Between flower and wave : discordia concors and the case for a transitional florimell in Spenser\u27s Faerie Queene

At midnight in a foreign castle, Britomart, the knight of Chastity, disarms, and the sinister Malecasta takes notice. Britomart is not the first of Edmund Spenser’s knights to be rendered vulnerable by removing armor: the Red Cross knight of Book I was assailed by an incarnation of his own pride after similarly letting down his guard. But for Britomart, Spenser’s most prominent female warrior, there is no battle that is solely with the self. Women in The Faerie Queene are always invested with social significance as daughters, mothers, lovers, tempters, and idols. So when Britomart takes off her armor, she becomes vulnerable to the lust and malevolence of others, as well as to her own too trusting nature