WHERE ARE ALL THE HEROES(OINES)?

The Faerie Queene—as you probably know by now—is the longest narrative poem in the English language. It makes Milton’s formidable Paradise Lost to be like a walk in the park! Still, it is full of action and one of the seminal masterpieces of English literature, and it has influenced scholars since its completion in 1596. Nonetheless, its epic length, its wealth of incident and detail, and the complexity of its allegory and richness of its topical allusions make it one of the hardest texts to understand. By the way, letters u and v are rather interchangeable in Spenser’s deliberately antique English—used to evoke a world of mystery. What I really like about The Fairie Queen is that Spenser really had a hero. Well, a “heroine” really, because love his Queen Elizabeth. He adored her, honored her, trusted her. She had delivered England from the Spanish Armada. What sort of heroes and heroines do we have? A Republican candidate married twice, the second time to a woman with whom he had an adulterous affair? Or a Democrat married to a man who publicly dishonored the highest office in the land, on national TV, by lying and trying to cover up his fornicating ways? I am sorry for my vehemence but I want tired of having no choices at all And, I may be the only American left who feels this way, but I have enjoyed the last 8 years of a moral, Godly president. Bless his soul! Where are the Queen Elizabeths when we need them?

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