Justification

We decided to glosse F.Q in a similar pattern to E.K.’s glossing of the Shepheardes Calender for a number of reasons, all of which resound around a primary concern for the audience. Are we giving the reader too much information? Are we giving the reader too little information or variety? Are we distracting and keeping them from self-discovering points because we lead them too much with our own interpretations and/or biases. So it is in regards to these questions that we feel the E.K. approach will be the most suitable glosse with the least amount of intrusion upon our reader because we intend to make them very wary of what we have to say. Therefore, our hope is that this will in turn help our readers gain a deeper understanding of F.Q. instead of us giving them our interpretations.


The most crucial aspect of glossing this way is to make sure our audience is keen to our modus operinda. To initiate the reader we build subtly until we get to a point to where it is so blatant that anyone would understand. Take for example stanza 20’s glossing until stanza 24. We subtly build until stanza 24, at which time we give nothing but irrelevant information. This works well to initiate the reader and is a great point in which to give totally bogus information because the bulk of critical analysis for this canto centers around the amount of possible interpretations for Maleger and his sisters’ names. Therefore, most readers would have little to no difficulty in finding more adequate information about this stanza.


With our system of glossing now in place, we begin to do many things to the reader-confident that we are not being taken completely serious. We tell the reader things about Spenser that often are false. We give the reader made-up sources but accurate information sometimes, but at other times give them correct sources and inaccurate information. In this manner we give the reader some but never all, but sometimes we give all bad but no good. However, there are points in which we seem to be giving all good information, but it is generally given in a misleading way. We also contradict ourselves, attempt to imitate the poet, and sometimes make absolutely no sense. So, what use is this to anyone? We feel there are a number of reasons:

  1. In order to point the reader into directions of possible interpretation, yet giving nothing as regards to how we feel about the interpretation leads the reader to their own interpretation.
  2. In hopes of giving the reader just enough information to pique their interest in the poem and encourage them to refute our clumsiness.
  3. Our intent as well is to entertain the reader as much as possible and we make sure that even the most bogus statements contain some relevancy to the canto as a whole.
  4. We also feel that this type of glossing is attuned to Spenser’s writing throughout the F.Q. by way of always attempting to keep the reader on their toes through contradictory information, plots that make no sense, characters that weave in and out without consistency, but, in the end of each book, everything is relevant to the whole. Therefore, the style in which we work is helpful in itself by putting you even more on your toes.

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