Four talks to mark the fourth centenary of Spenser's birth
2— ' Most Sacred Vertue ' by Frances Yates
The title of this talk is taken from the invocation to Queen Elizabeth before the fifth book of The Faerie Queene, which expounds the ' most sacred Vertue ' of Justice. The virtues exemplified in the knights, whose adventures form the basis of the allegory of the poem, are all related to the virtues of the Virgin Queen of England whose rule is to restore a Golden Age of Justice and of Peace.
Frances Yates is Recognised Teacher of Comparative Literature in the University of London and a member of the staff of the Warburg Institute.