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Spenser's Theory of Courtesy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

A. C. Judson*
Affiliation:
Indiana University

Extract

Professor H. S. V. Jones in his recently published Spenser Handbook (New York, 1930) has an interesting and valuable chapter on Book vi of The Faerie Queene. Much of his discussion is concerned with the so-called courtesy literature of the Renaissance, which offers striking parallels to Spenser's illustration of the virtue of courtesy. According to Professor Jones, Spenser's object in Book vi is “to exhibit in his allegory certain articles in that familiar creed of courtesy which had been stated and expounded in many doctrinal treatises of the Renaissance, and to oppose to the ideal of the gentleman the forces which were hostile to its realization.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 1932 , pp. 122 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932

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References

1 P. 281. Though interesting parallels to certain phases of Spenser's conception of courtesy may be found in classical philosophy, especially in the Aristotelian ethics, I agree with Professor Jones that the more important sources of Spenser's ideal of courtesy are to be sought elsewhere. Cf. J. J. Jusserand, M.P. iii, 376; W. F. DeMoss, ibid., xvi, 36; H. S. V. Jones, op. cit., pp. 281–285.

2 This paper represents the rewriting of an essay that I had ready for publication at the time Professor Jones' Spenser Handbook appeared. My conclusions are based largely on the following courtesy books and kindred works on the gentleman. I give the titles in chronological order and include the editions to which I refer in this paper.

Castiglione, Baldassare, Il Libro del Cortegiano, 1528 (tr. Opdycke, Leonard E., The Book of the Courtier, New York, 1903).

Elyot, Sir Thomas, The Boke Named The Governour, 1531 (Everyman's Library).

Nenna, Giovambattista, Il Nennio, 1542 (tr. Jones, William, Nennio, or A Treatise of Nobility, London, 1595).

The Institucion of a Gentleman, London, 1555.

Casa, Giovanni della, Il Galateo, 1558 (tr. Peterson, Robert, Galateo of Maister Iohn Della Casa, London, 1576).

Humphrey, Lawrence, Optimales, sive de Noblitate, 1560 (The Nobles or of Nobilitye, London, 1563).

Ascham, Roger, The Scholemaster, 1570 (ed. Wright, W. A., Cambridge, 1904).

Guazzo, Stefano, La Civil Conversatione, 1574 (tr. Pettie, George, and Young, Bartholomew, 1581, 1586, reprinted in The Tudor Translations, London, 1925).

Mulcaster, Richard, Positions, 1581 (ed. Quick, Robert H., London, 1888).

The Coorte of Ciuill Courtesie (tr. Robson, Simon, London, 1582).

Romei, Annibale, Discorsi, 1585 (tr. Kepers, John, The Courtiers Academie, London, 1598).

Alexander Corbin Judson

Ferne, Sir John, The Blazon of Genlrie (London, 1586).

Segar, Sir William, The Booke of Honor and Armes (London, 1590).

Cleland, James, ΠPŌΠAIΔEIΔ, or The Institution of a Young Noble Man (Oxford, 1607).

Refuge, Eustache de, Traité de la Cour, ou Instruction des Courtisans, 1617 (tr. Reynolds, John, A Treatise of the Court or Instructions for Courtiers, London, 1622).

Breton, Nicholas, The Court and Country (London, 1618).

3 Cf. G. M. Vogt, “Gleanings for the History of a Sentiment: Generositas Virtus, non Sanguis,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology, xxiv, 102–124, for the currency of this idea from Seneca and Juvenal on.

4 Op. cit., p. 288.

5 Ibid., p. 286.

6 Ibid., p. 289.

7 Ll. 91–96.

8 See the “Commendatory Sonnets” in any standard edition of Spenser.

9 vi, iii, 1.

10 Ibid.

11 vi, ii, 28.

12 vi, v, 2.

13 vi, v, 37.

14 vi, xii, 10.

15 vi, vii, 28.

16 vi, vi, 36.

17 H. V. S. Jones, op. cit., pp. 286, 288.

18 P. 22. Cf. Aristotle Politics iii. 13: “ … those who are sprung from better ancestors are likely to be better men, for nobility is excellence of race” (tr. Jowett).

19 P. 200.

20 vi, iii, 1.

21 P. 223.

22 P. 52.

23 P. 22. Cf. also Nenna, Nennio, pp. 9r, 9v. These analogies may derive ultimately from Horace Od. iv, 4, cited by Upton: “… in steers, in steeds, appear the merits of their sires; nor do fierce eagles beget timid doves” (tr. Bennett).

24 Castiglione and Spenser agree in believing that personal grace and charm are gifts of nature and of heaven and yet can in some measure be acquired by painful effort. With Castiglione, pp. 22, 23, cf. Spenser, vi, ii, 2.

26 Op. cit., pp. 291–293.

28 vi, i, 2.

27 Ibid.

28 vi, xii, 2.

29 vi, i, 2.

30 vi, ix, 44.

31 vi, iii, 25.

32 vi, x, 39.

33 vi, ix, 41.

34 vi, ix, 35.

35 vi, ix, 41–44.

36 vi, iii, 40.

37 vi, i, 30.

38 vi, i, 28.

39 vi, i, 34, 40.

40 vi, ii, 47.

41 vi, i, 23.

42 vi, xi, 49.

43 vi, vi, 33.

44 P. 26 (quoted by Professor Jones).

45 P. 83.

46 vi i, 3.

47 vi, iii, 18.

48 vi, vii, 16.

49 vi, vi, 20.

50 i, 97.

51 Cf. James W. Holme, “Italian Courtesy-Books of the Sixteenth Century,” MLR, v, 146, 147.

52 P. 29.

53 P. 72 ff.

54 P. v4v.

55 P. 217.

56 P. 217.

57 P. 197.

58 P. 54.

59 P. 88. Ultimately this idea goes back to Aristotle. Professor Jones compares The Faerie Queene, vi, ii, 1, with Aristotle, Book iv, ch. 6, where we are informed that the man of friendly civility “will not associate in the same spirit with people of high position and with ordinary people, or with people whom he knows well and whom he knows only slightly, and so on as other differences may occur; but he will render to each class its proper due.”

60 i, 168. Cf. also i, 114, 135.

61 P. A8v.

62 iv, iii, 2.

63 iv, x, 51.

64 vi ii, 1.

65 vi, xii, 2.

66 vi, i, 13.

67 vi, iii, 40, 48; vi, 34.

68 vi, viii, 35.

69 Pp. P6v–Q2v.

70 i, 229.

71 i, 228.

72 vi, i, 8.

73 vi, vi, 11.

74 vi, i, 9; cf. Amoretti, lxxxv.

76 vi, vi, 1.

76 vi, ix, 3.

77 vi, xii, 40.

78 vi, i, 9.

79 vi, iii, 16.

80 vi, vi, 15.

81 Pp. 154, 176.

82 P. 288.

83 P. 57.

84 i, 65.

85 i, 74, 75. Cf. also i, 107.

86 i, 106.

87 vi, i, 1;x, 23.

88 vi, li, 11.

89 vi, iv, 11–16.

90 vi, ix, 4. It is not, however, Coridon, the typical shepherd, who reveals true courtesy, but rather Meliboe, who had labored for ten yars in the prince's garden (vi, ix, 24, 25).

91 vi, Proem, 7; i, 1.

92 vi, v, 38.

93 vi, ix, 25.

94 vi, x, 3.

95 iii, vi, 1.

96 Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (ll. 651–786) proves that experience rather than literary tradition or current criticism dictated, in the main, Spenser's views on court and country.

97 Pp. 208, 236.

98 P. 34.

99 Pp. 176, 177.

100 p. 87r.

101 P. 58.

102 i, 155, 156.

103 vi, ix, 45.

104 vi, x, 37.

105 The Mediaeval Mind (London, 1911), i, 530.