Spenser and the Memory Palace

There is also evidence in the tradition of the Art of Memory indicating that the personification that suffuses allegorical writing and representation was employed as part of the process of memorization. The work of Frances Yates is helpful: here she tells of an illustrated memory-image of Lady Grammar found in Johannes Romberch's book, published in 1520: "Though devoid of aesthetic charm, Romberch's Grammar is of importance to the student of artificial memory. She proves the point that personifications, such as the familiar figures of the liberal arts, when reflected in memory, become memory images" (120).

The personifications in The Faerie Queene are so pervasive a part of Spenser's allegory that it would be tedious to catalogue them all. These personifications, combined with the number of memorable "places" in which they occur (for example, Errour in her cave or Acrasia in the Bower of Bliss), fall within the tradition of the memory palace. The poem thus has an overall effect of being structured like a memory palace: each book has its hero who wanders from memory place to memory place, encountering personifications of vices and virtues that are meant to be easily remembered: Errour's den, the House of Lucifera, Orgoglio's castle, the House of Holiness, the Castle of Medina, the Cave of Mammon, the House of Alma, the Bower of Bliss. This feature of the poem also helps us understand one possible purpose for the violence in many of these scenes.

volume 2, issue 2
SN 198