Because of my new addiction to Tumblr, I have neglected this blog for quite some time. A trip to my friend's (and Renaissance man) dorm room changed that. I saw an annotated copy of Faerie Queene on his shelf and felt strangely drawn to it. I read the prologue and first few stanzas of Book I and remembered my failed attempt to read the book back in 6th grade. (Barely got past Red Cross' quest and didn't understand a word of it.) This sense of adventure and nostalgia inspired me to borrow the book.
Instead of letting it rot on my bookshelf, I started reading Faerie Queene on the last day of finals after quick reads of Twelfth Night and Hamlet to re-acquaint myself with the Elizabethan idiom. This blog chronicles my halting journey through the six lengthy books of the greatest 16th century poem written in English. Thanks to Hiroshi Yamashita, Toshiyuki Suzuki, and Shohachi Fukuda for their invaluable notes and annotations.
The format of this blog will be a close stanza/canto/book reading of Faerie Queene. I will write a short synopsis of the stanza, define and provide context for an unfamiliar word (because Spenser tried to find knowledge and truth through words), flesh out a connection with earlier literature, and end with a "general observation" on the stanza tying its content with universal themes.
Here's a facsimile of the Faerie Queene's original title page from 1590:
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