I wonder whether Spenser isn't (at least in part) sounding
the Protestant theme early on here. Sorting out the dead
from the living Christ is part of reforming thechurch--away
from relics, the empty tomb, and such and toward the living
spirit. Maybe this is too straightforward for Spenser, but
Milton could read it that way.
On Fri, 17 Nov 2000 03:00:45 -0000 Andy Green
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> David asked:
>
> > Does it strike you as plausible to find Spenser's syntax not so much
> > inverted as characteristically ambiguous? "And dead as living ever him
> > adored" may suggest that Redcrosse hasn't quite sorted out the risen from
> > the dead savior.......
>
> Believe it or not, I've been sitting here for the whole day considering the
> implications of your question - and I've come to the conclusion that
> answering "yes" is too easy. But as soon as I begin to develop that into
> something more worthy, I realise that it's best left to Spenser.
>
> Anyway, the main ambiguity arises when one extracts "dead as living" rather
> than "dead as living ever". The latter is as one with Revelations I.18;
> there's no inversion - and I'm not convinced that this is a reference to
> Revelations I.18 at all.
>
> A recently discovered bone plate, from the 5th-century BC, is inscribed (in
> Greek) more or less as follows:
>
> Life: death: life. - Truth. Dio(nysus), Orphic.
>
> Is that a six word summary of FQ?
>
> Redcrosse, as a christian knight, has everything sorted out at this early
> stage. Unfortunately for him, Spenser, the christian/platonist, will ensure
> that everything becomes unsorted pretty quickly. Particularly when he
> enters the orphic/pythagorean world of Ovid, where life/death/life is the
> way things are for everyone, not just the savior.
>
> Andy
>
>
>
>
----------------------
Marshall Grossman
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