Spenser and the Discourses of Reformation England.

Richard Mallette. Spenser and the Discourses of Reformation England.

Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. x + 289 pp. $42.50. ISBN: 0-8032-3195-4.

Though many books offer a "religious approach" to The Faerie Queene, this particular book constitutes a welcome and ground-breaking contribution. Other critics have asked, "On the evidence of the poem, what did Edmund Spenser believe?" or, "What does the poem mean in terms of a particular doctrinal system?" Malletre, by contrast, warns us not to equate "religion" with "doctrine" and invites us to recognize "belief as an activity separable from religious culture" (210). He is interested in The Faerie Queene as part of that "religious culture" and seeks to show us how that culture's discourses inform and shape a range of episodes throughout the six completed books of the poem.

Mallette convincingly identifies the homily (or sermon; he uses the words almost interchangeably) as the foundational aspect of religious culture in the period: "the one art form -- and the one form of learning -- that every person in Reformation England, educated or not, witnessed" (204). Accordingly he brings to this study a knowledge of printed sermons and homilies, Biblical commentary, and edifying treatises, an enormous body of material unfamiliar to many Spenserians. These materials are especially relevant to The Faerie Queene, which is enough like a sermon for Spenser to have made the comparison explicit in his letter to Ralegh, where he anticipates that some would prefer to have "good discipline ... sermoned at large, as they use." Perhaps such readers were less disappointed than Spenser anticipated, for Mallette finds characters -- both major and minor, positive and unsympathetic -- delivering homilies throughout the poem. Further, Mallette's conversance with contemporary preaching manuals allows hi m to identify these homilies by type and judge them in terms of their order, delivery, and appropriateness to the occasion.

Mallette devotes a chapter to each book of the poem, but one of the best things about his work is its demonstration of important thematic and discursive connections between books. "Discourses of Preaching in Book I" shows how Reformation theories of preaching express conflicting ideas of free will and total depravity, ideas that correspond to the apparent contradiction in Spenser's presentation of Redcrosse. Mallette does not resolve this long-standing puzzle, but shows how the poem "gives play to those discourses" (28). "Sermon Parody and Discourses of the Flesh in Book II," originally published in Spenser Studies 7 (1987), examines several characters as preachers, including Mammon and Phaedria, and includes a persuasive reading of Guyon's much-discussed faint upon his emergence from the Cave of Mammon. "Reformation Continence and Spenserian Chastity in Book III" links the titular virtues of second and third book to find that "the distrust of eros not far beneath the surface of Reformation discourse on marr iage is much in evidence in this book's treatment of marriage and sexuality" (108). "Revenge and Companionate Marriage in Book IV" sets the poem's many violent encounters and tournaments in the context of a clearly articulated but conflicted religious discourse on revenge--a discourse which, in Spenser's hands, Mallette sees as compromising the ideal of marital companionship. "Post-Armada Apocalyptic Discourse in Book V," first published in Spenser Studies 11 (1994), demonstrates important connections between Books I and V in their inscription of Reformation commentaries on the Apocalypse, though Book I endorses preaching as "the most efficacious means of foiling Antichrist" (163), while Book V evinces a greater confidence in arms. "Providence, Fortune, and Free Will in Book VI" connects the Legend of Courtesy to Book I in its "concerns about freedom of the will and its relation to both providence and fortune" (169), though Mallette sees the salvation in this book as secular and humanly effected.

Mallette gives us not only a fresh look at many episode in The Faerie Queene but a careful orientation to the religious culture of Spenser's day -- more than enough for one good book. His awareness of the contributions of other Spenserians is exemplary, as is his generosity. This volume is also carefully edited and produced, though a bibliography presenting all the sources cited in the notes would have been a welcome addition.