{"title":"埃德蒙·斯宾塞的《终结感","authors":"J. Russell","doi":"10.1163/23526963-04901003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Throughout his Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser depicts himself as a “poet magus” who can peer behind the veil of Nature in order to discover a “secret teaching” of ethical and political virtue that he will impart to his readers. His readers are thus tasked with the chore of reforming the fallen world through the creation of an empire under Elizabeth. However, in “The Two Cantos of Mutabilitie,” Spenser seems to relinquish this vision. Indeed, Mutabilitie, on one level serves as a mirroring figure of Spenser’s own ambitions. Mutabilitie’s claims for the fragility and mutability of (temporal) existence are prefigured throughout The Faerie Queene, but in “The Two Cantos,” they take center stage. Spenser’s depiction of Nature’s triumph over Mutabilitie provides a lesson for Spenser himself, and he appears to reject his bombastic claims of knowledge as well as his projected imperial vision for a position of humble supplication before God, whose Providence is the ultimately the most powerful force in The Faerie Queene.","PeriodicalId":55910,"journal":{"name":"Explorations in Renaissance Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Edmund Spenser’s Sense of an Ending\",\"authors\":\"J. Russell\",\"doi\":\"10.1163/23526963-04901003\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"\\n Throughout his Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser depicts himself as a “poet magus” who can peer behind the veil of Nature in order to discover a “secret teaching” of ethical and political virtue that he will impart to his readers. His readers are thus tasked with the chore of reforming the fallen world through the creation of an empire under Elizabeth. However, in “The Two Cantos of Mutabilitie,” Spenser seems to relinquish this vision. Indeed, Mutabilitie, on one level serves as a mirroring figure of Spenser’s own ambitions. Mutabilitie’s claims for the fragility and mutability of (temporal) existence are prefigured throughout The Faerie Queene, but in “The Two Cantos,” they take center stage. Spenser’s depiction of Nature’s triumph over Mutabilitie provides a lesson for Spenser himself, and he appears to reject his bombastic claims of knowledge as well as his projected imperial vision for a position of humble supplication before God, whose Providence is the ultimately the most powerful force in The Faerie Queene.\",\"PeriodicalId\":55910,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Explorations in Renaissance Culture\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.1000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-08-17\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Explorations in Renaissance Culture\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1163/23526963-04901003\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE STUDIES\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Explorations in Renaissance Culture","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/23526963-04901003","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
Throughout his Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser depicts himself as a “poet magus” who can peer behind the veil of Nature in order to discover a “secret teaching” of ethical and political virtue that he will impart to his readers. His readers are thus tasked with the chore of reforming the fallen world through the creation of an empire under Elizabeth. However, in “The Two Cantos of Mutabilitie,” Spenser seems to relinquish this vision. Indeed, Mutabilitie, on one level serves as a mirroring figure of Spenser’s own ambitions. Mutabilitie’s claims for the fragility and mutability of (temporal) existence are prefigured throughout The Faerie Queene, but in “The Two Cantos,” they take center stage. Spenser’s depiction of Nature’s triumph over Mutabilitie provides a lesson for Spenser himself, and he appears to reject his bombastic claims of knowledge as well as his projected imperial vision for a position of humble supplication before God, whose Providence is the ultimately the most powerful force in The Faerie Queene.