Spenser and the Numbers of Time

"Spenser's Faerie Queene is not often thought of as a closely articulated or well-proportioned work. Dr. Fowler explores the formal structure of the poem, and finds that, like a Renaissance palace, it has its principals of arrangement, though these may not longer be of an obvious nature. Adopting an iconographical approach, he shows that in his disposition of themes, narrative motifs, and emblems, Spenser has made use of definite schemes, such as the planetary week and the Pythagorean decad. Thus each book of the poem is governed by a planetary deity, whose attributes and exploits appear in its action, and whose influence helps 'to fashion a gentleman or noble person' by contributing some particular power or virtue. One of Dr. Fowler's most unexpected disclosures is that each character in a major episode, each river in a list of rivers, may correspond to a star in the appropriate constellation. Structural themes also govern the physical shape of the poem; so that numbers of stanzas and lines, as well as the positions of these units, constitute an organic pattern. Regarded in this way, the poem emerges as a cosmic model constructed in 'narrow verse' with masterful economy and subtlety. A concluding chapter deals with wider aspects of numerical composition, and discusses the principles of numerological analysis, which is becoming an indispensable instrument for the student of Renaissance Poetry." -Publisher.