WorkEdmund Spenser

The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene (London: William Ponsonby, 1590?96); Inferred

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599) · London: William Ponsonby, 1590?96

ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1827–1845

Letters • Books • Essays • Notebooks

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence1record

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist4records

V. New York4records

VI. Europe

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1827—

Reading Notebook 1825–1827

p. 103

analyzed · readSearch Digital Fuller (page unverified)

“I think that, which is very injurious as to impression in Spenser's / poem, is / the introduction of active personages under abstract names; I dislike the / allegory always prominent.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notebook 1825–1827." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Inferred Fuller mentions 'Spenser's poem' in contrast to the Italian poets but names no specific title; The Faerie Queene is the obvious reference.

1838—

Letter to Elizabeth S. Calvert

p352

quoted · read

“a letter directed to me at Groton, Mass would reach me and "make a sunshine in the shady place.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller quotes the phrase "make a sunshine in the shady place," which Hudspeth identified as coming from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto III, stanza 6, where the full passage describes Una's radiant face.

1841—

Letter to William H. Channing

p213

analyzed · read

“If Britomart finds Artegall bound in the enchanter's spell, can she doubt therefore him whom she has seen in the magic glass.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

1841—

The Dial

“Goethe” · Vol. 2, No. 1, July 1841

read

“till the lovers of the false Florimels hurl the true knight to the ground.”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p28

Inferred The phrase “false Florimels” alludes to Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, in which the enchantress Duessa fashions a snow-woman replica of Florimell to deceive knights.

1843—

Letter to Elizabeth Hoar

p126

read

“there was your face at the window looking, indeed, like Unas and Sisters of Mercy.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

Inferred Fuller compares Elizabeth Hoar to "Unas and Sisters of Mercy," alluding to Una and the allegorical figures in Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto 10. Hudspeth identified that Fuller refers to Una (personification of Truth) and the three theological virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity—alongside Mercy, using the composite allusion to characterize Hoar as an embodiment of consolation and spiritual truth.

Hudspeth identified that Fuller refers to Una (personification of Truth) and the three theological virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity—alongside Mercy, using the composite allusion to characterize Hoar as an embodiment of consolation and spiritual truth.

1843—

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843

excerpted · quoted · read2 selected passages

“You, Old Church, are of use, by keeping unforgot the effigies of old religion, and reviving the tone of pure Spenserian sentiment, which this time is apt to stifle in its childish haste.”

Inferred Fuller invokes 'pure Spenserian sentiment' as a quality associated with Old Church ? a tone of reverent, chivalric, and allegorical Christian piety characteristic of The Faerie Queene and Spenser's moral allegory more broadly

“A looking-glass, right wondrously aguized, / Whose virtues through the wyde world soon were solemnized.”

Inferred Fuller directly quotes eight stanzaic lines from The Faerie Queene, Book III, with explicit attribution ('Faerie Queene, Book III').

Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.

1844—

Letter to Georgiana Bruce

p223

read

“When I can, I will send 'The Fairy Queen' to the address you mention”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

1845—

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

p55

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“The range of female character in Spenser alone might content us for one period.”

Inferred Named explicitly with multiple characters: Britomart, Belphoebe, Florimel, Una from The Faerie Queene. Fuller explicitly names Spenser with Britomart, Belphoebe, Florimel, and Una.

“follow Duessa, and lead you in the green glades where Una's feet have trod.”

Inferred Una and Duessa named explicitly from The Faerie Queene as emblems of truth and falsehood. Una (Truth) and Duessa (Falsehood/Duplicity) are allegorical figures in The Faerie Queene.

Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.

1845—

Review.

“Review.”

quoted · read

“A Waif, the which by fortune came Upon your seas, he claimed as property: And yet nor his, nor his in equity, But yours the waif by high prerogative.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Review." New-York Daily Tribune, 16 January 1845. · 16 January 1845