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About this Journal

The Spenser Review is an online journal published three times each year, supported by the International Spenser Society. The Review publishes book reviews, essay-reviews and writing of various kinds on topics in and around the work of Edmund Spenser and Renaissance scholarship more generally. The writing that appears in the journal ranges from historically and textually focused scholarship to a wide array of theoretical, experimental, collaborative, exploratory, and playful forms of writing. The mission of the journal is to complement, reflect and provoke exciting work being undertaken on (and adjacent to) Spenser's writings and the work of other Renaissance figures, and the changing intellectual, pedagogical, cultural and institutional structures in which they are read.


The Spenser Review was founded in 1969–70 by Elizabeth Bieman and A. Kent Hieatt, and was originally published from the University of Western Ontario, with the endorsement of the Renaissance Society of America. Until 2001 its title was Spenser Newsletter. In 2013, David Lee Miller at the University of South Carolina saw the journal from print to digital publication. In 2013, the International Spenser Society restructured the journal’s management and format, and it has continued to develop under subsequent editors, becoming a widely recognized hub for a wide variety of Spenserian and other Renaissance engagements.

Volume 55 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Spenser and Free Speech

Articles


"Spenser and Free Speech": An Introduction

"Spenser and Free Speech": An Introduction

Kasey Evans

2025-07-12 Volume 55 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Spenser and Free Speech

The Freedom of Falling Behind: Milton, Spenser, and Truth-Telling Today

The Freedom of Falling Behind: Milton, Spenser, and Truth-Telling Today

Pasquale Toscano

2025-07-12 Volume 55 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Spenser and Free Speech

“Innocent paper”: Spenser’s Lyric Conspiracy

“Innocent paper”: Spenser’s Lyric Conspiracy

Stephen A. Gregg

2025-07-12 Volume 55 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Spenser and Free Speech

Malfont's Tongue: Poetic Injustice at the Court of Mercilla (FQ V.ix)

Malfont's Tongue: Poetic Injustice at the Court of Mercilla (FQ V.ix)

Sue Starke

2025-07-12 Volume 55 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Spenser and Free Speech



Reading by Candle-Lights: Truth and Falsehood in Areopagitica and The Faerie Queene

Reading by Candle-Lights: Truth and Falsehood in Areopagitica and The Faerie Queene

Michal Zechariah

2025-07-12 Volume 55 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Spenser and Free Speech

The bankes of Hellicon: Colin Clout and Spenser’s Speech

The bankes of Hellicon: Colin Clout and Spenser’s Speech

Susanne Woods

2025-07-12 Volume 55 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Spenser and Free Speech