Bold
The Faerie Queene
And as she lookt about, she did behold,
How over that same dore was likewise writ,
Be bold, be bold, and every where Be bold,
That much she muz’d, yet could not construe it
By any ridling skill, or commune wit.
At last she spyde at that same roomes upper end,
Another yron dore, on which was writ,
Be not too bold; whereto though she did bend
Her earnest mind, yet wist not what it might intend.
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser’s (1552-1599) Faerie Queene (1590) is an unfinished epic allegory, famously of enormous length, which achieved great celebrity during the poet’s lifetime. It was written while Spenser was working in Ireland as a colonial administrator and landowner, and it is saturated with a longing for his homeland. The character Britomart, the armed maiden, has long been recognised as a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, and is a celebration of female chastity and courage.
