"Well grounded, finely framed, and strongly trussed up together": The "medieval" structure of The 'Faerie Queene' (The impact of medieval literature and traditions on the works of Edmund Spenser)

Spenser's description of The Faerie Queene as the 'matter of iust memory' p rompts readers to be sensitive to the various traditions and sources which are remembered or embodied in the work. Spenser's 'originality' is in no da nger of being questioned; what needs further consideration is the significa nce of his deliberate syncretism, what it means that he should draw togethe r different literary and cultural strands and allow their differences to re main visible, even when those differences appear to signal contradiction. T he overall structure of The Faerie Queene needs to be seen from this perspe ctive - 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 Th e Faerie Queene suggests the profound impact of medieval literature and tra ditions upon the work; the structure is not only generally medieval in char acter, in a sense which the article defines, but it also relates to, or 're members', specific examples of medieval works and forms of books. The artic le begins with a brief survey of aspects of The Faerie Queene other than st ructure which demonstrate Spenser's interest in the English Middle Ages, an d then recalls, also briefly, the issues and perspectives in modern scholar ship which relate to a sense of the work's overall structure.