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"Yet sure in all that [Desmond] war there perished not many by the sword, but all by the extremity of famine, which they themselves had wrought... havoc and confusion... yet this is very necessary to be done, for the soon finishing of the war... Therefore, by all means it must be foreseen and assured that after once entering into this course of reformation, there be afterwards no remorse or drawing back, for the sight of any such rueful object as must thereupon follow nor for compassion of their calamities, seeing that BY NO OTHER MEANS IT IS POSSIBLE TO RECURE THEM and that these are not of will, but of very urgent necessity." --Irenius, *View* (ca. Smerwick and famine discussion), emph. added; also McCabe, *Spenser's Monstrous Regiment* 91-3. I think "foreseen...necessity" and blaming the victim trumps allegorical disassociation here. --Tom Herron >8. Unlike many, I think I see in A view a sustained effort to moderate and >limit the human suffering of a people by falsifying and then eroding their >national, social, and ideological affiliations. The horror that Spenser >witnessed in Munster, the ruthless efficiency at Smerwick, and the >pathetic humanity at Limerick lie like mines waiting to explode in A view >every time I read it. It is often claimed that Spenser proposes using >famine as a political instrument in Ireland. He does not. In fact he >refers to his experience of the Munster famine as a reason why the Irish, >who have seen such horrors before, will not hesitate to trade loyalty, >identity even for security. The human *cost* of lives, even Irish lives, >is not worth the ideological integrity it might purchase. Unlike Madeleine >Albright, Spenser does not argue, even through Irenius, that it is 'worth >the price'. I do not mean to suggest by this that Spenser questioned the >Elizabethan project in Ireland, nor do I mean to apologize for him, much; >but I do register in A view the same fundamental dissociation of name and >substance that defines much of the theory of allegory permeating The >Faerie Queene. > _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus