Really fantastic. I love all of the thinking through the narrow path. The wise Palmer. The idea of mean and fortitude.

And the history Canto! Fantastic!

And how much of the Odyssey is pulled into the final Canto.

And Sir Guyon.

Glad to be watching Kelly Cumbee's class to help with understanding.

Listening to Timson's reading while following the text helps so much.

I genuinely thought that essay might end me. That’s not a judgement statement on Spenser, but rather an assessment of my own HUBRIS!

i love britomart so much but she deserves so much better

A difficult read to trudge through because of the old English language/spellings. Hard for me to appreciate now but I'm sure I'll like it more after discussing it in class for the next two weeks.

yes…. YES

Gorgeous fantasy you can (almost) imagine any way you want. I loved the prose patterns and the complexity of each paragraph, how they spiderwebbed between lore and fantasies. Images of demons, fairies, and souls in the river, really blew me away. I did not enjoy the eulogising of the queen or the undercurrent of godliness/goodness; I am not sure if I took any temperaments out of this. I found the writing of the lady characters in this book quite one-dimensional; through the leering point of view of the writer. Definitely an okay leisure read. Not a keeper of the book, yet it'd be fun to try and write in this faux-old style.

Guyon (Temperance) and his Palmer (who tells Guyon what temperance is) are often boring, but the House of Temperance and Prince Arthur are stunning and many of the temptations are beautiful. I love Spenser's interjections--he invokes and praises Queen Elizabeth ("To decke my song withall, I would assay / Thy name, O Soveraine Queene, to blazon farre away") and seems to admit Guyon is a bit dull ("here I a while must stay / to see a cruell fight doen by the Prince this day" he says before devoting Canto 11 to Arthur). One of my favorite stanzas is about Arthur's quest for Gloriana, which brings him to each of Spenser's books:

Certes (then said the Prince) I God avow,
That sith I armes and knighthood first did plight,
My whole desire hath beene, and yet is now,
To serve that Queene with all my power and might.
Now hath the Sunne with his lamp-burning light,
Walkt round about the world, and I no less,
Sith of that Goddess I have sought the sight,
Yet no where can her find; such happiness
Heaven doth to me envy, and fortune favour lesse.