Includes bibliographical references.

"Literary scholars have often felt that in Books III and IV of the of the Faerie Queene Spenser became confused, indifferent, or careless; that in Books I and II he was he was in control of the structure but that in Books III and IV he was not. This intensive study, which J. Lyndon Shanley has called 'the most satisfying interpretation of the Faerie Queene, books three and four, I have read, and in one of the best of any part of the Faerie Queene," seeks to dispel this view. Thomas P. Roches, Jr., demonstrates that all the books form a logical structure which is in each case dictated by Spenser's allegorical treatment of that particular book. In place of the simple narratives of the legends of holiness and temperance, the legends of chastity and friendship comprises the stories of Britomart and Arthegall, Amoret and Scudamour, Belphoebe and Timias, Florimell and Marinell. By a close examination of the text Mr. Roche is able to show that the individual narrative episodes fit together to form a complex allegory and the apparently random selection of narrative episodes fit together to form a complex allegory and the apparently random selection of narrative episodes do comprise a unified structure." -Publisher.

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