath in bloodstained rags, eyes like ash, riding a ravenous lion, his hand trembling with raaaaage, a dagger in it.
Hows that for an encounter?
We are only a short way in and its interesting how many ways Spencer has re-combined some very simple archetypes, often by creating their anti-being, putting them in disguise or showing mirror-relationships.
He really is an excellent genre writer, a good storyteller. In the previous Canto we got a primary bad guy accidentally taking out his friend, the evil wizard, who was disguised as Redcrosse, which was a neat dramatic moment for the audience but also a nice bit of drama - the bad guys also have relationships and friendships. Here we get Duessa, in disguse as Fidessa, lying her ass off in order to provoke and aid Sans Joy into killing Redcrosse, almost a complete reversal of the classic "good" chivalric relationship, but indescernable from the real thing.
These manchean, architypal characters don't have depth in the literary sense, but the number and strangeness of the situations they are placed into, especially with the lies, illusions, mistakes and mirroring, almsot project that psychological depth and questioning out into the imagined world.
Book One Canto Four
As a Podcast?
October 26, 2017
The Faerie Queen, Book One, Canto Three
Lion meets maiden,
Maiden meets thief,
Lion kills thief.
Wizard disguises self as knight,
Maiden meets wizard,
Wizard meets Sarizen,
Sarizen drops Wizard.
Lion attacks Sarizen,
Sarizen kills Lion.
Sarizen takes Maiden.
Book One, Canto Three
Maiden meets thief,
Lion kills thief.
Wizard disguises self as knight,
Maiden meets wizard,
Wizard meets Sarizen,
Sarizen drops Wizard.
Lion attacks Sarizen,
Sarizen kills Lion.
Sarizen takes Maiden.
Book One, Canto Three
