ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Spenser's incorporation of antecedent texts in Visions of the Worlds Vanitie, The Visions of Bellay, and Visions of Petrarch. It provides a detailed commentary on the translation/adaptation of Petrarch by Marot and van der Noot, with the aim of demonstrating the process of literary transfer that is at work. Since Spenser for the most part follows Marot's text, the chapter highlights only the points that indicate affinity with van der Noot's and Petrarch's versions. As Spenser displaces van der Noot's work, he is also imitating it: he continues the work that he started under the Dutch poets tutelage, and he extends the procedure of incorporating antecedent texts into the present text. By repeating the word God, though, Spenser is placing even more emphasis on it than is van der Noot.
