SPENSER

The Characters in Spencer's Faerie Queene
Fine Arts Prints

When in about 1825 Blake painted a large picture illustrating the Characters of Spenser's Faerie Queene, he included the minute detail which Spencer has lavished upon his poem. As usual when Blake illustrated his predecessors he was commenting on aspects of their thought with which he agreed and on what he found to be in error. Spenser was one of the authors whose work Blake found contained vision even though as an allegory it failed to represent what Exists in Eternity. 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 554)
"The Last Judgment is not Fable or Allegory
but Vision Fable or Allegory are a totally distinct & inferiorkind of Poetry.
Vision or Imagination is a Representation of

what Eternally Exists.  Really & Unchangeably.  Fable or Allegory
is Formd by the Daughters of Memory.  Imagination is Surrounded
by the daughters of Inspiration who in the aggregate are calld
Jerusalem     Fable is Allegory but what Critics call The
Fable is Vision itself   The Hebrew Bible & the Gospel of
Jesus are not Allegory but Eternal Vision or Imagination of All
that Exists  Note here that Fable or Allegory is Seldom without
some Vision   Pilgrims Progress is full of it the Greek Poets the
same but 
Allegory & Vision& Visions of Imagination ought
to be known as Two Distinct Things & so calld for the Sake of
Eternal Life"  

The Blake Archive has published an article on Blake's The Characters in Spenser’s Faerie Queene. The authors John E. Grant Robert E. Brown have made a detailed analysis of the individuals in the picture which were included in the Faerie Queene. Blake included numerous Spencer characters, many of whom are not clearly visible. As Blake did in his illustration of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, he portrayed the essential identity of each individual as the author delineated them. Grant and Brown use Blake's illustration to make it possible to grasp a sense of Spenser's allegory through seeing men and women interacting with one another.

Here is a sample from the The Faerie Queene: Book I, Canto I provided by the Poetry Foundation 
By Edmund Spenser 

lv

Long after lay he musing at her mood,

Much griev'd to think that gentle Dame so light,

For whose defence he was to shed his blood.

At last dull wearinesse of former fight

Having yrockt a sleepe his irkesome spright,

That troublous dreame gan freshly tosse his braine,

With bowres, and beds, and Ladies deare delight:

But when he saw his labour all was vaine,

With that misformed spright he backe returnd againe.  

The Gutenberg Press published Book 1 of The Faerie Queene edited and introduced by George Armstrong Wauchope. He provides thorough introductory information on the setting, form and content of the work.

Wauchope writes:
"That the allegory of the poem is closely connected with its aim and ethical tendency is evident from the statement of the author that "the generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline. Which for that I conceived should be most plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historical fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for varietie of matter then for profite of the ensample." The Faerie Queene is, therefore, according to the avowed purpose of its author, a poem of culture. Though it is one of the most highly artistic works in the language, it is at the same time one of the most didactic. 'It professes," says Mr. Church, "to be a veiled exposition of moral philosophy.'"

It easy to see how there would be much in Spenser's allegory which would not appeal to Blake's mythopoetic sensibilities.

Elizabeth Jane Darnill, in her thesis submitted to the University of Exeter, titled "Four-fold vision see": Allegory in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser and William Blake makes this statement which clarifies the relationship between imagination, seeing 'thru' the eye, and reading allegory for its visionary content:

"For Blake, the imagination is a continually lived experience, though he is fully aware of the extent to which readers fail to acknowledge and engage with their imaginations. Instead of seeing the “Infinite & Eternal,” readers often confine and limit their minds to the scope of the rational and sensible. A major theme within Blake’s verse, especially in Milton, The Four Zoas and Jerusalem, is the reawakening of the imagination, the awareness of alternative ways of viewing and interpreting. He sought to invite his readers to think and to see more deeply and profoundly. In this sense, the imagination working in partnership with allegory, guides and prompts a greater awareness of multiple levels of viewing. Just as Spenser’s allegorical work encourages readers to use their imagination, Blake’s imaginative verse inspires a deep interrogation of the text and the revelation of the allegorical meanings within it. Readers who see not 'with' but 'through' the eyes are using their minds – their imaginative faculties – when evaluating a scene, rather than relying purely upon the singular dimension of sight when reading the text (“Auguries of Innocence” ll. 125-26). Through allegorical-imaginative didacticism, Blake strives to convey the power of the human imagination."

Manchester City Gallery
Edmund Spenser
for William Hayley's Library