Brilliant stuff, really.

Here's what the triumph of Temperaunce over hedonism looks like:

But all those pleasant bowres and Pallace braue,
Guyon broke downe, with rigour pittilesse;
Ne ought their goodly workmanship might saue
Them from the tempest of his wrathfulnesse,
But that their blisse he turn'd to balefulnesse:
Their groues he feld, their gardins did deface,
Their arbers spoyle, their Cabinets suppresse,
Their banket houses burne, their buildings race,
And of the fairest late, now made the fowlest place.

Only a knight who is exceedingly temperate and has good counsel could do this. Read Spenser to know how one such knight proved to be equal to the task and who advised him.

Truly spoke Robert Fripp: "To be happy with what you have you have to be happy with what you have to be happy with." ( )

Guyon (Temperance) and his Palmer (who tells Guyon what temperance is) are often boring, but the House of Temperance and Prince Arthur are stunning and many of the temptations are beautiful. I love Spenser's interjections--he invokes and praises Queen Elizabeth ("To decke my song withall, I would assay / Thy name, O Soveraine Queene, to blazon farre away") and seems to admit Guyon is a bit dull ("here I a while must stay / to see a cruell fight doen by the Prince this day" he says before devoting Canto 11 to Arthur). One of my favorite stanzas is about Arthur's quest for Gloriana, which brings him to each of Spenser's books:

Certes (then said the Prince) I God avow,
That sith I armes and knighthood first did plight,
My whole desire hath beene, and yet is now,
To serve that Queene with all my power and might.
Now hath the Sunne with his lamp-burning light,
Walkt round about the world, and I no less,
Sith of that Goddess I have sought the sight,
Yet no where can her find; such happiness
Heaven doth to me envy, and fortune favour lesse.