Spenser and Allegory

Clicks: 1
ID: 318175
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal

Ranked #1,455 of 1,518 articles by views in Oxford University Press eBooks

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 1,518 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract This essay examines The Faerie Queene’s relationship to the tradition of the allegorical epic. Drawing comparisons with Ariosto and Tasso, it demonstrates how a hermeneutic originally developed to interpret Classical texts in moral or political terms came to influence the composition of early modern heroic poetry and inform the concept of allegory itself. However, as Spenser’s ‘Letter to Raleigh’ indicates, traditional habits of allegorical interpretation threatened the proliferation of politically dangerous ‘misconstructions’ of the text. Hence The Faerie’s Queene’s self-reflexive preoccupation with its own exegesis and the development of the narrator’s role as a simultaneously reliable and evasive expositor. Analysis of the diverse rhetorical strategies Spenser employs to meet the conflicting demands of his project discloses how it operates as both ‘continued Allegory’ and ‘darke conceit’.
Reference Key
openalex_W7165521342 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Richard A. McCabe
Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894359.013.0009
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894359.013.0009
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.