ABSTRACT
Since the term may refer to a complex range of perspectives and attitudes in Spenser’s poetry, it is useful to begin by distinguishing between chronological primitivism, the celebration of an original or much earlier historical period, and cultural primitivism, the celebration of what are assumed to be simpler, less sophisticated, less advanced conditions of human life. These two modes of primitivism may overlap, for both imply a contrast between uncivilized vitality and present circumstances.
