 However, marginal notes jotted in early copies of "The Faerie Queene" suggest that Spenser's contemporaries were unable to come to a consensus about the precise historical referents of the poem's "myriad figures".In fact, Sir Walter Raleigh's wife identified many of the poem's female characters as "allegorical representations of herself".Other symbols prevalent in "The Faerie Queene" are the numerous animal characters present in the novel.