ABSTRACT
The two works have four elements in common. Each includes a divine resting place where the protagonist is initiated into Christian truths (Spenser’s house of Holiness and Bunyan’s House Beautiful). Both Redcrosse and Christian are granted visions of a heavenly city from a mountain top. In both works the paradigm of the Christian life includes battle with a demonic monster (Spenser’s Dragon and Bunyan’s Apollyon). Finally, in both works the protagonist confronts despair. Despite these similar patterns, however, Bunyan’s status as a mechanick preacher and his own insistence on his unlettered background make a direct connection unlikely; and parallels between the works are too general to provide a prima facie case for such indebtedness (Golder 1930, Wharey 1904). More recently, criticism has focused on their mutual familiarity with specific traditions: popular romances and religious tracts (Golder 1929, 1931), emblems (Freeman 1948), the parables which figure in sermon literature (MacNeice 1965:26-50). The two authors differ, however, in audience, construction, technique, and manipulation of sources; most importantly, Spenser knew the classics whereas Bunyan knew only the Bible.
