In the Blood: Spenser, Race, and Identity

Notions of race based on blood and inheritance are widespread in the early modern period. Spenser uses the word “blood” on multiple occasions through the narrative of The Faerie Queene. Like other complex words in the poem—savage, justice, courtesy—it changes its meaning as the work progresses, forcing the reader to consider and evaluate what they think they know and to return to previous episodes and reread them in the light of later events and sequences of representations. Blood is the locus of identity, the essence of an individual and so possesses religious and racial significance. What is at stake in the existence and transmission of blood is complicated and problematic throughout Spenser’s works. Bloodlines may determine identity, or they may tell us very little about them. In this essay I explore Spenser’s understanding of blood, race, and identity through an examination of selected passages in A View of the Present State of Ireland and the stained hands of Ruddymane at the start of The Faerie Queene, Book II. Blood emerges as a significant factor in establishing identity, with inheritance through the blood determining legal as well as racial identities.