SOURCE: Stump, Donald V. “The Two Deaths of Mary Stuart: Historical Allegory in Spenser's Book of Justice.” Spenser Studies: A Renaissance Poetry Annual, Vol. 9, edited by Patrick Cullen and Thomas P. Roche, Jr., pp. 81-105. New York: AMS Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Stump discusses the role of Mary Stuart (also known as Mary Queen of Scots) in Book V of The Faerie Queene.

Scholars seem to have reached a consensus on Spenser's treatment of Mary Queen of Scots in Book V of The Faerie Queene. The prevailing view is that she is represented twice: first as Radigund in Cantos iv-vii and then again as Duessa in Cantos ix-x.¹ This is, I think, a useful insight. As it has usually been presented, however, the theory leads to at least one embarrassment: it requires Mary to die twice, once when Britomart cleaves her helmet in Canto vii and again...