The rhyming scheme is generally _ababbcbcc_, though this too is subject to change, whether by authorial oversight or authorial intention (e.g. II ii 7, VII vii 28). The stanzas are not numbered in the original editions. Between 30 and 87 stanzas comprise a _canto_ (Italian, "song"), a term borrowed from Lodovico Ariosto, the Italian poet, whose work influenced Spenser. A canto is preceded by a four-line verse called an _argument_. This summarizes what follows, often with particular emphasis on its allegorical meaning. The metre of the argument is that of the _Book of Common Prayer_. Each complete book is introduced by a _proem_, a group of between four and eleven stanzas preceding the argument of Canto i. Twelve cantos comprise a _book_. Book VII is incomplete. Spenser's stated plan was to write twelve books, one on each of the twelve moral or private virtues; it is not known whether he composed any more of _The Faerie Queene_ than has survived. _The Faerie Queene_ was to have been followed by another epic poem of twelve more books, one on each of the political or public virtues. No trace of this work has ever been found. THE SHADOW TEXT The Shadow Text is intended as no more than a lowly companion to the original. It makes no attempt to preserve metre or rhyme, but renders a prosaic version, unifying the spelling in order to make the meaning easier to understand. I have altered the punctuation for the shadow version, though not without trepidation. My aim has been to make crystal clear the mechanical sense expressed by each stanza, but quite often this is impossible. For one thing, the original pointing, rather than being used strictly logically, may also influence the rhythm or emphasis of the words when spoken (and _The Faerie Queene_ is a poem which should be read aloud--although perhaps not in its entirety!--to be fully appreciated). For another, the functions of the punctuation marks themselves have undergone change since Spenser's day. The semicolon, for example, is found in _FQ_ introducing direct speech, where today a comma or a colon would be used. Again, the comma is often required to carry long parentheses, themselves sprinkled with commas; these passages can become very confusing, especially where Spenser has also adopted a contorted and latinistic word-order. Then there are problems introduced by deliberately ambiguous pointing. Spenser's immense command of the language, and his quicksilver gift for wordplay and puns, allow him, when he chooses, to pack great complexities of meaning into a line or even a single word, and in this his punctuation is frequently his accomplice. A famous example comes right at the beginning of Book I: But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, And dead as liuing euer him ador'd: