Introduction Andrew Escobedo; Part I. Spenser's Environment: 1. Pedagogy, education, and early career Andrew Wallace; 2. Laureate career-fashioning William A. Oram; 3. Patrons Richard McCabe; 4. Church controversy Gregory Kneidel; 5. Figures of Elizabeth Anna Riehl Bertolet; 6. Publication and the book marketplace Andrew Zurcher; 7. Colonialism and the New World Brian Lockey; 8. Colonialism and Irish plantation Thomas Herron; 9. Spenser's Irish circle Willy Maley; 10. Land, boundaries, and borders Philip Schwyzer; Part II. Genre and Craft: 11. Epic David Quint; 12. Pastoral Katherine Little; 13. Romance Clare Kinney; 14. The Bible and biblical hermeneutics Jamie Ferguson; 15. Allegory: theory and practice Judith H. Anderson; 16. Complaint and satire William Kerwinl; 17. Renaissance literary theory Gordon Teskey; 18. Renaissance rhetorical theory Michael Hetherington; 19. Poetry and the Commonwealth Cathy Shrank; 20. Poetical history John E. Curran, Jr; 21. Premodern literary character Andrew Escobedo; 22. Prosody Paul J. Hecht; Part III. Influences and Analogues: 23. Virgil David Scott Wilson-Okamura; 24. Ovid Syrithe Pugh; 25. Petrarch Patrick Cheney; 26. Chaucer Craig A. Berry; 27. The Sidney circle Mary Ellen Lamb; 28. Spenser's French connection Anne Lake Prescott; 29. Plato and Platonism William Junker; 30. Aristotle and the virtues Joe Moshenska; 31. Protestant theology and devotion Beth Quitslund; 32. Emblem and iconography Sarah Howe; 33. Saints, legends, and calendars Susannah Brietz Monta; 34. Cosmology and cosmography Ayesha Ramachandran; 35. Early modern ecology Julian Yates; 36. Sex and eroticism in the Renaissance Melissa E. Sanchez; 37. Gender in the 1590 Faerie Queene Kimberly Anne Coles; Further reading; Index.