The Faerie Queene — Volume 01

Edmund Spenser

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• Publié par: argo
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 49
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Faerie Queene Volume 1, by Edmund Spenser
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Please note, this eBook contains both copyrighted and public domain portions. Read the NOTE below for further
information.
Title: The Faerie Queene Volume 1
Author: Edmund Spenser
Editor: Jonathan Barnes
Release Date: January 21, 2005 [EBook #6930]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAERIE QUEENE VOLUME 1 ***
Portions Copyright (C) 2004 by Jonathan BarnesA NOTE ON THIS EDITION
This is an electronic edition of Volume One of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene. You are encouraged to use and copy
it.
The edition includes the following elements:
- an entirely new composite text, based on the edition of 1596 (the "Original Text")
- details of departures, or proposed departures, from the copy text (the "Textual Appendix")
- a modernized version of the Original Text (the "Shadow Text")
- definitions of difficult words and phrases in the Shadow Text (the "Glossary").
The Original Text was not scanned, but typed, and proofed against the
Scolar Press facsimile (see Bibliography). Editing took place between
November 1989 and July 1992, using EMACS.
Edition 10 (faeri10.txt) was prepared especially for Project Gutenberg in February 2003.
Thus edition (August 2004) corrects a few errors in the convention for italic type. A few definitions appearing in the wrong
place have also been fixed, as have anomalous top-bit set characters in the Hales Biography, which has been
reformatted to make it easier to read.
The edition is best viewed with a monospaced font. Plain ASCII text is used throughout. Accented, etc., characters are
indicated by symbols contained in curly brackets, e.g.:
{e/} = lower-case e + acute accent (pointing up to right) {e\} = lower-case e + grave accent (pointing up to left) {o^} =
lower-case o + circumflex accent {o"} = lower-case o + diaeresis mark {e~} = lower-case e + tilde {ae} = lower-case ae
diphthong {Ae} = ae diphthong with initial capital {AE} = fully capitalized ae diphthong etc.
In this way all the characters of the 1596 edition have been shown except the long "s", which has been throughout
converted to its modern equivalent. In Roman type, the long "s" most closely resembles a lower-case "f" lacking part of
the crossbar. It is used in the copy-text in nearly all places where this edition has an ordinary lower-case "s", except at the
ends of words and when preceding the letter "k". Using the oblique character in place of the long "s", then, the first lines
of the poem read:
Lo I the man, who/e Mu/e whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enfor/t a far vnfitter taske,
For trumpets /terne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds …
These rules are on occasion broken, apparently by mistake. The long "s" does nothing to aid comprehension, and
indeed causes problems, noted in the Textual Appendix: e.g. confusion between "besit" and "befit".
Special characters contained in the list of printers' contractions are noted in the preamble to that list.
Regions of text printed, or intended to be shown, in italic type are defined by underscores, thus: the second word is in
italics.
Spenser's original text of The Faerie Queene is here described as "Spenser's Text" and is in the public domain. The
biography by John W. Hales has passed out of copyright and was published by Messrs Macmillan. Copyright in all other
parts of this edition, including editorial treatment of Spenser's Text, is reserved. You may not sell the whole or any part of
this edition in any form whatsoever, nor may you supply it as an inducement to any party to purchase any product. Except
for private study, you may not alter the text in any way.
WARRANTY
This edition is supplied as is. No warranty of any description is given in relation to the edition. Time and care have gone
into its preparation, but no guarantee of accuracy is implied or made.
In such a large work, despite the stringent and repeated manual and electronic checking that has been carried out, some
errors are bound to have slipped through. Please tell me about any that you find. All readers' emendations will be
gratefully acknowledged in future releases.
— Jonathan Barnes
jonathan.barnes[at]conexil.co.uk 20 August 2004Main components:
Editor's Introduction
Abbreviations Used
List of Proper Nouns
Table of Contents of Volume I
Introductory Matter
Books I-III
Printer's Contractions
Bibliography
Biographical Material
The start of each of these is marked with the string "=>"
=> THE FAERIE QUEENE
Editor's Introduction
Acknowledgements
Purpose of the edition
The text of the poem
The form of the poem
The numbering system
How the Glossary works
The Textual Appendix
Suggestions for new readers
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No endeavour of this kind would be possible without the work of previous editors and critics, and I offer thanks to all who
have advanced our understanding of Spenser and his work. In particular the scholarship of Professor A. C. Hamilton has
provided much enlightenment: his commentary (see Bibliography) is required reading for those who would explore the
secret meanings of The Faerie Queene. To the compilers and publishers of the monumental Oxford English Dictionary I
am deeply indebted. I wish also to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the British Library, who kindly allowed me
to consult copies of the original editions.
PURPOSE OF THE EDITION
When reading a book such as The Faerie Queene, it is tempting to minimize the looking up of difficult words, which are
often glossed, if at all, in the end pages. Although Spenser's use of certain words appears quaint and lumpish, the
language is superficially modern enough to enable the reader to "get by". Yet such an approach can lead only to a faulty
appreciation of the poem, and deprives one of much enchantment. Queen Elizabeth would have found nothing lumpish
about the language: her only impatience might have been with Spenser's weakness for archaisms. To her, the FQ will
have revealed Spenser's exact and liberal style in all its glory: his words almost always make perfect sense.
The purpose of this edition is to make the language of the poem readily accessible. Interruptions to consult separate
dictionaries and so on are eliminated, preserving as far as possible the flow of reading and accelerating one's
apprehension of the poem.
The sustained power and scope of Spenser's master-work, of his "sacred fury", comprise a feat unsurpassed in English
literature. But, by its very nature, language changes with time, and access to Spenser's magic kingdom is becoming ever
more difficult. I hope this edition provides a key.
THE TEXT OF THE POEM
No manuscript of The Faerie Queene is known; we depend for our text upon printed copies of the work.
The first of these appeared in 1590. It is a quarto edition, published by William Ponsonby, and contains Books I-III. The
Registers of the Stationers' Company for 1589 include the following entry:
Primo Die Decembris.—Master Ponsonbye. Entered for his Copye a book intituled the fayre Queene, dyposed into
xii. bookes &c. Aucthorysed vnder thandes of the Archb. of Canterbury & bothe the Wardens, vjd.The date of Spenser's letter to Raleigh is 23 January 1589 (1590 New Style); the book itself appeared some time after
25 March. The text was indifferently proof-read, and a list of corrigenda (Faults Escaped in the Print) accompanies it.
Moreover, there is variation between individual copies of the edition. Early copies contain only ten dedicatory sonnets,
while later ones contain the full set of seventeen: for Spenser had made the signal blunder of omitting Lord Burleigh from
the illustrious company of dedicatees. To confuse matters further, a few copies contain a mixture of pages from the
original and revised versions.
The quarto edition of 1596 was also published by Ponsonby, and contains Books I-VI, variously bound into one or two
volumes. Books I-III were completely reset, apparently not from the MS. but from a copy of 1590 heavily annotated by the
author. Some, but not all, of the corrections listed in the Faults Escaped were incorporated in 1596. The end of Book III
was changed, continuing rather than ending the story of Scudamour and Amoret. Spenser also added a new stanza at
the beginning of Book I, Canto xi, rewrote some single lines, and made sundry adjustments to others. This process
continued even as pages passed through the press, so that there is variation from copy to copy, made more complex by
the mixing of sheets from different printings during binding. No single copy of 1596 can therefore be said to be definitive.
1596