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How did Italian romance influence the structure of The Faerie Queene?
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Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser, oil painting by an unknown artist; in the collection of Pembroke College, Cambridge, England.
The structure of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene was significantly shaped by the traditions of Italian romance, particularly the heroic epics of Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso.
The influence of this genre is evident in several key structural elements:
- Division and Organization: Spenser adopted the Italian romance practice of dividing his long poem into books and cantos.1
- Narrative Technique: The poem utilizes entrelacement, a hallmark of the genre characterized by a continually bifurcating and infolded narrative. This technique allows for multiple, overlapping storylines rather than a single, linear plot.12
- Heroic Scope: Following the precedent set by Italian poets like Ariosto, whose Orlando furioso provided a model for epic storytelling, Spenser constructed his work as a heroic poem that weaves together diverse adventures, legends, and moral allegories.134
While Spenser drew upon these Italian structural conventions, he adapted them to serve his own unique purpose: creating a complex religious, moral, and political allegory centered on the virtues of knights serving the Faerie Queene.1