Phaon (fiction) - Criticism of The Diction of The Faerie Queene

Criticism of The Diction of The Faerie Queene

Since its inception three and a half centuries ago, Spenser’s diction has been scrutinized by scholars. Despite the enthusiasm the poet and his work received, Spenser’s experimental diction was “largely condemned” before it received the acclaim it has today (Pope 575). Seventeenth century philologists such as Davenant considered Spenser’s use of “obsolete language” as “the most vulgar accusation that is laid to his charge” (Pope 576). Scholars have recently observed that the classical tradition tucked within The Faerie Queene is related to the problem of his diction because it “involves the principles of imitation and decorum” (Pope 580). Despite these initial criticisms, Spenser is “now recognized as a conscious literary artist” and his language is deemed “the only fitting vehicle for his tone of thought and feelings” (Pope 580). Spenser’s use of language was widely contrasted to that of “free and unregulated” 16th century Shakesperian grammar (Cumming 6). Spenser’s style is standardized, lyrically sophisticated, and full of archaisms that give the poem an original taste. Cumming’s argues in his review of The Faerie Queene, that the archaisms reside in the vocabulary, high degree of spelling, the flexions, and slightly in the syntax (Cumming 6).

Samuel Johnson also commented critically on Spenser's diction, with which he became intimately acquainted during his work on A Dictionary of the English Language, and "found it a useful source for obsolete and archaic words"; Johnson, however, mainly considered Spenser's (early) pastoral poems, a genre of which he was not particularly fond.

The diction and atmosphere of The Faerie Queene relied on much more than just Middle English; for instance, classical allusions and classical proper names abound—especially in the later books—and he coined some names based on Greek, such as "Poris" and "Phao lilly white." Classical material is also alluded to or reworked by Spenser, such as the rape of Lucretia, which was reworked into the story of the character Amavia in Book Two.