5 - BOOK 5
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
Summary
Justice
The just, therefore, is nothing other than the proportionate; the unjust is what violates proportion.
(Aristotle, Ethics p. 98)Take away Kings, Princes, Rulers, Magistrates, Judges and such estates of GODS order, no man shall ride or goe by the high way unrobbed, no man shall sleep in his owne house or bedde unkilled, no man shall keepe his wife, children, and possession in quietnesse, all things shall bee common, and there must needes follow all mischiefe, and utter destruction both of soules, bodies, goodes, and common wealthes.
(From the Homily Concerning good Order, and obedience to Rulers and Magistrates (1547))Traditionally representations of Justice have two attributes, a drawn sword and a pair of scales. The scales are a sign of the impartiality of justice, the giving to each of what is due. This is the first skill Astraea teaches Artegall, Spenser's Knight of Justice: ‘There she him taught to weigh both right and wrong/In equall ballance with due recompence’ (5.i.7). The sword ascribes a more dynamic embattled role to Justice, as a bulwark defending order and civility from the encroaching evils of violence. Artegall learns the use of force from Astraea after he has mastered the theory of balance:
Of all the which, for want there of mankind,
She caused him to make experience
Upon wyld beasts, which she in woods did find,
With wrongfull powre oppressing others of their kind.
(i.7)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Faerie Queene: A Reader's Guide , pp. 121 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999