The Shorter Poems

by Edmund Spenser

  Regarded as a unified sequence, the epigrams and sonnets display a clear thematic progression. The former afford universal, atemporal emblems of the world’s vanity while the latter supply historical verification in the specific instance of imperial Rome, the fate of which adumbrates that of its papal successor. The eighth sonnet of Du Bellay’s Songe, excluded from A Theatre, had juxtaposed Revelation’s imagery of the beast from the sea with that of the barbarian invasions, thereby fusing the destinies of pagan and papal Rome and, very probably, inspiring the four ‘Apocalyptic’ sonnets which conclude the sequence.

  The influence of A Theatre upon Spenser’s later work was substantial. By denoting Queen Elizabeth as ‘Astreæ’ (sig. A6r) and opposing her political influence to that of the Catholic Whore of Babylon, it established the polarized female archetypes which recur throughout The Faerie Queene. By presenting a prolonged meditation upon the transience of earthly things and reposing its trust in the ‘Lorde of Sabaoth, the Lord of hostes’ (fol. 65r), it initiated Spenser’s obsessive engagement with the theme of mutability and the ultimate resolution of the long-deferred ‘Sabaoths sight’ (FQ, 7. 8. 2). It was doubtless a contributory factor to the centrality within his work of architectural symbolism, particularly in relation to ancient Rome and to the ‘architecture’ of the human body. The illustrations helped to foster Spenser’s interest in allegorical landscape, and the prophetic persona informed the cultivation of his visionary poetics. Equally important was the influence upon the development of the Spenserian sonnet, and the use, fostered by Du Bellay, of archaic diction for specialized effect [cf. Satterthwaite (1960)]. It would be quite unwarranted to identify Spenser’s political or religious attitudes with those of Noot, but there can be no doubt as to the importance of A Theatre to any study of Spenser’s literary development. His preoccupation with the image of the theatrum mundi, with pageant, emblem and Apocalyptic symbolism begins here. Cf. Forster (1967a); Van Dorsten (1970).

  Epigrams

  Epigram 1

  TW identifies the ‘faire hinde’ as Petrarch’s Laura and ‘the houndes white and black’ as ‘the daye and night, meaning the time passyng away’ (fol. 13v). Cf. Dido as a wounded hind in Virgil, Aeneid, 4. 68–73. While preserving its erotic associations, Petrarch endows the hind with spiritual significance (cf. Rime Sparse, 190).

  Epigram 2

  TW identifies the ‘faire ship’ as Laura, comparing ‘her whyte coloured face vnto Ivorie, and hir blackishe browes… vnto the wood of Hebene [ebony]’. The cords and ropes represent ‘not onely all hir costely rayement or apparell, but also hir… excellent vertues’ (fols. 13v–14r).

  Epigram 3

  TW identifies the birdsong as Laura’s ‘louying and curteous talke’ and the ‘lyghtenyng and tempest’ as ‘a burnyng sicknesse’ (fol. 14r).

  11 outbrast: burst out.

  Epigrams 4–6

  TW characterizes these poems as exercises in contemptus mundi. Following Laura’s demise, Petrarch reassessed the value of ‘worldely love’ and ‘turned himselfe to Godwarde’ (fol. 14v).

  Epigram 4

  4–8 Cf. FQ, 6. 10. 7.

  Epigram 5

  An ironic reversal of the more usual use of the Phoenix as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection.

  Epigram 6

  The stinging of the lady by the serpent is suggestive of the demise of Eurydice (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10.. 8–10) and the fall of Eve (Genesis 3: 1–6), but her assurance of joy recalls the prophecy of ultimate victory over the serpent through the woman’s seed, Christ (Genesis 3: 15). The Virgin Mary was commonly regarded as the second Eve, and Petrarch’s Laura is complimented by the association.

  Epigram 7

  Spenser follows Marot in transforming Petrarch’s three-line coda into a quatrain comprised of two rhyming couplets.

  3 request: translating the French ‘desir’.

  Sonets

  Sonnets 1 – 11

  TW asserts that in these sonnets Du Bellay ‘goeth about to persuade, that all things here upon earthe, are nothyng but… miserable vanitie’ (fol. 15ν). Because Rome’s arrogance was manifest in its architecture its ruins ‘beare witnesse’ to divine vengeance (fols. 16r–17v).

  Sonnet 1

  10 Temple: the firmament (all that is ‘under the sun’ in Ecclesiastes 1: 9).

  11 Cf. ‘Vanity of vanities… all is vanity’ (Ecclesiastes 1: 2).

  14 confidence: strengthening the ‘hope’ expressed by Du Bellay.

  Sonnet 2

  1 frame: underlying structure, base. Here the ‘frame’ becomes a bier, a word defined by E. K. as ‘a frame wheron they vse to lay the dead corse’ (SC, November, [161]).

  cubites: ancient standard of measure based on the length of the forearm.

  4 Dorike: one of the three orders of Greek architecture.

  9 parget: ornamental plaster-work often indented or in relief.

  11 Iaspis… Emeraude: jasper and emerald, in vain imitation of the New Jerusalem. Cf. Revelation 21: 18–19.

  Sonnet 3

  14 flushe: flash (of lightning).

  Sonnet 4

  10–11 his… sire: the god Vulcan was Zeus’ armourer.

  Sonnet 5

  1 Dodonian tree: the oak, so called from the oracular oak tree at Dodona in Epirus which was sacred to Zeus.

  2 seuen hilles: of Rome (TW, fols. 14v–15r).

  4 Italian streame: the Tiber.

  10–11 The barbarian invasions of the fourth and fifth centuries AD.

  14 forked trees: probably alluding to the papacy (which claimed to have secured temporal power under the Donation of Constantine) and to its ally the Holy Roman Empire: ‘Daniel and Paule… haue foretold that Antechrist should be borne of the subversion of the Empire’ (TW, fol. 20ν).

  Sonnet 6

  1 the birde: ‘the Eagle imperiall’ (TW, fol. 15r).

  13 foule: probably the owl, as an emblem of spiritual obscurantism. It was ill-omened (cf. FQ, 1. 9. 33). Its wormlike birth from the eagle’s ashes parodies the rebirth of the phoenix. TW asserts that ‘the truth is darkened’ in the papacy’s rise from the ashes of empire (fol. 19r). Cf. John 3: 19.

  Sonnet 7

  2 body: ‘he meaneth the riuer of Tyber’ (TW, fol. 15r).

  3 side: long and flowing.

  4 Saturnelike: sombre, awe-inspiring.

  8 Troyan Duke: Aeneas, cf. Virgil, Aeneid, 12. 697–952. For the Trojan ancestry of the Romans and Britons cf. FQ, 3. 9. 38–51.

  9–10 The legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were suckled by a she-wolf.

  11 tree of peace: the olive tree. Cf. SC, Aprill, 123–6, [124].

  Palme: an emblem of victory. Cf. VG, 113.

  12 Laurel: an emblem of both political and poetic success and implying an association between the ‘renowne of Prince, and Princely Poeta [poet]’ (cf. Prose, 466). Cf. Petrarch, Rime Sparse, 263; SC, Aprill, [104].

  13–14 Palme… Laurel: the political, cultural and aesthetic decline of Rome, including that of Latin poetry.

  Sonnet 8

  1 wailing Nimphe: representing the City of Rome.

  11–12 The Hydra sprouted two heads for every one cut off by Hercules until the wounds were seared with burning brands. It was often identified with the seven-headed beast from the sea of Revelation 13: 1.

  14 Neroes… Caligulaes: standard exemplars of imperial corruption.

  15 The coincidence of a fifteen-line sonnet at the centre of a fifteen-sonnet sequence has prompted numerological speculation: fifteen can denote spiritual ascent because there were fifteen steps to the Temple, and as the sum of seven and eight it might suggest the harmony of the Old and New Testaments, or the resolution of time in eternity. Cf. Prescott (1978), 46–7. However, the fifteenth line occurs in neither the Dutch nor the French versions and was deleted in VB. One should be wary of interpreting aesthetic inexperience as mystical design.

  Sonnet 9

  3 Ceder tree: cf. the aromatic cedars of Lebanon used in the construction of Solo
mon’s temple (2 Chronicles 2: 3–8).

  10 leames: rays or beams.

  11 golden shoure: the golden shower whereby Zeus deflowered Danaë was often allegorized as the corrupting power of wealth, and specifically of bribery or simony. Cf. Comes, Mythologiae, 7. 18; FQ, 3. 11. 31.

  Sonnet 10

  Cf. TM, 265–82.

  4 golden Pactol: the River Pactolus near Sardis to which Midas transferred his golden touch (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11. 142–5).

  Sonnet 11

  1–2 Morpheus… eyes: Morpheus was the god of dreams, the most reliable of which occurred, according to Ronsard, in the early morning. Cf. Elegies, 1. 34 (‘Discours’ 5, lines 1–6).

  4 Typhæus sister: Typhoeus, the youngest son of Gea (Earth), challenged Zeus for dominion of the lower world and was imprisoned under Mount Etna. His sister is presumably the Titaness Rhea (honoured in Rome as Cybele) but the exact allusion is obscure. Allegorically she may represent imperial Rome itself. Cf. FQ, 7. 6. 2–4.

  5 morian: a type of helmet without a beaver or visor.

  Sonnet 12

  The source is Revelation 13.

  1 vgly beast: ‘the congregation of the wicked’ (TW, fol. 20v).

  2 ten crounes: ‘Signifying their great dominion’ (TW, fol. 21r).

  3 blaspheming name: ‘What are Popes, Cardinals, patriarks… archbishops… but names of blasphemie?’ (TW, fol. 22r).

  4–5 Leopard… Lions: cf. Daniel 7: 3–7. TW observes that ‘this beast was like the Leopard, spoted and blemished, tokens of inconstancie… and temeritie. His feete like to a Beares feete, fearful and horrible… signifying crueltie, stubbornesse, stoutnesse and uncleanesse. And his mouth as the mouth of a Lion, declaring heereby the… wickednesse of those Prelates’. The lion represents the Assyrians and Chaldees, the bear the Medes and Persians, and the leopard the Greeks. The vices of all three are held to inhere in the papacy (TW, fols. 23r–v). Cf. RT, 64–70.

  6 mightie Dragon: ‘Sathan the Diuell’ (TW fol. 24v).

  8 grieuous wounde: ‘through the… preaching of the Gospell… since the time of John Hus’ (TW, fol. 26v).

  11–14 sea… vp: this is actually the beast from the earth, not the sea, ‘signifying… all manner of false Prophets’ (TW, fol. 33v).

  Sonnet 13

  The source is Revelation 17–18.

  1 Woman… beast: the Whore of Babylon, understood as Roman Catholicism, upon the Antichrist (TW, fols. 43v–45r). Cf. FQ, 1. 7. 16–18.

  2 Orenge colour: for the French ‘migrainne’, ‘scarlet reddish, in token of greate tyrannie, sheddyng of bloud and murthers’ (TW, fol. 44v).

  3 name of blasphemie: ‘as, your holynesse… vicar of God’ (TW, fol. 44v).

  4–5 seuen… homes: ‘signifying all his subtil practises’ (TW, fol. 45r).

  6–7 glorie… golde: signifying priestly vestments (TW, fol. 45r).

  8 cup: ‘this cup, is hir false and cursed Religion’, a parody of the Eucharist (TW, fol. 45v). Cf. FQ, 1. 8. 14.

  10 Martyrs: in contemporary terms, victims of the Inquisition.

  12 Angell: ‘Signifying the true ministers and preachers [of the Reformation] sent in these our dayes’ (TW, fol. 50v).

  14 Babylon: commonly interpreted by Protestants as Rome.

  Sonnet 14

  The source is Revelation 19.

  1 white horse: ‘the true and faithfull ministers of the word of God’ (TW, fol. 63v).

  2 faithfull man: Christ.

  3 crounes: ‘to signifie that Jesus Christ is the soueraigne king aboue all kings’ and that the elect are crowned with grace (TW, fols. 64v-65r).

  4 worde: Christ as the Logos, the ‘euerlasting word’ (TW, fol. 66r).

  5 embrued: stained (recalling the Passion and Crucifixion).

  7 armie: ‘true and faithfull ministers’ (TW, fol. 66r).

  9 birdes: all who ‘lead heere in earth an heauenly life’ (TW, fol. 67v).

  10 eate… flesh: cf. Revelation 19: 17–18. TW supplies the more comforting interpretation of ‘convert unto the Lord’ (fol. 68v).

  Sonnet 15

  The source is Revelation 21–2. Cf. FQ, 1. 10. 53–8.

  1 new… Heauen: traditionally associated with the Second Coming but also representing deliverance of the elect ‘here in this worlde from sin’ (TW, fol. 78r).

  2 the sea: ‘the troublous sea of thys worlde’ (TW, fol. 78v).

  3–4 Citie… spouse: the New Jerusalem, ‘the congregation and churche of god’, figured as the bride of Christ (TW, fols. 78v–79r).

  9 Square: ‘Whatsoeuer is foure square, abideth firme and unmoueable’ (TW, fol. 81r).

  twelue: for twelve as a number of perfection cf. TW, fols. 82r-84r.

  10 pearle: ‘for the doctrine of the Gospell is precious and costly without comparison’ (TW, fol. 82r).

  11 precious stone: for the allegorical significance cf. TW, fols. 84r-87v.

  12 streame: ‘this river signifieth the two testaments of the Lorde, wherby stode that most pleasant tree of lyfe, namely Christ Jesus’ (TW, fols. 88r-89v). Cf. FQ, 1. 11. 29–34, 46–52.

  THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER

  The Shepheardes Calender was published towards the close of 1579 at a time of acute political crisis occasioned by the proposed marriage between Queen Elizabeth I and the Catholic Duc d’Alençon, an alliance which seemed to many to threaten the very foundations of English Protestant government [cf. Byrom (1933)]. As I have argued in the Introduction (p. xiii), to praise Elizabeth’s virginity at the very moment when she seemed determined to abandon it was intensely dangerous [cf. McLane (1961); McCabe (1995)]. Incongruously, therefore, a work intended to launch the public career of England’s ‘new Poete’ was issued anonymously. The author is ‘shadowed’ under the complex persona of Colin Clout and introduced by the mysterious ‘E. K.’. Sensitive issues are discussed through the medium of cautiously ambivalent pastoral dialogue, and amorous complaint cryptically insinuates political discontent. As pastoral verse was traditionally understood to provide a safe medium for covert political allusion and innuendo, Spenser’s choice of genre was highly apposite. His archaic diction belies, and simultaneously encodes, the topicality of his material. The publication of the Calender marked the beginning of a lifelong engagement with the tortuous politics of the Elizabethan court [cf. Montrose (1980), (1983); Lane (1993)].

  For sixteenth-century writers the supreme classical model for pastoral verse was Virgil, but his influence was heavily mediated through that of such Christian pastoralists as Petrarch, Mantuan, Sannazzaro and Clément Marot [cf. Alpers (1996); Cooper (1977); A. Patterson (1986)]. Not surprisingly, therefore, religious, moral and political themes predominate as do the devices of emblem, allegory and fable [cf. MacCaffrey (1969)]. But Spenser is characteristically original in his reception of literary tradition. By locating his eclogues within a calendrical structure he achieves a distinctive unity of design which lends intellectual coherence, in its preoccupation with time, mutability and endurance, to the precocious variety of styles and metres designed to display the new poet’s technical versatility [cf. Durr (1957)]. E. K.’s elaborate discourse on the technicalities of the calendar is clearly intended to call equal attention to the cyclicity of temporal duration and to the uncertainty of its human calibration. Within the calendar year the seasonal year begins and ends. Within the seasonal year the opposite occurs, and the two cycles are fated to remain, like nature and society, forever out of phase [cf. McCabe (1989), 22–3].

  In terms of the poetic career, to begin with pastoral was to signal a desire to proceed through the Virgilian ‘rota’ and emerge in the fullness of time as an epic poet. It was not, strictly speaking, a pattern to which Spenser was destined to adhere, but it served at this stage as a convenient vehicle for examining the relationship between aesthetic and political power, poetics and patronage [cf. D. L. Miller (1983); P. Cheney (1993)]. Pervading the moral and political concerns of the Calender is an underlying preoccupation with the role of the poet in society and
the fear lest he become, like Colin Clout in Aprill, too ‘alienate and with drawen’ to perform his public function. In this respect the persona of Colin – and also October’s Cuddie – serves to ‘shadow’ not merely a particular poet, but the poetic profession in general [cf. R. Greene (1987); Helgerson (1978), (1983); Mallette (1979)].