Poetry Tuesday: Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, Book VI: Courtesy

Ken Kalis
51 minutes ago
3 min read

Sir Calidore defeats the Blatant Beast. — **Sir Calidore defeats the Blatant Beast**. by Frank C. **Papé, PUBLIC DOMAIN**

With Book VI, Edmund Spenser brings The Faerie Queene to its moral completion. After holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, and justice, he turns to a virtue often misunderstood: Courtesy.

For Spenser, courtesy is not mere manners or polish; it is virtue made visible in daily human life.

The knight of this book, Sir Calidore, is introduced as one who embodies gentle strength:

“Of all the vertues which in man are found,/Courtesy is the chiefest of them all.”(Book VI, Proem)

Courtesy, Spenser insists, stands at the summit because it gathers all other virtues and expresses them outwardly.

Calidore’s great adversary is the Blatant Beast, a terrifying figure representing slander, false accusation, and destructive speech — evils that no age has ever escaped:

“A monster horrible, and hideous,/Which with his tongue and teeth did rend and tearThe good and guiltless.”

This beast cannot be permanently destroyed. At best, he can be bound for a time — a sober acknowledgment that evil speech and malice will persist until the final redemption.

Spenser then leads us into one of the most memorable movements of Book VI: Calidore’s withdrawal from courtly ambition into pastoral simplicity.

Among shepherds, he encounters a quieter order of life, where humility and peace allow courtesy to flourish:

“For simple truth and honest meaning/Was there more rife than any courtly seeming.”

Here Spenser contrasts appearance with reality. Courtesy does not thrive in show, but in sincerity.

Yet courtesy is not weakness. It requires restraint, patience, and moral courage. Calidore must learn to act rightly even when misunderstood or provoked — a lesson aimed squarely at the Christian reader.

Spenser’s vision of courtesy aligns closely with the spirit of Christ Himself, who invites us:

“Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” (Matthew 11:29)

Meekness is not passivity; it is strength under control. Courtesy, rightly understood, is holiness expressed in speech, action, and presence.

The book closes without tidy resolution. The Blatant Beast escapes once more, reminding us that virtue must be practiced again and again, not assumed as a settled possession:

“For who so list the Blatant Beast to tame,Must first begin his tongue and thought to frame.”

With Book VI, The Faerie Queene does not end in triumph, but in perseverance. Courtesy remains a lifelong calling — especially in a world marked by noise, outrage, and careless words.

In this final book, Spenser leaves us not with conquest, but with character.

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Next month, we will turn to The Cantos of Mutability, Spenser’s profound meditation on change, time, and the eternal God who alone does not change.

Excerpt from Poem read at the Million Man March

I say, clap hands and let's come together in this meeting ground,

I say, clap hands and let's deal with each other with love,

I say, clap hands and let us get from the low road of indifference,

Clap hands, let us come together and reveal our hearts,

Let us come together and revise our spirits,

Let us come together and cleanse our souls,

Clap hands, let's leave the preening

And stop impostering our own history.

Clap hands, call the spirits back from the ledge,

Clap hands, let us invite joy into our conversation,

Courtesy into our bedrooms,