The Faerie Queene, A Poem in Six Books with the Fragment Mutabilitie: Book I

Art Historical Context

This 1894–97 edition of Edmund Spenser’s *The Faerie Queene* brings together a landmark Elizabethan epic with the refined craftsmanship of the late Victorian book arts. Originally published in 1590 and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, Spenser’s allegorical poem follows the adventures of knights who embody virtues such as holiness, justice, and temperance. The present volume, issued by George Allen & Co. and printed by Charles Whittingham, presents Book I along with the “Mutability Cantos,” pairing Spenser’s Renaissance verse with illustrations by Walter Crane. Crane, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement, supplied woodcut illustrations that evoke the poem’s chivalric and mythic atmosphere. The medium of woodcut—revived in the nineteenth century for its bold, decorative qualities—allows Crane’s linear style to harmonize with the text while highlighting motifs of knights, ladies, horses, heraldic flags, and foliate ornament. These images reflect both the poem’s sixteenth-century origins and the era’s renewed interest in medieval and Renaissance aesthetics. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1970 as part of the Elisha Whittelsey Collection, the book exemplifies how nineteenth-century artists reinterpreted earlier literature through modern printmaking techniques, offering today’s visitors a tangible link between Elizabethan poetry and the Victorian revival of fine book design.

About the Artist

Edmund Spenser|Walter Crane|Thomas James Wise|George Allen & Co., Ltd.|Charles Whittingham [the elder] (British|British|British|British) · 1794 |1788 |1564 |1552 –1840 |1875 |1616 |1599

British, Northumbria 1794/95–1840 Hampstead|British, 1788–1875|British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon|British, London 1552?–1599 London