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THE FAERIE QUEENE ' KINDS ' OF ALLEGORY, IV
but she is far more She is a woman with sufficient lndividuality-to be
pre-eminently dear to that poet who of all other delighted
his happlness 'in this would which is the world of all of us And such
in the main Is the structural allegory of the Faerie Queene. The characters,
indeed, are seldom presented with the subtle and complex "detall of
a realist Spenser's whole artistic method is that of idealization, and
of emphasis on the essential But for all that he bases it on life Sometimes,
indeed, it is impossible to determine whether the ideal conception
or the character which expresses it was his initial inspiration,, whether
in SirCalictore he thought first of Courtesy or of Sir Philip Sidney, whe ther
hedrew Timias from Rategh or'found himself in his delineation of reckless
honour falling back unconsciously upon his knowledge of his daring and
impetuous friend. Allegory of this kind can easily be distinguished from
the more obvious personification, however vivid , it has ail the character
of myth, which, apart from all its symbolism, has complete artistic life
Thus Spenser ldealizes real persons, and he breathes life into abstractions
He sees Hope not merely as a symbolic figure leaning upon an
anchor, But as living woman, whose face bears signs of „ the anguish
hidden at her heart He sees Lord Grey not simply as a sagacious and
Just-minded man, but "as the faery knight of justice By his side he sets
Talus, the iron man, that most powerful erhbodiment of Justice in the
abstract In Sir Artegal and his remorseless squire the different types
of allegory are seen at once in their boldest contrast and in perfect
harmony And so the Graces who dance before Colin upon the mount of
Acidale are not three but four in number, for in the midst of these
ancient ' handmaids of Venus, daughters of delight', who to the Greeks
symbolized all the grace and charm of womanhood, is' placed paravaunt'
the woman that Colin loved, the heroine of the Amoretti and the
Eftthalamion But there is nothing incongruous The real meets the ideal
ideal in faery land and its kinship is acknowledged
And even where the allegorical form is least spontaneous and most
nearly dead, Spenser's imagination breathes life into what seems doomed
to be formal and mechanic The ingenious symbolism of the Castle of
Alma might well have been borrowed from the dryest scholasticism, and
in the description of its lower regions, where the maister cooke Decoction
officiates with the kitchen clerke Digestion, Spenser's art sinks to its lowest.
Yet even within these antiquated walls we meet with vividly real people
Like Sir Guyon, we are drawn to that strangely shy maiden, dressed m
her thickly folded robe of blue We watch the flashing blood inflame
her lovely face as Guyon addresses her, and the human appeal of the scene
is not lessened when Alma reveals its ideal significance :
Why wonder yee
Faire Sir at that, which ye so much embrace ?
She is the fountaine of your modestee,
You shamefast are, but Sbamefastnesse it selfe is shee. (II ix 43 )