Boethian patterns in Spenser's "Faerie Queene"

Abstract

The intellectual framework of The Faerie Queene involves tensions between the individual heroes' capacities to achieve their quests and their dependency upon God's grace, and between the Providential governance of the universe and the apparently random, impersonal forces that seem to belie divine omnipotence and benevolence. Spenser's solution is Christian; but he usually states the problems in pagan terms so that the reader may avoid substituting the foregone conclusions of faith for the arduous process of reason which must precede the act of faith. The patterns whereby the tensions are stated and resolved is called "Boethian" because of the tremendous influence of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, which employs the same techniques. Because this work mediates between the pagan philosophical tradition in which Boethius was educated and the medieval Catholic statement and because it was known to medieval and Renaissance theologians and poets, this work is analyzed in the context of intellectual history beginning with Plato and continuing with Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Arminius and the Anglican theologians of Spenser's time. The final section examines those sections of The Faerie Queene devoted to Boethian themes as defined above. The conclusion analyzes the cantos of Mutabilitie, Spenser's most evident analogue to Boethius' Fortune.