Hymnic Epic andThe Faerie Queene’s Original Printed Format: Canto-Canticles and Psalmic Arguments

• Published in: Renaissance quarterly Vol. 64; no. 4; pp. 1148 - 1193
• Main Authors: Borris, Kenneth, Donaldson Clark, Meredith
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Renaissance Society of America 01.12.2011
• Subjects: Abbreviations; Hymns; Narrative poetry; Poetic meter; Poetics; Poetry; Protestantism; Psalms; Religious poetry; Stanzas; Studies

When Edmund Spenser (1552?–99) published hisFaerie Queenein 1590 and 1596, two pervasive structural features would have seemed surprising: the abbreviationCant.in sectional and running titles, used instead ofCanto;and a four-line stanza of common meter for each section's argument, instead of a...