So this is the book on Chastity, ostensibly focusing on Britomart,
In these cantos we see the fracture of the singular narrative, which had already seen a little tendency of fracturing beforehand (Book 2 Canto 3, when Braggadochio runs across Belphoebe, who cows him). Canto 1 offers the possibility of continuity, with Guyon, Arthur, the Palmer, and Britomartis meeting. Britomartis fights and defeats Guyon, who must be warned not to fight further by the Palmer. (Sometimes people lose - don't fight fate.) They ride together for some time, until they see a lady (Florimell) pursued by a foster (presumably a forester?). Arthur (and his squire Timaeus) and Guyon (and the Palmer) go off in pursuit, but Britomartis rides alone. She finds the Redcrosse Knight being defeated by six knights who serve Malecasta, the owner of a pretty castle, who scorns men who hold other lovers, or who don't see her. She defeats the men, and gains access to the castle, where after a feast and a lot of sexual tension (Malecasta crushes all over Britomartis), they go to bed. Malecasta goes to Britomartis's bed, who awakens and draws a sword on her. The six knights (representing progressive levels of lust) respond, Gardante lightly wounding B with an arrow. RCK and B go on.
In the next two cantos, we hear about Britomart's story, which largely involves her being raised in arms, stumbling across Merlin's mirror and seeing her lover in it, burning with love, being unsuccessfully cured by her nurse Glauce (including a weird and unsuccessful charm), them seeking Merlin who claims she should seek leach-craft, their insisting until he tells her the prophecy of her line to Elizabeth (including her own life), and their resolving to set out in search for him in Fairy land.
In Canto 4, we turn to Britomart riding (after complaining about her lost love in terms of a ship on a sea of sorrow), who encounters Marinell. They fight despite his warning, and she leaves him as a bloody pulp on the coast before riding off, wondering but thinking little of jewels speckled along the coast. His mother Cymoent comes, and we hear of her story and the story of the coast. Proteus had prophecied that he would have much ill of a woman, which she took to mean love. Eventually they find Marinell, and load him in their sea coach. He still has a pulse, and his wound is cleansed. They curse B, but she's immune to it. She and her nurse split, as they're pursued by Archimage and come to a crossing.
At this point, the narrative vein fractures. We turn to Timias, Arthur's squire, who has also been split from the others in a threeway division. He pursues Florimell, but gets lost in the night, and sees ghastly visions in the dark. In Canto 5, Arthur finds the Dwarf, who pursues Florimell. We learn that Florimell loves Marinell, who was charmed to not love her back. Meanwhile, T gets to the Foster, who with three others waylays the squire. He fights well, kills all three (in a scene with comparatively little blood but lots of beheading), but gradually bleeds out himself. Belphoebe comes up, tracking the blood of something she's hunting. She fins herbs for him, introduces self, and works to cure him. But he falls in love, wounded another way, and gradually succumbs to death in order to preserve her virtue. His blood dries.
In Canto 6, we learn of the origins of Belphoebe, who was conceived by Chrysogonee and sunbeams. Fearing dishonor though she knows she had none, she flees to the woods. Venus, seeking Cupid after a spat, wanders everywhere and finally to a forest where she sees Phoebe naked. Phoebe is scornful of this, but gradually softens in Venus's entreaties, and sends her nymphs to find Cupid in the woods. They find the children. One, for Phoebe, is named Belphoebe. The other, for Venus, is named Amoretta. The narrative then follows Amoretta to the garden of Adonis, where the tapestry in Canto 2 is finally completed - after Adonis died, he came here, where he lives eternally with Psyche and his child Pleasure. Old Genius keeps the door. Children are dressed by him in sin, and come in through the back door to be planted and purified (reincarnation of a sort). Amoretta is much loved, but loves only Scudamore. Then the narrative decides to turn back into Florimell.
Besides the formal shifting around, there are a few other threads. The prefaces of each canto (the first two or three stanzas) normally treat some abstract concern, much like the quatrain before summarizes the plot in an inadequate manner. In this case, most of these are either about the inadequacies of love or the passage of female valor or female ancient glory. The narrator really laments the loss of a tradition of martial women. This is especially clear in Canto 4, when he laments them in different ways depending on whether they're dead or merely lost. Canto 5 is also interesting in that it laments the kinds of love that can occur.
Blood is effusive in these passages, at least in parts, though the most intriguing place to be (besides Timaeus's wound in the thigh that opens as he fights, is closed by Belphoebe, and which opens another wound in his heart, which because he restrains himself from loving his blood gradually dries up) is with Marinell. He is left bleeding profusely, and when they find him, his blood is pretty cruddy. But they (his mother and her helpers) empty the wound of blood and then fill it with balm and nectar such as is good for mortals and gods. It's transfusion! Here again, to cure a wound that Belphoebe has caused, though this time neither knight nor mother know that it came from a man.
Happiness language has died down here, except for the strange proliferation of bowers of bliss. Venus has one!
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