1993 0-7734-9342-5 This study identifies the most important attitudes toward history found within the individual books of the poem. Second, it explores the relevance and function of these historical perspectives to the particular fictional episodes in which they arise. Third, it defines Spenser's concept of historical being. Unlike other treatments of The Faerie Queene's use of history, this study does not decipher the text for allusions to Spenser's historical contemporaries, nor does it reduce the poem to a specific philosophy of history. This inquiry explores the integrity of Spenser's polysemous presentation of historical existence as a totality.