A Study Of Visualized Politics In Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender

Aristotle once said,“human beings are,by nature,social animals”(Aristotle 1).This sentence demonstrates that politics is the concentrated expression of man’s social nature.And the political sentiments can be presented with the aid of fine arts,which is called visualized politics.Spenser is known as “court-painter”(Lowell 157).The court-painter contains two parts.Court indicates the politic dimension in Spenser’s works,which can also be found in The Shepeardes Calender.Painter shows that Spenser’s genius is pictorial.Spenser’s visual interests are self-evident in the woodcuts that formed such a crucial part of Shepheardes Calender,his daring new English poetic manifesto.The thesis can be divided into five parts.The introduction has introduced the political environment of Tudor history in 1579.The study method of thesis is based on new historicism theory and iconography.Chapter 1 focuses on the praise of the queen in April Eclogue and November Eclogue through the interpretation of pictures and the text in The Shepheardes Calender and other works in Elizabethan ages.In this chapter,we may find Spenser uses different visual metaphors which contain Greek myth,the Biblical light and white color images to praise her virginity and glory.Although the woodcut and text in November Eclogue apparently describes the death of the Queen,evidences and critics shows that Spenser was trying to deny Queen’s human features through her deification.Chapter 2 discusses political and ecclesiastical satire of the Shepheardes Calender.In February Eclogue,patronage and rhetorical strategies are played out through the “brier” demanding a shepherd to cut off the “Oak” which apparently shows the fall of Catholics.However,combining with this vision we can find the associations of the oak with the church and the brier and husbandman with court and monarchy.After reviewing the Elizabethan history,this vision also implies the Crown’s plunder.And the effects of Crown’s plunder show that the patronage system dominated by the Crown,loots the church for the benefit of its clients and its own power.Through the woodcut and the description of May Day festival by two shepherds who represents two ministers from different churches,Chapter 3 focuses on the motivation and feedback of the parental metaphor by the Crown.We can find that there was no inconsistency between “motherly care” and command among people during that period.Chapter 4 talks about the context over hierarchy between “high” and “low”.By analyzing the woodcut and the context between Thomalin and Morrell,we can find Thomalin who speaks for the poor and advocates that the heart of Christianity should work for the benefits of the poor.But Morrell who represents the high class,insists that the government doesn’t need interfere the poverty because the poor are born with sin.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis.Spenser has a great talent of visual art.Through the visual interpretation,The Shepheardes Calendar shows Spenser’s complex political attitude and historical and cultural background of Elizabethan ages,and it also reflects the different social strata of different political attitudes.