I've taken a longer hiatus than I had hoped.
I have just finished reading Jean de Meun's version of the poem. I should call it an addendum. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.
One fair point is that he uses the allegory differently. Guillaume de Lorris is not inclined to long speeches. His allegorical characters are significant in their dress, behavior, and how they act to each other. Jean de Meun keeps these aspects somewhat, but deluges them in the very long speeches that many of his figures (like Friend, Reason, Wealth, the Old Woman, Nature, and Genius) give. They speak for long periods of time, such that it becomes difficult to remember that it isn't just the narrator speaking. This leads to delightful confusions, like being confused about why the main character hates women so.
I needn't repeat the allegorical figures, since they are largely the same as Guillaume's, with shifts in their qualities. It is similarly difficult to summarize each speech, but I will attempt to do so.
We left Guillaume (hereafter the name of the speaker) when he was despairing over never entering the castle. He gives a fair summation of the current predicament. Then Reason comes along. In this version, she presents a separate allegory, featuring such figures as Youth, Old Age, Delight, Death, Travail, and Suffering. This leads into a long discussion on love, and particularly a debate between what loves are appropriate and inappropriate. The speaker is unconvinced, though, because the pure loves that Reason speaks of are irrecoverable after the fall. He misses the point of holding such a pure love, one outside of Fortune's domain, as an ideal. After a long turn into a debate about Justice, a concept that ties into Love through Christian theology, and then to Fortune and its mishaps at greater length, Reason abandons Guillaume.
Then Friend comes, again reflecting the order of the original. After his advice of ways to reach the rosebud, he then speaks at length about courtship. His main contention, which has several other parts, is that there is no such thing as a good woman. His contradictory advice vacillates between recommending that they should be avoided, and counseling him on how to handle women when the seemingly inevitable hitch occurs. Like Reason, Friend brings to mind a postlapsarian view of life in his own allegory, with Fraud, Sin, Misfortune, Pride, Covetousness, Avarice, Envy, Poverty, Larceny, Faint Heart, and Lady Laverna (goddess of thieves) overtaking Contentment. Quite a rabble. To the fallen men and women, little bits of good advice emerge, like not restraining women, correcting them kindly in the case of jealousy, and so on, pieces of advice that might double as willful but fortunate blindnesses.
Soon they assemble an army of Love. Again, they have the trouble of False Seeming and Constrained Abstinence (who will in the course of time have the Antichrist?!?). False Seeming, while convincing them that he should be there, delivers a sermon of his own that is duplicitous, though I don't recall the details. He marches a contingent to confront Evil Tongue, and after a debate between them, they fight and Evil Tongue is killed with all of his Norman soldiers. The tongue is cut out, and he is cast into a ditch. Perhaps the only way to quell the lashes of unfair rumors is to appear more virtuous than the tongue can attack, though such seeming will be false.
Then comes Old Woman, who gives plenty of advice as a woman who had once lived the life of a lady swindling her way through men. Fair Welcome and she have a discussion, as she urges him to wear the chaplet that Guillaume has given for him. He finally does, but she seems always to be egging him on to admit of some greater affection, one of the points that I suspect the work keeps male-male sexual tendencies uneasily alongside the allegory that places those affections as towards the rosebud. As for Old Woman's speech, she loved but one man, who swindled her. In the trading of gifts for the goods (if not the affection) of love, she emphatically preaches for trickiness and wariness in all dealings between the sexes. Her ultimate caution is to not wait too long - his youth will turn to age someday.
After the speech, Fair Welcome reiterates his honorable friendship with Guillaume, and they soon meet (with Pleasant Looks accompanying). Fear, Shame, and Rebuff prevent an extended reunion, and thus the assault on the castle picks up steam. At this point, the crux of battle, arround lines 15105 and 15165, Jean de Meun makes an important disclaimer. He doesn't want to offend men, or especially women by the following account. The words are intended only to instruct. His defense of his own conduct partly foists the blame on other authors that report the same thing, and (where it is true, I suppose) begs leave to tell truth for the sake of instruction. Talk about seeking suitors.
Then Nature and Genius come after the battle, and the account is nearly done. They talk between each other for a while, Nature then gives a confession in which she admits the power that she has and its one limitation towards the sinfulness of man. Genius hears the confession, absolves her, and excommunicates all of those who work against Nature's commands to procreate, in metaphors of plowing, writing, and so on.
Finally, Guillaume takes up his place, puts a staff in a hole, breaks the barrier in the aperture, and gains access to the rosebud. And by all that, I think it means they have sex. :P
Overall Observations
It's painfully obvious now why there is not a plot summary on Wikipedia. The introduction of this book attempts one, but acknowledges its own inadequate brevity. It is just not an easy thing to summarize, especially when many of the events happen twice, allegory depends on the details imparted to its characters, and much of the second part consists of speeches that often constitute stories and tangents of their own. Only a schematic plot description is possible if one wants to spend less than an entire day on doing just that.
I can imagine that this poem was read in installments on evenings to a particularly refined audience that would have been intimate witness to the contemporary allusions of Jean de Meun or Guillaume. Each poet's rendition perhaps appealed to its own time, but certainly Jean de Meun's work was only an addition rather than an adaptation based on how it occurs after Guillaume's in manuscripts. So Guillaume's version had not lost much if any currency. Instead, much like the new Star Wars movies did to the old, perhaps Jean's version capitalized on the first one's fame while itself appearing as a product of its time, with better special effects and the same dressings of the original wrapped in somewhat worse dialogue.
This is the classic example of medieval allegory. It does not descend into a simple allegory of virtues and vices. Wealth, Love, Shame, Jealousy, Reason, and False Seeming each have their own advantages and disadvantages, light sides and dark sides and rather gray sides that emerge in their actions. No post-Capellanus lover would argue that Jealousy was unnecessary to Love. No lover would argue that Love was always fair to them. The same with Reason, the Boethian complaint against some of Reason's attempted consolations foremost in my mind when Guillaume refused Reason's advice. This is an allegory that seeks to imprint itself in the bustle of things, amongst humanity, and the need to reproach men and women both for their behavior is a needed reproach against the subjects of such allegorical realism. Of course allegory appears prior to and after this, and not nearly always in this mode. But I think that religious and political allegories both owe something to this example. I wonder what those terms are.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Romance of the Rose
Guillaume de Lorris wrote the first 4000 lines of this poem between 1225 and 1230. Jean de Meun wrote the remainder, feeling perhaps that the poem was unfinished, between 1269 and 1278. In total, the poem is about 22,000 lines long. Jean de Meun had a lot to say. The poem is preserved in over 200 manuscripts. (More than The Canterbury Tales.) Chaucer produced a translation of this poem.
I've read Guillaume's portion today, and the allegory is quite tasteful and pleasant. It is easiest to go through if I give a catalogue of character, a brief summary of the plot, and then a few observations.
Characters
After citing Macrobius's commentary on Cicero's Dream of Scipio (rather like one of Chaucer's heroes, though that hero is actually reading it), the Dreamer falls asleep. He soon dreams of coming across a walled garden in May, and sees the images on the walls, perhaps intended to keep people away that are old, hateful, covetous, and hypocritical. Then he searches for a door and finds only a small one. After he knocks, Idleness answers and lets him in. After wandering through the garden for a bit, he witnesses a dance, and is soon asked to join by Courtesy. A cavalcade of characters follows (not to be misleading though it alliterates - no horses are mentioned), encompassing the positive qualities of the garden, including pleasure, wealth, largesse, love, and youth.
Eventually the Dreamer is encouraged to wander again, and he comes across the Spring of Love, prefaced by the story of Narcissus and Echo. The Dreamer looks, sees the rose bushes and the most beautiful rose bud, and is immediately stricken by the five arrows of Eros meant to inspire love. He is then hunted and taken captive, until the Dreamer swears fealty to the Lover, sealed with a kiss on the mouth. The Lover then gives his commandments, which amount to suffering Love with the few consolations given the Dreamer - to think on his love, to talk about his love, and to see his love.
Dreamer then approaches the bushes, and is greeted by Fair Welcome, who is content to allow him to rest near the bud. When he asks to take the bud away, he is refused, and soon Rebuff and his cronies come by and kick Dreamer out. Disconsolate, he seeks a Friend for the solace of Pleasant Conversation. The Friend counsels diplomacy, which with the intervention of Pity and Generosity of Spirit softens Rebuff enough that he allows the Dreamer back in. He sits with Fair Welcome, who soon allows the Dreamer to kiss the bud.
Upon doing so, Evil Tongue spreads rumors about Fair Welcome and Dreamer. Soon, Jealousy is in on the act, and proclaims that they ought to build a tower around the bud, and keep Fair Welcome at the center of it. Once armed, garrisoned (with Norman soldiers!), and kept, Dreamer despairs, loving from afar both the bud and Fair Welcome.
Thoughts
First, homosocial. There is clearly an implied relationship between Fair Welcome and the Dreamer, and the Dreamer's responses to his absence indicate that, though the allegations might be salacious, it is less a fabrication of what isn't there than a misconstruing of what is. Fair Welcome serves as the point of access to the bud, a benevolent Pandarus-type character who indulges Dreamer in return for the pleasure of having given welcome. The two are warm, and in the earlier sense of the word intimate. The concluding speech by Dreamer indicates that he misses Fair Welcome more than he does the bud. It is nearly as if the rosebud is the object of Dreamer's affections, but Fair Welcome is its agency, a male duenna who receives the poet's advances. He does not restrict access altogether, but makes sure that such access is appropriate, within the strictures of courtliness that Love must be constrained to serve. In my mind, such agency could easily collapse into a Cyrano-like situation, where the Dreamer ends up loving the agent more than the pretty face, Cyrano over Christian. Could such a flip have happened then? I must think it could, having no evidence to the contrary.
And that goes without mentioning the kiss on the mouth that passes between the God of Love and the Dreamer. Certainly, they would have been less picky about such gestures than we are today, as we have turned a kiss into something erotic all the time. In this story, it may be an allusion of the sex that is to come. It could also be a greeting, or a seal of fealty. I think that we have more of an issue of the ambiguity between those statuses than they did. Either (the traditional assumption) the umbrage of the kiss depended on the situation such that categories didn't blend together, or (the generous assumption) there was a little swearing of fealty and eroticism in any kiss, no matter the primary context. I incline towards the latter. To do otherwise would be to ignore a key part of the context; would even a medieval man kiss the God of Love and not feel a little erotic about it?
Second, details. It's so funny to see the parenthetical explanations in places where I would never suspect that one was needed. For example, when Joy is described next to Pleasure, the poet quickly adds, "Who did not hate him in the least, but had given him her love when she was no more than seven years old" (14). Oh. Okay. I suppose that this is a jibe against those that would claim that Joy (with its exalted refinement) and Pleasure (with its earthly tones) are separate in theological grounds. Bodily pleasure serves as a distraction to salvation or happiness, while joy is the place where happiness takes its rest. The Thomistic view would disagree with Guillaume on this point, and though I don't know enough about other scholastic movements at the time, I suspect others would too.
Also, the details like dress and surroundings fascinate me. Why does it matter that Wealth is wearing a stone that protects against toothaches? (I wonder if anyone has ever cross-referenced this with lapidaries of the time, which also record these weird traits.) Do the many spices in the garden (cloves, liquorice, fresh cardamum, zedoary, anise, cinnamon, and "many delicious spices good to eat after a meal") make it more lavish? What are those spices good to eat after a meal? All I can think of is "dessert" or "after dinner mint." Oh, how impoverished my understanding is. This early tendency towards making lists is masterful compared to many later medieval poems, which turn these brief descriptive interludes into indulgent and obsessive fights over who can do so most lavishly.
Third, Arthurian allusion. Just a note that it does occur, including the company of Largesse, and an allusion to Kay and Gawain where the former comes off horribly and the latter quite well in courtesy.
Protect me! Tomorrow I plan to put a big dent in Jean de Meun.
(Note - I've also been reading through The English Romance in Time by Helen Cooper and The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I'm nowhere near finishing either, but I might post on them too when I feel less long-winded.)
I've read Guillaume's portion today, and the allegory is quite tasteful and pleasant. It is easiest to go through if I give a catalogue of character, a brief summary of the plot, and then a few observations.
Characters
- Dreamer - Rather self explanatory.Soon falls into a dream vision.
- The Images on the Walls of the Garden
- Hate - (f) woman wild with fury
- Cruelty - (f)
- Baseness - (f) immoderate scandalmonger
- Covetousness - (f) take and give nothing in return
- Avarice - (f) give nothing
- Envy - (f) hates the best, tears down all who do good
- Sorrow - (f)tormented
- Old Age - (f) aged, wrinkled, cold
- Religious Hypocrisy - (f) fearlessly commits any crime, though appearing religious
- Poverty - (f) naked, but for a sack.
- The Dance in the Garden
- Idleness - (f) opens the door for the Dreamer - enjoys amusements
- Pleasure - (m) intimate friend of Idleness, owns garden and built its walls
- Courtesy - (f) invites Dreamer into the dance
- Joy - (f) Pleasure's sweetheart
- God of Love - (m) ruler of lovers, humbler of the haughty, owner of two bows with five arrows each
- Beauty
- Simplicity
- Generosity of Spirit
- Company
- Fair Seeming
- Pride
- Baseness
- Shame
- Despair
- Inconstancy
- Beauty - (f) resplendent lady
- Wealth - (f) lavish lady, wearing the most distinguished jewelry, stones with magical properties
- Wealth's lover, unnamed - a well-kept man
- Largesse - (f) giver of goods
- The accompanying knight from Arthur's court, courageous and strong in tournaments
- Generosity of Spirit - (f)whiter than snow
- Youth - (f) the 12 year old lover, with a boy of the same age constantly kissing.
- Pleasant Looks - (m) carrier of the God of Love's equippage
- Parable of the Fountain
- Narcissus
- Echo
- Gifts of Love - to soothe the aching lover
- Pleasant Thought
- Pleasant Conversation
- Pleasant Looks
- The Rosebud - the object of Dreamer's desire, yet unopen and keeping a fresh, aromatic scent
- Chastity - (f) the keeper of the Rosebud
- Venus - (f) Chastity's mortal enemy, mother of the God of Love (Eros), goddess or fairy in appearance
- Fair Welcome - (m) son of Courtesy, intimate friend to Dreamer
- Keepers of the Bud
- Rebuff - (m) grouch
- Evil Tongue - (m) slanderer, alleges inappropriate relationshp between Fair Welcome and Dreamer
- Shame (f) - daughter by Reason and Fiend, conceived when Reason looked on Fiend
- Fear (f) - daughter of Jealousy, sent when Reason sent Shame to Chastity to help guard the rosebuds
- Reason - (f) counsels that one should forget love, rebuffed
- Friend - (m) hears Dreamer's complaints (in accord with Pleasant Conversation), and counsels diplomacy and patience
- Aid from Heaven - both seek understanding from Rebuff
- Generosity of Spirit - (f)
- Pity - (f)
- Jealousy - (f) argues for building the tower enclosing the buds
- Lechery, Lust - (m) enemies mentioned by Jealousy
- Fortune - (f) the keeper of the wheel that casts the Dreamer down
After citing Macrobius's commentary on Cicero's Dream of Scipio (rather like one of Chaucer's heroes, though that hero is actually reading it), the Dreamer falls asleep. He soon dreams of coming across a walled garden in May, and sees the images on the walls, perhaps intended to keep people away that are old, hateful, covetous, and hypocritical. Then he searches for a door and finds only a small one. After he knocks, Idleness answers and lets him in. After wandering through the garden for a bit, he witnesses a dance, and is soon asked to join by Courtesy. A cavalcade of characters follows (not to be misleading though it alliterates - no horses are mentioned), encompassing the positive qualities of the garden, including pleasure, wealth, largesse, love, and youth.
Eventually the Dreamer is encouraged to wander again, and he comes across the Spring of Love, prefaced by the story of Narcissus and Echo. The Dreamer looks, sees the rose bushes and the most beautiful rose bud, and is immediately stricken by the five arrows of Eros meant to inspire love. He is then hunted and taken captive, until the Dreamer swears fealty to the Lover, sealed with a kiss on the mouth. The Lover then gives his commandments, which amount to suffering Love with the few consolations given the Dreamer - to think on his love, to talk about his love, and to see his love.
Dreamer then approaches the bushes, and is greeted by Fair Welcome, who is content to allow him to rest near the bud. When he asks to take the bud away, he is refused, and soon Rebuff and his cronies come by and kick Dreamer out. Disconsolate, he seeks a Friend for the solace of Pleasant Conversation. The Friend counsels diplomacy, which with the intervention of Pity and Generosity of Spirit softens Rebuff enough that he allows the Dreamer back in. He sits with Fair Welcome, who soon allows the Dreamer to kiss the bud.
Upon doing so, Evil Tongue spreads rumors about Fair Welcome and Dreamer. Soon, Jealousy is in on the act, and proclaims that they ought to build a tower around the bud, and keep Fair Welcome at the center of it. Once armed, garrisoned (with Norman soldiers!), and kept, Dreamer despairs, loving from afar both the bud and Fair Welcome.
Thoughts
First, homosocial. There is clearly an implied relationship between Fair Welcome and the Dreamer, and the Dreamer's responses to his absence indicate that, though the allegations might be salacious, it is less a fabrication of what isn't there than a misconstruing of what is. Fair Welcome serves as the point of access to the bud, a benevolent Pandarus-type character who indulges Dreamer in return for the pleasure of having given welcome. The two are warm, and in the earlier sense of the word intimate. The concluding speech by Dreamer indicates that he misses Fair Welcome more than he does the bud. It is nearly as if the rosebud is the object of Dreamer's affections, but Fair Welcome is its agency, a male duenna who receives the poet's advances. He does not restrict access altogether, but makes sure that such access is appropriate, within the strictures of courtliness that Love must be constrained to serve. In my mind, such agency could easily collapse into a Cyrano-like situation, where the Dreamer ends up loving the agent more than the pretty face, Cyrano over Christian. Could such a flip have happened then? I must think it could, having no evidence to the contrary.
And that goes without mentioning the kiss on the mouth that passes between the God of Love and the Dreamer. Certainly, they would have been less picky about such gestures than we are today, as we have turned a kiss into something erotic all the time. In this story, it may be an allusion of the sex that is to come. It could also be a greeting, or a seal of fealty. I think that we have more of an issue of the ambiguity between those statuses than they did. Either (the traditional assumption) the umbrage of the kiss depended on the situation such that categories didn't blend together, or (the generous assumption) there was a little swearing of fealty and eroticism in any kiss, no matter the primary context. I incline towards the latter. To do otherwise would be to ignore a key part of the context; would even a medieval man kiss the God of Love and not feel a little erotic about it?
Second, details. It's so funny to see the parenthetical explanations in places where I would never suspect that one was needed. For example, when Joy is described next to Pleasure, the poet quickly adds, "Who did not hate him in the least, but had given him her love when she was no more than seven years old" (14). Oh. Okay. I suppose that this is a jibe against those that would claim that Joy (with its exalted refinement) and Pleasure (with its earthly tones) are separate in theological grounds. Bodily pleasure serves as a distraction to salvation or happiness, while joy is the place where happiness takes its rest. The Thomistic view would disagree with Guillaume on this point, and though I don't know enough about other scholastic movements at the time, I suspect others would too.
Also, the details like dress and surroundings fascinate me. Why does it matter that Wealth is wearing a stone that protects against toothaches? (I wonder if anyone has ever cross-referenced this with lapidaries of the time, which also record these weird traits.) Do the many spices in the garden (cloves, liquorice, fresh cardamum, zedoary, anise, cinnamon, and "many delicious spices good to eat after a meal") make it more lavish? What are those spices good to eat after a meal? All I can think of is "dessert" or "after dinner mint." Oh, how impoverished my understanding is. This early tendency towards making lists is masterful compared to many later medieval poems, which turn these brief descriptive interludes into indulgent and obsessive fights over who can do so most lavishly.
Third, Arthurian allusion. Just a note that it does occur, including the company of Largesse, and an allusion to Kay and Gawain where the former comes off horribly and the latter quite well in courtesy.
Protect me! Tomorrow I plan to put a big dent in Jean de Meun.
(Note - I've also been reading through The English Romance in Time by Helen Cooper and The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I'm nowhere near finishing either, but I might post on them too when I feel less long-winded.)
Friday, June 4, 2010
John Donne
Biography:
1572-1631. Born into a devout Catholic family. Distantly related to Sir Thomas More. Converted to the English church sometime in the 1590s. Participated in campaign against Cadiz and Azores in 1596-7 (Earl of Essex). Was secretary to Sir THomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Sal. But he secretly arried Ann More, Egerton's niece, in 1601, and lived insecurely in the country. Twelve children by her.
Donne eventually sought patrons for his works, writing things like Pseudo-Martyr for James I in 1610, Ignatius His Conclave in 1611 against Jesuits, the first two Anniversaries in 1611 and 12 for his patron Sir Robert Drury's dead daughter, and so on. Eventually, in 1615, Donne consented to take the King's offer to begin an ecclesiastical career - court preacher, reader in divinity at Lincoln's Inn, and dean of St. Paul's.
He often circulated his poems in manuscript. In 1633, Songs and Sonnets was published, and went through a second edition in 1635.
"The Flea"
aabbccddd, 3 iambic tetrameter nonets. A poem that compares the mingling of blood in the flea to a sexual act, as the speaker tries to convince his lover to give in. The flea itself stands as an indistinct third personage - for the resulting child? For "the marraige bed and marriage temple?" For the occurrence of sex itself? It is vaguely trinitarian. In the third stanza, the flea is killed, and the speaker changes tack to show how small a thing was killed, comparing once more its smallness to the honor that would be lost.
"The Good-Morrow"
ababccc, 3 iambic pentameter septets. The time before their meeting is treated as a dream of sleep and simple pleasures. Then he gives good morow, and plays with the figure and function of mapping in the remainder of the poem. The lover makes their room a whole entire world, and each other mapped mirrors or hemispheres of each other. The figure is somewhat unusual, but the point is that the two are able to be so perfectly mapped together or mixed that a balance exists, such that neither would die.
"Song: Go and catch a falling star"
irregular nonet, ababccddd. Starts with a series of impossible or unknowable things, like "who cleft the Devil's foot," before making the bold claim to "find / What wind / Serves to advance an honest mind." The second stanza expands the charge, only related by proximity, until he claims that none can find "a woman true, and fair." (Can only ugly women be true? Are true women rather like Laura, unfair?) The speaker in the last stanza makes rather a mockery of himself, first urging a doubter to find her, and then refusing to go see even if she is close, alleging that she would be false before he arrived. It's a rather coy and original appropriation of the misogynist voice.
"The Undertaking"
quatrains of abab rhyme in iambic tetrameter. The poem starts with the speaker claiming that he has done a braver deed than all the worthies (including, presumably, King Arthur). A yet braver thing is to not impart it. He implies that imparting it is futile, since the material has been lost, rather like the futility of "the skill of specular stone." What is to impart? That it is best to love someone for their inward qualities, rather than outward adornment. If one finds "Virtue attired in woman... / And dare love that, and say so too, / And forget the He and She;" well, great! I'm mystified by the last line - is it meant to forget common formal address? Is it wiping away gender altogether? That's the leap I want to make, but it might be a misunderstanding, almost as big as the profane men who would misunderstand this sort of love.
1572-1631. Born into a devout Catholic family. Distantly related to Sir Thomas More. Converted to the English church sometime in the 1590s. Participated in campaign against Cadiz and Azores in 1596-7 (Earl of Essex). Was secretary to Sir THomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Sal. But he secretly arried Ann More, Egerton's niece, in 1601, and lived insecurely in the country. Twelve children by her.
Donne eventually sought patrons for his works, writing things like Pseudo-Martyr for James I in 1610, Ignatius His Conclave in 1611 against Jesuits, the first two Anniversaries in 1611 and 12 for his patron Sir Robert Drury's dead daughter, and so on. Eventually, in 1615, Donne consented to take the King's offer to begin an ecclesiastical career - court preacher, reader in divinity at Lincoln's Inn, and dean of St. Paul's.
He often circulated his poems in manuscript. In 1633, Songs and Sonnets was published, and went through a second edition in 1635.
"The Flea"
aabbccddd, 3 iambic tetrameter nonets. A poem that compares the mingling of blood in the flea to a sexual act, as the speaker tries to convince his lover to give in. The flea itself stands as an indistinct third personage - for the resulting child? For "the marraige bed and marriage temple?" For the occurrence of sex itself? It is vaguely trinitarian. In the third stanza, the flea is killed, and the speaker changes tack to show how small a thing was killed, comparing once more its smallness to the honor that would be lost.
"The Good-Morrow"
ababccc, 3 iambic pentameter septets. The time before their meeting is treated as a dream of sleep and simple pleasures. Then he gives good morow, and plays with the figure and function of mapping in the remainder of the poem. The lover makes their room a whole entire world, and each other mapped mirrors or hemispheres of each other. The figure is somewhat unusual, but the point is that the two are able to be so perfectly mapped together or mixed that a balance exists, such that neither would die.
"Song: Go and catch a falling star"
irregular nonet, ababccddd. Starts with a series of impossible or unknowable things, like "who cleft the Devil's foot," before making the bold claim to "find / What wind / Serves to advance an honest mind." The second stanza expands the charge, only related by proximity, until he claims that none can find "a woman true, and fair." (Can only ugly women be true? Are true women rather like Laura, unfair?) The speaker in the last stanza makes rather a mockery of himself, first urging a doubter to find her, and then refusing to go see even if she is close, alleging that she would be false before he arrived. It's a rather coy and original appropriation of the misogynist voice.
"The Undertaking"
quatrains of abab rhyme in iambic tetrameter. The poem starts with the speaker claiming that he has done a braver deed than all the worthies (including, presumably, King Arthur). A yet braver thing is to not impart it. He implies that imparting it is futile, since the material has been lost, rather like the futility of "the skill of specular stone." What is to impart? That it is best to love someone for their inward qualities, rather than outward adornment. If one finds "Virtue attired in woman... / And dare love that, and say so too, / And forget the He and She;" well, great! I'm mystified by the last line - is it meant to forget common formal address? Is it wiping away gender altogether? That's the leap I want to make, but it might be a misunderstanding, almost as big as the profane men who would misunderstand this sort of love.
Thomas Campion
1567-1620. He was one of those jacks-of-all-trades, law student, ;physician, composer, and writer. He preferred Latin for poetic form. He has a sweet lyrical quality, even though his topic material is sometimes controversial - e.g., rape.
"My sweetest Lesbia"
Sextet of three couplets, iambic pentameter. The speaker urges the lover to "live and love" even though that might not be wise. A carpe diem sort of poem. Second stanza claims that those that war are the true fools, not those that love. Third stanza repeats the theme of death - people should celebrate after the speaker dies. Last two lines are confusing - does Lesbia die with him, or merely usher him into death?
"I care not for these ladies"
Balladic repetition - 10 lines per stanza, last four repeat. Resists noblewomen who demand so much wealth, turning instead to simple "kind Amaryllis, / The wanton country maid." Pun intended there. Trade of goods in second stanza - the speaker wants to receive goods, not have to give "golden showers." (Har.) Idyllic about Amaryllis. The last four lines repeat a story of seizure, refusal, and then relenting once "we come where comfort is." It's disturbing, as it suggests that he partly wants Amaryllis because she is easy to both love and to simply take.
"When to her lute Corinna sings"
Two sextets, couplet rhyme. Iambic tetrameter. Beautiful overflow at the end of the first stanza, "Ev'n with her sighs the strings do break," "Ev'n" evoking the overflow into mourning. Sympathetic reactions between player, music, and finally the listener, who is also the speaker, and perhaps seeking to impart a similar reaction by retelling it.
"Now winter nights enlarge"
ababcdcdefef, iambic trimeter with a pentameter skip at the penultimate lines of two 12-line stanzas. Unlike many poems that lament winter, this features the turning inward into pockets of warmth and human society. Talk, dally, dance, riddle, lyricize - "Though Love and all his pleasures are but toys, / They shorten tedious nights."
"There is a garden in her face"
ababcc, iambic tetrameter. Along with lyricizing the addressee's face, the poet also has the refrain, "Till 'Cherry ripe!' themselves do cry." Who are "themselves," the suitors judging the "fruit" to be done, or the maid herself, ready to become a woman? The ambiguity plays with the voice of the poet too - does he want to declare her ready? Does the London street vendor cry, ushered from her or their lips, empower her, sell her, or do something else entirely?
"Fain would I wed"
Fourteener - fourteen syllables, seven beats. In a young woman's voice. She longs to move, and seeks men to love and satisfy her, but she never is able to love for long. She will turn to a convent eventually, but wryly implies that first she will become a mother, just like her mother before her. Part cyclical, part unrestrained, the voice of the woman is not at all subdued as one might assume from his other prose. Not that this assumption is correct - one might imagine that this is now Campion's Amaryllis, given the additional dimension of choice. She, too, wants sex, but she changes her mind frequently about who tolove.
"My sweetest Lesbia"
Sextet of three couplets, iambic pentameter. The speaker urges the lover to "live and love" even though that might not be wise. A carpe diem sort of poem. Second stanza claims that those that war are the true fools, not those that love. Third stanza repeats the theme of death - people should celebrate after the speaker dies. Last two lines are confusing - does Lesbia die with him, or merely usher him into death?
"I care not for these ladies"
Balladic repetition - 10 lines per stanza, last four repeat. Resists noblewomen who demand so much wealth, turning instead to simple "kind Amaryllis, / The wanton country maid." Pun intended there. Trade of goods in second stanza - the speaker wants to receive goods, not have to give "golden showers." (Har.) Idyllic about Amaryllis. The last four lines repeat a story of seizure, refusal, and then relenting once "we come where comfort is." It's disturbing, as it suggests that he partly wants Amaryllis because she is easy to both love and to simply take.
"When to her lute Corinna sings"
Two sextets, couplet rhyme. Iambic tetrameter. Beautiful overflow at the end of the first stanza, "Ev'n with her sighs the strings do break," "Ev'n" evoking the overflow into mourning. Sympathetic reactions between player, music, and finally the listener, who is also the speaker, and perhaps seeking to impart a similar reaction by retelling it.
"Now winter nights enlarge"
ababcdcdefef, iambic trimeter with a pentameter skip at the penultimate lines of two 12-line stanzas. Unlike many poems that lament winter, this features the turning inward into pockets of warmth and human society. Talk, dally, dance, riddle, lyricize - "Though Love and all his pleasures are but toys, / They shorten tedious nights."
"There is a garden in her face"
ababcc, iambic tetrameter. Along with lyricizing the addressee's face, the poet also has the refrain, "Till 'Cherry ripe!' themselves do cry." Who are "themselves," the suitors judging the "fruit" to be done, or the maid herself, ready to become a woman? The ambiguity plays with the voice of the poet too - does he want to declare her ready? Does the London street vendor cry, ushered from her or their lips, empower her, sell her, or do something else entirely?
"Fain would I wed"
Fourteener - fourteen syllables, seven beats. In a young woman's voice. She longs to move, and seeks men to love and satisfy her, but she never is able to love for long. She will turn to a convent eventually, but wryly implies that first she will become a mother, just like her mother before her. Part cyclical, part unrestrained, the voice of the woman is not at all subdued as one might assume from his other prose. Not that this assumption is correct - one might imagine that this is now Campion's Amaryllis, given the additional dimension of choice. She, too, wants sex, but she changes her mind frequently about who tolove.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Biography:
Henry, born in 1517, and died in 1547. The ignoble distinction of being the last person executed by Henry VIII's order, convicted of treason after he opposed the Seymours (remember Jane Seymour?) when power swung to them after Catherine Howard was executed for adultery. He was very high born, the eldest son of the duke of Norfolk, a conservative Catholic faction. He served in the French wars as "Lietenant General of the King on Sea and Land." In 1541 he helped free Thomas Wyatt from the Tower of London.
He was well-loved in the sixteenth century, especially after Tottel's miscellany in 1557 (Songs and Sonnets written by the Right Honorable Lord Henry Howard Late Earl of Surrey and Other). He's the first author known to use the English sonnet form, and the first English poet to publish in blank verse (for the Aeneid partial translation).
Works
"The soote season"
Surrey refers to spring in his translation of Rima 310 by Petrarch. It is beautiful. Summer has come, and various animals are individually renewed and in their accustomed action. Winter is worn away, but "Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs." It's a wonderful juxtaposition.
"Love, that doth reign and live within my thought"
Petrarch's Rima 140, also translated by Wyatt. Surrey differs in that Love's holder conflicts more with it. He resists falling fully into this love, while nonetheless doing so.
"Alas! so all things now do hold their peace"
Translation of Rima 164. Unconventional rhyme here - ababababababcc. It's calm outside - depicting the night. No animals, calm sea. Then the shift in line 6 suddenly, perhaps allowed by the unconventional rhyme in the sonnet. "So am not I." Last poem's "doubtful hope" is this one's "doubtful ease." This is a speaker that is shaken inwardly.
"Th'Assyrians' king, in peace with foul desire"
An English sonnet. Depicts the Assyrian king growing soft by lust. Depiction of it as "womanish delight." Distortion of his body depicted in the way it no longer takes to swords and armor. ("The dint of swords from kisses seemed strange, / And harder than his lady's side, his targe.") Interesting at the end, where he is depicted as depleted, killing himself is done to show some "manful deed," though the tone set by "some" indicates some amount of scorn or derision, the best of terrible options after a depleted life.
"So cruel prison how could betide"
Quatrains, abab, until the concluding couplet. He is in Windsor, where he spent in childhood, and the poem juxtaposes the nostalgia for his youthful games (like joust?) and the company of friends and ladies. Upon remembering "The friendship sworn, each promise kept so just," he laments.
"Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest"
Same format as the last. The title alone gets the hesitating contradiction - Wyatt lived, but now he has died. In praise of Wyatt, dividing him into body parts - head, visage, hand, tongue, eye, heart, and then the "valiant corpse," the body as a whole. Each part serves to deliver some measure of virtue. The body then turns to the heavens after the famous lines about Nature losing the mold. Finally, it turns back to the speaker, lamenting the loss "for our guilt."
"O happy dames, that may embrace"
A woman (perhaps Surrey's wife) laments that she cannot embrace her husband like the other ladies can embrace "the fruit of your delight." No gender is attributed to the dames' loves, but the wife looks to her love on the ocean, having sailed away. This also transforms her, the lover, into the mariner - "Lo, what a mariner love hat made me!" (28). Her questions indicate her struggle to understand why he leaves. Again, "doubtful hope" recurs in line 38, a state for her worry even when the seas are calm.
"Martial, the things for to attain"
A translation of an epigram (10.47). It, like the last poem, has some preoccupation with happiness. But now it prescribes the state of happiness, which tends to avoid strife by embracing simplicity.
Henry, born in 1517, and died in 1547. The ignoble distinction of being the last person executed by Henry VIII's order, convicted of treason after he opposed the Seymours (remember Jane Seymour?) when power swung to them after Catherine Howard was executed for adultery. He was very high born, the eldest son of the duke of Norfolk, a conservative Catholic faction. He served in the French wars as "Lietenant General of the King on Sea and Land." In 1541 he helped free Thomas Wyatt from the Tower of London.
He was well-loved in the sixteenth century, especially after Tottel's miscellany in 1557 (Songs and Sonnets written by the Right Honorable Lord Henry Howard Late Earl of Surrey and Other). He's the first author known to use the English sonnet form, and the first English poet to publish in blank verse (for the Aeneid partial translation).
Works
"The soote season"
Surrey refers to spring in his translation of Rima 310 by Petrarch. It is beautiful. Summer has come, and various animals are individually renewed and in their accustomed action. Winter is worn away, but "Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs." It's a wonderful juxtaposition.
"Love, that doth reign and live within my thought"
Petrarch's Rima 140, also translated by Wyatt. Surrey differs in that Love's holder conflicts more with it. He resists falling fully into this love, while nonetheless doing so.
"Alas! so all things now do hold their peace"
Translation of Rima 164. Unconventional rhyme here - ababababababcc. It's calm outside - depicting the night. No animals, calm sea. Then the shift in line 6 suddenly, perhaps allowed by the unconventional rhyme in the sonnet. "So am not I." Last poem's "doubtful hope" is this one's "doubtful ease." This is a speaker that is shaken inwardly.
"Th'Assyrians' king, in peace with foul desire"
An English sonnet. Depicts the Assyrian king growing soft by lust. Depiction of it as "womanish delight." Distortion of his body depicted in the way it no longer takes to swords and armor. ("The dint of swords from kisses seemed strange, / And harder than his lady's side, his targe.") Interesting at the end, where he is depicted as depleted, killing himself is done to show some "manful deed," though the tone set by "some" indicates some amount of scorn or derision, the best of terrible options after a depleted life.
"So cruel prison how could betide"
Quatrains, abab, until the concluding couplet. He is in Windsor, where he spent in childhood, and the poem juxtaposes the nostalgia for his youthful games (like joust?) and the company of friends and ladies. Upon remembering "The friendship sworn, each promise kept so just," he laments.
"Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest"
Same format as the last. The title alone gets the hesitating contradiction - Wyatt lived, but now he has died. In praise of Wyatt, dividing him into body parts - head, visage, hand, tongue, eye, heart, and then the "valiant corpse," the body as a whole. Each part serves to deliver some measure of virtue. The body then turns to the heavens after the famous lines about Nature losing the mold. Finally, it turns back to the speaker, lamenting the loss "for our guilt."
"O happy dames, that may embrace"
A woman (perhaps Surrey's wife) laments that she cannot embrace her husband like the other ladies can embrace "the fruit of your delight." No gender is attributed to the dames' loves, but the wife looks to her love on the ocean, having sailed away. This also transforms her, the lover, into the mariner - "Lo, what a mariner love hat made me!" (28). Her questions indicate her struggle to understand why he leaves. Again, "doubtful hope" recurs in line 38, a state for her worry even when the seas are calm.
"Martial, the things for to attain"
A translation of an epigram (10.47). It, like the last poem, has some preoccupation with happiness. But now it prescribes the state of happiness, which tends to avoid strife by embracing simplicity.
A Glossing of Arthuriana
Haught, Leah. "Gender and Genre in The Awntyrs off Arthure." Arthuriana 20.1, 2010. 3-19.
The author is currently writing a dissertation on discourses of failure in late medieval Arthurian romance, a topic that intrigues me. The focus of this piece is on the first part of the poem, where Guenevere talks to the ghost of her mother. Gawain is also present. The ghost prophesies Arthur and Guenevere's fall, but the method of transmission (a female voice) gets silenced and subdued all the more easily because of what it is, as each figure chooses to live obliviously. The point is a little unclear - she does not seem to be completely sure what historical point is being inevitably affirmed here - that we see the fall coming but fall into it anyway?
Otherwise, well-written, takes note of the intertextuality linking it. Good fun.
(Also, Helen Cooper's article in the same volume is good, if brief. See p. 90-95-ish, where she explains and analyzes the differences between editions of Malory for the student and scholar. The Norton edition comes out as the most accessible overall, but Vinaver/Field is more comprehensive, and Armstrong's is perhaps more accessible to the introductory student.)
And in 20.2, a couple of interesting book reviews, including one for Sian Echard, Printing the Middle Ages, about the post-medieval trajectory of printed facsimiles of medieval text, and the desire to print these even when the audience seems otherwise obscure.
The author is currently writing a dissertation on discourses of failure in late medieval Arthurian romance, a topic that intrigues me. The focus of this piece is on the first part of the poem, where Guenevere talks to the ghost of her mother. Gawain is also present. The ghost prophesies Arthur and Guenevere's fall, but the method of transmission (a female voice) gets silenced and subdued all the more easily because of what it is, as each figure chooses to live obliviously. The point is a little unclear - she does not seem to be completely sure what historical point is being inevitably affirmed here - that we see the fall coming but fall into it anyway?
Otherwise, well-written, takes note of the intertextuality linking it. Good fun.
(Also, Helen Cooper's article in the same volume is good, if brief. See p. 90-95-ish, where she explains and analyzes the differences between editions of Malory for the student and scholar. The Norton edition comes out as the most accessible overall, but Vinaver/Field is more comprehensive, and Armstrong's is perhaps more accessible to the introductory student.)
And in 20.2, a couple of interesting book reviews, including one for Sian Echard, Printing the Middle Ages, about the post-medieval trajectory of printed facsimiles of medieval text, and the desire to print these even when the audience seems otherwise obscure.
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