Is it possible that Spenser also has in mind Paul's text from Ephesians that explains Redcrosse's armor? It's the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11), but he carries the "shield of faith" (6:16). Thus faith and force would stand for something like offence and defence, embodied in his sword and his shield. Of course, this doesn't make sense in the narrative, since at this moment, Redcrosse has been wrapped up by Errour like a serpent, so his shield is presumably irrelevant, although interestingly it is his shield that Errour first strikes ("Lept fierce upon his shield"). Whatever Una means, it isn't clear, as Lauren says, that Redcrosse gets it. We're told that "in great perplexitie, his gall did grate for griefe and high disdaine." Grief and disdain seem characteristic of Redcrosse (and get him into greater trouble later on), but they are surely not what Una had in mind. Furthermore, Redcrosse frees a hand by "knitting all his force," which seems just more force, not force with faith.

 

Hannibal

 

 

On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 4:58 PM, James C. Nohrnberg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Yes:  Credence, plus the Creed.  "Add Faith unto your force, and may the Force be with you."  I.e., the Force of the Faith--Redcrosse's emblem is that of the Crusader or (degraded term) True Believer.

 
On Thu, 21 Nov 2013 22:01:28 +0100
 Roger Kuin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I don't think it's the same addition. In the French, it means, "believe what he says". In Spenser, it has a far more profound theological meaning. To add faith to one's force is to complete a human virtue (courage, force) with a theological one (faith), and thus to arrive at an Aquinian completeness that will be fully effective. I think. Roger K


On Nov 21, 2013, at 7:36 PM, David Wilson-Okamura wrote:

What do we think Una's means, "Add faith vnto your force and be not faint" (FQ I.i.19)? Hamilton glosses "add" as "join," citing 2 Peter 1:5: "joyne moreover vertue with your faith." That makes sense to me, but I was just rereading War and Peace, where Tolstoy quotes a letter from Napoleon to the supreme Russian commander:

"Monsieur le prince Koutouzov, j’envoie près de vous un de mes aides de camp généraux pour vous entretenir de plusieurs objets intéressants. Je désire que votre Altesse ajoute foi à ce qu’il lui dira, surtout lorsqu’il exprimera les sentiments d’estime et de particulière considération que j’ai depuis longtemps pour sa personne."

The phrase that caught my eye was, obviously, "ajoute foi": trust, give credence to. I don't find it recorded its verbatim equivalent, "add faith," recorded in the OED or Shakespeare.

a. Was the French idiom already current in the Age of Catherine de' Medici?

b. Does it make sense in the Spenserian context?

c. If so, are there other Gallicisms in Spenser?


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