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DANIEL T. LOCHMAN, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

(though lacking the cue of unbound golden hair) produces in him a
stunned wonder that is linked to his memory of his prior ba le with
Britomart and that seems to override a ention to an important memo-
rial cue, Radigund’s hair, that signifies difference from Britomart. As
a result of Arthegall’s inaction, the new female opponent regains the
advantage in the fight, as had Britomart, but, in this instance, she sub-
jugates him as her thrall rather than as her beloved (5. 5. 6-18). This
alteration of a textual memory, with Radigund usurping Britomart as
the cause of surprise, wonder, and fear, precedes an even more em-
phatic departure from memorial anticipation that occurs when in a
subsequent canto Britomart slays Radigund without removing her hel-
met. Britomart’s action alters textual memory in that she refuses the
disarming effect of surprisingly revealed identity. With “one stroke,”
she cuts through “both head and helmet” (5. 7. 34. 6), an act that avoids
the empathy and wonder that had previously contributed to the war-
riors’ inaction. Unreflective action here stuns not Britomart but Radi-
gund’s followers, who flee to Radigone, “each one of sense bereft” (5.
7. 34. 9).
As these networked scripts related to surprising recognition re-
veal, the compounding effects of intratextual memories play upon
similarity and difference, and anticipation derives from cues signaling
textual memories, as of Britomart’s previous single combats. In vary-
ing degrees, past memorial experiences of characters such as the view-
ers of Britomart’s golden hair or Arthegall and Britomart in combat
give way to present and anticipated satisfaction and surprise, and
through focalization they offer readers opportunities to build and re-
tain textual memories created from strong emotions and the experi-
ence of surprising recognition. Moreover, they provide a coherence
among sub-narratives as well as in relation to the overarching narra-
tive even as the many interlaced and fragmented episodes multiply.
In the Faerie Queene, the reader’s “longing mind” anticipating resolu-
tion is answered not by a plot-driven denouement of dynastic mar-
riage but by the coherence of fragmented experiences given narrative
shape by the textual memories of its readers.

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