The Faerie Queene · Chapter
Canto III explained
Una, forsaken and wandering in the wilderness, is discovered by a lion who becomes her gentle guardian.
What happens
Una, forsaken and wandering in the wilderness, is discovered by a lion who becomes her gentle guardian. She encounters a rude damsel and later is captured by the pagan knight Sansloy, who kills the lion. Una eventually finds the Redcrosse Knight, but it is revealed to be Archimago in disguise. Sansloy attacks and defeats the false knight, then prepares to kill him, but stays his hand upon recognizing Archimago. Sansloy then seizes Una and carries her away.
Themes in this chapter
Truth and Deception
Una's true identity and fidelity are contrasted with Archimago's deceitful disguise as the Redcrosse Knight.
Nature and the Supernatural
The lion's natural ferocity is tamed by Una's beauty and innocence, while Archimago's magical disguise represents supernatural deception.
Virtue and Vice
Una's steadfast virtue and the lion's noble protection are opposed by Sansloy's lawless violence and Archimago's guile.
Characters to notice
- Una
Forsaken and wandering alone, she is protected by a lion, captured by Sansloy, and later deceived by Archimago disguised as her knight.
- Redcrosse Knight
Mentioned as the object of Una's search; absent from the chapter except as impersonated by Archimago.
- Archimago
Disguises himself as the Redcrosse Knight to deceive Una, is defeated by Sansloy, and is recognized and spared.
- Sansloy
The pagan knight who kills the lion, defeats the false Redcrosse Knight, and carries Una away.
Key passages
“Nought is there under heav’ns wide hollownesse, That moves more deare compassion of mind, Then beautie brought t’unworthie wretchednesse Through envies snares, or fortunes freakes unkind.”
Nothing under heaven inspires more pity than beauty brought to undeserved misery through envy or cruel fortune.
The narrator expresses deep sympathy for Una's plight.
“The Lyon, Lord of everie beast in field, Quoth she, his princely puissance doth abate, And mightie proud to humble weake does yield, Forgetfull of the hungry rage, which late Him prickt, in pittie of my sad estate; But he, my Lyon, and my noble Lord, How does he find in cruell hart to hate Her, that him lov’d, and ever most adord As the God of my life? why hath he me abhord?”
Una contrasts the lion's merciful submission with her knight's cruel abandonment, lamenting that her beloved has rejected her.
Una's speech highlights the lion's natural compassion versus the knight's unnatural desertion.
“O! then, too weake and feeble was the forse Of salvage beast his puissance to withstand; For he was strong, and of so mightie corse, As ever wielded speare in warlike hand, And feates of armes did wisely understand.”
The lion was no match for Sansloy, who was a powerful and skilled warrior.
Sansloy's martial prowess overcomes the lion's protective strength.