IN THE FIRST and second books of The Faerie Queene, the relationship ibetween ethical striving and political authority is made clear: legitimate political authority, whether so defined by divine will or national interest, provides the space wherein valid individual ethical endeavour can occur; and that ethical endeavour, in turn, directly enacts the authority of the prince. Books Three and Four, in contrast, put such a straightforwardly beneficent transaction between polis and ethos in question, by suspending the narrative pattern whereby each hero's quest is assigned by Gloriana, and putting in its place a more fraught relation between sovereign power and its subjects, which brings into view for the first time the prospect that their respective interests may not coincide, and hence the possible costs as well as benefits to the individual of interpreting oneself in dutiful terms.

Self-Assertion in the Legend of Chastity

In urging Britomart to “submit” dutifully to her destined role in her nation's history, Merlin does his best to seem morally as unanswerable and metaphysically as securely grounded as did Contemplation in bidding Redcross to render service to Gloriana (III.iii.24). But neither the collective end Britomart is enjoined to serve, nor the individual reward for doing so, comes off looking as compelling as in the former case.