“The twelve books are twelve adventures or quests, which the twelve several knights undertake, in which they severally represent the twelve several virtues.”

Explaining the poem’s structure as an allegorical map of virtue · Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefatory to The Faerie Queene

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“By the person of Prince Arthur I understand Magnificence in general, which virtue, I take to be the perfection of all the rest.”

Describing magnificence as the unifying ideal of the virtues · Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefatory to The Faerie Queene

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“I labour to pourtraict in Arthur, before he was king, the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private moral virtues.”

Presenting the ideal of virtue through a fictional exemplary figure · Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefatory to The Faerie Queene

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“To some I know this method will seem displeasing, which had rather have good discipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large.”

Defending allegory as a persuasive form of moral instruction · Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefatory to The Faerie Queene

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“The general end therefore of all the book is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline.”

Defining poetry as a means of moral and personal education · Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefatory to The Faerie Queene

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