The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (review)

REVIEWS 280 in an Italian context. Here Zanré points to the pervasive theme of blaming the French for the disease (this time using Italian texts to support this claim), and Zanré reaches this conclusion after performing a close reading of Il Grappa’s poetry. The last section of the text groups three essays that investigate the pox from a socio-political perspective under the title of “Institutional and Policing Responses .” The first essay in this section, “Quarantining Beauty: The French Disease in Early Modern Venice,” is by Laura J. McGough; here McGough probes at the construction and treatment of female beauty and prostitution in Italy in a time when Venetian society feared women originated the pox. In the process, McGough makes the fascinating link between medicine and beauty— particularly how beauty was medically associated with destruction. The next essay also places social issues surrounding the pox in an Italian setting . In Mary Hewlett’s “The French Connection: Syphilis and Sodomy in Late-Renaissance Lucca,” the blame associated with syphilis is again “Othered,” this time as a non-procreative form of penetration and corruption of the body politic through sodomy. Hewlett’s imagery-laden discussion of the trial and prosecution of those suffering from syphilis because of their engagement in sodomy may render a sore reaction from the anal-retentive reader. However, this imagery intends not to offend, as Hewlett uses these historical facts to depict the social climate of the place and era more accurately. Siena situates his own essay, “The Clean and the Foul: Paupers and the Pox in London Hospitals, ca. 1550–ca. 1700,” as the ultimate one of Sins of the Flesh. Siena particularly capitalizes on the fact that venereal patients were publicly whipped and ostracized, and poverty-stricken venereal patients were often denied treatment. Siena’s work is well situated as the final essay in the text. It appropriately encapsulates on the persistent theme of early modern marginalization of the pox, for the author argues that even in the city of London and its hospitals, shame and secrecy surrounded the disease—as the “foul” and poverty-stricken syphilitics were again treated as “Other” by the rest of “clean” society. Holistically, Siena organizes Sins of the Flesh effectively: the articles within the text are structurally and thematically cohesive, and the bibliographic information and index are accessible. In the academic context, Siena’s text may serve as an enlightening companion to a variety of early modern texts—scientific , sociological, or literary. Yet Sins of the Flesh, with its breadth of geographical and cultural coverage, also serves as an excellent read in isolation. LAUREN COKER, English, Saint Louis University Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Abraham Stoll, general ed.; Book One, ed. Carol V. Kaske, 256 pp.; Book Two, ed. Erik Gray, 288 pp.; Books Three and Four, ed. Dorothy Stephens, 496 pp.; and Book Five, ed. Abraham Stoll, 224 pp. (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing 2006). As the wide panoply of Shakespeare editions currently in print amply demonstrate , there are many available models for how modern edition can handle a Renaissance text—those models spring not only from a variety of target audiences , but also from a comprehensive theoretical reconceptualization of the editor, the text, and the edition. The landmark editions of The Faerie Queene REVIEWS 281 by A. C. Hamilton5 and Thomas Roche6 are available in paperback, but they are very large, and given the steady popularity of Spenser in advanced undergraduate and graduate study, it is a good time for a multi-volume edition of The Faerie Queene (the final volume, encompassing Book Six and the Mutabilitie Cantos, is still in production at the time of this review). In each volume, Spenser’s Letter to Raleigh and a “Life of Spenser” follow Spenser’s poetry— these texts are the same in all the volumes. Each volume also has a customized “Textual Notes,” “Glossary,” and “Index of Characters.” After this, each volume contains a list of other books and articles on Spenser; those lists are variously called “Works Cited and Suggestions for Further Reading” (the latter marked with stars; Kaske), “Bibliography” (divided into “Editions and Reference Works” and “Critical Works”; Gray), “Works Cited” (Stephens) and “Works Cited and Bibliography” (Stoll...