> I agree with Jim about the identity of 'the knight'.
Oh, I agree with both of you, too. I was being hasty. But as often in the
battles of FQ, I do think there is a fair amount of slippage/contamination
between the two adversaries, and I think it's significant that the
dalliance leads to phallic motions on both sides (up, down, couched). It
seems to me typical of the erotic writing of the period (e.g. Sidney's
Astrophil and Stella) that the beloved should urge her lover to violate
his faith, and that the moment of his initial arousal should also be the
immediate stage for the contest between fidelity and infidelity. And of
course you can't have a *lack* of faith unless there is faith there to
derogate *from* (i.e. you can't express 'sans foy' without 'foy'); so
Redcrosse's entrance is conceptually concomitant with Sans foy's
excitation by Duessa's erotic accoutrement.
Sorry for hastiness. Too much hardiment.
az
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