The Virtuous Embodiment and Chastity of Queen Elizabeth I in 'The Faerie Queene'
Belphoebe, one of the many characters sketched by the genius of Spenser in his allegorical epic, is the virtuous embodiment of queen Elizabeth I alongside her representation in the forms of Britomart and Gloriana. Belphoebe, the chaste and powerful huntress makes various guest-appearances throughout the poem, the first one being in canto III of the book II where she happens to meet Braggadochio and his squire Trompart and delivers to them a speech against the vanity of courtly life. Her characterization and nomenclature which is derived from Phoebe, an epithet of the Greek moon goddess Artemis, who was known to the Romans as Diana is partly justified in her rebuffing and abandoning of Braggadochio who makes ravishing advances towards her. Diana, the virgin goddess is known to dismember and mutilate men who even look at her. Her militancy finds a certain degree of resonance in the character of Belphoebe who unlike Diana and much like her strives to keep her chastity intact albeit without the use of violence.
It is in canto VI of book III Belphoebe’s birth and upbringing are related to the reader serving as the template for sanctification of Elizabeth’s lineage. Chrysogonee, conceived Belphoebe and her twin Amoretta (captured and enslaved by Busirane) when she slept on a bank and was impregnated by sun-beams. As her pregnancy became visible, Chrysogonee retreated to the forest to hide her pregnancy. One day she became weary and fell asleep and gave birth to her twins. Meanwhile, it happened that Venus was searching for her son Cupid who had run away. She looked around in the court, the city and country without success. Finally, she decided to search the forest which was inhabited by Diana and her nymphs. Diana, at first being angered and disgusted with Venus agreed to help search for Cupid. As they looked they happened upon Chrysogonee and her newly-born twins. While Chrysogonee slept, Venus took Amoretta to be “upbrought in godly womanhed” and Diana takes Belphoebe to be “upbrought in perfect maydenhed” .
Belphoebe grows up to be a pure, high-spirited maiden who can be so gentle and civil even when she resides in a savage forest. In canto V of book III, she comes across Timias who is Arthur’s squire and nurses him selflessly till his thigh-wound inflicted by the foster chasing Florimell, heals. Timias falls in love with Belphoebe but is too conscious of his own lack of merit to confess to her and therefore languishes and is wasted. Historical contemporaneity is made apparent and more explicit around this infatuation in Belphoebe’s discarding of Timias when she sees him tending to the wounded Amoret. Following the misinterpretation of his actions she leaves the scene hastily. This incident is popularly interpreted to represent Elizabeth’s casting into exile of Sir Walter Raleigh, her close confidante when he surreptitiously married one of her ladies-in-waiting.
Belphoebe is a more present, direct and developed exploration of Elizabeth’s qualities. Gloriana who is another obvious representation of Elizabeth is never seen in the poem. Belphoebe, in whose persona chastity as an intense and complex virtue is conceived and delineated is surrounded by an aura of visual taboo. Her view of the world becomes an aspect of the virtue she represents. Her virtue makes itself a visual phenomenon in the iconic moment of her first appearance which ‘freezes’ the narrative. As her story continues, the precise nature of the chastity she represents is defined by a tension between stillness and development; isolation and involvement. The virtue of chastity and its presentation raise the issue of identity, of suppression and disguise, of consciousness and self-consciousness. The preservation of chastity involves a special awareness of self which is threatened with violation, a certain self-consciousness and self-protectiveness.
Resistance to seducer shapes self-definition. Such a depiction is adumbrated and augmented by the legendary cult of virginity that surrounded Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth, famously deified as the ‘Virgin Queen’ exerted the power of her purity to wield influence over her court and kingdom. This was supplemented and aided by conventional courtly hyperbolic flattery. Belphoebe reuniting with Timias after she forgives him for his indiscretion and pities his despaired and debilitated state tells us that though Belphoebe is chaste, she is not a virgin. In a monarchy passed along to your children, not producing an heir soon becomes a problem. Spenser’s central preoccupation is the perfectibility of mankind in which portrayal of Elizabeth as his divine inspiration and the ruler who stores in her unbound potential to regenerate and nurture society fits consummately. He endeavors to design the vision of Elizabeth that draws from but transcends her individuality. The ‘mirror image’ in the poem where the mirror closely parallels Elizabeth’s ‘pure mind’ is a concrete rendering of the claim that the earthly ruler is divinely ordained to act as the bridge between godhead and man and thus reflect qualities of God as a ruler. Elizabeth is raised as the tangible medium through which Spenser’s notion of ideal monarchy is perceived and a vision of hope for mankind is emanated; she is the intermediary between the ideal and the real. Therefore Spenser delicately upholds Elizabeth’s chastity while tacitly denouncing her virginity. Belphoebe’s familial connection with Amoret exposes and connects her to a world that does not renounce romance but is just very discretionary about it.
