Date of Award
Spring 2001
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
Abstract
In Book IV, canto v of The Faerie Queene, Scudamour is seen traveling in the company of Britomart's Squire, Glauce. He is agonizing from jealousy and a desire for revenge, kindled in him earlier by the false Duessa and the hellish "mother of Debate," Ate. They had told him that his beloved Amoret loosely and wantonly "sleepes, and sports, and playes" (IV. i. 47) with another knight. While Scudamour dwells in this highly emotional state, the travelers come across a cottage of the blacksmith Care and stay there for the night. The following scene, taking place in the House of Care (IV.v.33-46), is a classic sample of the allegorical treatment of the hero's psychological state. The allegorical tableau of Care's ceaseless forging parallels and mirrors Scudamour's suffering from the grip of anxiety ('care') and insomnia. The allegorical description provides an economic--graphic and visual, dynamic and precise in detail--literalization of the agonizing mind's restlessness through a series of conventional iconographic images and details...