The Persistence of Vision: Continuous Narrative and Spenser’s Illustrated Poetry

Abstract

This article examines word-image relationships within A Theatre for Worldlings (1569) and The Shepheardes Calender (1579). Both printed texts contain illustrations with continuous narrative in which the implied three-dimensional space in the picture plane expresses temporality on a continuum that reaches back to the horizon. Spenser’s translations of Marot and Du Bellay in A Theatre reconnect the pictured scenes as a series of events, but the continuous narrative in A Theatre changes readers’ perceptions of narrative time and complicates deixis within the lyric poems. In the Calender, a different word-image relationship occurs. Spenser’s poetry, when paired with continuous-narrative designs, emphasizes the power of storytelling by illustrating imaginary or fable worlds on the landscape. Scholars often focus on how Spenser’s early translations influence his later poetry, but this essay argues that, in particular, the continuous narrative illustration techniques in A Theatre inform the ways in which visual images and narrative time operate in the Calender.