Edmund Spencer is recognized as one of…
July 1590 CE
Edmund Spencer is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English language.
A letter written by Spenser to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1589 contains an early plan for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth, the magical "virgin" Queen, in which Spenser describes the allegorical presentation of virtues through Arthurian knights in the mythical "Faerieland."
Presented as a preface to the epic in most published editions, this letter outlines plans for twenty-four books: twelve based each on a different knight who exemplified one of twelve "private virtues", and a possible twelve more centered on King Arthur displaying twelve "public virtues".
Spenser names Aristotle as his source for these virtues, although the influence of Thomas Aquinas can be observed as well.
It is impossible to predict what the work would have looked like had Spenser lived to complete it, but the reliability of the predictions made in his letter to Raleigh is not absolute, as numerous divergences from that scheme emerge as early as 1590, in the first Faerie Queene publication.