© 2001 by Oxford University Press
'Well grounded, finely framed, and strongly trussed up together' the 'medieval' structure of The Faerie Queene
University College Oxford, Oxford, UK
Spenser's description of The Faerie Queene as the 'matter of iust memory' prompts readers to be sensitive to the various traditions and sources which are remembered or embodied in the work. Spenser's 'originality' is in no danger of being questioned; what needs further consideration is the significance of his deliberate syncretism, what it means that he should draw together different literary and cultural strands and allow their differences to remain visible, even when those differences appear to signal contradiction. The overall structure of The Faerie Queene needs to be seen from this perspective - as an aspect of the poem which gives the sense of a 'pre-authorial' stage in the poem's genesis, the record of an earlier tradition which has survived into the later product. In particular, the overall structure of The Faerie Queene suggests the profound impact of medieval literature and traditions upon the work; the structure is not only generally medieval in character, in a sense which the article defines, but it also relates to, or 'remembers', specific examples of medieval works and forms of books. The article begins with a brief survey of aspects of The Faerie Queene other than structure which demonstrate Spenser's interest in the English Middle Ages, and then recalls, also briefly, the issues and perspectives in modern scholarship which relate to a sense of the work's overall structure.