Up through Book II of #FaerieQueeneQuarantine
random thoughts:

I think what bugs me about the plot is just the combo of it being allegorical, the allegory not having an obvious structure, & the vague sense that I'm not supposed to overthink it it's just an excuse to rhyme a lot

contrast that with Pilgrim's Progress, which leans even more into the allegory, & where the prose is far more down-to-earth, but also the the basic allegorical arc (Christian is on a journey towards Heaven) is reasonably straightforward

contrast also with Paradise Lost, where it's less allegorical, more tropological; and where the verse may not be "plain" in the same sense as PP, but it's certainly austere comparing to TFQ's jangling rhymes (I like the jangling! usually)

so basically TFQ's most obvious descendants basically reject the ornamental rhyme that's so central to TFQ's aesthetic. This seems to me related to how the plot of TFQ is in large part about how ornament can be deceptive

like,,, the plot of TFQ is basically "here's this pretty thing BUT WAIT it's actually ugly in spirit! better master your attraction to it"

and this plot is conveyed to us in lusciously ornamental stanzas of ABABCBCDD

why is Spenser fighting against his own aesthetic impulses???

but this is what I meant by it reminding me of the Gawain/Pearl poet, who also writes overwrought and over-ornamented verse about the dangers of purely courtly/chivalric virtue in the absence of actual religious devotion

at least it feels much closer in spirit to the Gawain/Pearl poet than to Chaucer (who's, in this thread's terms, is more the ancestor of Milton) or Langland (more the ancestor of Bunyan). (The 14th C. alliterative revival is the obvious reference point for Spenser's project)

e.g. there's this scene in Book II where Spenser describes in vivid detail an ugly witch; it reminded me of Gawain Fyt II's grotesque description of Morgan le Faye

None of this is a complaint, btw, I love overwrought poetry agonizing over its overwroughtness

to jump topics a bit, TFQ also has some great Girardian moments, e.g. Book II Canto 2 with the knights fighting over the sisters. & the whole Bower of Bliss arc is Girardian in a different way, I guess. (Romance is always highly Girardian, cf. Malory, so not surprising)

I'll also say, re: Spenserian stanzas, when they're great they're great, but sometimes they're just filler & the jangling gets on your nerves. Similarly re: architectonics: Spenser overcommitted to an overwrought structure (6 books of 12 cantos each!), with mixed results

P.S. what is up with the six virtues he chose
- holiness
- temperance
- chastity
- friendship
- justice
- courtesy
that is no list of virtues I've ever seen before