Malbecco is a minor character that appears in book 3 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. He is the Lord of the castle, and he is not a very likable guy.
When we first hear of Malbecco, he will not let the heroes into his castle because he is simply a non-hospitable man. He would prefer to spend his time hoarding over his treasures and his wife, both of which he keeps locked safely away.
Malbecco is the embodiment of jealousy, and literally turns into a creature called Jealousy after his wife is taken away from him and most of his riches are burned or stolen. Once all this tragedy strikes, he throws himself over a cliff, but transforms into the creature of Jealousy.
Malbecco acts as a foil to the character of Britomart. He shows the negative sides of keeping things to yourself. Where Britomart keeps her chastity to herself, we can see that such things can be taken to extremes, when such protection is centered on trivial things.
See our complete list of Arthurian characters for more entries like this one.
Arthurian Bibliography
- Norris Lacy, Geoffrey Ashe, Debra Mancoff – The Arthurian Handbook (Second Edition)
- Alan Lupack – The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend
- Ronan Coghlan – The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Arthurian Legends
- Anonymous – Lancelot-Grail, the French Vulgate
- Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte d’Arthur
See also my ever-expanding list of primary and secondary sources.
