Unit One: Part 1

– Dr. S. Vasu

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Chennai English
 Today’s Class
[Unit 1]

Edmund Spenser’s
“Prothalamion”
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 Edmund Spenser
(1552 – 1599)

Lamb: ‘poets’ poet’

Dad: cloth-seller
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 Education Merchant Taylor’s School
Pembroke Hall,
Cambridge (left, 1576
Friend: Gabriel Harvey)
Sidney’s patronage:
1580 – Secretary to
Lord Grey de Wilton,
Lord-Deputy, Ireland
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 1579: The opening of
the ‘golden age’

The first work of the English

literary Renaissance
Models: pastoral poem
Theocritus’s Idylls
Virgil’s Eclogues (Bucolics)

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 John Skelton: Colin Clout

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 Immeritô
Gloss : E.K. (Edmund Kirke)
Love : Rosalind
Praise : Elisa (April)
October : sarcasm
Clout : Spenser
Hobbinol: Gabriel Harvey

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 Areopagus
Edmund Spenser
Philip Sidney
Gabriel Harvey
Edward Dyer
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 To Walter Raleigh

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 Epic poem
Only 6 complete books
Book I–III (1590)
Book IV–VI (1596)
Book VII (Mutabilitie Cantos)
12 knights-errant: cardinal virtues
Aristotle’s philosophy

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 Gloriana, the Faerie Queene
Proem of Book I:
Tanaquill
Also:
Belphoebe, Britomart, Mercilla
True religion:
Protestantism
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 Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh (1589)
An introduction to the first three books (1590):
The Faerie Queene
“a continued Allegory,
or darke conceit”
“So in the person of Prince Arthure [Divine power]
I sette forth magnificence in particular”

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 Book I — the Redcrosse Knight of Holiness
Book II — Sir Guyon, the Knight of Temperance
Book III — Britomart (a Lady knight; chastity)
& Belphoebe (virtuousness)
Book IV — Triamond and Cambell (friendship)
Book V — Artegal (justice)
Book VI — Calidore (courtesy)
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 Allegorical
‘a didactic romance’
Knight Redcrosse
– the Anglican Church
Virgin Una – truth
Artegal – justice
Lord Grey
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 Duessa – falsehood / deceit
– the Catholic Church
– Mary, Queen of Scots
Mammon – covetousness
Archimago – the Pope
Orgoglio – pride

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 ‘Spenserian stanza’
A 9-line stanza:
1st 8 lines: iambic pentameter
Last line : iambic hexameter
‘alexandrine’ (12 syllables)
Rhyme scheme: ababbcbcc
[Rhyme royal: ababbcc]

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 Spenserian sonnet
a variant of Shakespearean sonnet
3 quatrains + concluding couplet
abab bcbc cdcd ee
quatrains (connecting rhymes)
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 Spenser’s Astrophel:
an elegy on Sidney

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 Sequence of
88 (89) Petrarchan sonnets

Spenser’s courtship and

marriage to Elizabeth Boyle

Machabyas Childe
(First wife)

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 “Sonnet LXXV”
One day I wrote her name
upon the strand,
But came the waves and
washed it away:
Again I wrote it with
a second hand,
But came the tide and
made my pains his prey.
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 A View of the Present State of Ireland (1594)
1598: Tyrone’s Rebellion Kilcolman Castle
1599: Jan. 16?
An inn, Westminster
“for lack of bread”
– Ben Jonson
Westminster Abbey:
close to Chaucer
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 “Epithalamion” ‘the noblest wedding hymn’
(1595) A nuptial ode: 11 June 1594
Elizabeth Boyle
(the feast of St. Barnabas)
24 stanzas:
433 lines

Peregrine
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 Other poems
The Ruins of Time
The Ruins of Rome
The Tears of the Muses
Mother Hubberd’s Tale
Four Hymns
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 On Spenser and his archaic diction
“Spencer, in affecting
the Ancients writ no language:
Yet I would have him read for
his matter . . .”
– Ben Jonson
Timber, or Discoveries

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 “Prothalamion”
(1596)

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 “Prothalamion”
“A Spousal Verse in Honour of the Double Marriage
of Ladie Elizabeth and Ladie Katherine
Somerset”, the two daughters of
Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester.
To Sir Henry Guildford and
William Petre,
2nd Baron Petre respectively.
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 “Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.”
Prothalamion:
invention
Gk.: ‘before the bridal chamber’
180 lines
ten 18-line stanzas,
without an envoi
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 The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames, run softly,
till I end my song.
— T. S. Eliot’s
The Waste Land
(III. “The Fire Sermon”)

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 Stanza 1
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 CALM was the day, and through
the trembling air
Sweet breathing Zephyrus
did softly play,
A gentle spirit, that lightly did delay
Hot Titan’s beams, which then did
glister fair;
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 When I whose sullen care,
Through discontent of my long fruitless stay
In prince’s court, and expectation vain
Of idle hopes, which still do fly away
Like empty shadows, did afflict my brain,
Walked forth to ease my pain
Along the shore of silver streaming Thames,

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 Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems,
Was painted all with variable flowers,
And all the meads adorned with dainty gems,
Fit to deck maidens’ bowers,
And crown their paramours,

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 Against the bridal day, which is not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
[Refrain: a phrase / line
repeated often, at end of
a stanza
Epizeuxis: a word / phrase
repeated for emphasis]

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 Stanza 2
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 There, in a meadow, by the river’s side,
A flock of nymphs I chanced to espy,
All lovely daughters of the flood
thereby,
With goodly greenish locks, all loose
untied,
As each had been a bride;
And each one had a little wicker basket,

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 Made of fine twigs, entrailed curiously,
In which they gathered flowers to fill their flasket,
And with fine fingers cropt full featously
The tender stalks on high.
Of every sort, which in that meadow grew,
They gathered some; the violet pallid blue,
The little daisy, that at evening closes,
The virgin lily, and the primrose true,

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 With store of vermeil roses,
To deck their bridegrooms’ posies
Against the bridal day, which was not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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 Stanza 3
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 With that, I saw two swans of goodly hue
Come softly swimming
down along the Lee;
Two fairer birds I yet did
never see.
The snow which doth
the top of Pindus strew,
Did never whiter shew,
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 Nor Jove himself, when
he a swan would be
For love of Leda, whiter
did appear:
Yet Leda was they say
as white as he,
Yet not so white as these,
nor nothing near.
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 So purely white they were,
That even the gentle stream,
the which them bare,
Seemed foul to them, and
bade his billows spare
To wet their silken feathers, lest they might
Soil their fair plumes with water not so fair,
And mar their beauties bright,
That shone as heaven’s light,
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 Against their bridal day, which was not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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 Stanza 4
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 Eftsoons the nymphs, which now had flowers their fill,
Ran all in haste, to see that silver brood,
As they came floating on the crystal flood.
Whom when they saw,
they stood amazed still,
Their wondering eyes
to fill.

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 Them seemed they never saw a sight so fair,
Of fowls so lovely, that they sure did deem
Them heavenly born,
or to be that same pair
Which through the sky
draw Venus’ silver team;

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 For sure they did not seem
To be begot of any earthly seed,
But rather angels,
or of angels’ breed:
Yet were they bred of Somers-heat they say,
In sweetest season, when each flower and weed
The earth did fresh array,
So fresh they seemed as day,
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 Even as their bridal day, which was not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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 Stanza 5
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 Then forth they all out of their baskets drew
Great store of flowers, the honour of the field,
That to the sense did fragrant odours yield,
All which upon those goodly birds they threw,
And all the waves did strew,

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 That like old Peneus’ waters
they did seem, [Greece]
When down along by pleasant
Tempe’s shore,
Scattered with flowers, through
Thessaly they stream,
That they appear through lilies’
plenteous store,
Like a bride’s chamber floor.
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 Two of those nymphs meanwhile,
two garlands bound,
Of freshest flowers which
in that mead they found,
The which presenting all in trim array,
Their snowy foreheads
therewithal they crowned,
Whilst one did sing this lay,
Prepared against that day,
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 Against their bridal day, which was not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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 Stanza 6
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 ‘Ye gentle birds, the world’s fair ornament,
And heaven’s glory, whom this happy hour
Doth lead unto your lovers’ blissful bower,
Joy may you have
and gentle heart’s content
Of your love’s complement:

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 And let fair Venus, that is queen of love,
With her heart-quelling son upon you smile,
Whose smile, they say, hath
virtue to remove
All love’s dislike, and
friendship’s faulty guile
For ever to assoil.

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 Let endless peace your steadfast hearts accord,
And blessed plenty wait upon your board,
And let your bed with pleasures chaste abound,
That fruitful issue may to you afford,
Which may your foes confound,
And make your joys redound

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 Upon your bridal day, which is not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.’

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 Stanza 7
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 So ended she; and all the rest around
To her redoubled that her undersong,
Which said their bridal
day should not be long.
And gentle echo from the
neighbour ground
Their accents did resound.

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 So forth those joyous birds did pass along,
Adown the Lee, that to them murmured low,
As he would speak, but that he lacked a tongue,
Yet did by signs his
glad affection show,
Making his stream
run slow.

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 And all the fowl which in his flood did dwell
Gan flock about these twain, that did excel
The rest so far as Cynthia doth shend
The lesser stars. So they, enranged well,
Did on those two attend,
And their best service lend,

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 Against their wedding day, which was not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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 Stanza 8
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 At length they all to merry London came,
To merry London, my most kindly nurse,
That to me gave this life’s
first native source;
Though from another place
I take my name,
An house of ancient fame.

[The Spencers of Althorp]

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 There when they came, whereas those bricky towers,
The which on Thames’ broad aged back do ride,
Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers
There whilom wont
the Templar Knights
to bide,
Till they decayed through
pride:
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 Next whereunto there stands a stately place,
Where oft I gained gifts and goodly grace
Of that great lord [the Earl of Essex],
which therein wont to dwell,
Whose want too well now
feels my friendless case.
But ah, here fits not well
Old woes but joys to tell

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 Against the bridal day, which is not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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 Stanza 9
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 Yet therein now doth lodge a noble peer,
Great England’s glory, and the world’s wide wonder,
Whose dreadful name late through all Spain did thunder,
And Hercules’ two pillars standing near
Did make to quake and fear:

[the capture of Cadiz]

[the Rock of Gibraltar & Mt. Hacho]

[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex]

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 Fair branch of honour,
flower of chivalry,
That fillest England with
thy triumph’s fame,
Joy have thou of thy noble victory,
And endless happiness of
thine own name
That promiseth the same:
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 That through thy prowess and victorious arms,
Thy country may be freed from foreign harms;
And great Elisa’s glorious name
may ring
Through all the world, filled with
thy wide alarms,
Which some brave Muse may sing
To ages following,

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 Upon the bridal day, which is not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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 Stanza 10
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 From those high towers this noble lord issuing,
Like radiant Hesper when his golden hair
In th’ Ocean billows he hath
bathed fair,
Descended to the river’s open
viewing,
With a great train ensuing.

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 Above the rest were goodly to be seen
Two gentle knights of lovely face and feature
Beseeming well the bower of any queen,
With gifts of wit and ornaments of nature,
Fit for so goodly stature;

[Henry Guildford and William Petre]

[Ladie Elizabeth and Ladie Katherine]

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 That like the twins of Jove they seemed in sight,
Which deck the baldric of the heavens bright.
They two forth pacing to the river’s side,
Received those two fair birds, their love’s delight;
Which, at th’ appointed tide,
Each one did make his bride

[Castor and Pollux:

the Gemini]
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 Against their bridal day, which is not long:
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

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