first appear when Calidore’s courteous behaviour to noble child raised as a shepherdess – see ‘romance’ in Calepine after inadvertently interrupting his love-the SEnc – and its stories with their aura of indefinite, making with Serena results in her being wounded by mysterious meanings that seem to invite incompat-the Blatant Beast. ible interpretations even while they resist them. One The next five cantos explore the various states of example is the story of Serena about to be divided art (i.e. nurture) in relation to nature (i.e. either and eaten by the Salvage Nation: it may be seen as a noble or base blood). Courtesy is shown to be nat-romance motif that draws on Spenser’s knowledge of ural to the Salvage Man, as evident in his courteous human sacrifice practised by the Irish Celts (McNeir behaviour to Calepine and Serena after he pities 1968:130–35, 143), and on his experience of the them in their distress (iv 1–16), for though he lacks Munster famine (View 104; see Gray 1930:423–24); nurture, he is of ‘gentle bloud’ (v 1.2). In contrast, or it may be interpreted as mocking the Petrarchan the savage bear’s ‘son’ may become a knight or rhetorical dismemberment of women (Krier philosopher (iv 35.4–36.9) through nurture alone. 1990:114–15); or parodying the Roman Catholic In contrast to both, Turpine, a ‘most discourteous concept of the Real Presence in the eucharist crauen’ (iv 2.6), being of ‘base kind’ (vii 1.9), may (Nohrnberg 1976:712–13); or satirizing Protestant not be reformed even by Arthur. And in contrast to extremists who threaten to dismember the Church him, Mirabella, though of ‘kindred base’, is ‘deckt of England (Borris 1990). Another example is with wondrous giftes of natures grace’ (vii 28). The Calidore’s rescue of Pastorella from the brigants’ lowest level of nature is seen in the Salvage Nation: underground cave: the story is closer to myth than its attempt to divide and eat Serena is the demonic to allegory, for her descent into the cave evokes parody of courtly behaviour. For an analysis of these Proserpina’s descent into the underworld, and her states, see Oram 1997: 252–54, and Tonkin rescue a resurrection from death to life. It has been 1989:176–81. interpreted (for example, by M. Evans 1970:224) as The four concluding cantos describe Calidore’s an allegory of Christ harrowing hell, but preserved adventures after he abandons his quest and enters the as a myth or fiction, its potential meanings remain pastoral world. His vision of Pastorella culminates in inexhaustible. See Hamilton 1959:352–54. his vision of the Graces, and his courtship of her culminates in their union (x 38); and only after he rescues her from the brigants, and restores her to her Cantos of Mutabilitie