Google-a-Day puzzles: Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596)

Via: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/02/agad021212/

The puzzle for Feb 12: 

"Reading one stanza a night, how long would it take to finish the first poem written using Spenserian stanzas?"

The Faerie Queene, written by Edmund Spenser and published first in 1590 (books 1-3) and second in 1596 (books 1-6), seems to represent the first poem to use Spenserian stanzas. He wrote it with the intention of fashioning a "noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline". It represents one of the longest poems of the English language and Spenser died prior to completing it. Only a fragment of book seven remains.

The summary of each canto for books 1-3 makes for fascinating reading.

Books 1-7 total stanzas:

3,810 (stanzas in cantos only) or
3,847 (stanzas in cantos and book prefaces)

3,810 days = 10.4314343 years
3,847 days = 10.5327369 years

Accessing an online edition of the text which enumerates each stanza by canto for books 1-3:

Book one stanza count, by canto

Preface:     4
Canto I:    55
Canto II:   45
Canto III:  44
Canto IV:   51
Canto V:    53
Canto VI:   48
Canto VII:  52
Canto VIII: 50
Canto IX:   54
Canto X:    68
Canto XI:   55
Canto XII:  42

Total stanzas: 617 (cantos only) or 621 (all)

Book two stanza count, by canto

Preface:     5
Canto I:    61
Canto II:   46
Canto III:  46
Canto IV:   46
Canto V:    38
Canto VI:   51
Canto VII:  66
Canto VIII: 56
Canto IX:   60
Canto X:    77
Canto XI:   49
Canto XII:  87

Total stanzas: 683 (cantos only) or 688 (all)

Book three stanza count, by canto

Preface:     5
Canto I:    67
Canto II:   52
Canto III:  62
Canto IV:   61
Canto V:    55
Canto VI:   54
Canto VII:  61
Canto VIII: 52
Canto IX:   53
Canto X:    60
Canto XI:   55
Canto XII:  45 (or 47, via 1590 edition)

Total stanzas: 677 (cantos only) or 682 (all)

Books 1-3 total stanzas: 1,977 (cantos only) or 1,991 (all)

Accessing an online edition of the text which enumerates each stanza by canto for books 4-6:

Book four stanza count, by canto

Preface:     5
Canto I:    54
Canto II:   54
Canto III:  52
Canto IV:   48
Canto V:    46
Canto VI:   47
Canto VII:  47
Canto VIII: 64
Canto IX:   41
Canto X:    58
Canto XI:   53
Canto XII:  35

Total stanzas: 599 (cantos only) or 604 (all)

Book five stanza count, by canto

Preface:    11
Canto I:    30
Canto II:   54
Canto III:  40
Canto IV:   51
Canto V:    57
Canto VI:   40
Canto VII:  45
Canto VIII: 51
Canto IX:   50
Canto X:    39
Canto XI:   65
Canto XII:  43

Total stanzas: 565 (cantos only) or 576 (all)

Book six stanza count, by canto

Preface:     7
Canto I:    47
Canto II:   48
Canto III:  50
Canto IV:   40
Canto V:    41
Canto VI:   44
Canto VII:  50
Canto VIII: 51
Canto IX:   46
Canto X:    44
Canto XI:   51
Canto XII:  41

Total stanzas: 553 (cantos only) or 560 (all)

Book seven stanza count, by canto

Canto I:    not extant
Canto II:   not extant
Canto III:  not extant
Canto IV:   not extant
Canto V:    not extant
Canto VI:   55
Canto VII:  59
Canto VIII: 2

Total stanzas: 116 (cantos only)

Books 4-7 total stanzas: 1,833 (cantos only) or 1,856 (all)