Has anyone compared the love expressed in Una's search for Redcrosse to
God's love for his errant children? I have looked in likely places but have
not found the analogy--not even in Nohrnberg.
Hamilton mentions a number of analogies:
Wisdom, Truth, Faith, the Protestant Church, the Church Triumphant,
the body of the Redeemed, the morning star of Revelation; yet
she remains upon the literal level 'a goodly maiden Queene', a woman whom
her lover possesses (Allegory in FQ, 88).
On the literal level Una is also one who loves.
Besides Hamilton and Nohrnberg, I have looked in Williams, Nelson, Fowler,
Lewis (Images of Life, but not Allegory of Love), Kellogg and Steele,
Fowler, and a couple of others I can't recall.
A related question: Is there scriptural justification for the idea that God
not only forgives our sins when we come to him but that he blots them out of
his memory? I have heard that notion advanced but not in a very reliable
context. The idea is not in the story of the Prodigal Son explicitly, but
neither, it seems to me, does seeing it there distort the story.
I have in mind Una's response to meeting Archimago disguised as Redcrosse:
True is, that true loue hath no powre
To looken backe; his eies be fixt before. (I.iii.30)
Jim Broaddus
Indiana State Univ. (retired)
Route 3 Box 1037
Brodhead, KY 40409
606-758-8073
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