Is Queene Propaganda?

If you ask that, I might in turn ask if the world is round. Spenser's Faerie Queene is a beautifully crafted work, but it is also quite obviously propaganda for Queen Elizabeth. Even in his invocation of the muse, he alludes to her Majesty at least three times, indirectly referencing her by speaking of the head of the Greek muses, "O holy Virgin chiefe of nine" (781), which seems to be an obvious reference to the fact that Queen Elizabeth was also known as the Virgin Queen. Again he references her in that same stanza as "fairest Tanaquill", which can be read as Gloriana, a popular epithet for the Queen. The third time he spends nearly half of the 3rd stanza praising her constantly and comparing her to "Phoebus lampe" (782), or the sun. Elizabeth is his muse for this poem it seems, and it is she who he invokes and praises.

But it goes beyond the invocation and into the style of the poem and into the characters as well. Elizabeth is also one of the characters of the poem, the Faerie Queene Gloriana (782), and Una is the pure Protestant faith that Elizabeth supports (793). Spenser goes on to show how wonderful and virtuous Una is in comparison to the evil Duessa, who most likely represents the Catholic Church. Spenser also makes continual use of allusions to Greek myths as well as classical Arthurian romance and Anglo-Saxon lore like Beowulf. By tying together the English mythology and linking it to Greek, he appeals to the intellectual crowd by using plenty of verbal flourishes and embellishments, as well as playing on their current interests, in turn linking these interests to Queen Elizabeth. It almost seems like a sort of subliminal message way of making people want to support her Majesty and the Church of England. All in all, I think this work does it's job as propaganda well, and a person of his era reading it could certainly come away in support of Queen Elizabeth if they enjoyed it.