The Shorter Poems
Page 79
317 virelayes: spring poems, short lyrics using only two rhymes.
323 Bagpipe: a pastoral instrument, cf. SC, Aprill, 3.
327 idle pleasance: leisured enjoyment.
330–43 birds… song: a pastoral topos, cf. Virgil, Eclogues, 8. 52–60.
330 spray: branch.
336 vntimely howres: i.e. beyond the nocturnal hours to which they were traditionally believed to be confined.
338 Let… wearinesse: take a rest from her long wearisome labours.
342 Stepdame: cf. RR, 114 and note.
346 Astrofell: unidentified, as at Ast, 181–96. The bog asphodel, common on English moorlands, may be intended here.
347 Smallage: wild parsley, noted for its pungent quality.
Rew: rue, noted for its bitter, strongly scented leaves.
348 mawes: stomachs.
corrupted: infected, sickened.
353 confusde decay: dissolution into disordered elements.
354–7 Cf. Chaucer, The Pardoner’s Tale, 720–38.
364 riddance: deliverance.
375–6 bread… teares: cf. Psalms 80: 5.
379 Saint: in the sense that she is now among the blessed.
387 importune: grievous, severe.
413 post: post-rider, courier.
424 Starre: like Sir Philip Sidney’s Stella.
432 Mill wheele: implying, by association with the mill stone, the idea of being ground down by misery.
434–6 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 587–8.
435 I… die: cf. 1 Corinthians 15: 31.
442–55 Why… send: for this motif cf. Petrarch, Rime Sparse, 268.
447 vneath: distressing, troublesome.
450 drawes: draws on, entails.
452 forgoe: relinquish, give up.
453 it… amend: alter it for the better, improve it.
463–5 mother… world: Eurydice is an error for Proserpina. After her abduction by Hades, her mother Ceres, often identified with Cybele or Magna Mater, sought her throughout the world. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5. 385–571. For Eurydice cf. VG, 433–72.
468 Titan: the sun god, Phoebus Apollo.
469 loose: release from harness.
470 harbenger: inn-keeper or host. ‘Lodge’ (471) develops the metaphor.
475 Philumene: for Philomela’s transformation into a nightingale cf. SC, August, 183 and note; November, [141].
479 dwell in darknes: the Antipodeans, but for religious associations cf. Isaiah 9: 2; Luke 1: 79.
483 Venus: Vesper or the evening star. Cf. Epith, 286–94.
489 vnlade: put off, lay down.
494 fairest… faded: cf. Psalms 103: 15–16.
503 vsance: usage.
504 none… may: none may be assured or certain of.
505 desastrous chaunce: ill-starred or ill-fated fortune.
507 sufferaunce: suffering (with connotations of endurance).
525 in… disdaine: deliberately ambiguous: either disdained by life or disdaining life, having adopted an attitude of ‘contemptus mundi’.
529 Cyparesse: cypress was symbolic of mourning. Cf. FQ, 2. 1. 60.
540–45 Cf. Book of the Duchess, 461–503.
545 Amooued: aroused.
stonie swound: insensible swoon.
546 recomfort: console, encourage.
556–67 The invitation enacts a Virgilian pastoral topos (cf. Eclogues, 1. 79-83), but the non-Virgilian refusal signifies the depth of Alcyon’s grief.
558 Cabinet: little cabin.
562 intreate: beseech, implore.
COLIN CLOVTS COME HOME AGAINE
If Edmund Spenser were Colin Clout the title of this poem might indicate a public resolution of private conflicts, a final attainment of security. But Colin Clout is simply the name by which the author is ‘best knowen’ (i), his voyage abroad is Spenser’s homecoming, his homecoming is Spenser’s exile [cf. McCabe (1993)]. The title is therefore richly ambiguous and the complex pastoral dialogue, set in place by an unidentified third-person narrator, is carefully designed to exploit that ambiguity through a persistent shifting of emotional and spatial perspectives. Through the persona of Colin Clout we learn of the present state of Ireland, of the colonist’s sense of dislocation in a ‘waste’ landscape ‘where I [according to a view attributed to Ralegh] was quite forgot’ (183). But through Colin’s eyes also, the critical eyes of a supposed stranger, we see the corruption of the Elizabethan court where, despite appearances to the contrary, poets go unpatronized and ‘each one seeks with malice and with strife, / To thrust downe other into foule disgrace’ (690–91). Colin’s return ‘home’ is thus grimly ironic: the harsh and violent environment of Ireland is preferable to the ‘guilefull’ (699), ‘ydle’ (704), ‘lewd’ and ‘licentious’ (787) atmosphere of the court. Yet Colin distils into the description of Cynthia herself all of the passionate idealism from which her court conspicuously derogates (330–51, 596–647), and his appeal on behalf of William Alabaster, a poet engaged, like Spenser, in the writing of an Elizabethan epic, insinuates an oblique request for a very different sort of homecoming: ‘O call him forth to thee, / To end thy glorie which he hath begun’ (408–9).
The difficulty is that the association between Cynthia and Elizabeth is every bit as problematic as that between Colin and Spenser. As employed by Sir Walter Ralegh, Spenser’s ‘shepheard of the Ocean’ (66), the figure of Cynthia is used to explore the complex, contradictory and ultimately unfulfilled relationship between the Queen and her admirers. The possibility therefore arises that poetic vision eclipses reality, that Colin’s perception of Elizabeth transcends its source of inspiration. The vision of Cynthia, no less than that of Cupid (799–894), is a testimony to the mythopoetic powers of the Orphic or vatic poet enlightened by ‘some celestiall rage’ [cf. Mallette (1979)], and the work is structured in such a way as to exacerbate the underlying dichotomy by a series of abrupt transitions from vision to experience – as when Thestylis suddenly asks Colin why he decided to leave Cynthia despite his avowed admiration for her (651–9). The bitter satire of a shallow court ‘full of loue, and loue, and loue my deare’ (777) is greatly intensified by Colin’s personal apprehension of a more transcendent, creative force from whose sublime influence most of Elizabeth’s attendants deserve to be exiled (893–4).
Such attitudes serve to remind us that, as previously in The Shepheardes Calender, the matter of love is highly politicized through the skilful employment of the imagery of courtship in its various senses. Colin’s unsuccessful pursuit of Rosalind seems intended to reflect upon the poem’s political disappointments. The work revolves about idealized images of circularity and reciprocation, its various sections, as the following notes indicate, are elaborately and meticulously balanced [cf. Burchmore (1977)], yet the effect is one of disjunction and disharmony. Violations of stylistic decorum suggest violations of social and moral decorum as the poem ascends to eulogy only to plunge to satire. Its publication with the elegiac Astrophel serves to strengthen the impression that the glory days of the Elizabethan court are over. It would thus appear that the poem occupies a pivotal position in the Spenserian canon. Its dedication is dated 27 December 1591, but internal allusions indicate revision as late as April 1594 (434–5), and the poem was published in the same year as Amoretti and Epithalamion (1595), works in which the completion of The Faerie Queene is said to have been deferred and Spenser treats of the courtship of his second wife without recourse to the personae of Colin or Rosalind. Cf. Bernard (1989); D. Cheney (1983); Comito (1972); Edwards (1971); Ellrodt (1960); Hoffman (1977); Meyer (1969); Oram (1990); Sandison (1934); Shore (1985).
Dedication To the right…
Raleigh: Sir Walter Ralegh (1554–1618) served in Lord Grey’s Irish wars (1580–82) and was instrumental in the notorious massacre of foreign mercenaries at Smerwick, an incident that Spenser vigorously defended in Vewe (cf. Prose, 161–2). Ralegh was the poet’s fellow undertaker in the ill-fated plantation of Munster and is one of the dedicatees of FQ
. He fell from royal favour owing to his relationship with Elizabeth Throckmorton, a maid of honour whom he married clandestinely in 1592. The matter is represented allegorically in FQ in the story of Timias and Belphoebe (4. 7. 23–47; 4. 8. 1–18).
Stanneries: the districts of Cornwall and Devon containing the tin mines and smelting works. The warden guarded crown interests, and conducted the business of the stannery courts.
3 precisely officious: punctiliously dutiful.
4 meanesse: lowness or rudeness. The poem is written in the ‘mean’ or middle style appropriate to the pastoral genre, although Colin’s praise of Elizabeth consciously violates generic decorum (590–619).
9 late… in: recent sojourn in.
protect: protected.
12 Kilcolman: Spenser’s new residence at the site of an old Desmond castle two miles north-west of the town of Doneraile in County Cork.
13 1591: for the dating of the poem see the headnote.
Colin Clouts Come Home Again
1–7 Apart from the opening seven lines (rhyming ababcbc) and the concluding five (rhyming ababa) the poem is written in continuous quatrains rhyming abab. Cf. Burchmore (1977), 398.
1 best… name: testifying to the popularity of SC which had gone through four editions.
2 Tityrus: Virgil. Cf. SC, ‘Epistle’, 5 and note.
5 Charming: playing or tuning, but with connotations of magical control or skill. Cf. SC, October, [118].
oaten pipe: the traditional pastoral instrument.
6 play: relax, disport themselves.
7 listfull: attentive. Cf. FQ, 5. 1. 25.
8 astonisht: amazed or stunned.
12 groomes: shepherds.
14 dearest in degree: in the highest degree, dearest of all.
15 Hobbinol: identified as Gabriel Harvey at SC, September, [176], but there is no evidence that Harvey ever visited Ireland.
areed: addressed himself, spoke.
18 I… crosse: i.e. I suffer the greatest affliction of any.
21 blythe: joyous.
22–31 Whilest… aliue: the traditional topos of pathetic fallacy. Cf. Virgil, Eclogues, 1. 38–9; 7. 55–60; SC, November, 123–36.
23 sythe: sigh.
39 dubble vsurie: double interest.
40 that Angels: i.e. Queen Elizabeth’s.
46 bright: fair lady, beauty.
50 forsake: refuse, decline.
53 harmonie: melody, concord of word and music.
56 trade: custom (and also pastoral occupation).
57 Mole: the range of Ballyhoura and Galtee Mountains to the north of Kilcolman. Cf. FQ, 7. 6. 36.
59 Mullaes: the River Awbeg (meaning ‘little river’), a tributary of the River Blackwater, skirting Spenser’s property. Cf. FQ, 4. 11. 41.
60 straunge shepheard: Ralegh.
62 yshrilled: sounded out.
65 ycleepe: call or name (an archaism).
66 shepheard… Ocean: recalling Ralegh’s unfinished poem to Elizabeth, the Booke of the Ocean to Scinthia. He was Vice-Admiral of Devon and Cornwall, and his interest in New World exploration was well known.
69 Prouoked: urged.
fit: a song or some verses of a song.
72 œmuling: emulating, desiring to rival (a unique usage).
73 before… many: that many had previously tried to rival or emulate.
77 By… turnes: alternating by turn.
81 atweene: i.e. in between Colin’s speeches.
82 readie… restraine: interrupt the ready flow or order of discourse.
86–7 hymne… carol: poetic forms associated with the pastoral mode and specifically with SC.
88 loue… losse: of the lady Rosalind, lamented in SC.
90 For… me: for love had forsaken me and been forsaken by me.
92 Bregogs: the River Bregoge (meaning ‘deceitful’) flows underground for two miles before emerging to join the River Awbeg (Mulla) above Doneraile. Colin’s song is in the nature of an aetiological fable. Cf. Henley (1928), 85–7; R. M. Smith (1935).
100 tenor: substance or matter.
105 Armulla dale: presumably the valley of the River Blackwater.
113 cleped: called, named (an archaism).
114 ragged: dilapidated, broken-down. Possibly alluding to the ruins of the Franciscan friary at Buttevant.
120 good: well-being (but also, as the next line indicates, worldly good).
121 preferre: advance (socially or materially).
123 Allo… Broad water: Allo was properly a tributary of the River Blackwater (commonly called Broadwater at the time). Cf. FQ, 4. 11. 41.
131 good will: in the formal sense of agreement or consent.
134 ieolous: vigilant, suspicious.
141 besides: side by side.
151 water-courses spill: destroy his channels.
156 Thestylis: the poetic persona of Lodowick Bryskett, Spenser’s friend and colleague in Ireland. Bryskett’s The Mourning Muse of Thestylis was published with Ast following DLC. He is addressed at Amor, 33. Spenser features as a speaker in Bryskett’s Discourse of Civill Life (1606).
164–71 Depending upon the dating of this section of the poem the allusion may be to Ralegh’s relegation from court in 1589, or to his imprisonment in July 1592 following the disclosure of his marriage to Elizabeth Throckmorton. The ‘song’ alluded to may be some version of the Booke of the Ocean to Scinthia, but the refrain or ‘undersong’ given at lines 170–71 is not found in any extant poem of Ralegh’s. Cf. FQ, 3 Proem 4–5.
168 singulfs rife: abundant sobs (from Latin singultus, ‘sobbing’).
177 did… dissuade: did divert you away from here.
180 lore: artistic skill.
188 peerlesse skill: for Elizabeth as a poet cf. TM, 576 and note.
making: composing. Sidney explains that the term poet ‘commeth of this word Poiein, which is to make’ (Apology for Poetry, ECE, 1. 155). 195 needments: necessaries, luggage.
197–8 waters… mountaines: cf. Ovid’s passage into exile, Tristia, 1. 2. 19.
209 presuming: presumptuously daring or venturing.
210 stremes: currents.
217 Glewed: fastened.
subtile matter: fine substance.
223 againe: in return or in reply.
226–7 farre… appeare: cf. Virgil, Aeneid, 3. 192–3.
228–63 Adapting the mode of piscatory pastoral developed by Sannazzaro in his Piscatorial Eclogues (1526). Cf. SC, ‘Epistle’, 152 and note.
232 recomforting: encouraging, reassuring. Cf. Daph, 546–7.
233 Regiment: domain.
235 liege: sovereign.
Regent: ruler, governor.
237 keep: tend, care for.
239 vseth: was accustomed, made it her practice.
242 frie: offspring.
244 charge in chief: the Lord High Admiral in 1595 was Lord Howard of Effingham.
245 Triton: a sea-god. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1. 332–42; FQ, 4. 11. 12.
wreathed: twisted.
248 Proteus: a sea-god with prophetic powers and the ability to change shape. Cf. Virgil, Georgics, 4. 387–414; FQ, 3. 8. 30.
249 Porcpisces: porpoises, regarded as sea-swine as the orthography indicates.
251 Compelling: driving, herding.
whether: whithersoever, to whatever place (he chooses).
252–3 I… assignd: Ralegh was Vice-Admiral of Devon and Cornwall.
270 Lunday: the Isle of Lundy off the Devon coast.
271 first… showne: first to be spotted off the west coast of England.
273 ieopardie: danger, obliquely alluding to the danger of invasion.
279 red: seen or found.
281 high headland: Land’s End at the southerly tip of Cornwall.
282 horne… has: because of Cornwall’s tapering shape its name was commonly held to derive from the Briton word corn (‘horn’).
283 lea: meadow-land.
284 loftie mount: presumably St Michael’s Mount at Penzance.
288 vnlade: unload.
290–99 The exchange recalls the sense of wonder inspired by the ‘New World’ discoveries in which Ralegh was an active agent.
292 thous a fon: you are a fool, recalling the colloquial tone of the pastoral dialogues in SC (cf. Februarie, 69; Julye, 33).
301 Funchins: the River Funcheon flows parallel to the River Awbeg and joins the River Blackwater further downstream. Cf. FQ, 7. 6. 44.
praise: worth or value.
305 all one: just the same (as here).
313 issues: discharges. A malady cured by Christ, cf. Matthew 9: 20.
314 griesly famine: cf. Spenser’s graphic account of the Munster famine in Vewe (Prose, 158).
sweard: sword.
315 bodrags: raids or incursions. Presumably a corruption of the Celtic buaidhreamh (‘molestation’) or buadre (‘tumult’). Cf. FQ, 2. 10. 63.
318 wolues: for Irish wolves cf. FQ, 7. 6. 55.
319 raunger: game-keeper.
321 price: estimation or regard.
322 Religion… her: religion has the support of the lay or civil authority.
324 For end: in conclusion.
324–7 grace… abuse: note the play upon the various senses of the term ‘grace’, natural, civil and divine. Cf. FQ, 6. 10. 22–4.
332–51 This is more in the nature of an icon of sacral monarchy than a description of the Queen. The recurrent symbol of the circle denotes perfection. Cf. FQ, 1 Proem 4; 5 Proem 10–11; 6 Proem 7.
336 her… read: i.e. if I might account anything earthly to be like her.
340 circlet… Turtle: the coloured band about the neck of a turtle dove.
342 Phebes garlond: the lunar aura. Phoebe is Diana or Cynthia, goddess of the moon.
355 vpraising: extolling, praising.
357 cause: business.
359 grace: favour (but with spiritual connotations).
364 measure: standard or capacity.
365 mott: appraised (past participle of the verb mete).
366 fynd: devise, invent.
370 in… fee: in her service.
371 Elfe: creature.
373 applie: employ, put to use.
374 craesie: cracked.
380–455 Of the poets accorded fictional names only three, Alcyon (Gorges), Amyntas (Stanley) and Astrofell (Sidney) can be identified with certainty (see notes below).