Sunday, May 8, 2011

Book II, Canto XI « The Faerie Queene

Before dawn the next morning Guyon and the Palmer are preparing to leave. Alma arranges a boat for them and off they go. Just as Guyon is leaving, the hordes of wicked villains are back to attach the castle. This time there are more than a thousand, "so huge and infinite their numbers were, / That all the land they vnder them did hide". They are led by an evil Captain who strategically places his 12 groups of fighters against the castle. In front of the gate he sets 7 groups (the deadly sins). The other 5 attack each bulwark, representing the physical senses of the body-castle: Vile-looking creatures against the eyes – Sight Creatures with vile verbal assaults against the ears – Hearing Spenser doesn't give any specific descriptions of stank, but a section of the horde is fighting the nose – Smell Greedy ugly creatures assault the mouth – Taste And finally, texturally unpleasant things like hedgehogs and snails are against the skin – Touch The castle defends itself but the fight isn't going so well for them. Prince Arthur steps in, gears up, and heads out with his squire to fight the monsters. The monsters let out a terrible cry at seeing a knight in shining armor and immediately swarm him with arrows. The evil Captain hears the commotion and rides up on his tiger mount. He is described as a tall, broad, gaunt, dried-up apparition clad in a "canuas thin" and a human skull helmet. His name is Maleger. At his heels are the two hags of physical assault, Impotence and Impatience.

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