Sexual Deception

            On Friday morning after yoga I got my usual journal posts out of the way and around 7:00 I started working on my short response essay for British Literature. The first thing I did was to go online and fill out the form to get the one week extension on the paper. I didn’t know if I was going to need it but since it has no bearing on future marks I figured I might as well take it just in case. The form consisted of a quiz asking for the number of my tutorial and that was it. I’m pretty sure they're all 101 but hopefully I got that right. 

            I spent the next several hours making notes on certain stanzas of the Fairy Queen that relate two stories involving sexual deception. One from Book One involves the Red Cross Knight being deceived by a sprite disguised as his lady love Una and behaving in what he considers an unladylike manner. The other from Book Three involves the female warrior Britomart posing as a man. When she is a guest at a feast hosted by the beautiful but lascivious Malecasta, Malecasta thinks that Britomart is a beautiful man and makes sexual suggestions towards her. Since Britomart in trying to maintain her disguise does not bluntly reject her Malecasta comes later and slips into bed with her, causing Britomart to draw her sword in anger while at the same time revealing her gender. Malecasta faints in terror. 

            I took a siesta at around 11:30. I had chips and pesto with hot sauce for lunch and continued working. 

            I started typing all my hand written notes but didn’t finish that or even start my essay before the formal deadline. 

            I went to bed about an hour early. Here's what I had done by that time: 

            Sexual Deceptions in Edmund Spenser’s The Fairy Queen 

            Two sexual situations in which Red Cross is present. One with Una and the other with Britomart. One in which he is deceived and the other in which the deceiver is Britomart. Red Cross is fooled by Archimago’s sprites, one of which has been metamorphosed to appear as Una, who is only named when falsely represented. The other sprite is made to appear as a young man with whom the fake Una is cavorting lustfully. The Red Cross knight, the bed, the lust, the anger and the leaving are what these two situations have in common. Red Cross also drew his sword but was calmed by Archimago. 

            In stanza 47 Red Cross is made to dream of lustful play. His heart nearly melts bathed in wanton bliss and wicked joy. The sprite imitating Una is beside him and telling him that Cupid has subdued her and made her want to satisfy her body by enjoying pleasurable play. Una seems to be no longer chaste. False winged boy of false love. She has given in and he is tempted to do so as well. He is “bathed in wanton bliss and wicked joy.” This is ironic because to be bathed usually means to be made clean or perhaps even baptized. The winged boy. A flying boy. Not a man, but immature. A child and yet able to invoke lust. This is also ironic because one would normally consider adult behaviour in a child to be a manifestation of their immaturity. One would blame the adult for being influenced by the manipulations of a child. 

            In stanza 48: She seemed like Venus the goddess of love had delivered the chastest woman of all. The queen of beauty delivers a princess. This Christian knight reverts to pre-Christian Greco-Roman pagan religion in a moment of lust. The Graces, the handmaids of Venus seem to sing the Hymn to Hymen making him believe that he has married Una in a pagan ceremony. His bride, a flower crowned by Flora has been delivered to him. He dreams that he has married Una and that his bride is already beside him in a pagan ceremony. He dreams that he is not a Christian. If this idea were frightful to him it would be a nightmare. A loose leman or lover. He has always seen Una as “the chastest flower that ever did spring on Earthly branch, the daughter of a king." Una is not only a flower but the “chastest flower", suggesting that flowers are already chaste and she is exceptional among them. The fact that she is the daughter of a king seems to also add to her purity. First a flower but "now a loose leman” or lover, but this is also a play on “lemon" the sour fruit. 

            In stanza 49: Unwonted lust or unaccustomed lust. He is unaccustomed to fear that he is doing something wrong. He senses that something is secretly wrong and that there is a hidden enemy and so he wakes to see Una in bed beside him. Under the false Una's black stole is a bated hook. Which part is the bate and which part is the hook? The part by which their bodies would hook together in sexual intercourse would be the hook. She pretends to be shy while coaxing him with an offered kiss. 

            In stanza 50: He is dismayed by her shameless, uncouth guise and thinks about killing her in indignation but does not because he is only “half" enraged. 

            In Book 3, Canto 1 Stanza 4: Britomart rides with an aged squire. Why is the squire aged? Does she represent the ancient land over which she rules? Age old traditions, ancient heritage? She carries a triangular shield showing a lion walking on a golden field. The narrator refers to her as “he” from her first appearance in stanza four until she is both named and called “her” and “she.” But at this point only the reader knows her gender. 

            In stanza 7: Guyon is ashamed because he has never before been knocked from his horse. The narrator speaks as if to him, although he cannot hear, to tell him that he should not feel bad because Britomart has a secretly enchanted spear that allows her defeat every foe. She does not share this information with those whose lives she puts at risk. She does not fight fair and this is another deception on her part. .