ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No endeavour of this kind would be possible without the work of previous editors and critics, and I offer thanks to all who have advanced our understanding of Spenser and his work. In particular the scholarship of Professor A. C. Hamilton has provided much enlightenment: his commentary (see Bibliography) is required reading for those who would explore the secret meanings of The Faerie Queene. To the compilers and publishers of the monumental Oxford English Dictionary I am deeply indebted. I wish also to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the British Library, who kindly allowed me to consult copies of the original editions.
PURPOSE OF THE EDITION
When reading a book such as The Faerie Queene, it is tempting to minimize the looking up of difficult words, which are often glossed, if at all, in the end pages. Although Spenser's use of certain words appears quaint and lumpish, the language is superficially modern enough to enable the reader to "get by". Yet such an approach can lead only to a faulty appreciation of the poem, and deprives one of much enchantment. Queen Elizabeth would have found nothing lumpish about the language: her only impatience might have been with Spenser's weakness for archaisms. To her, the FQ will have revealed Spenser's exact and liberal style in all its glory: his words almost always make perfect sense.
The purpose of this edition is to make the language of the poem readily accessible. Interruptions to consult separate dictionaries and so on are eliminated, preserving as far as possible the flow of reading and accelerating one's apprehension of the poem.
The sustained power and scope of Spenser's master-work, of his "sacred fury", comprise a feat unsurpassed in English literature. But, by its very nature, language changes with time, and access to Spenser's magic kingdom is becoming ever more difficult. I hope this edition provides a key.
THE TEXT OF THE POEM
No manuscript of The Faerie Queene is known; we depend for our text upon printed copies of the work.
The first of these appeared in 1590. It is a quarto edition, published by William Ponsonby, and contains Books I-III. The Registers of the Stationers' Company for 1589 include the following entry:
Primo Die Decembris.—Master Ponsonbye. Entered for his Copye a book intituled the fayre Queene, dyposed into xii. bookes &c. Aucthorysed vnder thandes of the Archb. of Canterbury & bothe the Wardens, vjd.