Criticism of hedonism in «Muiopotmos» by Edmund Spenser

Е. Spenser's epyllion «Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie» is considered within the context of perception and interpretation of hedonism in Renaissance England where it was erroneously associated with Epi^ais' doctrine and severely criticized by humanists throughout the XVI th century. Unlike Italian propo­nents of sensual pleasure, English thinkers believed the true pleasure should be of intellectual rather than physical nature. The unrestrained craving for sensual pleasure immanent in Clarion the butterfly, the hero of Spenser's poem, resonates with the general frame of mind of the Renaissance presented in numerous philo­sophical and pedagogical treatises of the age. The plot of the epyllion is based on the story of Arachne, start­ing the sixth book of «The Metamorphoses» by Ovid, and provides the poet with the opportunity to show how appetite for pleasure emerges and grows in the beautiful butterfly but the momentary happiness Clarion experiences while gratifying his senses proves to be illusory and hedonistic flings only lead this charming creature to death. The danger of hedonism is emphasized in the imagery system of the epyllion by the fact that Aragnoll the spider has the wind as his ally in acting against Clarion, whereas in Christian symbolism wind is strongly associated with Satan. Though E. Spenser objectively shared eudaemonism of Italian follow­ers of Epicurus, he used the story of Clarion as an occasion to criticize hedonism and propagate the ethical ideal of temperance as the golden mean between extremities of hedonism and austerity.