The editors write of Spenser, "His work is steeped in Renaissance Neoplatonism but is also earthly and practical" ( p. 768). —What is Renaissance Neoplatonism, and where does it appear in Spenser?
Utopia has a section on the philosophy of the Utopians, including a definition of virtue (p. 615), and Spenser wrote about The Faerie Queene, "The generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline" (p. 777). — Compare the views of More and Spenser on the nature of virtue.
Compare the religious views stated or implied in Dr. Faustus with those stated or implied in The Faerie Queene.
The editors write, The Faerie Queene demands vigilance from readers, and many passages must be reread in light of what follows after. In some sections, such as the dialogue between Redcrosse and Despaire (Book I, canto 9), the repeated use of pronouns instead of proper names can lead to confusion as to who is speaking; the effect is intentional, for the promptings of evil are not always easy to disentangle from the voice of conscience" (p. 776) — Follow this up. Point out passages where this happens and explain the point of showing that the "promptings of evil are not always easy to disentangle from the voice of conscience."
Follow up on the first paragraph of the introduction to "Amoretti and Epithalamion" (p. 985). What is a "Petrarchan lament"? Which sonnets repeat "conventional motifs" and which are part of "a portrait of Spenser's recent courtship and marriage?"
The editors write that the structure of Epithalamion "is a triumph of symbolic patterning; the more scholars have studied it, the more elaborate the order they seem to have uncovered" (p. 985). —What scholars? What patterning?