John Lance Griffith, Britomart’s Spear and Merlin’s Mirror - Magics Meaningful and Meaningless in Faerie Queene Book III   pp. 75~91 ( 17 pages)


Abstract

This essay examines the function and symbolism of magic in the narrative of Britomart, the female knight in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Though she is not herself magical, the initial episode in Book III where we first encounter Britomart does link her to magic in interesting ways. We realize how Spenser invests the idea and image of magic with meanings that develop important themes in Britomart’s (and indeed Spenser’s overarching) story. I argue that the way in which this section of the poem repeatedly de-emphasizes the significance and the power of magic cleverly allows Spenser at once to advance an argument for Elizabeth’s greatness (as a virtuous queen) and for his own (as a poet of a significant power rivaling that of any wondrous magic recorded in romance). 
  
 저자 키워드   Key words
  
 Magic, Britomart, Spenser, Faerie Queen, Elizabeth I