![]() Seeking for a contemporary philosophy on which to base his panegyric of the queen and her imperial reform, Spenser might well have been drawn to the work on world harmony by the Friar of Venice. He was thus in touch with the leading poets of the Dee circle and could have become aware in this way of Giorgi's work. The first three books of The Faerie Queene were published in 1590 but the poem had been begun more than ten years earlier, as we know from letters exchanged between Spenser and Gabriel Harvey, printed in 1580.3 At that time, Spenser was in contact with John Dee's pupils, Philip Sidney and Edward Dyer, both of whom are mentioned in the Spenser-Harvey letters. ![]() The French poets of the period had found Giorgi a most congenial philosopher his influence would naturally extend to their contemporaries, the Elizabethan poets. ![]() His style has an intense lyrical and poetic quality. Giorgi's work was particularly attractive to poets. I cannot pursue that thought further here, beyond merely reminding of it, and reminding further that Giorgi's work was in the library of John Dee, and that we have had reason to think that it was a strong influence on the thought of Dee himself. In an earlier chapter in this book, the thought arose that Giorgi's philosophy might have been welcome to Tudor reformers because of the stand taken by the Friar of Venice on the subject of the divorce of Henry VIII. It will be argued in this chapter that a major influence on Spenser was the De harmonia mundi by the Christian Cabalist and Platonist, Francesco Giorgi. To a very serious Puritan like Edmund Spenser, the reforming side of the occult philosophy would have been likely to make a strong appeal. He inherited the thought of a 'more powerful philosophy', leading to a world-wide reforming movement, with Queen Elizabeth I in the leading role in which Dee saw her. He inherited the intensified Cabalist- Neoplatonism, or Cabalist-Neopythagorism, with its emphasis on number, of which John Dee was a leading representative. He inherited the movement towards reform in later Christian Cabalists, like Reuchlin, Giorgi, Agrippa. ![]() I want to suggest that Spenser inherited much more than Neoplatonism as formulated by Ficino and Pico. In this chapter, I make the attempt to place Spenser's thought within the history of the occult philosophy, as outlined in this book. Alastair Fowler has argued for intricate numerological patterns in The Faerie Queene, and for an astral or planetary pattern in its themes.1 Angus Fletcher has drawn attention to the Hermetic-Egyptian setting of Britomart's vision in the Temple of Isis.2 Thus there are movements stirring towards new solutions of Spenser's philosophy, if one can use that word of his outlook. Notwithstanding the immense literature on Spenser, his Neoplatonism has not yet been tackled on modern lines, though much has recently been brought to light of which the older Spenser criticism never dreamed. This label, as formerly used, left out the Hermetic-Cabalist core which modern scholarship has revealed within Renaissance Neoplatonism, as formulated by Ficino and Pico. Of the Elizabethan poets, the one who has been placed within a recognisable thought movement is Edmund Spenser, usually described as a Neoplatonist.
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