Spenser not only dedicated The FAerie Queene to Queen Elizabeth but asserted that his romantic epic was in some sense about her rule and her realm. The informed attention that O'Connell gives to the relationship between Spenser's reflections on contemporary history and his moral design makes this volume a convincing reading of the great poem. The author shows how Spenser used Vergil as his model in celebrating and judging his own age.

Originally published in 1977.

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