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126 The Clemency of the Queen n 33 Literary representations of mercy, and particularly Elizabeth’s mercy, participate in constructing and debating the image of the merciful queen. In The Faerie Queene, Spenser is deeply concerned with questions of mercy, equity, justice, and judgment. Chapter Two is a study of the ambivalent representations of mercy in The Faerie Queene. Throughout the poem, Spenser reveres Elizabeth’s mercy as an aspect of her royal image even as he criticizes mercy as a policy.

By contrast, when the heroic Arthur meets the desolate lady, he listens sympathetically to her story and puts himself at her service. The satyrs’ pity for Una suggests that such compassion might be natural: when they come upon her in the forest, They in compassion of her tender youth, And wonder of her beautie souerayne Are wonne with pitty and vnwonted ruth. 5–7) Their “ruth” is “unwonted,” that is, unaccustomed. They have not been taught to react compassionately but do so spontaneously. 7). The episode has been interpreted in a number of different ways, though always there is the general sense that the satyrs reflect some natural human inclination toward God even if one has not been taught what Spenser and his audience would regard as religious truth.

Mercy the nurse, who seems to represent divine mercy, as well as human acts of mercy in the House of Holiness are all virtuous and necessary components of salvation. The only other character in The Faerie Queene who directly represents mercy is Book V’s Mercilla, the queen of mercy. But in Book V, mercy is presented in the context of Justice rather than Holiness, so “mercy” does not mean God’s mercy to humanity, but rather human expressions of mercy in the context of the pursuit of justice in human society.