History Literature / TheFaerieQueene

* BalefulPolymorph: The knights that give in to Acrasia's advances and abandon all reason to lust are gradually transformed into wild animals fueled only by the base passions they succumbed to. The story is clearly borrowing from the episode in ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' where Circe turns men into pigs, but the difference is that the men here are complicit in the process that turns them into animals.

* VirginInAWhiteDress: The first two things we learn about Alma is that she's a virign in a white gown, and sure enough, she's noted for her kindness and chastity despite pressuret to marry by many a rich knight.

* SeriesContinuityError: Prince Arthur learns that the lost woman he’s been chasing has been wandering since Britomart killed her true love five days before. The problem is that Britomart did that in Book 4, long after Arthur first saw the woman running mad in Book 1.

* NiceDayDeadlyNight: Part of Prince Arthur's sleep-deprived rant is railing against the night for allowing thieves and murderers to hide their crimes and another part is praising the day for exposing such sins and striking fear to those who committ them.

* RuleOfThree: Timias' monologue where grappling with his crush on Bellphoebe is three stanzas, each ending with "Dye rather, dy, than euer X." The first time he says it its to disway himself from loving her, then to disway himself from ever being disloyal to her, and lastly to promise never to forsake his love for her.

* FallenCupid: The evil enchanter attempting to force a maiden to love him of course decorates his house imagery of Cupid and his dominion over the gods.

** In Canto IV, Sir Guyon has a monologue that lasts through the night about how DarkIsEvil and the night brings out the worst of men's fears, regrets and sorrows that make it difficult for them to sleep anyway. The canto ends at dawn, with Guyon riding away completely exhausted.

* LightIsGood: Sir Guyon's diatribe against the night includes a brief praise for the day and how it exposes violence and lies for all to see and gives rise to truth and honesty that humanity needs in order to thrive.

** Dame Britomart represents chastity and most of her antsgonists are seducers and rapists attempting to take advantage of women not armed like fair Britomart.

* RingOfFire: Busirane castle is protected not by a gate, but a massive wall of sulphuric fire. Britomart is fierce enough to cut through the flames, but sad Scudamour is not so powerful.

* DeathGlare: Britomart rejects a pervert's advancements with but a look, which the author spends a verse describing as a fiery arrow piercing the man's black heart.

* DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest: After Florimell refuses the advancements of the witch's son, the witch assuades her sons carnal desires by creating an animated duplicate of Florimell out of snow and ice. He doesn't seem to see the difference.

* FourLinesAllWaiting: While the other books almost exclusively focused on their protagonist, our here Britomart is constantly OutOfFocus during cantos that follow Marinell’s mother, Prince Arthur, Florimell, Timias, Paridell, and Malbecco. Those other characters also go long stretches without appearing before popping up agan for a canto that gives them the spotlight again.

%%* TheCasanova: Paridell.

* FourLinesAllWaiting: While the other books almost exclusively focused on their protagonist, our here Britomart is constantly OutOfFocus during cantos that follow Marinell’s mother, Prince Arthur, Florinell, Timias, Parinell, and Malbecco. Those other characters also go long stretches without appearing before popping up agan for a canto that gives them the spotlight again.

* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Busirane and Amoret, Proteus and Florimell.

* MyBelovedSmother: Marinell's mother is adamantly against her son falling in love.

* NiceDayDeadlyNight: Part of Sir Guyon's sleep-deprived rant is railing against the night for allowing thieves and murderers to hide their crimes and another part is praising the day for exposing such sins and striking fear to those who committ them.

* StarCrossedLovers: Marinell and Florimell
* UglyGuyHotWife: Deconstructed with Malbecco and Hellenore

* CupidsArrow: There's an extended metaphor that as Timias' arrow wounds is mended, the wound from Cupid's arrow only grows deeper as he falls in love with Belphoebe.
* DarkIsEvil: Sir Guyon goes on a monologue detailing how night is a corruption from Hell, hiding the crimes of sinners, obscuring the beauty of God's creation, and giving the wicked rest while leaving the scrupulous turning in bed in fear, guilt, and sorrow.

* FourLinesAllWaiting: While the other books almost exclusively focused on their protagonist, our here Britomart is constantly OutOfFocus during cantos that follow Sir Guyon, Florinell, Parinell, Braggadochio, and Malbecco. Those other characters also go long stretches without appearing before popping up agan for a canto that gives them the spotlight again.

* SacredHospitality:

* SamusIsAGirl: Britomart. Once to the audience, and several times in-story.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Given its length and the fact that each book stars a new protagonist, there are six stories worth of supporting casts and perilous foes in this one poem.

* MegaMaelstrom: The ludicrously-spelled Quicksand of Vnthriftyhed and Vvhirlpoole of Decay are giant aquatic hazards capable of sucking giant ships filled with precious cargo into them to be lost forever. Metaphorically, each represents the inability of riches to persist due to a lack of frugality or the mere passage of time.

* GiveMeASword: Arthur breaks his spear killing Cymochles, leaving him unarmed against Pyrrochles until an old man tosses him Cymochles' sword. Since Cymochles and Pyrrochles stole this sword from a knight he thought was dead, it's karmic that Arthur uses this to win the fight.

* WowingCthulhu: The grief Cymoent feels upon her son's death is so profound that the world's sea monsters do nothing but watch with mouth agape as she approaches her son's corpse.

* BecauseDestinySaysSo

* TheCasanova: Paridell.

* FoeTossingCharge / NonLethalKO: Britomart's magic spear will unhorse any mounted foe, apparently without ever seriously injuring them.
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Belphoebe and Timias.

* RescueRomance: Timias falls in love with Belphoebe after she saves his life by healing his wounds.

* WeCanRuleTogether: Mammon offers Sir Guyon enough coin and gold to make a mountain out of if the knight only would serve him. Guyon refuses.

* LoveBeforeFirstSight: Britomart falls desperately for Artegall upon first seeing him from a distance. She's aware of how ludicrous this is and even feels guilty about it as she goes to sleep each night thinking of him. It takes her nurse's reassurance to convince Britomart that what she's feeling really is love, not just {{Lust}} or some narcissitic projection

* ActionGirl: Britomart, Belphoebe, Palladine, giving it probably the strongest female presence of any of the classic epics.

%%* TheEpic: The poem is a suitably important tale about noble knights doing battle with monsters in the early days of Great Britain's history. Like the classical epics, it is divided into Books and like medieval epics, those books are divided into canto and like both, the story is incredibly long.

%%* TheGhost: The Faerie Queene

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Given it's length and the fact that each book stars a new protagonist, there are six stories worth of supporting casts and perilous foes in this one poem.

** In Book I, the giant here is only twelve-feet tall, intelligent enough to speak, and civilized enough to have his own castle not to far from human civilization.

%%* PolarOppositeTwins: SeparatedAtBirth twins Belphoebe and Amoret

%%* SweetPollyOliver: Britomart and Glauce

%%* ThoseTwoGuys: Braggadocchio and Trompart, mostly harmless nuisances who go around posing as a knight and his squire

* [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Ye Olde Butcherede Middle Englishe]]: Spenser uses several archaisms to try to imitate the Middle English of Chaucer and his fourteenth century contemporaries, with varying degrees of success and failure. Several words with the "y-" prefix (used in Middle English to indicate the past participle, already more obsolete and exceedingly quaint by Spenser's time than "thou," for instance, is now) were made up by Spenser himself.

-->''"Well did Antiquitie a God thee deeme, /T hat ouer mortall minds hast so great might, / To order them, as best to thee doth seeme, / And all their actions to direct aright / Thou doest effect in destined descents, / Through deepe impression of thy secret might, / And stirredst vp th'Heroes high intents, / Which the late world admyres for wondrous monime[n]ts."''

*** In Canto IV, Sir Guyon has a monologue that lasts through the night about how DarkIsEvil and the night brings out the worst of men's fears, regrets and sorrows that make it difficult for them to sleep anyway. The canto ends at dawn, with Guyon riding away completely exhausted.

-->''"Our life is day, but death with darknesse doth begin."''

-->''Our life is day, but death with darknesse doth begin."''

* ProphecyTwist: Regarding Marinell meeting his doom at the hands of a woman, not by falling in love, as his mother assumed, but in battle against Britomart.

** The titular character never appears, but is praised by every hero who has met her for her wisdom and goodness. She also serves as the GreaterScopeParagon of the story, since all the faerie knights that act as protagonists serve under her.