A Galenic Reading of the Redcrosse Knight’s “goodly court” of Fidessa/Duessa

In book 1 of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Redcrosse’s “goodly court” of Fidessa/ Duessa, “Pourd out in loosnesse on the grassy grownd,” is typically perceived as a moral failure. However, when Galen and his followers provide the perspective, the “goodly court” becomes also a sexual failure brought about when the “crudled cold” that “gan assayle” Redcrosse’s “corage” (sexual vigor and inclination) depletes the vital spirits in his blood and semen. That Redcrosse’s moral failure is, in addition, a sexual failure better serves to implement Despayre’s efforts to bring Redcrosse to despair by making his “goodly court” even more an occasion of male shame than would the subsequent stripping of Fidessa/Duessa by itself; but, by inciting Despayre, the sexual failure also helps implement God’s plan for one of his elect. Armed with the complex of Redcrosse’s failures, Despayre is able to dismay the Knight so completely that he passively accepts Una’s guidance and comes to the house of Holinesse where, when his adventures are read as an expression of the order of salvation, he is called and justified, repents, and begins his sanctification.