Redcross

Archimago Textualized
... gets textually transmitted like a virus—injected or introjected into Redcross and into the narrative/narrator, though this epidemiological analogy makes the victims appear too passive ... that since his favorite enemy, Una, is beyond his clutches, Archimago is forced to settle for Redcross "Him therefore now the object of his spight / And deadly food he makes," even though he well knows ... Even there his first attempt to turn Redcross against Una appears, in his eyes, to have failed and he must try again (1.1.55, 1.2.2-3) ...

Archimago's Role in The Poem
... dreame" and "faire-forged Spright" tell Archimago they failed to seduce Redcross, the enchanter first throws a fit and then moderates his behavior in a swerve that duplicates Redcross's swing from "fierce despight" to ... Second, Redcross's vulnerability to Archimago's magic tricks reminds us that even at the level at which the countertext informs and polices narrative action, the enchanter is Archi-mage, the man ... His misrepresentation of Una's truth is marked as entrapment, and Redcross's response as the jealous rage of his victim ...