Spenser Edmund - Spenser, Milton, and the Redemption of the Epic Hero

Books about both Spenser and Milton are remarkably rare. The Faerie Queene , Paradise Lost , and Paradise Regained are, to be sure, relatively long and sometimes difficult poems. But each author is, in his own right, considered a major figure in the epic tradition, and many readers of both have sensed a connection between the twoa connection that demands further study and thought. I know that this was my own experience. The present book is an effort to fill this gap. I hope that it will answer a number of questions about religion and literary form in the major works of these authors. I hope no less that it will prompt others to ask their own questions about what linksand what separatesthe two greatest English exponents of the Christian narrative poem.

While few other scholars have attempted a comparative study, libraries are, of course, filled with a wealth of learning on each of the two poets. And the loneliness of this particular road has been relieved by the advice and encouragement of teachers, colleagues, and friends. I record my gratitude in these respects below.

An early version of a part of chapter 3 appeared in Uncircumscribed Mind: Reading Milton Deeply , edited by Kristin A. Pruitt and Charles W. Durham (2008), and was presented at the Conference on John Milton at Middle Tennessee State University in October 2003. An early version of a part of chapter 1 was presented to the Renaissance Society of Southern California at the Huntington Library in March 2005. I am grateful to Susquehanna University Press for permission to reprint, and to my audiences in Murfreesboro and Pasadena for their comments and queries.

I must acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the libraries in which I undertook my research: the Bodleian, Taylorian, and English Faculty libraries at the University of Oxford; the Sterling Memorial and Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts libraries at Yale University; and the British Library. For financial support I thank the Graduate School at Yale, which awarded me several fellowships; the Beinecke Library for an H. P. Kraus Fellowship; and the Scholarships Committee of the Inner Temple, London, whose generosity allowed me the time to work on the manuscript while reading for the Bar.

My principal intellectual debts are to David Quint and John Rogers, who supervised the doctoral dissertation from which this book grew and who continued to provide advice and encouragement as the project developed. I also received useful suggestions at different stages from Stefanie Markovitz, Jill Campbell, Pericles Lewis, Larry Manley, and Elliot Visconsi, as well as from the two anonymous readers at the University of Delaware Press. I have benefitted from less formal discussions with Brett Foster, Anthony Welch, Pramit Chaudhuri, and Andrea Walkdenand from their friendship. Whatever merit this book may possess owes an incalculable amount to the persistently acute criticism of my wife, Rachel. Without her unflagging support, it would never have seen the light of day.