Theme of Temperance in The Faeirie QueeneThe themes of temperance, that is to say the employment of restraint, or at least moderation, in Particular in yielding to personal appetites or desires, and intemperance, submission to such desires permeates the second book of The Faeirie Queene. Before describing the individual rooms of Alma Castle, it is helpful to briefly discuss how the idea of ​​the castle works in the book. Spenser compares the towers of the structure with the towers of Thebes and Troy, which constitute individual monuments. According to Berger, Alma Castle functions as an “archetype of human temperance”; Spenser specifically describes the building in terms of the human body, relating it to Christian teachings; in the first song he declares: Of all the works of God that adorn this world, There is none more righteous and excellent, Then the body of man is both in power and in form, While it is maintained in a sober government...Spenser's statement borrows from the polemic of St. Augustine, who states "it is not necessary...that in our sins and vices we should accuse the nature of the flesh to the detriment of the creator, because in its species and degree, the flesh is good. .' (Shepherd) The castle of Alma represents this “good flesh”. Throughout Canto IX, the reader is shown that the excessive uses of the flesh, the intemperance, which permeate all the other cantos of Book II, are not the only possible uses of the flesh, as represented by the actions by Guyo. Concerning the interior of the castle, the Kitchen is described in detail, in terms that can be directly related...... middle of paper......; ...some could not bear to play, All pleasure was for them brief and boring: This sling, this beast, the third blushed with shame, Another seemed envious, or shy, Another in her teeth gnawed a rush. (Stanza 35) Throughout Book II, Guyon exercises his aversion to pleasure, as he crushes and shatters the illusions of intemperance in Canto XII, and ignores temptations in Canto VII. Here, in Alma's living room, these temptations, the passions, are also present, but they are controlled, natural and non-corrupting. Although they are still considered flaws in humans, they are accepted; as with all things, moderation is key. As Berger comments, while Guyon rejects passions as "unworthy of an excellent man, they are not here considered negative emotions »..