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The Lady of Delight (Malecasta)
The Palmer is an elderly religious pilgrim who travels around with Sir Guyon and helps the knight grow in virtue. The holy man isn't just a physical guide for Sir Guyon but also a spiritual one, often functioning in the role of Sir Guyon's conscience. He wisely discourages Sir Guyon from getting into needless fights with other knights and heeding the songs of deceptive mermaids, and encourages him to develop the virtue of temperance, or self-restraint. He can also pacify wild beasts with his staff. When he is separated from the Palmer, Sir Guyon is more susceptible to various temptations. Thanks to the Palmer's guidance, Sir Guyon ultimately becomes wiser and more moderate over the course of their travels.
The Palmer Quotes in The Faerie Queene
The The Faerie Queene quotes below are all either spoken by The Palmer or refer to The Palmer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book II: Canto I
Quotes
His carriage was full comely and upright,
His countenance demure and temperate,
But yet so sterne and terrible in sight,
That cheard his friends, and did his foes amate:
He was an Elfin borne of noble state
[…]
Him als accopanyd upon the way
A comely Palmer, clad in blacke attire,
Of ripest years, and haries all hoarie gray
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Book II: Canto IV
Quotes
And round the wreath, this word was writ,
Burnt I do burne. Right well beseemed it,
To be the shield of some redoubted knight
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Book II: Canto VIII
Quotes
There the good Guyon he found slumbring fast
In senseless dream; which sight at first him sore aghast.
Beside his head there sate a faire young man,
Of woundrous beautie, and of freshest years.
Book II: Canto XII
Quotes
Said Guyon, See the mind of beastly man,
That hath so soone forgot the excellence
Of his creation, when he life began,
That now he chooseth, with vile difference
To be a beast, and lack intelligence
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