Table Of ContentT H E PA I N O F
R E F O R M AT I O N
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THE PAIN OF
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REFORMATION
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP
spenser, vulnerabilit y,
and the ethics of masculinit y
joseph campana
❁
Fordham University Press, New York 2012
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Copyright © 2012 Fordham University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campana, Joseph.
Th e pain of Reformation : Spenser, vulnerability, and the ethics of masculinity /
Joseph Campana. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8232-3910-8
1. Spenser, Edmund, 1552?–1599. Faerie queene. 2. Masculinity in literature.
3. Senses and sensation in literature. 4. Ethics in literature.
5. Reformation—England. I. Title.
pr2358.c35 2012
821'.3—dc23
2011037020
Printed in the United States of America
14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
part i: the legend of holiness
1. Reading Bleeding Trees: Th e Poetics of Other People’s Pain 47
2. Spenser’s Dark Materials: Representation
in the Shadow of Christ 75
part ii: the legend of temperance
3. On Not Defending Poetry: Spenser, Suff ering,
and the Energy of Aff ect 107
4. Boy Toys and Liquid Joys: Pleasure and
Power in the Bower of Bliss 129
part iii: the legend of chastity
5. Vulnerable Subjects: Amoret’s Agony,
Britomart’s Battle for Chastity 163
6. Damaged Gods: Adonis and the Pain of Allegory 204
Conclusion 225
Notes 239
Index 275
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Figures
1 Th e Apotheosis of James I and Other Studies: Multiple Sketch for
the Banqueting House Ceiling, Whitehall 18
2 Peter Paul Rubens, Venus and Adonis, circa 1614 19
3 Peter Paul Rubens, Venus and Adonis, mid-or late 1630s 19
4 Peter Paul Rubens, Venus Lamenting over the Dead Adonis 20
5 Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Th e Return
from War: Mars Disarmed by Venus, 1610–12 21
6 Peter Paul Rubens, Mars and Venus, 1618–1620 22
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Acknowledgments
Writing accumulates not merely words but also debt—happily so.
Since this is a study of a poem characterized by errancy, it was inevi-
table that its development would be characterized by straying through a
variety of times, places, and institutions. My fascination with Th e Faerie
Queene began in the classroom of the incomparable Sherron Knopp at
Williams College. Th ere I had the good fortune of learning from Karen
Swann, Anita Sokolsky, Louise Glück, Clara Park, Kathryn Kent, Chris
Waters, Regina Kunzel, David Eppel, and many others. Th is project
incubated with mentoring from Jonathan Dollimore at the University
of Sussex where I also had the pleasure of studying with Mandy Merck.
Later, Gordon Teskey, now of Harvard University, proved an utterly
singular example in his own scholarship and an unfl agging supporter
of mine. At Cornell, I had the privilege of working with him and with
Winthrop Wetherbee, Mary Jacobus, Debra Fried, Reeve Parker, Scott
McMillin, Barbara Correll, Alice Fulton, Roger Gilbert, and others.
My colleagues at Kenyon College and Rice University have been un-
stintingly giving of their time and support. I thank both institutions
for ample research funding and leave time. At Rice, the help of talented
research assistants was vital; thanks to Anna Dodson, Nicholas Grant-
Collins, Joanna O’Leary, Samitha Murthy, and Suzanne Rindell. Spe-
cial thanks to Terry Munstieri for her extraordinary editing skills. Th e
support of my Rice colleagues Helena Michie, Robert Patten, Caroline
Levander, Rosemary Hennessy, Cary Wolfe, Alexander Regier, Edward
Anderson, and Diane Wolfthal has been invaluable.
In the course of writing this book I have been humbled by the
generosity of those initially unknown to me. Anonymity and distance
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x Acknowledgments
characterize so many professional tasks but these are happily balanced
by the collegiality of attentive readers, editors, and colleagues liberal
with their counsel. Grateful thanks are owed to Bruce Smith, Patrick
Cheney, Elizabeth Mazzola, Th eresa Krier, Michael Schoenfeldt, Jen-
nifer Summit, Richard Strier, Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen, Karl Enenkel,
Wayne Rebhorn, Frank Whigham, Barbara Fuchs, Regina Schwartz,
Linda Charnes, Katherine Eggert, Heather Dubrow, and Kevin Hart.
For their friendship, collegiality, and patience, my thanks to Diane
Cady, Zahid Chaudhury, Chi-Ming Yang, Scott Maisano, Katherine
Romack, Michelle Duncan, and Janet McAdams.
Nolan Marciniec was my fi rst guide in the dark forest of poetry.
Th ere’s no repaying such generosity.
Chapter 1 appeared as “Reading Bleeding Trees: Th e Poetics of
Other People’s Pain in Edmund Spenser’s Legend of Holiness,” in Th e
Sense of Suff ering: Constructions of Pain in Early Modern Europe, ed. J. F.
van Dijkhuizen and Karl Enenkel (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 347–76.
Chapter 3 appeared as “On Not Defending Poetry: Spenser, Suf-
fering, and the Energy of Aff ect” in PMLA 120, no. 1 (January 2005):
33–48. My thanks to the International Spenser Society for the extraor-
dinary community and programming they create and for recognizing
this essay with the Isabel MacCaff rey Essay Prize.
Chapter 4 appeared as “Boy Toys and Liquid Joys: Pleasure and
Power in the Bower of Bliss” in Modern Philology 106, no. 3 (February
2009): 465–96. My thanks go to the Modern Languages Association
for the permission to reprint and to the GL/Q Caucus of the MLA for
recognizing this essay with the Crompton-Noll Award.
We should all be grateful to Helen Tartar for the example she sets
for humanities publishing. Th omas Lay, Eric Newman, and the staff
of Fordham University Press should win awards for the quality and ef-
fi ciency of their work.
Without the love and support of my family, launching myself into
a life of thinking, reading, and writing would have been diffi cult at
best. Without my partner, Th eodore Bale, that life would have been
impoverished beyond imagining.
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