How is the virtue of Courtesy depicted in The Faerie Queene?
Calidore is the knight of Courtesy, which in Spenser’s day meant proper behavior in relation to the social classes, particularly the nobles (those who reside in the sovereign’s court). Spenser follows the traditional depiction of Courtesy as a virtue of those born to high estate and raised properly by courteous parents. At the same time, he introduces the problem of nature versus nurture into the equation in the form of Tristram, who has not been raised properly but is nonetheless courteous due to his noble lineage; and the Savage Man, who has no noble heritage but was raised properly by his adopted parents and behaves most courteously in the epic. That the Savage Man saves the knight of Courtesy and is himself immune to any knight’s weapon suggests that Spenser saw Courtesy as a universal virtue rather than one limited to societal constructs. • How does The Faerie Queene fit into the chivalric tradition? Spenser self-consciously imitated the works of Thomas Malory and the purveyors of
