The primary theme for this 24th volume of the annual Spenser Studies is the engagement of English poet Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599) with Platonic philosophy. Fourteen articles consider such
topics as the prevalence of Platonism at Oxford and Cambridge Universities during Spenser's era; the influence of Platonists Flaminio Nobili, Marsilio Ficino, Everard Digby, and Guy le F矇vre de
a Boderie on Spenser's intellectual milieu; the relationship of Spenser's poetic to Platonic theories of beauty and love; and the story of Merlin's mirror and of the true and false Florimells
in Books III to V of The Faerie Queene as an engagement and refutation of Plato's anti-poetics. A secondary theme arises out of the final four papers, which relate Spenser's The Faerie Queene
to his Fowre Himnes. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
