ABSTRACT
Edmund Spenser's concerns are both literary and political since the shield, like the poem itself, is a prophetic 'work of art' with a national, moral and religious mission. Arthur's armour illustrates the ambiguity not only of art, artifice and their description in the poem, but also of the significance of brightness, the quality which in The Fairy Queen characterises both hero and villain, both truth and counterfeit. Arthur, however, is merely a prince in The Fairy Queen, a knight searching for his love, Gloriana, the Fairy Queen. The dazzling effect of the queen on her beholders recalls the effect of Arthur's shield; she can only be represented in shadow, as if covered by a veil like the magic shield. The shield of the enemy becomes an apotropaic emblem, like Medusa's head in the gorgoneion of Athena, meant to deter usurpers and counterfeits.
